Arctic Circle

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) a small circle of the globe, 23° 28' distant from the North Pole, which is its center. It is opposed to the Antarctic circle, which is at the same distance from the South Pole. ARCTIC and ANTARCTIC EXPLO- RATIONS, expeditions projected to explore the regions surrounding the the North Pole. The object with which these enterprises were commenced by the Eng- ٢٠ in 1801. Pop. about 15,000. The dis- "THE FRAM," AMUNDSEN'S SHIP, IN THE ANTARCTIC ICE lish was to obtain a passage by way of the polar regions to India. They have continued at intervals to our own times, and are not likely ever to cease. Two of the most notable events in their history which have hitherto occurred have been the discovery of the northwest passage by Captain McClure, of the "Investigator," on Oct. 26, 1850, and the tragic deaths of Sir John Franklin and his crew, about the year 1848, the catastrophe being rendered all the more impressive to the public mind by the uncertainty which long hung over the gallant explorers' fate. In September, 1895, Lieut. Robert E. Peary, of the United States navy, returned from an Arctic expedition, after an absence of two years. He did not get so far north as some of his predecessors, but in scientific results his expedition surpassed all others of recent years. His surveys and maps extend our knowledge of the coast northward 2°. He started on another expedition in 1897. On Aug. 13, 1896, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, of Norway, returned from an Arctic expedition, after an absence of more than three years. The most northerly point reached by him was 86° 14′ N. latitude, or 200 miles nearer the Pole than ever reached before. He found no indications of land N. of 82° N. latitude, and in the higher latitudes no open sea, only narrow cracks in the ice. The lowest temperature recorded during the voyage was -62° F., and the highest 37½° F. The following are the farthest points of N. latitude reached by various Arctic explorers to 1920: North Latitude Year Explorers o" 80° 23′ 1607. Hudson.. o" 80° 48′ 1773. Phipps.. 1806. Scoresby. 81° 12′ 42" 82° 50′ 0" 1827. Parry. o" 1874. Meyer (on land) 82° 0' 1875. Markham and Parr 83° 20′ 26" (Nares' expedition) 83° 07′ 1876. Payer.... 1884. Lockwood (Greeley's 83° 24' 0" party) 1896. Nansen. 86° 33′ 0" o" 1900. Abruzzi. 90° 00′ 1909. Peary. Discovery of the North Pole. The final conquest of the North Pole was the achievement of Peary. The date of his discovery was April 7, 1909. It is a curious fact in the history of polar exploration that the three great goals, the northeast passage, the northwest passage, and the North Pole itself were all finally attained within the compass of less than a quarter century. The first two were relatively unimportant. Both the northeast and the northwest passage had been sought for centuries as a goal of commerce with the Orient. They were finally traced merely as feats of polar exploration, both by Norwegians in the last of the nineties and first decade of the twentieth century; the former by Baron Nordenskjöld in 1878-1879, and the latter by Raold Amundsen in 1903. The search for the magnetic north pole of the earth, culminating in Peary's triumph, had been constant and eager for the half century preceding. Peary's third voyage in 1898 had the conquest of the Pole for its immediate object. He was by this time fully convinced that the only possible way to get there was to adopt the manner of life of the Eskimos, their food, clothing, snowhouses; to live as much as possible on the game which he had so far found comparatively abundant, thus avoiding scurvy, and to train Eskimos as his sledge-crews. His whole plan and equipment also in many respects was different from any man's before him. He was gone this time nearly four years, achieved further surveys and re-surveys in Smith Sound, Grinnell Land, and to the north of the mainland of Greenland, passed Lieutenant Lockwood's farthest north of 1883, to a point 83° 39′ N., and made a brilliant record in sledge-work. But he did not reach the Pole by 456 miles. He had tried each year by sledges, from a base about 700 miles from his objective, and during these journeys he mapped hundreds of miles of coast line in a hitherto unmapped region. The second voyage in the "dash for the Pole," as Peary called his sledge-journeys, was undertaken in a specially constructed vessel which reached the highest point in shipbuilding for its particular purpose, and was named the "Roosevelt" in honor of Theodore Roosevelt, which left the shores of America in June, 1905. The result of this voyage was the attainment of a still farther o" lat. 87° 6'-the highest yet won. His record up to and including this 86° 14′ 0" one as an advance over Lieutenant Greeley's (Lockwood's) farthest in 1882 was: in 1900, 30 miles; 1902, 23 miles; 1906, 169 miles. There remained 174 miles to his goal. In July, 1908, Peary again turned his face northward in the "Roosevelt" to the final accomplishment of his purpose. He was now fifty-two years old, much older than other great polar explorers when they reached the height of their career, but he had been longer in the farthest north than any other explorer ever had been-had passed more winters there had mapped more country-knew the Eskimo betterin fact had gained their most perfect friendship-and had trained them to be his faithful and efficient helpers. All this knowledge and experience intimated the possession of personal qualities of the highest type for his task. The members of Peary's expedition were Robert A. Bartlett, his Sailing- Master; George A. Wardwell, Chief Engineer; Dr. J. W. Goodsell, Surgeon; Ross G. Marvin, Donald B. Macmillan, George Borup, and Matthew A. Henson, a negro. Etah in Greenland was reached August 11, and 22 Eskimos, 246 dogs, and renewed supplies of coal and fresh meat were taken aboard. Winter quarters were established at Port Sheridan, a little north of those of 1905. The following February, with the return of the Arctic day, a chain of depots was started. Peary's base was the land mass "thought to be nearest the Pole." The march over the ice began March 1st. Ten days later, in lat. 84° 29', a portion of the party returned under Dr. Goodsell; when 85° 25' had been attained, a second section under Borup returned. Peary persisted with 12 men, 10 sledges, and 80 dogs. A third section under Marvin lessened this party and finally a fourth commanded by Captain Bartlett started back when 87° 48′ was reached. Peary now had with him only the negro Henson, four Eskimos, and forty picked dogs. There were 125 miles still to traverse, which was done in five days' marches of equal length, 89° 57' being reached on the 6th of April. Peary collapsed here from exhaustion when within actual sight of his goal. The following day he reached it and planted the Stars and Stripes at the apex of the earth-one of the greatest achievements of the centuries. For his exploit Peary received gold medals from numerous scientific bodies, was promoted to the rank of rear admiral for life, and received the thanks of Congress. He was given the cordon of a grand officer of the Legion of Honor of France in 1913. His own record of his career is full-including "Northward Over the Great Ice" (2 vols., 1898); "Snowland Folk" (1904); "Nearest the Pole" (1907); and the "North Pole" (1910). Later explorations have been conducted by McMillan, Stefansson, Amundsen, and others. These have added greatly to our knowledge of the geography for the Arctic regions. Antarctic Explorations. - One of the chief features which distinguishes the Antarctic polar region from the Arctic is the constant presence of high and violent winds of a much severer and more prolonged character than those encountered in the north. Its coasts also are more difficult to approach because of the size ion of its glaciers, and the and formation presence of frequent oceanic ice-caps. The southern polar region has been little exploited in comparison with the North Pole up to a very few years ago. The latter was almost in the track of the hardy navigators who for centuries tried to find a northeast or northwest passage to the east. The Antarctic region offered no temptation whatever to maritime enterprise. Ships had rounded South America's most southerly point since Magellan's time-after whom the Straits of Magellan are named-and there was nothing but the vaguest rumor to tempt the mariner farther south. The quest of the South Pole, the exploration of the Antarctic regions, were purely matters of scientific enterprise which were only to be inaugurated after the opposite polar regions had beeen thoroughly mapped. It is a curious fact, however, that both poles were only finally discovered within a few years of each other; Peary reaching his goal April 7, 1909, while Amundsen found the South Pole Dec. 14, 1911. The Antarctic area approaching the Pole from all sides is divided by geographers into four sections or quadrants named from adjacent lands and waters America, Africa, Australia, and Pacific. The African quadrant is still an unknown region, as the latitude of 70° S. has not yet been reached, and no land of any importance discovered. Into the American section the continent of Antarctica projects its most northerly coast. It was discovered by Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, an American Yankee sealer, in 1820. It was first called Palmer Land (1882), and through gradual exploration has assumed the dimensions of a continent extending now from lat. 63° to 70° S. and long. 52° to 77° W. There was a short exploratory period following Palmer's original discovery. Biscoe (1831) reaching 67° S., 72° W., D'Urville (1838) renaming parts of the land for the French under whose flag he sailed, and Ross, who in 1843 added the vast expanse known as Cockburn Island. Exploration ceased for a time, the whaler Dallmann, some 30 years after (1873) reaching 64° 45' S. Twenty years later (1892) Robinson discovered Dundee Island. Larsen, sailing under the flag of Sweden in 1893, found fossils on Seymour Land and added land along the east coast of Palmer Land to 68° 10', which he called King Oscar Land. Evensen in the same year attained 69° 10' S., 76° 12′ W. Sweden had by this time taken up Antarctic exploration very seriously, and a few years later a thoroughly well-planned scientific expedition under Baron Nordenskjöld set out for the South Polar regions. Nordenskjöld discovered two flora of the Jurassic and Tertiary periods on Seymour Island, and mapped the eastern coast of Palmer Land to 66° 8'. A French explorer, Charcot, on two voyages, 1903 and 1910, extended the coast of Palmer Land to the southwest. He made important discoveries that added much to the knowledge of the region. He navigated through what he named the Pourquoi Pas? from 60° to 124° W., chiefly between lat. 69° and 70°, sailing a great deal of unknown water. He discovered two entirely new regions which he named Loubet Land in honor of the President of France, and Charcot Land, presumably in honor of himself. His chief contribution to South Polar geography was the proof that Palmer Land was a vast continuous area in reality a continent, and not divided by water as previous explorers had held. Following these and previous explorations, there has ensued a development of the fisheries of these regions totaling year yearly several million dollars, over which from 50° S. Great Britain has proclaimed control. The Australian quadrant has always been regarded as the nearest and best way of reaching the South Pole itself. The largest portion of Antarctica, too, lies in this boundary. Still it was the last to invite the explorer. The first credit belongs to a Captain Balleny (1839), who added five islands to the maps in long. 165° E., lat. 67° S. The first enterprise of real importance was the small U. S. squadron under Captain Wilkes (1840), which followed the Antarctic circle for 1,600 miles. Land was seen now and then. The same year a French squadron under D'Urville discovered Adelie Land, whereupon a meteorological station was located. He was about 700 miles from Wilkes' route. Other socalled land mapped by D'Urville, however, later proved to be only glacier. Drygalski (1902), following largely in the track of Wilkes, confirmed his discoveries, which had been more or less discredited for half a century. Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton's two expeditions in this section-in 1909 and 1912-were highly important to the annals of exploration so far as it could be extended in such a region. Douglas Mawson set out from Australia in 1911 to explore much debatable country. He added King George V. Land to the map, extending as far south as lat. 70° 30′ S. His companion Wild, meantime, discovered and mapped Queen Mary Land. Davis (1912) discovered unknown land between Mawson and Wild. All these discoveries, extending over 55 degrees of longitude, have finally given some reality to the size of the great ice-continent, and it is now believed beyond question that Antarctica stretches unbroken between the Kaiser Wilhelm Land of Drygalski (1902) 86° E. and Carmel Land, discovered by Amundsen, in 158° W. over 116 degrees of longitude. Mawson discovered glaciers in King George Land, which cover more than 1,000 square miles in the ocean. One of Lieutenant Shackleton's discoveries was an ice-cap-named for him-covering 36,000 square miles of the Antarctic Ocean, and 180 by 200 miles in length and breadth. The largest ice-cap known, however, is Ross' Barrier, discovered by Ross (1841), of which Scott, one of Shackleton's lieutenants, estimates the surface area at 120,000 square miles, which is larger than the states of New York and Pennsylvania combined. No sketch of Antarctic discovery should omit the great value of the finds of J. C. Ross (1841). He added nearly 8 degrees of longitude to Victoria Land, discovered the Ross "Barrier," and reached lat. 78° 10' S., long. 161° 27′ E. Borchgrevink (1900) passed the first winter by man within the Arctic Circle and reached 78° 50'. Scott, of England (1901-1903), discovered King Edward VII. Land between long. 152° and 153° W. He made a definite effort to reach the southern magnetic pole the following year, attaining 82° 17' S. Shackleton, in 1909, in a dash for the Pole, made a wonderful journey, by sledge, making the record of 88° 23' S. He got within 97 miles of the Pole and within 366 miles of the record. Scott's second expedition (1911-1913), was tragical, in that it resulted in the death of himself and four companions on their way back from having finally found the Pole. They reached it Jan. 18, 1912, to find Amundsen's record of his own discovery 35 days before. Roald Amundsen, long inured to Polar adventure in the north, set out from Norway in 1911 with the avowed conquest of the South Pole. He started from the edge of the great Ross Barrier where he had wintered in sledges, and after an 870 mile journey sledges, located the southern apex of the planet on Dec. 14, 1911. It is on a plateau of 10,500 feet altitude above sea-level-and there are no mountains in the vicinity. Amundsen also made the important discovery of the southerly extremity of the Ross oceanic ice-cap (Ross Barrier) in 85° S. 164° W., adding to the knowledge of the extent of the continent of Antarctica. See AMUNDSEN, ROALD.