Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1891 — ICE-BOUD GREENLAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ICE-BOUD GREENLAND

THE SCENE OF NEW EXPLORING OPERATIONS. P«3rr and atlPartv Bound for Jaunt to Determine the Country’s Northern Limit* and 1-ay Out a Kouto Toward the Pole. From New York there has sailed a 'little bit of a whaling vessel —the Kite — swell seasoned to the arctic waters, with

two adventurous parties. one section of which intends to lay out a route for some future expedition to the north pole, the other bent on the scientific exploration of the northwest coast of Greenland. \ The two bands which have pooled their issues and arranged to travel about 3,000 miles due north in company,

and afterward to separate and do alone the work lhat will have brought each into the arctic region, are Lieut. Robert El Peary’s party, to determine the northern extent of Greenland, and this comjpany of scientists under command of j?rof. Angelo Heilprin of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, who •will ascertain the physical facts about what is probabiv the most interesting -section of the same country. Although Greenland was i olonized by Europeans a thousand years ago, very litt'e is known abo .t its interior, and nothing in relation to its extrerao north>crn boundary. Some people claim that It is a continent stretching perhaps as far as the north polo, but geographers generally agree that it is an island, and that there is an ocean passage < onncctiug the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic not very far nortli of the most northerly point so far reached on the west coa t of Greenland. This theory is borne out bv the eontfiguratioii of tho coast lino, which narrows on both coasts toward the north, ®nd it requires very little imagination to round out the island, making the northern limit cross a line about 400 mi es from the north pole. Lieut Peary’s idea is to rea h this limit, establish stations there, and make ■those stations the starting point of another expedition to the polo itte.lf. This same latitude has never been ■reached by any of the many po’ar expe- • ditions. The scheme, therefore, is to be-

gin a little north of the points where Parry, Payer, Do Long, and Greeley left off, assuming that Greenland is au Island, and that fu- , tiire exped iti on s will probably be made In strong whaleboats, carried In sections over the > Ice cap which covers' the country. The eorface of the cap is -comparatively

■smooth, and admits®**. wm. b. e. hughes. of traveling which might be called luxurious when compared with journeys .over the jagged, frozen sea. -<Jne of the reasons for believing in the

* existence of a channel at this point, connecting the two oceans, is that a heavy flow of water comes down the coast. It comes, probably, from the Atlantic, because the tides can be identified as Atlantic tides as opposed to those of the Whether these 400 miles between . KJreenland and the pole are tilled in with only a frozen ocean broken up into an Impassable ice gorge, or whether there is a chain of islands giving tolerably easy Access to the pole is, of course, yet to be -determined. Peary and his party will be ab'c to do ' little but preparatory work during the •present year. The Kite will convey [them to some suitable spot in Prudhoe Land, and they will go into winter quar- ' tors immediately, where they will wait until ne<t summer for their great dash to the northern limits. They will dei liberately get frozen in there for the winter. All the expeditions which have . gone for the pole have met this fate, but they have had the disadvantage of being In ships which were likely to be “nipped” And sunk. It will not be until next year, therefore, that the fruits of Peary's explorations can be plucked. With the Heilprin party, however, the case is different. After depositing Peary and his effects in the most sheltered nook it is possible to iind, the little Kite will take to her heels vmnd land the other party at points a ong the coast favorable to the determination •of Important facts missing in the scientific history of Greenland. •Considering their weli-known ability And capacity for research, the discoveries of the Heilprin party are likely to more diverse and interesting than -wven those of Peary. The region to be ’traversed is very rich in animal life, and is intended to secure specimens of -Avery creature that will kindly come •within the range of the very effective *£anßthat will be carried. Polar bears, wolves, foxes, seals, reindeer, mlisk ox, walruses and scores of -.animats almost equally interesting are to be found about Whale Sound. Insects *aad birds fill the air. On land there are minerals and extremely valuable speci- • mens of fossils and the botanist, though toot as richly repaid for his labor as in •Cher parts of the xvorld, can find plenty Co do among, the lichens, ijwssgs, .grasses and flowers of the country. TOere seems to' be a wave of curipsity Just now about Greenland, for, in addi.don to the two expeditions on the Kite,

at least two others have been fitted out in Northern Europe. Each, however, has Its separate mission. While there will be, to a certain extent, scientific competition, the expeditions are not likely to come to blows, or even to meet. Patriotic Americans will, of course, hope that the Hei.prin party will carry off the laurels. The Kite, in which the party will travel, is a typical whaler, not beautiful to tho eye but powerful, seaworthy, and just about as unsinkable as a vessel can

be made. This craft, to which tho party commit themselves and their hopes for a period of about four months, is bark built, but barkentine rigged, and, though equipped with all the sails a vessel of her size can possibly carry, she has an engine and propeller. She relies chiefly on her canvas, but tho steam is useful in extricating her from ice. The Kite’s dimensions are 117.6 feet over all, 26.4 feet beam, and 14 feet hold. Its tonnage Is 280 gross and 190 net. The engine is fifty horse power, and, being a vertical engine, the builder was enab ed to place it well aft. This gives tho propeller a short crank shaft, and lessens tho liability to breakage. Its normal speed is seven and a half knots witli steam, and with both sail and steam fu.ly nino knots. As a protection against ice while running freo the Kite’s bows fifteen feet back are a solid mass of wood, the timbers being dovetailed together. A vertical strip of iron passes from the bowsprit down tho noso under tho water lino and some distance along the keel. The iron is 4 inches wide and 1 inch thick. B'traps of iron 4 inches wido and l>.j inches thick arc bound around the noso horizontally to snub the ice. From the stern two thirds of the way forward tho sides are doubly p’anked. Loth sidosdown to tho keel forward are also doubly planked. She lias had plenty of experience among tiie icebergs. Mr. Low ring, of the shipping firm of Lowring & Archibald, of New York, the agents of the Kite, says that if she hit an i< eberg it would be a very bad thing for tho berg. Whalers of this kind go north, loaded to the gunwales witli eoa\ and if they are specially fortunate and catch their whales quickly, they heave the coal overboard to make room for the oil. The Kite may bring back a whale or two, but the plans of tho party are to make its zoo'ogica! prices much more varied than those of a whaler. Dr. Huuhes expects to have a carnival among tho birds of Greenland and fill up a large rart of the steamer’s ’tween decks with bird skins, eggs and nests. Dr. Sharp will carry a Winchester rifle of a bore sufficiently largo to enable him to bag with easo a polar bear, a walrus,

a narwhal the unicorn-wdiale —or a seal. Reindeer and musk ox will tumble beforo his bullets if has the luck hehopes for. Lieut. Peary said that the chief object sought to be accomplished by the expedition is the so ution of the problem whether Greenland Is an is'and or a continent “If it Is a continent and it seems to me that the weight of the evidence is that way.” Lieut. Peary continued, “the vexed question of the finding of the north pole will have been answered in the affirmative, for it will be necessary, in order to reach the pole, only to penetrate further and further into the frozen country along the line of the western coast of Greenland. If it shall be proven that Greenland is a continent, many l:ves of exp orers who might seek to reach the pole by sailing north will be spared. ”

In some parts of Greenland, parties* larly the north, the Ice and snow, collecting for ages, has accumulated u.utt it is a mile thick in some places. As it never melts, the surface Is tolerabl] smooth. It is She discharge of ice bj means of glaTciers that keeps the supplj down Tb» weight of the snow pressing from the center to the edges forces the ic< into the sea. It flows down the valleyi as rivers do, and, reaching tho sea, h broken off into icebergs. Greenland,

therefore, is one huge iceberg factory as well as a refrigerator which, wmi its stock of millions upon millions of tons ol ice stored up for eternity, ha? a tremendous effect upon tho temperature of everything within hundreds of miles of it, and no doubt upon the climate of this country. Lieut Peary gives the following brief outline of his plans: In July tho party, numbering five or six, will go into winter quarters at Whale Sound, to make roconnoissances and lay in supplies for tho journey toward the polo. Next spring an advance party will be sent forward to establish depots of supplies, and the main party

; will follow, proceeding as far north as possible. Ilcro a second depot will be established, and two or three of the party, with full sledges, will push on, the others returning with light sledges to Whalo | tound. The advance party will push on from Fetermann fjord to the head of t-herard ' Osborne fjord, establish a depot there, thence to the head of De Long fjord, establish a depot, thence to the northorn terminus of Greenland.

This joint reached and determined, the advance party will retrace its steps to Whale Sound, taking up the various depots, and seize the first opportunity to return home. 'I ho whole theory of the project is based upon the fact that the interior of South and Middle Greenland is known to be covered with an uninterrupted ice cap and the more than probability that in North Greenland the conditions are the same and the ice cap practically coextensive with the land.

DR. BENJ. SHARP, SOOLCGIST.

LIEUTENANT R. E. PEARY. U. S. N.

MAP OF PEARY'S PROPOSED ROUTE,

EQUIPPED FOR TRAVEL.

THE STEAM WHALER KITE.