Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — In the Far North. [ARTICLE]

In the Far North.

The whole region is one of severe cold, and the sea is frozen over the greater part of the year, land and water becoming almost indistinguishable, but for the incessant movement and drift of the sea ice. In summer the sea ice breaks up into floes, which may drift away southward and melt, or be driven by the winds against the shores of continents or Islands, leaving lanes of open water which a shift of wind may change and close in an hour. Icebergs launched from the glaciers of the land also drift with the tide, current and wind through the more or less open water. Possibly at some times the pack may open and a clear waterway run through to the pole, and old whalers tell of many a year when they believed that a few days’ steaming would carry them to the end of the world, if they could have seized the opportunity. At other times routes traversed in safety time after time may be effectively closed for years, and all advance barred. Food in the shape of seal or walrus in the open water, reindeer, musk ox, polar bears or birds on the land may often be procured, but these sources eannot be relied upon. Advance northward may be made by water in a ship, or by dog-sledge, or on foot, over the frozen snow or ice. Each method has grave drawbacks. Advance by sea is stopped when the young ice forms in autumn, and land advance is hampered by the long Arctic night, which enforces months of inaction, more trying to health ancl spirits than the severest exertion.—McClure’s Magazine.