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The North Pole. — Men knew a long time before anyone had seen it that there is one place on the earth that is farther north than any other place, and they had named this place the North Pole. They did not know just what they would find when they reached it. but they knew there must be such a place. Even if, fronk the following explanation, you cannotunderstand just what is meant by the North Pole, you can understand the story which follows the explanation. It is the story of the journey men took to the North Pole, and of what they found there. Did you ever spin a plate? If not, spin one, and watch it carefully as it spins. Suppose that in Figure 164 A marks the point on the rim of the plate that touches the floor as the plate spins around. What happens to points C and D, on the rim of the plate, as the plate makes one turn? Do you see that they each move through a good deal of space as the plate turns? What happens to point A, and to point B, just opposite A? Do you see that they stay in the same place as the plate spins? Do you see that all the other parts of the plate whirl around a central line from A to B as the plate spins? This line around which the other parts of the plate whirl is called the axis of the spinning plate. You cannot see this axis, but you can tell as you watch the plate that there is a line round which the other parts of the plate spin. A and B are the "poles," or ends, of this axis. You cannot see them, either, but you can tell that there are such points. Men long ago found that the earth spins round a central axis, just as a spinning plate does. There is one great difference. The earth does not rest on anything as it spins round. It does not seem to us that the earth is turning, hut men have learned that it does turn by watching the paths that the sun and stars seem to follow. Have you ever heard of the north star? Do you know how to find it? People who watched the stars carefully found that the north star seems to stay almost still, while the other stars seem to travel in almost circular paths around the sky once in every twenty-four hours. This helped them to know that the earth turns around on its axis once in every twentyfour hours, and that the earth’s axis points almost to the north star. The end of the axis nearest the north star they named the North Pole. The other end of the axis they named the South Pole. Going north from any place on the earth means going toward the northern end of the earth’s axis, where one sees the north star almost at the zenith. Going south means going toward the southern end of the earth’s axis. Of course, men did not expect to see the end of the axis when they reached the North Pole any more than you can see the end of the axis on the rim of the plate, but they were eager to know whether they would find land or sea there, and they made many attempts to reach it. Each party hoped it would be the first to accomplish the difficult feat. The story of the successful attempt is briefly told in the following paragraphs. The start for the North Pole. — in 1909, an explorer named Roald Amundsen was planning to go from Norway to the North Pole. Before he was ready to start, word came that another man already had reached the pole. This man was Robert E. Peary, an American. He had not sailed from Norway, but from an island much west of Norway. He and his party had left New York City on July 6, 1908, in a boat named the Roosevelt. By September 5, they had reached a point on the northern shore of the island from which they were to make the journey to the pole. Here they spent the winter. Had they gone on at that time, they would have had to make much of their journey in darkness, for there on the 12th of October the sun disappeared below the horizon and they did not see it again until the 5th day of March. During the winter they lived on board the Roosevelt. About those days of darkness, Peary wrote the following account. Winter on the Roosevelt. —" Only he who has risen and gone .to bed by lamplight, and risen and gone to bed again by lamplight, day after day, week after week, month after month, can know how beautiful is the sunlight. "Imagine us in our winter home in the Roosevelt, four hundred fifty miles from the North Pole; the ship held tight in her icy berth, a hundred fifty yards from the shore, the ship and the surrounding world covered with snow, the wind creaking in the rigging, whistling and shrieking around the corners of the deck houses, the temperature ranging from zero to sixty below. "During the moonlit period of each month, some eight or ten days, when the moon seems to circle round and round the heavens, the younger members of the expedition were nearly always away on hunting trips, but during the longer periods of utter blackness, most of us were on the ship together." The polar bears, seals, and musk oxen which were killed by the hunters of the party added to the food supply. Traveling on the Arctic Ocean. — In the spring of 1909, the men left the ship and traveled about ninety miles along the shore of the island to the northernmost place on the coast. On March 1, they started north from this place to go across’ the ice of the Arctic Ocean to the pole. Traveling in Arctic regions is often very difficult. Here and there the. explorers had to cross ridges of ice and snow that were several rods high. It was hard work for the men, as well as for the dogs, to get the heavily loaded sledges across these ridges. Far more dangerous than the ice ridges were the "leads." These are lanes of open water between the masses of ice. Some are mere cracks, but others are two miles or more wide. When the party came to a wide "lead," they simply camped at its edge till the "lead" closed or was frozen over. At one camp, they waited five days before they could continue their journey. Blizzards at times hindered the progress of the party. Can you imagine marching all day in a blinding snowstorm with the thermometer at 15° or 20° below zero, and having to build a snow house to sleep in at the end of the day? Most of the men who started in Peary’s party did not go all the way to the pole. After the provisions on one or more sledges had been used, the drivers of those sledges were sent back to land. So every few days, a few men and dogs turned back. Farthest north. — For more than a month Peary traveled on and on across the great ice-covered ocean. On the last lap of the journey he had with him one negro, four Eskimos, and thirty-eight dogs. As they neared the pole, the ice looked just as it had for hundreds of miles. It was only by using instruments to measure the height of the sun above the horizon, and by making other measurements, that he could hope to tell when he had reached the place he sought. At last, on April 6, his measurements made him think he was at the pole, and so he planted in the ice an American flag, and in his diary he wrote: "The Pole at last. The prize of three centuries. My dream and goal for twenty years." Although he could not be sure that he had planted the flag exactly at the pole, he felt certain that the pole could not be far from the place he had selected. In a space between the ice blocks he left a glass bottle containing this note: North Pole, Apr. 6, 1909. I have today hoisted the national ensign of the United States of America at this place, . . . and have formally taken possession of the entire region . . . in the name of the President of the United States of America. By April 27, the Peary party reached the Roosevelt again, and by the first of September was safely home. Pictures and the map. — In Figure 165, you can see Admiral Peary and three of his faithful helpers. They are on the deck of the Roosevelt. Peary knew he could not have reached the pole without the help of his dogs. He said, "Without them, we might just as well have remained in the Unite States." What signs of cold weather do you find in the picture? In Figure 166 you can see just how the dogs helped. The ice was so rough in the place where this picture was taken that the men had gone ahead and had cut a trail with axes and ice picks. Why are the loads so carefully covered and tied on the sledges? Find in Figure 137 the place marked N. P. This, of course, stands for the North Pole. Make a list of the things that the sign for the Arctic Ocean now brings to your mind. Something to watch for. — As you read the story of finding the South Pole, notice all the ways in which the region near the South Pole is different from the region near the North Pole. Notice, too, all the ways in which the two regions are alike. The Fram starts southward. — At the very time that Peary was at the North Pole, Amundsen, as you have read, was planning a voyage from Norway to the North Pole. When news came to Amundsen, in September, 1909, that the North Pole had been reached, he decided to try to reach the South Pole instead. In the boat Fram he and his party, together with 97 Eskimo dogs, left Norway on August 9, 1910. From Norway to the Congo. — The Fram sailed southward through the North Sea and through the Atlantic Ocean. Early in October, it was in the Atlantic about as far south as the mouth of the Congo River. You now know enough about the part of the world from Norway to the Congo to know that as the Fram went farther and farther south, the weather was warmer and warmer. Each clear day as the men on board looked at the sky at noon, they saw the sun higher in the southern sky than it was the day before. By the time they were about opposite the mouth of the Congo, the sun at noon was almost directly overhead at the zenith. The men on shipboard had put on lightweight clothing. The dogs, of course, could not change their coats. Awnings were stretched over them, but even in the shade the heat made them very uncomfortable. Southward from the Congo. — As the Fram kept on to the southward, it came into a part of the world that you have not read about in these stories. From what you have seen of the world so far, you might expect that the Fram would find even warmer places as it went farther and farther south of the Congo, but instead of becoming warmer, it grew gradually cooler and cooler. The dogs no longer suffered from heat. Soon the ship was far enough south so that the men, in order to see the sun at noon, had to look back to the northern sky. The eastward part of the voyage. — When the explorers had gone about as far south of the mouth of the Congo as the Strait of Gibraltar is north of it. the Fram turned east. This was because the reports of the earlier explorers who had tried to reach the South Pole made Amundsen think that this was the best route to follow. During this eastward part of their voyage, the temperature did not change much. Most of the time a strong wind blew from the west, and this west wind carried them eastward rapidly. It rained frequently, and the dogs seemed to hate the rain even more than they had hated the heat farther north. If the deck was wet, they would not lie down. Of course, they could get very little sleep standing. Fortunately, the rains did not continue for many days at a time, and when the sun shone, they could sleep all day long if they wished. Christmas on the Fram, 1910. — By Christmas, 1910, the Fram was about as far south of the Congo as the Netherlands is north of it. At noon, the sun was above the northern horizon, about two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the zenith. The day was about seventeen hours long. Christmas here was much like the Fourth of July with Jan, except that the sun was in the northern sky at noon instead of in the southern. The Antarctic Ocean. — After Christmas, the Fram sailed steadily southward. At last a southern ocean called the Antarctic was reached. On New Year’s day the Fram was about as far south of the Congo region as Bergen is north of it. During the day, the men on board sighted a great floating mass of ice. It towered high out of the water like a giant fairy castle and glittered in the rays of the sun. It was a huge iceberg. Two days later the ship was in the midst of great floating fields of ice, called ice floes. On January 11, 1911, Amundsen and his party saw ahead of them the edge of the "Great Ice Barrier," a wall of ice one hundred feet high. The Fram sailed along the ice wall, seeking an opening, and at last reached the Bay of Whales. The ice shores of this bay were not steep, and Amundsen landed easily on the Great Ice Barrier. This was as far south as the ship could go, and here, just as Peary left the Roosevelt and went on by foot, Amundsen left the Fram. He did not make the ship the home of the party before his start for the pole, however, for the Fram was to make another journey during the months when part of the men lived on the Barrier. Framheim. — Not far from the place where they landed, Amundsen and his men built a two-room cottage with lumber brought from Norway. Tents were set up near-by for the dogs, and great piles of provisions were brought on shore. The men named their new home Framheim, which means "Fram home." Summer in January. — The temperature throughout January was from 5° above zero to 13° below. These are like June temperatures where Peary camped. Moreover, you remember that at Peary’s camp January is a part of the long Arctic night. At Framheim, January is part of the long Antarctic day. Each day the sun circled round the sky as it does in June in Arctic regions, with one difference, — at noon it was in the northern sky, and at midnight in the southern. You see, the Antarctic "summer," or long day, comes at the time of the Arctic winter, or long night. As you should expect, then, June, July, and August are winter months at Framheim. As you also should expect, they are part of the long night there. Winter in August. — The men who landed at Framheim in the middle of January did not have time to go to the pole and return before the darkness came, and so they planned to spend the coming winter at Framheim and to start early the next summer. By March 21, the sun was above the horizon only half of the twenty-four hours. The days continued to get shorter and shorter. Each day after March 21, the sun at noon was lower in the northern sky than on the day before, till on April 22, the explorers had just a glimpse of it on the northern horizon. After the sun disappeared on April 22, it was not seen again at Framheim for four months. During this long "night ", there was a glow in the sky each noon when the sky was clear. It was somewhat like the glow which you see in the western sky just after the sun sets and in the eastern sky shortly before the sun rises. It was like the noon glow which Jens sees at Hammerfest in the southern sky in winter (p. 117). Of course, the noon glow at Framheim was in the northern sky. Where you live, at what time of year is the sun highest in the sky at noon? At what time of year is it lowest? Are the days warmer at the time of year when the sun is highest in the sky at noon, or the time when it is lowest? Is winter, then, where you live the season when the noon sun is highest or when it is lowest? Is winter in other lands you have visited in these journeys the season when the noon sun is highest or when it is lowest? Is the long Arctic "night" warmer or colder than the long Arctic "day"? Can you tell, then, one reason why June, July, and August are winter months in Antarctica? Winter temperatures were between 58° and 74° below zero. The coldest day of the winter was August 13. During these months, the men lived snugly in their snow-covered house, and, by lamplight, continued their preparations for their summer journey. On August 24, the sun appeared again for a few minutes on the northern horizon. From then on the days grew steadily longer. Each noon the sun was higher in the sky than on the day before and, little by little, temperatures rose. The final journey. — By the latter part of October, the temperatures had risen to between 22° below zero and 5° below, and on October 20, a party of five men set out from Framheim with four sledges, fifty-two dogs, and provisions for four months. The sun was above the horizon all the time during their journey. The men traveled on skiis. As they went south they built piles of snow blocks — or" snow beacons "— to mark their trail, and from place to place they left supplies which they could use on the return journey. As long as they were on the Great Barrier, it was not bad going, but on November 17, they came to the edge of the land of Antarctica. Ahead of them were great snow-covered mountains, some of whose peaks are two miles high. The first day they climbed up nearly half a mile. After the next day’s climb, they were about a mile high. They then were on a great high plain, or plateau. On November 30, they began to climb again, and by December 2 they were more than two miles high. Although they did not know it, the hardest part of their journey was then over, for from that time on they traveled over an almost flat plateau with nothing but small crevices in the ice here and there to hinder them. Twelve days later, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of December 14, they reached the spot which, according to their reckoning, was the South Pole. In the following paragraph is part of Amundsen’s own story of what they did after they halted there. "After we halted we . . . congratulated each other. . . . After this we proceeded to the greatest and most solemn act of the whole journey — the planting of our flag. It was not for one man to do this; it was for ali who had staked their lives in the struggle, and held together through thick and thin. Five weatherbeaten, frostbitten fists they were that grasped the pole, raised the waving flag in the air, and planted it as the first at the . . . South Pole. ‘Thus we plant thee, beloved flag, at the South Pole, and give to the plain on which it lies the name of King Haakon VII's Plateau.’ " Almost three years, then, after Peary planted the flag of the United States to mark the North Pole, the flag of Norway floated at or very near the South Pole. The return. — On January 25, the five men, with two sledges and eleven dogs, reached Framheim again. On January 30, a little more than a year after the men had landed, the Fram sailed out of the Bay of Whales and they started on their long return trip northward. By the 8th of March the reached land where they could send word home that their expedition had been successful. A picture taken at the pole. — Both of the men in Figure 167 are using instruments to try to find out just where the pole is. Was this picture taken at the North Pole or at the South Pole? Tell why you think so. A North and South exercise. — This exercise is like the "mouth and source" puzzle on page 109 (use the back button to return). If the first statement tells something about the region near the North Pole, write" 1. North" on a sheet of paper. If it tells, instead, about the region near the South Pole, write" 1. South "on your paper. If it tells about both regions, write "i. North and South," and so on with all fifteen statements. If, after you read one of these sentences, you are not sure which region it tells about, read the stories of Peary and Amundsen again to find out. 1. Summer comes in June, July, and August. 2. It is a great ocean mostly covered with ice and snow. 3. To reach the pole in this region, the explorers climbed some very high mountains, which were covered with ice and snow. 4. Summer comes in December, January, and February. 5. Even in summer it is very cold, although not so cold as in winter. 6. It is a great land, mostly covered with ice and snow. 7. For several months in the summer time the sun does not rise nor set, but circles round and round the sky day after day. 8. The greatest danger in traveling to the pole in this region is due to leads, or open lanes of water in the ice. 9. In summer the sun is in the southern sky each noon, and in the northern sky each midnight. 10. Winter comes in December, January, and February. 11. For several months in the winter time, the sun cannot be seen at all. 12. In summer, the sun is in the northern sky each noon, and in the southern sky each midnight. 13. Winter comes in June, July, and August. 14. The nearer the pole you go, the longer is the long summer day. 15. The nearer the pole you go, the longer is the long winter night. Check: Five of your answers should be " North and South." Five of them should be "South." Five of them should be "North." Another exercise. — 1. Tell now all the ways you found in which the region near the North Pole and the region near the South Pole are alike. Did you find the five ways mentioned in sentences 5, 7, 11, 14, and 15, in the "north and south" exercise? 2. Tell all the ways you found in which these regions are different. A picture puzzle. — Sir Ernest Shackleton was another Antarctic explorer. Before Amundsen made his journey, Shackleton already had gone to within about one hundred twenty miles of the South Pole. On one of his voyages his ship, called the Endurance, was caught between ice floes in the Antarctic Ocean near Antarctica. It was so badly damaged that later it sank. Both in Figure 168 and Figure 169 you can see the Endurance. In Figure 169, you can see the hole torn in the side of the ship by the ice. Notice, too, the small "lifeboats" hanging at the side of the Endurance. After the ship sank, the explorers made a long, dangerous ocean voyage in these little lifeboats. The man in the picture is bringing food to the dogs. The little snow huts are dog kennels. The puzzle is to tell which of these pictures of the Endurance might have been taken in June and which one might have been taken in December.
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