ARCTIC REGIONS

this article deals with the sovereignty, climate and resources of the area known as the polar regions. for the story of its exploration since 1910 sce the article polar regions. sovereignty questions.—most arctic lands are now under the sovereignty of one or other state. the treaty transferring the danish west indies to the united states (1917) contained a clause recognising denmark’s right to extend her economic and political sphere over the whole of greenland. norway disputed this right on the ground that only norwegian sealers and trawlers made any use of the east coast. an agreement between the two states was signed in 1924, giving norwegians unhindered access to that shore, but leaving undecided the question of danish sovereignty, which norway does not admit, maintaining that eastern greenland is a terra nullius. in 1916 russia reiterated her claim to all the arctic islands lying north of asia, including wrangel island. attempts on the part of v. stefansson in 1921-4 to establish a british claim to wrangel island met with no official arctic regions support in britain or canada, and in aug. 1924 russia officially hoisted her flag on the island and reasserted her claim. franz josef land is not included among russian claims, and may be regarded as a terra nullius. by a treaty signed in paris, feb. 9 1920, the principal european powers and the united states and japan recognised norway’s sovereignty of spitsbergen and rear island. canada claims all islands of the american arctic archi- pelago between the meridian of 60° and 142° west of greenwich, greenland excepted. this carries british sovereignty to the pole. (r.n.r.b.) 1. climatic conditions it is a commonplace of modern geography that there are two main kinds of climate,. continental and insular, with the sea- coasts of continents partaking somewhat of the insular qualities. in continental climates, there are greater extremes of heat and cold than on islands. it follows that the most intense cold in the arctic is nowhere near either the mathematical centre, called the north pole, or the sea-ice centre, called the pole of inacces- sibility (84° n. lat., 160° w. long.). in arctic alaska, the cold- est weather is, so far as we know, in the yukon basin; in canada it is in yukon territory; and in siberia it is in the province of yakutsk. all these places have been inhabited for a quarter of a century or more by europeans who are not known to have been materially discouraged in their work by the mere disagreeable- ness of the climate, although they have been handicapped by the frozen ground and in other things that result directly from the cold. the coldest region.—the coldest known region of the northern hemisphere is the province of yakutsk, in the vicinity of the arctic circle, where temperatures colder than go° f. below zero have been reliably recorded—and that on the edge of cereal farming, for the great russian atlas published just before the war indicates that wheat, barley, oats and rye are cultivated, if not at the very cold pole of the northern hemisphere, at least within a comparatively short distance from it, where the tem- perature frequently drops lower than 80° below zero. this is colder than any known region in arctic alaska or arctic canada. we may conclude, then, that winter cold does not frighten away europeans through its mere disagreeableness nor render it im- possible for them to make a living. no records apparently authentic of temperatures colder than 60°f. below zero are available from any of the arctic islands, and it is almost certain that they do not occur. the coldest spells that do occur are when the wind blows from the interiors of the islands. it seems unlikely, therefore, that the tempera- ture ever drops as low as 55° below zero at the north pole, the pole of inaccessibility, or, indeed, at any point on the arctic sea. summer temperatures—there is probably no spot on a low- land in the continental arctic, whether in asia or america, that does not occasionally have a summer temperature warmer than 80° f. in the shade. or, if there is such a place, it must be on a peninsula, or on a narrow coastal strip between ice-covered mountains and the sea. many places in the continental arctic have occasional temperatures above 85° in the shade, and at least one arctic weather bureau station, that of the united states govt. at fort yukon, alaska, has a record of roo° in the shade. the slowness of the public to realise that there is such great summer heat in the arctic is due partly to the prevalence of the ancient view that all the arctic is always cold, and partly to the reports of travellers whose entire arctic experience has been on the ocean or on a seacoast. the reason for the great mid-summer heat on arctic lowlands is, of course, that the sun delivers an adequate number of heat units per day to account for it. the ordinarily accepted figures are three or four per cent more at the north pole than at the equator for the top of the atmosphere and three or four per cent less for sea-level. this means that you would have “ tropical ” heat at any place in the arctic where the sun’s rays strike a dark surface and where there is no local reservoir of “‘ cold ”’ to neu- tralise it. the places, therefore, that do show a “‘ tropical ” heat are on lowlands that are sheltered from ocean breezes and from architecture a © corridor plate vii. tymcal office floor plan interior lot. 100x10c tani w county hall puan 9 principal floor scale of feet o50 dod d ease eee ad s u mailing room entrance floor plan fic. 1.—zoning envelope (building laws of new york city) showing the mass of building which would occur if carried to extreme limits permitted by law over square 800 x 200 ft. on 25 % of a lot area, a tower may rise to any height. fic. 2.—same as t, showing courts cut in to provide natural light in building. fic. 3.—sloping surfaces changed to vertical. ready for windows—the tower reduced to a structural possibility—i.e, height of 1.000 ft. and offsets adjusted to steel supports. fic. 4.—the finished building, windows in place, architecturally embellished and ready for occupancy. these diagrams show the cause of the ‘‘style”’ of ar- chitecture which is becoming prevalent in america. fic. 5.—plan of ground floor. municipal building. new york city: mead and white. architects. a street passes through the centre. mckim. fic. 6.—economical layout for elevators in an office building. fic. 7.—plan of typical office floor, municipal building, new york city: mckim. mead and white. architects. note elevator layout. fic. 8.—typical office plans on rectangular lots p fic. 9. —ground floor and typical floor, tribune building, chicago: howells and hood, architects. fic. 10.—plan of the new county hall. london: ralph knott, architect. elements well composed, with clear circulation. fic. 11.—plan of american academy in rome: mckim, mead and white. fic. 12.—plan of liverpool cathedral: sir giles scott, architect. developed under one guiding hand. fic. 13—plan of cathedral of st. john the divine. new york city: heins and la farge, architects: r. a. cram. succeeding. developed under different hands, as were the old cathedrals. which were long in building. plate vuli. architecture ee is lj ai jistl © eome)e ghd = emt ea 666 e cteg eeeeceeaceetcesn tags satin \ nd the shelton ¥,\~ 1m awe e ~~ ee + os ee egth phaw tre tenve cr, a lys rey _ a wpa ee 7 ys > > > ous ; . : ce y ot5 : oon hg t ¥ es : . « 4 er. ; ia “t f - 3 “ee tela yf eat pp be rr wrwseyor ee a tne wah tenn elie ther eter sees whe ome 4 . bm a hewie >, ~~ jeri lee (ss mb dbhonbernean e 4 as sromnd flan nprtl state cae (ol mncl err ask re = °e s e e e ia | s e ° es . > 4 a 4, ; : we eseese ea ala 7 . a .(- ® i i pba 4 f-| ore nee ol ry to at ples mane a: 1 eee an a ft stet raga bet te bors tren » ‘se @ ae *¥e : _ : ee ib ad . ; me ) «> t a i r) so e pe a - a oni © * 3“ > “ss § =e rosy od owe: hag om ;} ® 6 » 8: 8 j. e. r. carpenter, architect. fic. 1.—plan of town hall. stockholm. sweden: r. ostberg, architect. fig. 6.—fairly typical american high school plan, rockville center, n. y.: modern building reminiscent of old forms h. t. blanchard, archite f1g. 2.—-typical upper floor plan of shelton hotel. new york city: a. l. fig. 7.—typical upper floor plan. fifth avenue hospital, new york city: harmon, architect. modern skyscraper hotel} york and sawyer, architects. an unusual plan for the limited space available fic. 3.~plan of freer art gallery, washington: charles platt, architect. well in a city. arranged display spaces fic. 8.—example of plan of large apartments, new york city: j. e. r. car- fic. 4.—plan of nebraska state capitol: b.g. goodhue, architect. a new penter, architect. note in state capitol planning. fic. o.—plan of port of london authority vuilding. very clear and well fic. 5.—a typical plan of small suburban apartment, jackson heights, new organised. sir herbert baker, architect. york city: a. j. thomas, architect. the better type of modern housing 1g. to. —plan of memorial quadrangle, yale university, new haven, conn. practice. a reminiscence of the old world. j. r. rogers, architect. arctic regions, climate and resources winds that come from ice-covered mountains. if the length of summer is measured by the season during which streams flow unfrozen and during which certain insects are alive and more or less active, the arctic summer would range from a maximum of about five and a half months in such places as the north shore of great bear lake, to perhaps two months in places like borden island. but an important thing to remember is that there is a direct dependence of animals on plant life and that plants measure their summer not by the calendar but by the number of hours of sunlight. at fort yukon, alaska, for instance, on a day that varies from, let us say, 65° at the coldest to 95° at the warmest (in the shade), there would be approximately as much growing time as in two ordinary days in the humid tropics. this is why some plants grow so much more rapidly in certain parts of the arctic than the same plants do in any part of the tropics or temperate zone. an intcresting, and to most botanists an un- expected, corollary is that some plants also grow to far greater size in the arctic than in the temperate zone or tropics, as cab- bages, for instance. this may possibly be because they lose speed in the temperate zone where they have to stop and start again to conform with alternation of day and night, but can maintain a continuous and fairly uniform rate of growth in the arctic where the daylight is continuous. arctic weather.—dr. fridtjof nansen announced as one of the outstanding conclusions of his great scientific expedition of 1893-6, that the arctic is, on the average, one of the least stormy large regions of the world. stefansson’s observations as a result of rr years spent north of the arctic circle and the studies of other observers have tended to confirm nansen. in many parts violent gales are quite absent, or at least have not yet been observed by scientific men. gales are common only where an open ocean is faced by high mountains or a plateau. snowfall.—it is dificult to measure arctic snowfall because the snow is usually very dry and fluffy and is driven about a great deal by even the lightest winds. there is no doubt that, however, on the average, arctic precipitation is very light. it 1s estimated that, if the snow of winter be added to the rain of summer, the result would be about eight inches of water, cer- tainly not more than ten, on most parts of the arctic lowlands of canada and alaska. the siberian lowlands may be even drier. we have, therefore, the apparent paradox that the aver- age snowfall of the arctic is much less than that of scotland or of illinois, for instance. glaciers.—it is now well established that there is no perma- nent snow or ice on any land in the arctic unless it be moun- tainous. the required height of mountains varies roughly with the varying precipitation. the highest mountains of melville i., for instance, are probably not more than 4,000 feet. this is - not enough for the formation of any real glaciers. mr. e. de k. leffingwell, in his studies of arctic alaska, found that in the first coast range south of flaxman i., the altitude of 6,000 ft. was not enough for the formation of glaciers. but in the second range, a little farther south, which runs up towards 10,000 ft., there were some glaciers. so far as we yet know, there is no evidence of ancient glaciation on the great low plains of arctic alaska. this must have been because they were then as now a region of very light snowfall. fogs.—since fogs are caused by the mecting of air currents of differing humidity and temperature, it is obvious that the insular arctic and the coast lands must be regions of frequent fogs. in summer, for instance, with a lowland steaming under a sun that creates an 80° temperature in the shade, and just in front of it an ocean the surface of which is around 30° f., any breeze blowing from the land would be suddenly cooled, produc- ing a sea fog. similarly, any breeze coming from the ocean would produce a fog over the superheated land. such fogs would be thickest and most frequent where the sea and land meet. we gradually work out of the land fogs when we travel inland and out of the sea fogs when we steam away from land. from the flying point of view, it is important that these fogs have been found by experience to be very low on the average. they are 207 often thick on the decks of whaling ships, but so thin at the masthead that the captains in the crow’s-nests can see each other plainly while the men on the decks have no visual eae that other ships are near. summing up, the arctic winters are longer than those of most extremely cold places now inhabited by prosperous and con- tented europeans, such as dakota and manitoba, for instance. they are also a little colder. but they are, on the other hand, less stormy and with a lighter snowfall. the summers, although shorter, are in some places almost or quite as hot. it would seem, then, that the same sort of people might be willing to live in the arctic who are willing to live in dakota and manitoba. it will undoubtedly be difficult to get people to colonise the. arctic, but in the opinion of many this will not be any special arctic problem but rather a general frontier one. for the tend- ency which brings american farmers to the cities, increasing the percentage of urban population, makes it as difficult to induce londoners who are out of work to migrate to sub-tropical aus- tralia as to sub-arctic canada. the weakening or dying out of the frontier spirit is one of the conspicuous social phenomena of our time. ii. natural resources since the climate, as such, will not prevent arctic colonisation, the ascertained resources may be enumerated. coal.—it is now known that coal is almost, if not quite as likely to be found in the arctic as in tropical or temperate lands. it is not surprising, therefore, that seams of coal, of varying quality, of course, have been reported by most arctic explorers. stefansson, for instance, found coal in all but two of the islands north of western canada. in these, victoria island and meighen island, further exploration may show coal. coal of quality said to be equal to the best welsh has been mined for several decades in spitsbergen, some five or six hun- dred miles north of the arctic circle, and these mines should eventually supply a great part of northern scandinavia and of northern russia. in alaska, a coal mine at cape lisburne, well north of the arctic circle, was worked to supply the whaling fleet even before 1885, and fell into disuse only with the aban- donment of the whaling industry. the natives of the north coast of alaska mine coal at wainwright for their own use and to sell locally to missionaries, government schools, traders, etc. the members of stefansson’s expedition, living by hunting on melville i., maintained two winter camps, one in liddon gulf and the other on the north coast near cape grassy. they burned bituminous shale in the southern camp, but in the northern they burned lignite of good quality, some of it saturated with oil. oil.—indications of oil have been found in many parts of the arctic. the imptrial oil co. of canada, a branch of the amer- ican standard oil, has flowing wells on the mackenzie river just south of the arctic circle, and the same oil-fields are known to extend beyond the circle. about 500 m. north from these wells and, therefore, about 500 m. north of the arctic circle, stefansson found oil on northern melville island. the u.s. navy has re- cently set aside a vast oil reserve in arctic alaska, and both pri- vate prospectors and representatives of large oil companies have staked claims east of the government reserve. these claims are near cape simpson which, but for barrow, is the most northerly cape in alaska. tron and coppery.—€ardly less fundamental than oil and coal are iron and copper. no large arctic deposits of iron ore are known. there are iron “ prospects,’’ however, in many places. but the copper fields that lie between bear lake and the centre of victoria i. in a district roughly 200 m. sq., give great promise —if the world’s need of copper increases, or if the spread of set- tlements to that country make mining more feasible. there are copper prospects in other parts of the arctic, and gold, silver, platinum and tin have been found. v egetation. —a more fundamental resource than even the oil -and coal is the vegetation of the arctic that makes food-produc- tion possible. the coniferous forest extends beyond the arctic circle, in canada in certain river valleys as much as 150 m., and 208 even farther in siberia. trees roo ft. high are found too m. north of the arctic circle. they make the arctic more homelike to those who are used to forests, and they are doubtless valuable. but many consider that the same land would be more immedi- ately valuable if the trees were absent, for then it would be covered with grass, like most of the rest of the arctic, whether continental or insular. it is one of the exploded beliefs that arctic vegetation is mainly mosses and lichens. some 20 years ago, sir clements markham published the statement that the arctic possesses 28 species of ferns, 250 lichens, 332 mosses and 762 flowering plants. many species have been discovered since hen and many others will be ‘discovered hereafter. there will probably be little disagreement with the estimate that we have in the arctic at least ro times as many tons of flowering plants as of non-flowering. there are a few small portions of the arctic where cereals can be profitably cultivated, and still others where garden vegetables will be of some value. but, so far as can be seen at present, the chief thing to do with the arctic soil is to permit that vegetation to continue growing which grows there already and to make an eco- nomic use of it by converting it into meat, hides and other animal products. reindeer.—there is one suitable animal, the reindeer, domestic in the old world since prehistoric times. no one knows how many of these there may be in arctic siberia, where single owners often have from 5,000 to 10,000 head. but there are definite figures for the entire period of reindeer domestication in alaska. the american govt. commenced by importing 16 head from siberia in 1892. up to 1902, when importation ceased because of an embargo imposed by the tsar’s govt., 1,280 animals were brought from siberia. these have never failed to double every three years since importation, so that by the spring of 1926 there were 500,000 head. the u.s. department of agriculture estimates that the graz- ing resources of arctic and sub-arctic alaska will be adequate for 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. since the climate and vegetation of arctic canada are, for reindeer purposes, the same as those of arctic alaska, with an area ro times greater, we can say, roughly, that canada will support from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 head. undoubtedly the reindeer area in asia and northern europe ts twice as large as the alaskan and canadian put together, which would make total world figures between 100,000,000 and 125,000,000. this estimate is probably low. no animal now domestic can be profitable in the arctic except the reindeer. cattle, sheep, horses and goats can, of course, be raised in many parts, but, under present costs and prices, they would not pay. the reindeer pays handsomely because it needs no barn for shelter, no hay for feed, nor any protection from wind or weather. domestication of ovibos.—there was a project under discus- sion in 1926 of domesticating the ovibos (musk ox) because it eats certain arctic vegetation that reindecr do not eat and be- cause the reindeer produces only meat and hides while the ovibos produces wool in addition. ovibos beef is indistinguishable from ordinary domestic beef in colour, flavour, taste and odour. the wool, as determined by the textiles department of the univer- sity of leeds (prof. aldred f. barker), has good heat retaining and wearing qualities, is easy to bleach and dye, is softer than cashmere, and will not shrink—in other words, is one of the finest of known wools. with the ovibos domesticated, the potentialities of the arctic will be greater. but with only the reindeer, there is no doubt that the arctic grasslands (which means all lands in the arctic not so high and mountainous as to be snow-covered) will be colonised unless, indeed, the world movement of population from the country to the cities stops further colonisation entirely. in most cases mining will develop after the ranchmen have occu- pied the grazing lands. but in some cases, notably with oil, the mining will precede colonisation. that gold mining will precede colonisation seems for the moment unlikely, although that is the’ one kind of mining that has hitherto taken people to the arctic. but the rise in the cost of living is only another expression for a ardennes, battle of phe—argentina drop in the value of gold, so that the gold deposits, which paid fabulously in alaska 20 years ago, are not paying now even where production remains uniform. site-value.—finally we must point out a resource of the arctic that has nothing to do with climate, minerals or the like, but is due entirely to position. the history of civilisation as we know it is essentially the history of the northern iiemisphere. gen- erally speaking, civilisation seems to have started in the sub- tropics—yucatan for the new world; egypt, asia minor, etc., for the old world. as civilisation has been spreading northward during historic time, it has really been spreading toward the centre of a circle. that centre is the arctic. it was an elizabethan ideal to find a sea-way north from eu- rope to the indies. no practical route was ever found, because of the floating ice in the arctic sea. so, perforce, we have gone roundabout. but now ships of the air are opening up the roads of the air which lie straight in any desired direction. as the elizabethans knew, china is north of europe. but peking is also north of new york, and the wheat-fields that are spreading over central siberia are north of the growing wheat-fields of central canada. the cities springing up in those wheat lands will be far from each other east and west, but not half so far north and south. air rontes—the world is developing an increasing speed mania, both for messages and for passengers. the flying condi- tions of the arctic are probably, on the average, as good as those of any other equally large area of the world. it follows, there- fore, that the centre of the circle of civilisation, which is the arctic, will be the flying crossroads of the world. this will neces- sitate the establishment of way stations here and there. of it- self, that will to a small extent require colonisation. it will have a vastly greater indirect effect by spreading accurate knowledge of the arctic throughout the world. thereupon will follow such colonisation as the real climate and actual resources justify. brsliography.—-v. stefansson, the friendly arctic (1921) and the nerthward course of empire (1922); reports of the territorial government of alaska annual reports of the u. s. bureau of education since 1892; reports of various departments of the gov- ernment of canada; report of the royal commission to investigate the possibilities of the reindeer and musk ox industries in the arctic and sub-arctic regions of canada, published 1922, depart- ment of the interior, ottawa, canada. (vv. e ardennes, battle of the: see frontiers, battles of the.