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    "source_key": "britannica_1926",
    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926)",
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    "chunk_id": "1926:polar exploration:5ba5b5469eb4",
    "title": "POLAR EXPLORATION",
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    "verified_text": "during the period under review (1910-26) much exploration work has been done around both the north and the south poles. in this article a section is devoted to each of these fields. (sce also antarctica; arctic regions.) i. the north pole as to the distribution of land and water in the northern regions, we now know the limits towards the north of all conti- nental land surface both in the old and in the new world. the last problem in this respect was the northern extension of greenland, the northernmost end of which was reached by peary, while its northern coasts have been mapped by the danish travellers: mylius ericksen, knud rasmussen, lauge koch and others. there seems now to be no possibility left of any great, continuous land-surface within the still unknown tracts in the north; but this does not mean that there may not be greater or smaller islands, which may possibly form a kind of continuation of the groups of islands known. polar exploration canadian arctic archipelago.—the northern extension of the canadian arctic archipelago is still an open question. capt. otto sverdrup in 1900, found the great new islands, axel heiberg island, the island of ellef and amund ringnes and king christian island, an area of more than 200,000 square kilometres. in 1916 vilhjalmur stefansson completed these discoveries with some smaller islands: brock island, borden island and meighen island, on the western and northwestern side of sverdrup’s islands. it seems hardly probable that the islands now known should form the northern boundary of this extensive archipelago; but how far it may still extend northwest and northwards will be for future exploration to decide. croker land —farther east, north of grant land (grinnell land) mac millan has looked in vain for the land, croker land, which peary thought he had seen in the distance. it may there- fore be probable that there is no more land in that direction as also north of greenland, where peary has travelled across the drifting ice, and where there obviously is a deep sea. s pitsbergen.—the extension of the island group of spitsbergen (or svalbard as this group js now called) is known, and as there is a deep sea to the north there is no probability of any new land of importance in that direction. franz joscf land —the extension of the island group called franz josef land, has been explored by the jackson-harmsworth expedition (1895-7), the sledge journey of johansen and fridtjof nansen (1895), the expedition of the duke of the abruzzi (1900) and by the ziegler expedition (1902). the extension of this island group towards the east is uncertain; but the drift of the tragic brusilov expedition in the ‘* st. anna ” in 1912-3 east of these islands, and northwards, approximately along the meridian of 70° e., in fairly deep sea (more than 600 metres), without seeing land, limited the possibilities of this extension. russian ex ploration.—by far the most important discovery in this part of the arctic for a long time was made by the russian expedition on board the ice breakers the “ taimir”’ and the “ vaizach,” commanded by vilkitski, on sept. 3 1913, when they found the great new land or island group, called ‘‘ nicholas it. land,” to the north-northwest of the northernmost point of the old world, cape chelyuskin. the eastern coast of this land was found to extend towards north-northwest as a continuation of the eastern coasts of the taimir peninsula and the chelyuskin peninsula, and was tracked northwards as far as 81° n. lat. where the ships were stopped by impenetrable ice. only the eastern and southern coasts of this tsland group were observed. the group forms obviously a northern continuation of the groups of islands, fearnley islands and axel heiberg islands, discovered during the *‘ fram ” expedition in 1893. this new land has an extension from south to north of 350 km., or more than three degrees of latitude. how far it extends farther towards north and towards west isunknown. a limit for the possible maximum of its extension is set in the north by the drift of the ‘* fram ”’ in 84° and 85° n. lat.,or about 400 km. north of the northernmost point of the known land—and in the west by the drift of the “st. anna ” at a distance of about 500 kilometres. an explora- tion of this island group in its full extension will be a feat of great value. sibertan islands.—farther east are the new siberian islands. to the northeast of this great island group some small islands have been found ina very shallow sea: jeannette island, henriette island and bennett island were discovered by the “‘ jeannette”? expedition under de longin 1881. the last mentioned island was at the time supposed to have a great northward extension, but eduard von toll found in 1902, at the cost of his valuable life, that it is only a small islet of less than 200 square kilometres. in 1913 and 19014 the russian expedition on board the ‘‘ taimir ”’ and the ‘‘ vaigach’”’ discovered two new small islands: general vilkitski island and jokhov island, southeast of bennett island. as the sea is very shallow in this region, mostly less than 50 metres deep, there may easily be more unknown islands in the north. farther east wrangel island and the tiny herald island are the only known islands in the shallow sea north of the siberian 177 coast, not counting the islands near the land. there may pos- sibly be more islands to the west of wrangel island and also in the north, north of the drift-routes of the “ jeannette”’ (1879-81) and the ** maud ” (1922-4). north of alaska a deep sea has been found, and it is hardly probable that there is any new land in that region. the extension of the continental land-masses and the deep sea.—to discover and map the possible islands and lands in the unknown north will be an important task for future ex- plorers, but it will be much more important, from a scientific point of view, to define the northward extension of the conti- nental land-masses over and under the sca-surface, and to deter- mine in its chief features the extension of the north polar deep sea. the continental shelf.—the boundaries of the great conti- nental land-masses are not defined by the coasts of the land visible above the sea, but by the edge of the continental shelf, which, at a comparatively small depth, generally less than 100 to 200 metres, under the sea-surface extends often very far out from the coasts, and is actually an important part of the continent. at the edge of this shelf, generally at a depth of 100 to 200 metres, the sea-bottom falls, as a rule, abruptly and com- paratively steeply towards the deep floor of the ocean at depths of several thousand metres or more. north of siberia this continental shelf has a very wide exten- sion of many hundred kilometres. its surface is extremely level, and situated at a shallow depth of a large area less than 50 metres under the sea-surface. it was over this remarkably shallow continental shelf that both the “ jeannette ” (1879-81) and the “ maud” (1922-4) drifted along their crooked drift- routes. the edge of this shelf has been determined only at one place, viz.: along the drift-route of the “ fram ” in 1893, north of the new siberian islands, in about 79° n. lat. and more than 600 kilometres north of the siberian coast. at another place, about midway between the new siberian islands and cape chelyuskin, in about 77° 24’ n. lat., the russian expe- dition on board the “ taimir”’ and the “ vyaigach” in tora, made a sounding of 402 metres without reaching the bottom, and here they were probably at the edge of the continental shelf. off nicholas it. land the shelf seems to be comparatively narrow, and its surface is uneven and traversed by submarine valleys and fjords. but further west, towards the kara sea and novaya zemlya, the shelf is again very broad and has very shallow depths. north of europe this continental shelf extends far north beyond franz josef land and spitsbergen, and these island groups are situated on it. in the barents sea the shelf is traversed by a system of submarine valleys with depths of as much as 400 metres or more. north of canada the continental shelf has a wide extension, comprising the whole arctic archipelago, but how far it extends farther north is unknown. north of alaska, off the coast eastwards from point barrow, the edge of the continental shelf approaches near to the land. during the drift with the ice of stefansson’s ship the ‘‘ karluk ” in 1913, and during the ice-journey of the norwegian “ storkerson ” in 1918, depths of more than 1,000 and 2,000 metres were found at distances less than 100 kilometres from land, and there seems to be an extensive deep sea. sea-basins:—during the norwegian “ fram” expedition in 1893-6 a great and deep sca-basin with depths of 3,000 to 3,850 metres was found in the north polar region. it extends as a continuation of the deep norwegian sea far north of spits- bergen and franz josef land and eastwards to the longitude of the new siberian islands, and probably farther eastwards. this sea-basin forms the northern termination of a series of sea-basins which extend northward from the eastern side of the north atlantic, through the norwegian sea—between norway- spitsbergen on the one side and iceland-greenland on the other. this series of deep basins separates the two great continental land masses of the earth: eurasia on the one side, and green- land, north america on the other. the different basins of this continuous sea are separated from each other by submarine 178 ridges such as: the scotland-faeroes-iceland-greenland ridge, the low ridge between jan mayen and bear island and a prob- able ridge between northwestern spitsbergen and northeastern greenland. how far the deep north polar sea-basin extends eastwards towards bering straits and alaska ts still unknown. nansen assumed that it actually extends to a short distance from the north coast of alaska. the soundings made by the *‘ karluk ”’ and “‘ storkerson,” with depths of more than 3,000 metres con- firm this assumpton. but the extension of the deep sea in this region beyond 74° n. lat., or 400 kilometres north of the alas- kan coast, is unknown, and we cannot decide at present whether it is continuous with the deep sea north of the new siberian islands or whether it may be separated from it by some sub- marine ridge. a single sample of the water from depths greater than 1,000 metres north of alaska would have settied this question. that there is an open communication in the upper water- layers between the sea north of alaska and the sea between spitsbergen and greenland is proved by the drift of several objects, and there is obviously a constant, though slow, drift of the ice across the sea near the north pole from the sea north of bering straits and into the norwegian sea where the ice drifis southwards along the east coast of greenland. but whether this north polar sea is chicfly a deep sea, or whether it to a great extent is shallow, is still uncertain. by computations of the tidal observations made at several places along the arctic coast the american hydrographer, harris, came to the conclu- sion that a continuous great land probably extends from the region north of alaska and northwest of banks land, to the north pole on the one side and to a certain distance north of the new siberian islands on the other side. later observations, and especially the many tidal observations and current meas- urements made by dr. sverdrup during the drift of the “ maud ” (1922-5) seem to prove definitely that harris was mistaken, and there is probably no such land to the north of the “ maud’s ” drift-route. north polar sea.—the most important geographical problem of the unknown north polar regions is consequently the exten- sion of the «leep north polar sea. when the edge of the conti- nental shelf has been determined all the way round it is hardly probable that there should be isolated islands farther out rising from the deep oceanic floor, unless there be volcanic islands, like jan mayen in the norwegian sea. there may, however, be submarine ridges across the north polar basin, and they may in places rise above the sea-surface and form islands. meteorological problems (see meteorology).—in order to master some of the most difficult meteorological problems of our atmosphere, it is necessary to study the physical conditions of the polar regions. the circulation of the atmosphere is essen- tially due to the heating of the air by the solar radiation in the warmer regions of the earth, and to the cooling of the air by the radiation of heat in the colder, especially the polar, regions. to try to find the laws for the atmospheric circulation without knowing the physical conditions of the extensive polar regions, would therefore be somewhat similar to trying to compute the circulation of heat in the pipes of a central heating apparatus without knowing the radiators where the heat is given off. in modern meteorology it is therefore more and more acknow!- edged that the meteorological conditions of the arctic regions have a predominating influence upon the weather in our lati- tudes, and that therefore a thorough study of the different layers of the atmosphere—both near the earth’s surface and at great heights—in all parts of the north polar regions is essential for the understanding of the complicated laws regulating the weather. oceanographic problems——a methodic study of the physical conditions of the north polar sea in the different parts of the unknown region, will be of much interest for oceanography (q.v.). from the drifting ice the movements of the sea, the horizontal currents as well as the vertical oscillations of the water-layers, may be continually and carefully studied at all polar exploration depths, in an ideal manner which is not possible in any other part of the ocean; and many of the greatest problems of ocean- ography may thus be solved. a careful study of the relation between the directions and velocities of the drift of the ice, the sea-currents and the wind in different parts of the north polar regions will also be of much value. terrestrial magnetism (q.v.).—investigation of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism in the still unknown polar regions and determinations of its various elements: declination, inclination, intensity, etc., is very important and has to be attempted sooner or later. problems of gravitation—the floating thick ice-floes of the north polar sea offer possibilities of making exact measure- ments of the earth’s gravitation over a deep ocean as well as over the continental shelf, which can be found nowhere else. pendulum-observations of this kind made by s. scott-hansen during the ‘‘ fram” expedition (1893-6), gave unexpected results; but with modern instruments results of very great importance for the understanding of the physics of the earth and its crust may certainly be obtained (see geodesy). biological problems.—there are naturally also biological prob- lems of interest in the unknown polar regions, although they may seem to be of minor importance. the north polar sea, covered in its interior by an almost continuous layer of thick ice, 1s extremely poor in plant as well as animal life. the sun light 1s absorbed by the thick ice, and extremely little hght penetrates to the water underneath. hardly any plant-life can therefore be developed in this water, there is only just a little—chiefly in the water lanes between the floes in the summer; and without plant life, no animal life. the interior, continu- ously ice-covered north polar sea may therefore be considered as a desert in the ocean, where the “ fram ” expedition (1893-6)— ‘ found comparatively many species of small crustaceans, but the fauna was so extremely poor in number of specimens that the tow-nets might hang out for several days, and although we drifted along at a good speed there was extremely little in them when we hauled them up.””. these conditions have a peculiar effect. the substances in the sea-water generally used to sustain the plants and animal life of the sea, are thus used only to an ex- tremely small extent in the ice-covered north polar sea, and the result obviously is that these substances are to a great extent stored in the sea-water of that region. but as soon as this water with these accumulated riches is freed of the ice, near the outskirts of the polar sea, and is exposed to the sun- light in the spring and summer, an unusually rich plant and animal life (plankton) is developed and flourishes. it would certainly be of great importance for the understanding of the biology of the ocean in general to study in detail the biological conditions in the north polar regions. methods of exploration—the most important problems of the unknown north polar regions have been mentioned above. we have hitherto had chiefly three means for locomotion for the exploration of the polar regions, viz.: sailing in a ship, sledge- travelling with or without dogs (or reindeer or horses) and drift with the ice. the use of the first of these methods is limited by the impenetrable ice preventing the advance of the ship. the second method has a limited radius of action, owing to the difficulty of transporting a sufficient equipment and the accom- modation necessary for the desirable scientific research. the third method of locomotion is very slow and has the drawback that the traveller cannot decide the direction in which the ice will carry him. but if the expedition drifts in a well-equipped ship, this method has the great advantage of offering the best possible opportunities of making methodic and valuable scien- tific investigations even of the most subtle kind. in recent times we have, however, acquired two new means of locomotion which may become of great importance for the unknown or little known regions of the earth; the aeroplane and the airship. owing to the difficulty of landing on the uneven north polar ice, the use of the aeroplane with its present development has obviously its limitations in the north polar regions, as 1s proved polar exploration by amundsen’s remarkable flight to nearly 88° n. latitude. but it can hardly be doubted that when it is further developed it will become of importance for the exploration of these regions. the airship on the other hand, may be used not only for solving the geographical problems of the unknown north polar regions, by flying across them; but it may also render possible more continuous investigations in the unknown regions as, with the considerable carrying capacity of a big airship, par‘ies of men with full equipment may be dropped at any place cither on land or on the drifting ice in the unknown regions, and may be fetched again at any fixed time when they have fulfilled their work, (f. n.) air expeditions to the pole-—no less than six air expedi- tions were organised to fly to the north pole in 1926. particulars of each are given below. t. the amundsen-elisworth-spitsbergen-alaska, 1926, expe- dition used the italian semi-rigid dirigible airship type n. 1, named ‘“‘ norge,” and carried 17 passengers, including amund- sen, ellsworth and col. huberto nobile, who commanded the airship. the “norge” cruised to spitsbergen in march and april, by way of rome, marseilles, paris, pulham, leningrad (or oslo), vardoe, kings bay. starting from spitsbergen may 11, the “ norge” flew to the pole, which it circled twice, thence across the unexplored arctic basin to point barrow, alaska, and landed at teller, on behring sea. the total distance traversed was 2,700 m. and the time occupied 71 hours. 2. the expedition organised by licut.-commander richard ke. byrd, u.s.n., to which john d. rockefeller, henry ford and three others have subscribed $20,000 each, for the scientific purpose of exploring the area from the arctic edge of the north american continent to the pole. commander byrd left spits- bergen at 12:50 a.m. on may 9 1926 and returned there after a 153 hours flight in the course of which he reached the north pole. 3. the detroit arctic expedition, commanded by capt. george h. wilkins, the australian aviator-explorer, who will fly from point barrow to spitsbergen, using two fokker aero- planes, which will be transported by railroad to fairbanks, where the railroad ends, and then flown to point barrow. the alaskan mail pilot, ben ejilson, will be in charge of the planes. 4. the norwegian expedition organised by lieuts. ellassen and gross of the norwegian navy, who propose to fly a sca- plane from novaya zemlya to alaska, a distance of 3,000 kilo- metres, which they expect to cover in 30 hours. 5. the american expedition organised by licut. leigh wade and h. h. ogden, u.s. army, who distinguished themselves in the round-the-world flight, who leave the army to organise this expedition. with them are assoctated robert anderson pope, who conceived the expedition, norman h. read, veteran pilot, who was one of the first americans to join the royal air force, lowell thomas, writer and photographer, harry ehler, mining engineer, and l. l. jackson, radio expert, geologist and meteor- ologist on the staff of the museum of natural history. 6. the harrison williams expedition in charge of capt. robert a. bartlett. cx) il. the south pole amundsen rgto—1.—captain roald amundsen set out in the “fram” for a north polar voyage in the autumn of 1910, but changed his plans and established a base called framheim, on the antarctic ice barrier ncar the bay of whales in ross sea (78°s.). before winter he had laid out food depots in 80°, 81° and 82°s. and after winter, on oct. 20 1911, he set out with four companions on ski and 52 dogs dragging three sledges. they crossed the barrier southward to the queen maud mountains and found a way to the plateau by the axel heiberg glacier in 85° south, in 88° s. the surface was 11,000 fit. above the sea and thence a gentle descent brought the party to the pole on dec. 14 io1t. two days were spent in fixing the exact position. the outward journey occupied 49 days, the return to framheim only 38, the dogs working well throughout. the party at the base had mean- while visited king edward land where they reached a height of 1,700 feet. 179 scott rgto~2.—captain robert scott organised a private british expedition in toro, and landed from the “ terra nova” at cape evans on ross island (773° s.) on jan. 4 1911. he built a hut for his land-party of 24 which included a highly efficient scientific staff, and sent the “‘ terra nova ”’ with a party under commander victor campbell to occupy a base in king edward land. this party met amundsen, returned to cape evans with news of the norwegian expedition, and proceeded to cape adare where they wintered in the hut of borchgrevink’s expedition of | 1899-1900. they were compelled to make a hazardous land journey of 300 m. back to cape evans along the coast of vic- toria land, wintering on the way with improvised equipment. on this journey mr. r. e. priestley made valuable geological surveys. in 1911 and 1912 griflith-taylor and debenham sur- veyed the west coast of macmurdo sound. a very remarkable winter journey to cape crozier was carried out by dr. e. a. wilson, licutenant bowers and mr. cherry-garrard in condi- tions of unprecedented severity, and unique specimens of the eggs of the emperor penguin were secured. the main effort of the expedition was a journey to the pole. depots were laid out on the barrier, but only as far as 79° 29’ s.,. in jan. and feb. rg11. the expedition started from cape evans on oct. 24 1911 in three divisions using respectively motor- sledges, ponies and dogs. the motors broke down before the journey was well begun, the last of the ponies was shot before reaching 83° 30’ s., here also the dog-teams were sent back to the base, and on dec. 10 scott with 11 others began the ascent of the beardmore glacier, following shackleton’s route of 1909, with three man-hauled sledges. on dec. 21 four men with one sledge were sent back from 85° 7’s., and on the gist the last supporting party of three under lieut. e. r. g. r. evans re- turned from 86° 56's. and reached the base after narrowly escaping death from scurvy. the polar party—scott, wilson, bowers, captain oates and petty-officer edgar evans—with one sledge and equipment originally designed for four men, reached the pole on jan. 18 1912 where they found a tent left by amundsen. all were tired out by their 69 days’ march and bitterly disappointed to find that they had been forestalled. the weather on the return jour- ney was worse than had ever been known before, and disasters followed one another. edgar evans broke down on the beard- more glacier and after delaying the march died on feb. 17. oates, at the end of his strength, and resolved not to be a burden, sacri- ficed himself on march 17 in 79° 50’ s., by walking out into the blizzard. the supply of fuel oil at the last depot had been de- ficient and 20 m. remained, to reach the next. the three sur- vivors struggled on heroically for 10 m., raised their tent for the last time and, being without fuel, nothing remained but to await death with quiet fortitude. lieutenant evans, the second in com- mand, had been invalided home on the ‘f terra nova,” and the search parties sent out to meet scott had been unfortunate, so that it was not until after another winter that dr. atkinson, then in command at the base, found the tent with the frozen bodies on nov. 12 1912. douglas mawson.—l)r. douglas mawson organised the aus- tralian antarctic expedition which set out in the “ aurora ” in dec. 1911. a party was landed on macquarie island to set up an intermecliate wireless station and the ship went on to adelie land where the main base was established and a wireless mast erected. here mawson with 17 companions built a hut on the shore of commonwealth bay (67° s., 142° 4’ e.) while the ship under the command of capt. j. k. davis proceeded 1,500 m. to the westward where queen mary land was discovered and mr. frank wild landed with a party of seven men and a hut to form the western base in 66°s., 94° east. adelie land was found to be a region of almost continuous blizzard, the wind- force averaging so m.p.h. for the whole year, and velocities of over roo m.p.h. frequently occurring. sledge parties started from the main base in nov. 1912, diverging to explore inland towards the magnetic pole and eastward and westward near the coast. the land sloped steeply from the sea to the high plateau and was entirely buried in heavily-crevassed glacier ice ay to return to south georgia on march 4. 180 and snow, yet the sledge parties made their way for 300 m. or more from the base. all got back without disaster except the leader, whose two companions, b. b. s. ninnis and x. mertz, perished, leaving him with scant stores roo m. from common- wealth bay. he reached the hut on feb. 10 1913 by an effort of almost superhuman endurance and found that the “ aurora ” had just sailed to relieve wild, leaving a volunteer rescue party with whom he awaited the return of the ship in dec. 1913. filchner tgrr-2.—lieut. w. filchner got up an expedition in germany and sailed from south georgia in the “‘ deutschland” in dec. 1911. he made his way into the weddell sea on the meridian of 30° w. and found a new coast, which he named luitpold land in 77° 48’ s. on feb. 2 1912. an attempt to erect a winter hut in vahsel bay was frustrated by ice movements, and after seeking vainly for safe winter quarters filchner decided the ship was caught in the floe and drifted slowly northward and eastward for 264 days until the floe broke up and set her free in 63° 40’ s., on nov. 27 1912. good meteorological work was done, especially by kites in the upper air, and the drift threw light on the currents of the weddell sea, and proved the non-existence of morrell land. shackleton 1t914-6.—sir ernest shackleton planned the im- perial trans-antarctic expedition in ro14, intending to cross the antarctic continent from the weddell sea to the ross sea by way of the south pole. on board the ‘* endurance ” he en- tered the ice-pack in the weddell sea early in dec. 1914 and worked his way in adverse climatic conditions southward be- tween 15° and 20° west. he discovered the caird coast between coats land and luitpold land on jan. 11 1915, but he found no landing place, so the fine teams of hudson bay dogs and several new types of motor sledges and tractors were useless. the ship, beset in the ice on jan. 18, was drifted northward parallel to the track of the ‘* deutschland ” but about 1to° farther west. she was crushcd in a terrific ice pressure and abandoned on oct. 27, in 69° 5’s., and the 28 men camped on the ice-floe, which continued to move northward until april 9 1916 when the iloe broke up in 62°s., 54° w. after a drift of 457 days. the party took to their three small boats and landed six days later after extraordinary hardships on elephant island where they camped on a narrow beach below vertical ice cliffs. shackleton with five men succeeded in reaching south georgia, 750 m. distant, in a 22-it. boat and after three unsuccessful attempts to return to elephant island through the ice-floes he succeeded with the chilean trawler ‘ yelcho ”’ in rescuing all his men on aug. 30 1916. shackleton’s ross sea party, 1914-7-—the ross sea party who were to meet shackleton after crossing the continent reached cape evans in the “ aurora” on jan. 16 1915 and captain mackintosh with five men carried out his task of laying a depot at the foot of the beardmore glacier in jan. 1916. meanwhile the “ aurora ”’ trying to winter frozen in the ice at cape evans was blown out to sea fast in a floein may 1915 and drifted north- ward for 315 days. though much damaged when the ice broke up near the balleny islands she got to new zealand, was repaired and in jan. 1917 returned to cape evans under the command of j. k. davis with shackleton on board. the vessel rescued the survivors of the ross sea party; threeof them had already per- ished, one on the march, from scurvy and two by taking undue riskson the sea-ice. shackleton’s last voyage, 1921-2.—sir ernest shackleton’s last expedition sailed on the “ quest,’ a small and defective vessel, in sept. 1921 to explore the enderby quadrant of the antarctic (o° to go° east). the leader died at south georgia on jan. 4 1922, but frank wild, second in command, carried on the voyage as far as the lateness of the season permitted. he reached 69° 17’ s. in 17° e., in spite of great difficulties, and got important soundings in a little-known area. whaling on a large scale is now carried on in antarctic waters from south georgia and australia, but no geographical dis- coveries have resulted. the royal research ship ‘‘ discovery ” was commissioned in 1925 by the colonial office with funds polish literature supplied by the falkland islands govt. to study the life history of whales with the view of regulating and perpetuating the indus- try in sub-antarctic waters (see whaling). scientific results —results of exploration since 1910 have been the attainment of the south pole, the discovery of the general configuration of the antarctic continent and the perfect- ing of methods of polar travel and residence. the geology, glaciology and biology of large areas have been studied in some detail. the most valuable work has been done in meteorology, the combined observations of all the expeditions having thrown much light not only on antarctic weather, but on the general circulation of the atmosphere which affects all countries. the full results of the australian expedition and of shackleton’s two jast expeditions had not been published up to 1926. it has been established that the blizzards of adelie land and macmurdo sound are outrushes of air chilled by the intense cold of the great plateau and pouring down the slopes by gravity. the even greater cold found at sea-level at the bay of whales is accom- panied by a remarkably still atmosphere. part of the funds raised for a memorial to scott has gone to endow the scott memorial institute for polar research in the university of cambridge where polar prabices may be studied, and exploration promoted. bintrograruy.—fr. nansen, the first a of greenland, trans. ii. m. gepp (1890), new ed. (1923); h{. johansen, w \"ith nansen tx the north (1899); v. stefansson, iy life with the eskinio (1913), new ed. (1924); fr. nansen, through siberia, the land of the future, trans. a. g. chater (1914); r. amundsen, nordost passagen (1921); sir c. r. markham, the lands of silence (1921); h. g. ponting, the great white south (1921); kx. rasmussen, greenland by the polar sea, trans. (1921); v. stefansson, the friendiy arctie (1921); a.c. garrard, the worst journey in the w ‘orld, ai ttarctic, 1910-1913 (1922); sir eh. shackleton, south, rev. ed. (1922 mill, ?he life of sir ernest shackleton (1923): r. f. scott, scott's last expedition (1923); j. r. wild, shackleton’s last voyage (1923) 5). \\v.. 52 slaty, into the ie. south (1924); hl. noice, with stefansson in the . arctic (1924); a. judd, the conquest of the poles and modern adzentures in the world of ice (1924); f. hurley, 4rgonauts of the south (1925); w. mittelholzer, by airplane towards the north pole, trans. e. and c. paul (1925); v. stefansson, the adventure of vw \"rangel island (new york, 1925; london, 1926). (h.r. mr.) polish literature (sce 21.923).— during the last decade of the last century there came to the fore a whole group of young exuberant talents. dissatisfied with the utilitarian character of art and poetry of the preceding period, they organised themselves into an independent body with the view of working out a new theory of art. this group, soon known as ‘ the young poland,”’ rejected all accepted and conventional views of art and literature as a national function, and demanded an absolute freedom in form and matter. true to their principles of unfettered individu- ality, practically everyone tried his best to find his own way of expression. al group of pocts—the first among these young poets to gain fame and renown was kazimierz tetmajer (b. 1865), whose love lyrics are comparable to the best work of french parnassists. the modern poetry of france and belgium found a gifted and congenial interpreter in the person of zenon przesmycki (b. 1861). the most forceful individuality of this group was stanislaw przybyszewski (b. 1868) who, having spent several ycars among the young scandinavian and german writers, came back to poland in 1898 and became at once the leader of the group and the editor of their organ, a weekly called zycie (life). his dramas, full of fatalistic terror, and his prose poems, dealing with the mystical and tragic side of love and death, became the fashion of the day. the art editor of the said weekly was stanislaw wyspianski (1869-1907), a painter of great originality, who became also the leading polish dramatist; in fact, an artist and a man of the theatre who contributed not a little to the development of the art of the theatre. his leading idea was to unite in the theatre the arts of painting, of architecture and of drama, in which poetry and music should have their due share. the study of the greek tragedy inspired him to works like meleager and pro- tesilas i laodamia. his next experiment was to‘apply the form of greek tragedy to the setting of a polish village in the two polish literature tragedics a/atwa (the curse) and sedsiowe (the judges). but gradually his attention turned to national subjects, and especially to the problem of national strength and weakness, which is the root of the three dramas based upon the history of the rebellion of 1831, wurszawianka (the song of warsaw), lelewel and noc listopudowa (the november night). the legion (1900)—a play of which the tragedy of mickiewicz as the leader of polish romanticism is the subject-matter—constitutes the link between the past and the present day. the present day problem was to wyspianski that of national existence, which he dealt with’in three powerful dramas—lwesele (the wedding) (1901), wyswole- nie (the deliverance) and akropolis (1904). jan kasprowicz (1860) is no doubt the greatest contemporary polish poet. with him, not unlike thomas elardy, the problem of evil and human suffering is the predominant subject. from the first small volume of poetry, published as far back as 1880, this problem, inseparable from, that of god and religion, finds expression growing more and more powerful in chrystus (christ) (1904), na wagdrsu smierci (on the hill of death) and finally in the cycle of hymns dedicated g?ngcemu swiatu (to the perish- ing world) (1899-1901). tere the poct reaches the simplicity and the heights of job or aeschylus. the echoes of the pro- methean struggle of man are heard in many of his works, until at length the poet attains the wisdom of a resigned sage, which speaks from every line of his last work called kstega ubogich (the book of the poor) (1916). the mood of spiritual calm is also the dominant tone of leopold staff (1878) who started his poetical carecr with s#y o potedze (dreams of might). a cruel death at the hands of russian bolsheviks brought to an untimely end the life of tadeusz micishki (1873-1919), a poet endowed with extraordinary imagination, and a visionary of a deeply religious nature. the work of zeromski.—brought up in the atmosphere of the most stupid russian oppression and persecution, stefan zerom- ski (1864-1925) at that time one of the leading polish novelists of his time, introduced the painful and profound pessimism of a modern mind tormented by the endless sight of wrong done by man to his fellowman, and of the apparent triumph of evil. this pessimism underlies the conception of his many novels depicting the utter futility of individual effort and self-sacrifice. the most typical among them are ludsie bezdomni (the homeless) (1900) and walka z ssatanem (the fight with satan), a trilogy pub- lished at intervals during the war. one of his outstanding artistic achievements is a great histor- ical novel dealing with the napoleonic period, popioty (the ashes) (1904). the stately classic prose of sienkiewicz is here displaced by a new literary language able to reproduce a new mood and full of rhythm. but the difference between sienkie- wicz and zeromski goes a step further. while the former was anxious to rouse the national fecling by his artistic calling to life of past glories, zeromski, as if by contrast, does not shrink from the analysis of the most painful social and national ills. ifis last novel przedwiosnie (before the springtime) comes as a timely warning against the dangers threatening the social fabric of poland. the ideal of independent poland was with him as sacred as with wyspianski. reymont.—in popularity second to none, and in his standing surpassed only by zeromski, is the fortunate winner of the nobel prize for literature (1924), wladyslaw stanislas reymont (1868-1925), whose artistic point of view, however, altogether differs from that of zeromski. he is mainly concerned with life as it is. his joy and delight is to be one of the mass, a particle in the eternal movement. his acute sense of observation and his strong, almost brutal directness in execution manifested itself in his short stories which deal with the life of peasantry. but his early ambition was to make a picture of life in a big industrial town. with this end in view he went to bedz, the main centre of polish textile industry, and having spent there a few months, he produced his famous novel called ziemia obiecana (the promised land) which brought him, on the part of the critics, the title of “ polish zola.’ it was the apparently simple and monotonous, yet tich, complex, and varied life on the land, the life of the peasant, 181 that became his main subject. having once set his mind and heart on this theme, reymont devoted to it five years of hard and incessant work until his great tetralogy called chiopa (1904~9) was finished, eng. tr., the peasants (1925). this is a great epic novel, an achievement unique of its kind in the annals of modern literature. although the psychology of the people re- mains faithfully polish, the work attains a universal importance by its fullness and completeness of treatment. | reymont’s te peasants was to a certain degree the crowning achievement of the movement which aimed at an artistic in- troduction of the popular element into art and literature. as far as literature was concerned, this aim was partially and locally realised in some of the plays of wyspianski, and even more effectively in a series of short stories of tetmajer published under the title of na skalnem podhalu (on the polish rockies), in which the author succeeded in re-creating the vanishing prim- itive life of the natives of the polish highlands. these stories led him finally to a long novel called legenda tatr (the tatra saga). the interest in the life and manners of polish highlanders soon became fashionable, and a whole group of poets and prose writers followed his example. among them the strongest in- dividuality is that of wtadystaw orkan who, like tetmajer, was born and brought up in these parts of poland. other writers —the most talented representative of exoticism in polish literature is wactaw sieroszewski (1858), whose works deal mostly with life in northern siberia and the far east, which he got to know when banished thither by the russian authorities for a political offence. his prolonged stay among the native tribes of northern and eastern siberia resulted in a series of most fascinating and interestirg short stories, in which the hard lot of primitive life of these siberian tribes is presented objec- tively, yet not without humanity and understanding. his novels on life in japan and china possess the same humanitarian qualities. an artist of rare subtlety and perfect artistic skill is wactaw berent (1873). among his few novels the most important are: prechno (rot ) and ozimina (winter-sowing), containing a most subtle analysis of life at the end of the 19th century: his later work, zywe kamienie (living stones) (1918), an amazingly rich and interesting picture of mediaeval life, revealed a new and unex- pected aspect of his talent. among the novelists who chose to follow the path made safe by the genius of sienkiewicz’s con- temporary novels the most talented is jozef weyssenhof (1860), while of the novelists who belong to the school of zeromski the most conspicuous are gustaw danitowski, andrzej strug and madame rygicr-natkowska. the clement of satirical humour is represented in the works of kornel makuszynski, jan lemanski, adolf nowaczynaki and wiodrimicrz perzynski. the influence of the world war.—these are the most important writers of the older generation. with the normal conditions of spiritual and intellectual development restored, polish literature must resign a good deal of its former position as one of the guiding forces in national life. at the close of this period a great new movement, although necessarily of a somewhat chaotic and transitional character was making itself felt. the most distinct and definite advance is to be found in poetry. we may trace its origin to the war. already during the world war which for the polish youth was the war of emancipation and freedom, there came into being two notable groups of young poets, one in poznan, the capital city of the western provinces of poland, an- other in warsaw. the latter soon surpassed the former and from 1920 onward became the centre of the new poetic move- ment which was at first charactcrised by a boldly aggressive and joyous view of life. among these young poets the most promising. are juljan tuwim, kazimierz wierzynfski, jan lechon, antoni stonimski and jarostaw iwaszkiewicz. there are others who, like emil zegadlowiz, look for their inspiration to the quietness and retirement of a country life, seeking rather solitude and loncliness than the distracting crowd. war experiences found expression in some notable works of such writers as madame kossak-szczuka, eugenjusz konoin- malaszewski: madame dunin-kozicka and above all juljusz 182 kaden-bandrowski. the scattering of the polish exiles over the vast territories of european and asiatic russia called into being at least one writer of unsurpassed energy and imagination in the person of ferdinand goetel. an enormous popularity in poland, as well as abroad, was won by a writer of amazing experiences, ferdinand ossendowski; his books were quite a revelation to the minds of american and western european readers. the immediate post-war polish problems, reflecting the social and political changes brought about by the collapse of the pre-war systems prevailing in germany and russia attracted soon a great deal of attention on the part of several writers of the older generation, notably of zygmunt bartkiewicz and adam grzymala-siedlecki. the historical novel which played such an important part in the literature of the last century appeared to be on the decline; the call of the present with its new problems was too urgent to leave much time for brooding over the past. see roman dyboski, periods of polish literary history (1923) and modern polish literaiure (1924). (lp) political economy: sce economics. polivka, jiri (1858- ), czech philologist, studied at the universities of prague and zagreb. in 1885 he became a lecturer, and in 1895 was appointed professor of slavonic philology in the charles university at prague. he travelled on several occasions in russia and in yugoslav countries for the purposes of research. his writings, which are contained mainly in czech and foreign philological and slavistic periodicals, deal with many questions relating to grammar, literary history and folklore. his chief works are “ palaeographische, grammatische und _kritische eigenthiimlichkeiten in dem makedonischen praxapostolus,”’ archiv, fiir slav. phil. x., pp. 106-132 and 417-483 (1887); ““ novejsi hypothese o puvodu pisem slovansk¥ch,” listy jilo- logicke xii., pp. 92-120 (1885) and drobne prispeiky literdrne- historicke (prague, 1891). prof. polivka made a special study of popular literature and analysed several collections of popular legends, especially those of the slavonic races. his chief work of this character is “‘o srovnavacim studiu tradio lidovych,” nedrodopisny sbornik ceskoslov ii. pp. 1-49 (1898). for a list of his works see j. horak, sbornik praci venovangch prof. dr. j. polivkovi (prague, 1918).",
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