FRANZ JOSEF LAND AND SPITZBERGEN
The Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition--Object of the Expedition--An
Interesting Experiment--The Franz Josef Land Question settled--A
Group of Islands, not a Continent--Conway at Spitzbergen--Ancient
History--Bygone Splendours--Scenery in the Making--The Romance of
Andree--Another Riddle.
The interest and admiration aroused by the brilliant achievements of the
Nansen expedition eclipsed in the public mind, for the time being, the
work of other and contemporary expeditions, the members of which,
nevertheless, were doing admirable service to the cause of science in
and about the Arctic Circle. Prominent among these may be mentioned the
Jackson-Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land (whose presence there
was of such signal service to Nansen and Johansen when, as is related in
the preceding chapter, they emerged from their historic dash for the
Pole), the Conway exploration of Spitzbergen, and the aeronautical
attempt to reach the Pole made by Herr Andree.
The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition left London on July 11, 1894, in the
steam yacht _Windward_, Captain Browne, for Franz Josef Land, and
comprised the leader, Mr. Frederick G. Jackson; Lieutenant Armitage,
R.N.R., astronomer; Dr. Kottlitz, medical officer; Mr. W. S. Bruce,
zoologist; and Messrs. Wilton and Heywood. A complete outfit, with
stores and provisions for three years was taken. It is an interesting
fact that this undertaking was the first instance of an individual
London newspaper proprietor displaying the generous enterprise which
owners of great American journals had already shown. Lord Northcliffe
(then Mr. Alfred Harmsworth) contributed to the expedition the most
necessary factor for a prolonged stay in the Arctic regions, the sinews
of war.
On arrival at Franz Josef Land, a site for the camp was selected near
Cape Flora, and the camp, to which the name Elmwood was given, was laid
out. It consisted of a Russian log-house and several canvas houses, as
the first intention was to lodge the members in the canvas structures.
But very little experience showed that canvas was not the most
comfortable material for residential purposes in Arctic regions, so the
whole party moved into the log-house, using the canvas structures for
warehousing stores. Here they lived during the three years that the
expedition was away, and so well off were they that during the whole
period not one member had a day's illness. As the leader said on his
return to England in 1897, "a jollier, healthier, and busier little
community never existed." They were always busy, and every moment of the
day was occupied. Even in the dark winter period they found constant
employment for their hands and minds.
In the high latitude where they were the sun set for the last time about
the middle of October, and was not again visible until the latter end of
February. From the day the sun went below the horizon until the middle
of November there was about a couple of hours faint twilight at "noon,"
but, after that, midday and midnight were not to be distinguished by any
change in the light of the sky. It was always dark.
During this period, when the members were in winter quarters, they kept
very regular hours. At 8.30 A.M. they had breakfast, and when the meal
was over each one took up some part of the household duties--washing the
dishes, making the beds, sweeping the rooms, feeding the dogs, and such
like. Unless the weather was very stormy, a couple of hours was spent in
exercise over the snow on _ski_, or if the weather was too inclement to
allow them to go far away, they spent the two hours in exercising round
the house. At 2 P.M. they gathered again round the dining-table and
partook of tea, bread and butter, and cheese, spending the afternoon in
making tents and harness for the sledge dogs, or anything else that was
wanted. At 7.30 P.M. they had dinner, passing the remainder of the
evening in reading, smoking, games, &c., until 11.30 P.M., when they
retired to their bunks.
Of food they always had plenty, living very largely on the game killed.
During the last winter they were at Elmwood a chief article of diet was
an Arctic bird, the loon. Great numbers of these visited the islands in
the mild seasons, and in the autumn before the expedition returned 1400
were shot and frozen for winter food. As the loons only arrive during
the mild season and disappear as soon as winter sets in, Mr. Jackson, in
the last autumn he was at Elmwood, caught a number both of loons and
kittiwakes, and having attached a copper label to each, with the letter
J. engraved upon it, liberated the lot. By this means it is hoped to
learn where the birds go to in the winter, for should any bird bearing a
copper label be shot in Scotland, Norway, or elsewhere, it will show
where their refuge is situated.
The primary object of the expedition was to make a complete exploration
of Franz Josef Land, which was formerly considered to be merely the
southern extremity of a vast tract of land, possibly a second Greenland,
and extending up towards the Pole. The result of the three years' work
was to effectually disprove this opinion by showing that in place of a
continent there was only a group of small scattered islands. Various
voyagers had returned from time to time and reported observations of
land in the locality, with high mountain ranges. Gillies Land, Petermann
Land, and King Oscar Land all had existence on the maps; but the
Jackson-Harmsworth party could only find scattered islands where the
coast of Franz Josef Land was charted, and hummocks of piled-up ice
where mountain ridges had been seen. Of Gillies Land, Petermann Land,
and King Oscar Land no trace could be found. When the expedition went on
board the _Windward_ to return to England, the vessel steamed north-west
for fifty miles without seeing any indication of land, the water being
open and with less ice than would have been probable had land been near.
And yet they were in the locality where Gillies Land was marked on the
chart. A journey was also made to within ten miles of the spot where
Eastern Johannessen Land was placed on the chart, but no signs of land
were visible, although the weather was clear at the time.
During the three years spent at Elmwood, exploring and surveying
journeys were frequent in the mild seasons, and the arduous nature of
the work done is well shown in the account of the last two journeys
undertaken prior to returning to England. On March 16, 1897, a party
consisting of Jackson and Armitage, with sledges, thirteen dogs, a pony,
and a canoe, set out from the log-house with the intention of going
round the western side of Franz Josef Land in order to define its
limits. From the start they had to face stormy weather, while the snow
was both deep and soft, and the ice rough and treacherous. After a
fortnight's travelling, during which they came upon a hitherto
undiscovered headland and fjord, they rounded the north-eastern
extremity of the western land. Continuing their journey westward, they
had to battle against the severity of the weather, the temperature going
as low as 40 deg. below zero, and proving disastrous to the animals. By
April 7 nearly all the dogs were dead, and progress was very slow and
difficult. Three days later the nature of the ice along the shores
compelled them to turn inland, and they had to make the best of their
way over glaciated land 1500 feet high. Out to sea there was open water,
and as they progressed they found that the water was free from ice right
up to the glacier face. Then the pony died, and with only their
diminished team of dogs to haul, they were obliged to abandon everything
that was not absolutely necessary to maintain them during the remainder
of their journey. The weather grew worse and worse, and for days they
were surrounded by thick heavy mists, with strong gales and drifting
snow. They tried to find a way along the shore, leaving the high glacier
summit, but what ice there was on the coast was breaking up so rapidly
that they were compelled once more to climb to the high level,
abandoning the canoe, as there was no chance of their being able to use
it.
While regaining the higher level, they came upon the only bear met with
during the whole journey, and they were careful not to allow him to
escape, his flesh and fat being welcome additions to their stock of
food and fuel. The gales now became more severe, until they found it
impossible to travel when one was blowing. Consequently they had to
press forward as fast and as far as they could in between the blows, and
on one occasion were marching for twenty-four hours at a stretch. The
ice was also terribly trying, and so rough was it in places that they
frequently had to go three times over the same track before they could
find a way over or round some awkward obstacle. At one time they were
pushing across the ice of a bay, when they were suddenly stopped by the
ice opening on to free water, and, after retracing their steps, they had
to climb and haul their stores up the steep sides of the glacier to the
summit, forty-five feet above the sea-level.
When they set out, it was arranged that a relief party should meet them
at Bell Island the third week in April, but so many delays had been
caused that they were not able to reach the rendezvous until a fortnight
after the time fixed. The relief party had been waiting for them,
considerably anxious at their non-appearance. In the two months they had
been travelling, they had had only thirteen and a half fine days.
After returning to Elmwood and resting for ten days, the two again set
out to the eastward. They were travelling over the ice, on the second
day out, when it gave way under the sledge. They lost all their stores
and equipment, and saturated their cartridges. They had at once to turn
back, but the ice was growing so thin that they had great difficulty in
reaching the shore. For nearly twenty-six hours they had to keep
marching before they covered the forty-two miles which lay between the
scene of their disaster and Elmwood. This was the last journey
undertaken prior to their departure in the _Windward_ for England a
month or so later.
The account of the achievements of this expedition would be incomplete
were no mention made of two open-water discoveries. One was that of the
British Channel, an open-water tract extending from the islands into an
open sea, which formed the second discovery, and was named Queen
Victoria Sea in honour of the then reigning sovereign. This sea was
observed to be free from ice all the time the expedition was on the
islands, and the information thus obtained was of considerable service
to the Italian explorers who, a few years later, made an ineffectual
dash to reach the Pole over the ice-fields.
Further valuable information was obtained by geological observations of
the islands. These demonstrated that the islands were an archipelago,
formed from the remains of a fairly extensive tableland, the surface of
which was composed of basalt so similar in character as to be almost
identical with the basalts of the north of Scotland. To the scientific
mind this suggests that at one time these far-outlying islands were
connected with lands from which they are now separated by enormous
stretches of sea, and were subject, in that distant period, to the same
volcanic outbursts and covered by the same basaltic flows that resulted.
It must have been a period of enormous volcanic activity, for the beds
of basalt overlying the fossil-bearing strata averaged six hundred feet
in thickness, while evidence of successive flows is found in the
existence of sedimentary fossil-bearing rocks sandwiched between layers
of basalt.
Raised beaches were frequently noticed. In one case, on a beach fifty
feet above the present sea-level, a pine tree, evidently of considerable
age and about twenty feet in length, was found where it had obviously
been thrown up by the tide in the bygone years when the beach formed the
shore of the sea. Under this beach there was a bed of sandstone showing
fossils of plant remains, while above it towered basalt cliffs five
hundred feet high. Lignite and bituminous shale were met with in the
sandstone under the basalt, and, in muddy stretches of country, horns
and other remains of reindeer were found, though there are no living
representatives of these animals now on the islands. Among the fossils
brought away was one of a plant long since extinct in all parts of the
world save Japan, where the tree is still a flourishing variety.
While Franz Josef Land was being explored and mapped, a private
expedition formed by Sir Martin Conway visited Spitzbergen. It was this
island which Sir John Franklin advocated should be the base of
operations for an expedition to the Pole. The reason for this opinion
was the belief that Spitzbergen was merely the most southerly point of a
chain of islands, if not of an island continent, stretching away to the
north. A similar idea, held in regard to Franz Josef Land, was dispelled
by the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition; the information which was made
available on the return of the Conway party also dispelled the Franklin
view.
Curiously enough the objective of the expedition is one of the most
anciently discovered lands in the Arctic regions, and one that has a
history full of incident; yet the interior was unknown to man from the
time of its discovery in the sixteenth century to the time when Sir
Martin Conway and his companions pushed their way in from the coast.
Owing to the tail-end of the Gulf Stream reaching as far as its shores,
the seas round Spitzbergen are freer from ice than any other seas in
equally high latitudes. Situated in from 80 deg. to 82 deg. N., the group of
islands, to which the single name is given, was first discovered by two
Dutch navigators, Barendszoon and Heemskirk, who, in the year 1596, were
trying to find a way of reaching China through the Arctic Sea. Eleven
years later, Hudson sailed among the islands while trying for a northern
route to the Indies. Failing in his attempt to get round by the north,
he returned to Spitzbergen and saw how the waters were literally teeming
with whales, walrus, seals, and other oil-giving animals. A flourishing
fishery was started, and for years proved a bone of contention among the
various maritime nations. No one country caring to annex the islands,
they were practically a no-man's land, where each little colony of
fishers were as a law unto themselves, though not necessarily to any one
else. Consequently fights were frequent and much ill-will engendered,
until the Dutch and the British Governments stepped in and came to a
mutual understanding on the matter. About this time the fishery trade
was so important that one colony numbered over 20,000 inhabitants during
the season; but it was not a settled population, and a few years after
the understanding had been arrived at, the colony was deserted owing to
the ruthless slaughter of all marine animals having practically
exterminated them in the vicinity. From that time the islands have been
neglected, save for the occasional visits of a few trappers, until Sir
Martin Conway and his companions penetrated to the interior, and came
back with so many delightful experiences that an enterprising company
was formed to make this snow-laden district a place for summer resort.
[Illustration: THE FRONT EDGE OF KING'S GLACIER, WESTERN SPITZBERGEN.
The thickness of the ice showing above the sea-level is about 100 feet.
_Photo by E. J. Garwood._]
From a geological point of view the main island is full of interest,
for the interior, which is characterised by mountain chains and rugged
peaks, is covered with ice, and is sending down glaciers to the coast,
where they come under the influence of the warmth generated by the Gulf
Stream and rapidly melt. The result is that the constant rush of
torrents from the melting glaciers and snowfields is carving out valleys
and river-ways, and stripping away mountain sides to make coastal plains
so rapidly as to form an admirable object-lesson of physical geography
in the making.
During the season Sir Martin Conway and his companions spent on the
island they set a record for energy and achievement. They spent
thirty-six days in the interior, sleeping either in small tents or in
the open, the one being little different to the other, for the tents
never kept the rain out and rarely the snow. Then they voyaged in a
twelve-ton steamer up and down the coast for a distance of something
like a thousand miles, though the steamer cabin was so small a place
that when all the five members of the party were down below together,
only one of them could stand up at a time. By the date their trip had
ended they had crossed the island four times, had made thirteen mountain
ascents, had made a rough survey of six hundred square miles of country,
had steamed a thousand miles among heavy ice along coasts, through
straits, and up bays, for the most part never before visited, and had
located innumerable streams, hills, and glaciers.
More romantic and mysterious, but less replete with scientific value,
ranks the expedition of Herr Andree, perhaps the most novel of all
Arctic expeditions, inasmuch as it was undertaken by balloon. The idea
which actuated Herr Andree in his enterprise was to utilise the current
of air which, in July, almost invariably blows over Dane's Island to the
North. Being an experienced balloonist, he realised that, could he once
rise into that current in a balloon, he would be carried right across
the Polar region in a few days. From the balloon car he would be able to
observe the character of the region below him, and set at rest the
question whether perpetual ice, open water, or land, occupied the
extreme northerly spot of the world's surface.
With two companions, Dr. Strindberg and Herr Fraenkel, and a specially
prepared balloon, an attempt was made to get away in July 1896, but was
unsuccessful, and the start was postponed for a year. In July 1897 the
members of the expedition were again ready, and on July 11 they were cut
loose and floated away out of sight to the North. Since then no
authentic news has been heard of them.
They went away prepared to face a long detention in the frozen world. In
the car of the balloon they carried weapons, ammunition, and material
wherewith to build a shelter, should the balloon collapse and leave
them on the ice. An aluminium boat was also carried, so that the party
could escape by sea if necessary. Several carrier pigeons were taken,
and were to be liberated at intervals on the passage; but although one
pigeon is said to have been shot in the Far North, it is doubtful
whether it was one of the Andree birds.
The balloon, when it went out of sight, was travelling at a speed which
would have carried it over the Pole in a few days, and probably have
enabled it to descend in Siberia in about a week. For the first
fortnight after it had started, therefore, interest all over the world
was keenly excited for further news. But the fortnight passed without
any reliable intelligence being received, and a month followed, and so
on until a year had gone by. Then relief and search parties were talked
about, and the Swedish Geographical Society sent one out to look for the
missing balloonists in Siberia. It did not meet with Andree, nor did it
obtain any reliable information respecting him. News was certainly
published in every civilised country to the effect that some outlying
hunting tribes had come upon a huge bag, having a mass of cordage
attached to it, together with the remains of some human bodies. The
Russian, Swedish, and Norwegian Governments immediately sent forward
auxiliary search parties, but their only success was to trace the origin
of the report, and find that a Siberian trader had, in a moment of
mischievous humour, hoaxed a too confiding telegraph agent.
Later, on September 12th, 1899, a Swedish sloop, the _Martha_, reached
Hammerfest with the information that a buoy, branded with the name of
the Andree expedition, had been found to the north-east of King Charles
Islands. The buoy had lost the screw plug from the top, and had been so
damaged by coming in contact with some hard substance that the interior
cylinder was too dented to permit of an examination being made of the
inside.
Andree was well supplied with these buoys, and at any time one may be
discovered containing a record of his doings from the moment he
disappeared with his balloon sailing towards the north. It is not
likely; it is scarcely probable that any sign will ever be discovered of
the balloon or its occupants. For years the frozen North held all traces
of the Franklin expedition from the eyes of the searchers who were able
to conduct their operations along the route they knew Franklin had
followed. No search party can knowingly follow the route Andree and his
comrades took. Their fate will probably be for ever a mystery, for so
many things might have happened that no one theory can claim for itself
more probability than another. All that is certain is that the party
went out of sight drifting towards the north. They carried their lives
in their hands, and knew that they did so. Had they succeeded, they
would have achieved a mighty triumph; they failed, and in doing so set
their names as indelibly on the scroll of Fame as any hero who has laid
down his life in the contest with the measureless mystery of the Pole.