been visited in 1878. The stream was in flood owing to melting
snows, and the water-side track was difficult. Four days' march
below Gyala they reached Pemakochung, the limit of Kinthup's
exploration. So far they had passed various small rapids, but
nothing in the nature of a fall. A mile below Pemakochung they came
on Kinthup's cascade. It proved to be only some 30 feet high and not
vertical.
The road now became extraordinarily intricate. Great spurs ran down
to the river and blocked the glen, and it was necessary to cut paths
through dense forest and thickets of rhododendron to surmount them.
There was no track of any kind, and the tributaries descending from
the adjacent glaciers were often hard to cross. They ran short of
food, and could get no reliable information as to the possibility of
their descending the stream. Captain Morshead and the coolies
accordingly returned to Gyala, and Captain Bailey, with one man and
fifteen pounds of flour, attempted to descend the Tsangpo by the
route which a party of Monbas was said to have recently taken. He
found the Monbas, but they were wild and suspicious and far from
helpful. They refused to take him to their village, and declined to
show him the road round the difficult cliffs. Apparently they
considered that a traveller who had only one servant, and who carried
most of his baggage himself, must be a person of small importance and
not worth troubling about. He managed, however, to pick up from them
certain news about the lower valley.
He returned to Gyala and rejoined Captain Morshead, and they
proceeded to piece their knowledge together. At Gyala a small stream
drops from the cliffs, making a waterfall, in which the god Shingche
Chogye is concealed. The image of the deity is carved or painted in
the rock behind the fall, but it is only possible to see it in winter
when there is little water. This, apparently, was Kinthup's fall of
150 feet. Now, why should so meagre a natural feature have attained
such celebrity among the Tibetans, for the fame of it had spread far
and wide over the country? The reason seems to be that it is unique,
because there are no other high falls. Had this deduction been made
from Kinthup's evidence, the mystery of the Brahmaputra gorges would
have been solved long ago.
The travellers collected their observations on the altitude of the
river level and the speed of the current. At Pe, where they had
first struck the Tsangpo, the height was 9,680 feet; thirty-four
miles below it the river level was 8,730 feet, giving a drop of 28
feet a mile. At Pemakochung the altitude was 8,380 feet, and the
drop 24 feet a mile. Three miles farther down the altitude was
8,090, giving a drop of 97 feet a mile, which included the 30-feet
drop of Kinthup's fall. At the lowest point Captain Bailey reached
in the river bed the altitude was 7,480 feet, giving a drop of 48
feet a mile. The next point on the river which they had visited was
Lagung, below the gorges, where they could not take an observation in
the river bed; but forty-five miles downstream the altitude was 2,610
feet.
There remained, therefore, some fifty miles of gorge which had not
been, and could not be, explored, and the information about it was
only indirect. From Lagung upstream to where the Po-Tsangpo joined
the Tsangpo, lay a stretch which many natives had visited. The
altitude of the junction was estimated at 5,700 feet, which would
give a drop of 3,090 feet in the seventy-five miles down to their
observation of 2,610 feet--a fall of some 41 feet per mile. Here
there was clearly no waterfall. From the junction of the two streams
to the point where Captain Bailey turned back was not more than
twenty miles, and the drop 1,780 feet, giving a fall of 89 feet a
mile. The Monbas whom he met told him that they had hunted on the
right bank of the stream throughout this unknown stretch, and that,
though there were many rapids, there were no big cascades.
We are not concerned with the rest of the journey of Captain Bailey
and Captain Morshead, which took them upstream to Tsetang, where Nain
Singh had gone in 1874, and back to India by the wild country of the
Bhutan border. Their evidence may be considered to have finally
solved the riddle of how the great river breaks through the highest
range on the globe. It does it by means of a hundred miles of
marvellous gorges, where the stream foams in rapids, but there is no
fall more considerable than can be found in many a Scottish salmon
river. I am not sure that the reality is not more impressive than
the romantic expectation. The mighty current is not tossed in spray
over a great cliff, but during the æons it has bitten a deep trough
through that formidable rock wall. Curiously enough, the rivers
which break through the Himalaya chose the highest parts of the range
through which to cut. South of Pemakochung is the great peak of
Namcha Barwa, 25,445 feet high; north of it is the peak of Gyala
Peri, 23,460 feet. The distance between these mountains is only some
fourteen miles, and through this gap, at an altitude of just under
9,000 feet, flows the great river.
III
THE NORTH POLE
THE NORTH POLE
(_Map_, p. 80.)
I
When sceptical people say that Polar exploration has been of no
benefit to mankind, it is permissible to think that their judgment is
as unsound as their point of view is limited. Not only have Polar
explorers added enormously to the scientific knowledge of the world,
but they have also materially aided commerce. But even if these
voyages had been barren of scientific and commercial results, they
would have been infinitely worth making.
For among Polar explorers are many men who must be universally
regarded as heroes. No training was more rigorous and dangerous, no
work has ever called for more endurance, resource, and courage. A
nation which is without its heroes is in a sad plight; a nation which
has them and ignores their example can only be looked upon with pity.
The spirit of high adventure is one that no country can afford to
neglect.
The history of geographical discovery is, in its initial stages,
almost solely one of conquest. Men, either for their own or their
country's profit--and sometimes for both--went out in search of
unknown lands because they wanted to trade with them. Pytheas, who
has been described as "one of the most intrepid explorers the world
has ever seen," was the first man to bring news of the Arctic regions
to the civilized world. He did not pretend to have visited them, but
in or about 330 B.C. he set out from Marseilles and journeyed north.
During this voyage, which must have lasted for several years, he
visited Britain, and then, proceeding to the most northerly point of
the British Isles, he heard of an Arctic land called Thule, which at
one time of the year enjoyed perpetual day, and at another had to
endure perpetual night.
With a leap over a few hundred years we come to Ptolemy, whose
influence on geography was almost paramount from the second century
to comparatively modern times. No one is more dangerous than a bad
cartographer, or more valuable than a good one; but although Ptolemy
made many mistakes, he also did such splendid work that it is quite
easy to forget them. To him we owe the names of latitude and
longitude, and it has been well said of him that he held the
extraordinary "distinction of being the greatest authority on
astronomy and geography for over fifteen hundred years." Ptolemy's
work may have required to be corrected and amplified, but, at least,
he gave the world something which was worthy of correction.
In the eighth and ninth centuries the Norsemen became terrors in
Europe. "Harold of the fair hair" reigned from 860 to 930 A.D., and
these seventy years formed a period of great adventure. During
Harold's reign the Norsemen colonized Iceland, and in 983 Erik the
Red founded a colony in Greenland, which flourished until the
Norwegians ceased to take an interest in it.
Not until the fifteenth century did English seamen begin to turn
their attention to the North. They were more or less forced to do
so. Portugal and Spain were all-powerful in the East and West, and
so England began earnestly to think of discovering a way to Cathay
and the Spice Islands by a northern route. But if we were a little
slow in beginning to pay attention to the Arctic regions, we have
every cause to be satisfied with our work after we had once begun it.
The fifteenth century saw considerable activity as regards
Scandinavia, but it was not until 1505 that a charter was granted to
the Company of Merchant Adventurers, and from that year we can date
our real interest in Arctic discovery.
It is well, perhaps, to bear in mind, while thinking of Polar
exploration, that there is a marked difference between the two Polar
regions. The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continental lands; the
Antarctic is a continental land surrounded by oceans.
In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby set out to try and find a north-east
passage to the Indies. On this voyage--in which Willoughby lost his
life--Novaya Zemlya was discovered, and Richard Chancellor, who took
part in the expedition, reached Archangel; and then, travelling
overland to Moscow, was received graciously by Ivan the Terrible, the
Tsar of Russia. This visit was of importance, because it helped to
establish trade between England and Russia.
Competition to find a route northwards to China and the Indies had by
this time become acute in Europe, and many bold navigators set out
from England. Among the sailors who were maintaining her high record
on the seas Sir Martin Frobisher deserves especially to be mentioned.
In 1576 he set out, cheered doubtless by knowing that Queen Elizabeth
had "good liking of their doings," to find a north-west passage. On
three occasions Frobisher voyaged northwards, and he reached
Greenland and discovered the strait that was named after him. "He is
not worthy," Sir Humphrey Gilbert wrote in the latter part of the
sixteenth century, "to live at all who, for fear of danger or death,
shunneth his country's service or his own honour, since death is
inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal." Most assuredly our
Elizabethan sailors did not shun their "country's service," and
Elizabeth herself was the first to appreciate and encourage their
enterprise.
In 1585 yet another distinguished explorer, John Davis, embarked upon
his career, and during his voyages he made discoveries that
"converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined
area." He found several passages towards the west, and thus
strengthened the hope of finding a north-west passage; and he also
reached "the farthest north," 72° 12' N., some eleven hundred miles
from the geographical North Pole.
As yet no one had turned his thoughts to the North Pole itself, but
it may truly be said that Davis and men of his calibre were already
beginning to prepare the way for the time when it would be reached.
For his discoveries, like those of many of the earlier explorers,
were both important in themselves and also acted as a guide and
incentive to those who followed. In the meantime, Davis had obtained
the record for the "farthest north," a record which Great Britain,
with the exception of a very few years, continued to hold until 1882.
Many English navigators did great work in maintaining this record,
and among them was Henry Hudson, who set out in 1607 with the object
of finding a north-west passage to the Indies. Hudson, in this
voyage, reached 80° N., and did most valuable work in the Spitzbergen
quadrant. It is also reported that two of his men saw a mermaid,
which may at least be taken as evidence that they were more than
ordinarily observant. Both geographically and commercially, Hudson's
voyages were of the first importance. He not only made many
discoveries, including that of the river which bears his name, but he
also brought back the news that led directly to the establishment of
the Spitzbergen whale fishery, an industry that was extremely
lucrative to Holland.
In 1615 William Baffin discovered the land that is called after him;
and then, for some time, English discovery in the Arctic regions
ceased to be noteworthy. Baffin made no less than five voyages to
the North, and, scientifically, his observations were permanently
valuable to subsequent explorers.
Apart from geographical discovery, these Arctic voyages had so far
been a great stimulant to trade. In Greenland, Davis Strait, and the
Spitzbergen seas, trade had followed discovery, and what had happened
in those parts of the Arctic also took place in Hudson Bay, after the
Hudson's Bay Company was formed in 1668. In fact, for the time
being, the desire to make geographical discoveries was almost
obliterated by the desire to trade.
It is, however, pleasant to note that during the eighteenth century
some of our Governments took an intelligent interest in geographical
discovery. They offered a reward of £5,000 for reaching 89° N., and
£20,000 was offered to any one who could find the North-West Passage.
In the earlier part of the eighteenth century the part that the
Russians took in Arctic discovery must not be omitted. In 1728 Peter
the Great sent out an expedition under the command of Vitus Bering, a
Dane, in which Bering Strait and other discoveries were made; and
although it is impossible to mention them in detail, the
contributions that the Russians made in revealing the New World to
the Old were most creditable to them as a nation.
In 1773 Captain Phipps conducted an expedition, which now derives its
chief interest from the fact that Horatio Nelson, then a young
midshipman, took part in it. "Great," says Sir Clements Markham, "as
are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic discovery, and
still greater as are its scientific results, the most important of
all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school for our
future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for
distinction to young naval officers in time of peace." And it is
incontestably true that many of our finest sailors have learnt their
trade in the severe school of geographical exploration.
With the advent of the nineteenth century many expeditions were sent
to the Far North. The desire actually to reach the North Pole itself
did not enter the thoughts of these courageous navigators, the main
object of their voyages being either to find the North-West Passage
round North America to the Indies, or the North-East Passage round
Asia. Nevertheless, each one of these voyages added to the store of
knowledge that was being accumulated, each expedition solved some of
the mysteries of the North and prepared the way for the solution of
what came to be considered the greatest mystery of all.
In 1819 Sir Edward Parry embarked upon the first of the Arctic
voyages which have made his name famous in the annals of exploration.
A sailor by profession, Parry was happy in possessing the qualities
that fitted him to lead men. During his first expedition, the prize
offered by the English Government to the first navigator who passed
the 110th meridian was won. Parry and his party spent a winter in
the Arctic--a winter which, thanks to their leader's careful
preparations, was passed without mishap; and then, when the winter
was over, an expedition to explore the interior of Melville Island
was made. Thus Arctic travelling was inaugurated by Parry.
Other successful voyages under the same leadership followed, and
when, in 1827, our Admiralty began favourably to consider the idea of
getting as near as possible to the Pole by way of Spitzbergen, Parry
was naturally chosen to command the expedition. So, for the fourth
time, Parry sailed northwards, and having reached the north coast of
Spitzbergen, he found a good harbour for his ship, the _Hecla_, and
left her there. The explorers had taken specially-fitted boats with
them, and these they hoped to be able to haul over the ice. The
summer, however, had begun to break up the floes, and in consequence
the travellers had constantly to take the steel runners off the boats
so that the stretches of open water could be crossed. Moreover, the
floes that they did find seemed to resent such treatment, for most of
them were small and bestrewn with most obstructive hummocks. Not
until they had been pulling and hauling for nearly a month did they
meet with large floes, and by that time the southerly drift of the
ice was in full swing. However hard Parry and his men pulled, they
found that the drift was as strong as they were--or stronger. After
terrific labour Parry reached 82° 45', a higher latitude than any
reached during the next fifty years. It was a great attempt by a man
whose devotion to his duty is beyond all praise.
Before we come to the most tragic story in the history of Arctic
exploration, reference must be made to the discoveries of Captain
John Ross. In his first expedition to the North, Captain Ross was
not successful; but in his second voyage, when he was accompanied by
his nephew, James C. Ross (who afterwards gained distinction in the
Antarctic), the magnetic North Pole was discovered, and the British
flag fixed there in 70° 5' 17" N., and 76° 16' 4" W. Ross's
expedition spent four consecutive winters in the Far North,
discovered over two hundred miles of coastline, and returned with a
bountiful crop of scientific knowledge.
We may well admire the love of adventure and the desire to make
geographical and scientific discoveries which induced these constant
expeditions to parts of the world that cannot possibly be called
inviting. Honour was, and is, due to the men who undertook them, but
to John Franklin's memory especial honour is paid, for his name is
connected with both heroism and tragedy.
As a boy, Franklin, in spite of his father's opposition, determined
to be a sailor. At the age of fourteen he was in the _Polyphemus_ at
the battle of Copenhagen, and subsequently he was present at the
battle of Trafalgar. Peace, then as always, brought unemployment for
sailors with it, and at the age of twenty-nine Franklin found himself
unwanted in the Navy. When, however, the Admiralty decided, in 1818,
to send expeditions to find the North Pole and the North-West
Passage, Franklin was chosen to command the _Trent_. This ship was
totally unsuited for such a task, and owing to official economy--not
to say parsimony--Franklin had to return without achieving any
success.
In the following year he was again sent out with orders to explore
the northern coast of Arctic America, and "the trending of that coast
from the mouth of the Coppermine eastwards." Not until 1822 did this
expedition of discovery come to a close, after 5,550 miles had been
covered by water and land.
The tale of its adventures, extraordinary as they were, is only the
preface to Franklin's life as an explorer. So famous indeed was he,
that when, in 1844, he returned from Tasmania, where he had been
Governor for seven years, he was offered the command of an important
Arctic expedition. At this time he was nearly sixty years old, but
he was anxious to resume his exploratory work, and in 1845 he sailed
with the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_ (ships that had already won their
laurels under Sir James Ross in the Antarctic).
In the hope of finding the North-West Passage, so much coveted and so
long concealed, Franklin was instructed to try a route by Wellington
Channel, if ice did not block the way. The channel was found to be
clear, and the explorers made their way up it, until they reached 77°
N. Then their advance was blocked by ice, and they turned south and
found winter quarters off Beechey Island. All, so far, had gone
well, and when the ships were released from the ice at the end of the
winter, hopes of further success must have run high. But presently a
mistake was made that had fatal results--a mistake due to an error of
the chart-makers.
For some time the ships sailed gaily on, important discoveries being
made from day to day. Then came the fatal decision. All was open to
the south. "If they had continued on their southerly course, the two
ships would have reached Bering Strait. There was the navigable
passage before them. But, alas! the chart-makers had drawn an
isthmus (which only existed in their imagination) connecting Boothia
with King William Land. They altered their course to the west, and
were lost."* Soon the ships were surrounded by a dense ice-pack, and
were dangerously imprisoned. In the spring of 1847 travelling
parties were sent out, and one of them, under Graham Gore's command,
discovered a North-West Passage, and consequently proved the
connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When the parties
returned Franklin was seriously ill, and he died on 11th June, 1847.
* Markham's _The Lands of Silence_ (Cambridge University Press).
No more beautiful epitaph has ever been written than the one in
Westminster Abbey, which Tennyson wrote in honour of John Franklin,
his uncle-in-law:--
"Not here! The cold North hath thy bones, and thou,
Heroic sailor soul,
Art passing on thy happier voyage now
Towards no earthly pole."
A terrible winter for this gallant band of explorers followed. For
months and months the ice remained impenetrable, and at last the
ships had to be abandoned. Even if the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_
could have been freed from the ice, it was more than doubtful if they
would float, so battered were they by their long, slow drift. Food
was both inadequate in quantity and poisonous in quality. Twenty-two
officers and men died during that winter of horror; the rest were so
weak from privations that, although they knew their only chance was
to retreat by Back's Fish River, none of them had the strength
successfully to undertake such a march.
It is useless to dwell over the sufferings of these heroic men.
Captain Crozier and Captain Fitzjames took every precaution, and made
all preparations that were under the circumstances possible, but the
dice were too heavily loaded against them. With their two heavy
boat-sledges they started on 22nd April, 1848, to make their
desperate effort. Not one of them survived. The _Erebus_ sank when
the ice released her. The _Terror_ also sank, but not until she had
drifted on to the American coast and been plundered by Eskimos. It
is pitiable to think that prompt action from England might have saved
some, at least, of these valuable lives. But at first, although
there was considerable anxiety about their fate, no effort was made
to find them. Not until 1848 were expeditions sent out in search of
Franklin's party, and neither of these was successful in finding any
traces. One of these expeditions was, however, noteworthy, for
Leopold M'Clintock, who subsequently became so renowned as a
sledge-traveller, took part in it.
By 1850 the whole country had become thoroughly aroused, and the
Government decided to send out strongly equipped expeditions. The
_Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, under Captains Collinson and
M'Clure, were sent out to search by way of Bering Strait; and four
ships, under Captain Austin, were to seek for traces of the missing
party by way of Lancaster Sound. Austin's expedition failed to find
the missing men, but it was excellently conducted and organized, and
its sledge-travellers (among whom was M'Clintock) covered over 7,000
miles, and discovered more than 1,200 miles of new land. When
Captain Austin returned to England nothing had been heard of the
_Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, and after some discussion and
consequent delay, it was resolved again to send the four ships to the
Arctic. Not only Franklin's men, but also the _Enterprise_ and the
_Investigator_ had now to be searched for. It was a case of
search-parties looking for search-parties.
In their main object--that of clearing up the mystery of Franklin and
his companions--these expeditions were not successful, but in other
ways they more than justified themselves. Both Collinson in the
_Enterprise_ and M'Clure in the _Investigator_ succeeded in finding a
North-West Passage, and much-needed help was brought to M'Clure by
the expedition sent out partly for the purpose of aiding him and
Collinson. Further, the sledge journeys of M'Clintock and Mecham
during these expeditions were unrivalled in result and a real triumph
of organization.