Nearly four hundred and fifty years have passed since the first polar (arctic) expedition, in 1553, and the first half of this century's opening year finds the mystery surrounding the poles still unsolved. Whether the latter half will disclose what has been an objective of human effort for so long a period, or will add materially to our information about the polar regions, remains to be shown, but, at all events, strenuous efforts are being put forth to break their eternal solitude.

No less than six great expeditions are in progress to explore the arctic and antarctic regions, and, benefiting by the hard-won experience of centuries, the explorers are all filled with hope for a successful consummation of their labors. Added to the three expeditions under Stein, Sverdrup, and Peary, members of which are now in the arctics, there will be at least three new exploring parties outfitted for renewed attempts upon the North Pole—one Russian and two American. It is reported that Mr. Walter Wellman, who has already made two unsuccessful efforts to reach the arctic pole, intends to make another trial. But the most completely equipped will be the Baldwin-Ziegler expedition, which has been so extensively advertised and for many months past in preparation. At a recent farewell dinner tendered Mr. Baldwin by the Peary Arctic Club in New York, his definite plans were for the first time given to the public when he said, upon being presented with a small American flag: "I am firmly convinced that this flag will be carried to victory in this expedition. The starting point will be Franz-Josef Land, and our party will be sufficient in number to avail ourselves of every resource in the land in the way of food by hunting bears and other animals. We shall begin our journey across the ice with four hundred dogs and fifteen Siberian ponies, and, with the assistance of these, I believe it will be possible to achieve the object we shall set out to accomplish."

These remarks were made on the eve of Mr. Baldwin's departure for Scotland, where are being fitted out the two vessels, the flagship America and supply ship Frithjof, in which will start from Tromso, Norway. Franz-Josef Land was discovered in the seventeenth century and has already been made the base of operations against the common goal of polar expeditions. It was for three years the field of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition; from the sea northeast and north, respectively, of this land, Nansen and the Duke of Abruzzi made their nearest approaches to the pole.

Far distant from the scene of Mr. Baldwin's prospective operations is gallant Lieutenant Peary, who passed the winter of 1899-1900 at Etah, on the Greenland coast, and when last heard from was painfully pursuing his course toward the pole. Of all arctic explorers none has displayed more indomitable courage than Peary, who, crippled as he is by the amputation of nearly all his toes, was at last accounts still bent upon achieving his purpose of discovering the pole or pershing in the attempt. Interest in his expedition is revived by the announced dispatch next month of the relief ship Erik, the fifth vessel to be sent into the great north by the Peary Arctic Club, following after the Windward, which, as may be recalled in this connection, sailed last midsummer on the same quest. No information has been received of the Windward since she reached northern waters, having on board the intrepid wife and daughter of the explorer. She may have reached the destined port or may have been wrecked, but, though no tidings have come back, there is no apprehension on the part of those who dispatched her, as she was to be held by Peary or returned, as he might elect. When last heard from, March 30, 1900, Peary was at Fort Conger, Greely's old quarters, which, by the way, he found exactly as left by the survivors of that unfortunate expedition more than fifteen years before. Hopes are entertained that Lieutenant Peary has already reached the pole, but the continued absence of the Windward without tidings argues either against this possibility or that she has been icebound on the coast of Greenland, if not actually wrecked.

Captain Otto Sverdrup, leader of the Norwegian expedition of 1898, who was master of Nansen's Fram in her famous driff voyage in the Arctic Sea, intended to make his way out during the coming summer, but he, too, may be detained by the ice.

The Russians announced two years ago that they would dispatch the great ice crushing steamer Yermak poleward; but, though on its experimental trip it succeeded in forcing its way through field ice five feet thick and nearly through another estimated at twenty-five feet in thickness before brought to a standstill, its efficiency in the ice cap of the poles may well be questioned. It was reported a few months ago that one Captain Bernier, a Canadian arctic navigator, was to command an expedition this summer. Then, again, there has been the mention of an Austrian submarine boat, which is to reach the pole by diving under the ice and thus avoiding obstacles which have hitherto proved insuperable.

But it is not altogether in the direction of the arctic pole that endeavor is to be made this summer, for a most determined attempt will be made toward solving the vexed problem of the antarctics. At least two important expeditions will be undertaken—one British and the other German. They will be practically simultaneous in their initiatives and will act harmoniously, having but one object—the thorough exploration of the Antarctic Ocean and continent so far as possible. The antarctic region is to be divided into four great "quadrants"—two on the Australasian side and two on the Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope side—each expedition taking two quadrants as its particular province. The new ship, the Discovery, in which the British expedition is to sail, was launched last March and is said to be the very first vessel built in Great Britain expressly for the purpose of polar research. All the others, from the time of, say, Frobisher in 1576 to the present, were obtained either from the naval class or merchant marine already built and refitted for their special service.

The Discovery, however, is the sixth of her name to engage in polar voyages. She is exceptionally strong, built of seasoned oak, 172 feet long, thirty-three broad, and with a displacement of 1,750 tons. The total cost of the expedition is estimated at five hundred thousand dollars of which amount the British government contributes less than half. She was launched from the same shipyards in Dundee, Scotland, in which the whalers for the BaldwinZiegler expedition are being refitted. The captain of the Discovery is Commander R. F. Scott, and the head of the scientific staff is Professor J. W. Gregory, now holding the chair of geology in the Melbourne University, Australia, from which point the final start will be made. The ship will be provisioned for three years, and the German vessel for the same time, though equipped for two years. The German ship has just been built at Kiel and resembles the celebrated Fram, although said to be a better sea boat. She will sail under the leadership of Professor Erik von Drygalski for Cape Town, Africa, thence for the little known Kerguelin Island, where a party will be left for scientific observation, the main company proceeding to Victoria Land for winter quarters. Full results are not expected from these two expeditions until the summer of 1903 or 1904, though partial reports may be sent out before the various parties are picked up and brought home.

A third antarctic expedition is Swedish, led by Dr. Otto Nordenskjold, a nephew of the famous explorer of that name, who, first of all arctic voyagers, accomplished the "northeast passage" in the Vega, 1878-9. His vessel will be a renovated whaler, the Antarctic, and the total cost of his expedition is put at less than $40,000. He purposes to reach the antarctics via Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Isles, and utilize the antarctic summer months, which will be those of the northern winter. All three expeditions are commanded by experienced men and take out full corps of scientists, so that their reports will be awaited with a reasonable expectation of valuable results.

Hitherto the greatest efforts of explorers have been directed toward the arctics, as they are more accessible from centres of population and outfitting stations. They are also inhabited, while the antarctics are uninhabited, and, while their flora and fauna are similar in general features and the waters of the latter abound in animal life, the southern land masses have no such means of sustenance as the polar bear, the musk ox, etc., which are found far up in the higher latitudes.

In the preliminary voyages toward either pole the distance to be covered by the arctic explorers will not be more than three fourths, generally speaking, of that necessary for reaching the antarctics. The former regions have been longer known, even as the Atlantic was navigated long before the Pacific was discovered. It was the famous Captain Cook who discovered the southern region, in 1773-5, on his second voyage circumnavigating the globe in the vicinity of the antarctic circle. Nearly fifty years later another British navigator, Waddell, penetrated to the parallel of 74 degrees 15 minutes south latitude. The United States expedition under Captain Wilkes in 1840 sighted a large continent, but was prevented from landing by an impassable barrier of ice. A British expedition in 1839-43, led by Captain Ross, penetrated as far as 78 south latitude and brought to light the volcanic mountain called by him the Erebus. Volcanic action has been found in the antarctics, but not in the arctics. Quite fifty years elapsed before the next decisive exploration of the Antartics, when C. E. Borchgrevink in 1895 claimed to have been the first to land on the antarctic mainland. He was sent out again in the Southern Cross in 1898, landing on the coast of Victoria Land February 28, 1899, and attaining the farthest south of any explorer. Still he added but fifty miles to the latitude claimed by Ross fifty years before, and found his land exploration barred by vast glaciated volcanoes. At about the same time a Belgain expedition in the Belgica—1897-9—was the first ever to pass the winter in the antarctics, having been frozen in a full year, emerging about five hundred miles west of the point at which the ship entered the ice. An American, Mr. Frederick A. Cook of Brooklyn, was with this expedition as ethnologist, and has published an account of the voyage. The last book on the antarctics to appear is that of Borchgrevink, so that the literature of the subject is comparatively full and up to date.

In a resume of what has been accomplished it will be noticed that the north pole has been more nearly approached than its southern antipode, Nansen's farthest north in 1893-6 of 86 degrees 14 minutes and D'Abruzzi's alleged farthest north of 86 degrees 33 minutes reducing the distance to about two hundred and forty statute miles, while the south pole is eight degrees farther away. The surroundings of the latter are deemed impregnable, yet under the combined attacks upon both the arctic and antarctic, conducted mainly by men of Norse and Saxon origin, it would seem that the borean, if not the austral, region should disclose its secrets this year if ever they are to be revealed.

Channing A. Bartow.
In the Topeka Capital.