On the whole it may be said that the Sverdrup expedition made the largest addition to our Arctic knowledge of any other since the return of the Franklin search expeditions.

Captain Gunnar Isachsen continued his affection for Arctic work, and took special interest in bathymetrical researches. He made further valuable oceanographical investigations during his Spitsbergen expedition in 1910.

CHAPTER XL
ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE.
CAGNI—COOK—PEARY

The present writer, throughout the sixty years and more of his connection with polar research, has always deprecated the diverting of exploring energy to dashes for the Pole, if this be the sole object.

In former days the enterprise of reaching the Pole was looked upon as including important discoveries, and the opening of a route to the east. It was for these objects that John Davis made his attempt; that the Government in the eighteenth century offered a reward for reaching 89° N.; that Phipps, Buchan, and Scoresby tried how far north it was possible to go in a ship, and Parry with boats and sledges. Sir George Nares was ordered to attempt an approach to the Pole in the erroneous belief, inspired by Hall’s map, that the land trended north, in which case such a journey would have useful results. But since Nansen’s discovery that the Pole is in an ice-covered sea there was no longer any special object to be attained in going there, except for magnetic observations.

Nansen made an interesting journey northwards which showed the character of the ice to be crossed. As the floes are in motion during a great part of the year, and there is danger from the lanes of water that form and much obstruction from the lines of hummocks thrown up by ice pressure, progress is difficult and uncertain. Nansen wisely took kayaks with him, capable of carrying the sledges across lanes of water.

The Duke of the Abruzzi was bitten with the idea of reaching the Pole by way of Franz Josef Land, following Nansen’s route and adopting his plans for sledge, tent, and other travelling equipage. He bought a Norwegian sealer and was fortunate in reaching the northern part of Franz Josef Land (near Cape Fligely) for winter quarters. But a severe frost-bite, necessitating the amputation of a finger, prevented him from leading the main journey. His place was ably filled by his second in command, Captain Cagni of the Italian Navy.

Captain Cagni arranged his scheme for travelling with great care. His sledges and tents were on Nansen’s pattern, but he altered the reindeer-skin sleeping bags so as to have room for three persons. Three limited parties of four sledges each were to enable the fourth extended party to start full after the 45th day. The sledges constantly required repairs, and were in worse condition every day. Captain Cagni encountered the same difficulties as Nansen from lines of pressed-up hummocks and lanes of water. He succeeded in getting a few miles beyond Nansen’s furthest to 86° 33′ N.

Detentions by gales of wind and other misfortunes threw out the original scheme, but the most important lesson taught by Cagni’s journey is the danger of steering in a wrong direction, and the absolute necessity for frequent observations to obtain true bearings. As he approached the land again he found that he was fifty miles out in longitude. This shows the necessity for taking amplitude observations of the sun whenever it is possible. In going towards the Pole it is still more essential, for to attempt to reach a point like the Pole without a true course constantly verified must inevitably lead to error. Cagni and his party suffered great hardships before they succeeded in reaching the ship again.

Peary commenced the first of his three attempts to reach the North Pole in 1896, when he reported having been to 85° N., travelling from the north coast of Ellesmere Island. His plan was to hire the sledges and dogs of the Arctic Highlanders and to get the natives to drive, so that the white man merely has to walk alongside. The Danes have always travelled in this way; indeed it is a necessity when the white man has no companion or only one or two, and nothing could be better for journeys along the Greenland coast or over the inland ice. Peary, who holds that the fewer white men in an expedition the greater its chance of success, also thinks that the Eskimo dress of furs is the best, but there is much difference of opinion on this point.