Is there any positive proof for a problem of this kind? Is there any one sure shoulder upon which we can hang the mantle of polar conquest? We are deprived of the usual landmarks of terrestrially fixed points. The effort to furnish proof is like trying to fix a point in Mid-Atlantic.
But here you have the tremendous advantage of known compa.s.s variation, sure time, reasonably accurate corrections. Not only by careful observation at sea of fixed stars and other astronomical data, but by an easy and quick access to and from each sh.o.r.e, and by reliable tables for reductions gathered during scores of years of experience.
All this is denied in the mid-polar basins at the time when it is possible to arrive there. There is no night, there are no stars, and the sun, the only fixed object by which a position can be calculated, is not absolutely fixable. It is low on the horizon. Its rays are bent in getting to the recording instruments while pa.s.sing through the thick maze of floating ice mist. This mist always rests on the pack even in clear days. The very low temperature of the atmosphere and the distorting, twisting mirage effect of different strata of air, with radically different temperatures, wherein each stratum has a different density, carry different quant.i.ties of frosted humidity.
All of this gives to the sunbeam, upon which the calculation for lat.i.tude and longitude is based, the deceptive appearance of a paddle thrust into clear water. The paddle in such case seems bent. The sunbeam is bent in a like manner, since it pa.s.ses through an unknown depth of refractory air for the correction of which no law can be devised until modern aerial navigation brings to a science that very complex problem of the geography of the atmosphere. For this reason, and for others which we will presently show, this whole idea of proof by figures as devised by Mr. Peary and the armchair geographers, falls to pieces.
Let us take the noon observation--a fairly certain method to determine lat.i.tude in most zones of the earth where for hundreds of years we have learned to make certain corrections, which by use have been incorporated as laws in the art of navigation. About five minutes before local noon the sea captain goes to the bridge with s.e.xtant in hand. His time is certain, but even if it were not, the sun rises and sets and therefore changes its alt.i.tude quickly. The captain screws the sun down to a fixed angle on his s.e.xtant; he puts the instrument aside; then takes it up again, brings the sun to the horizon, examines his instrument. The sun has risen a little further; it is not yet noon. This is repeated again and again, and at last the sun begins to descend. It is now local noon.
This gives a rough check for his time. There is a certain sure moment for his observation at just the second when it is accurate,--when the sun"s highest ascent has been reached. Such advantages are impossible when nearing the Pole. The chronometers have been shooting the shoots of the pack for weeks. The sudden changes of temperature also disturb the mechanism, and therefore time, that very important factor upon which all astronomical data rest, is at best only a rough guess. For this reason alone, if for no other, such as unknown refraction and other optical illusions, the determination of longitude when nearing the Pole becomes difficult and unreliable. All concede this, but lat.i.tude, we are told by the armchair observer, is easy and sure. Let us see.
The time nears to get a peep of the sun at noon, but what is local noon? The chronometers may be, and probably are, far off. And there is no way to correct even approximately. I do not mean on hours, but there may be unknowable differences of minutes, and each minute represents a mile. Let us see how this affects our noon observation. Five or ten minutes before local noon the observer levels his artificial horizon and with s.e.xtant in hand lies down on the snow. A little drift and nose bleaching wind complicate matters. The fingers are cold; the instrument must be handled with mittens; the cold is such that at best a shiver runs up the spine, the eye blinks with snow glitter and frost. The arms, hands and legs become stiff from cold and from inaction. He tries exactly what the sea captain does in comfort on the bridge, but his time is a guess, he watches the sun, he tries to catch it when it is highest, but this is about as difficult as it is to catch a girl in the act of winking when her back is turned.
The sun does not rise and set as it does in temperate climes--it circles the horizon day and night in a spiral ascent so nearly parallel to the line of the horizon that it is a practical impossibility to determine by any possible means at hand when it is highest. One may lie on that snow for an hour, and though steadied with the patience of Job, the absolute determination of the highest point of the sun"s alt.i.tude or the local noon is almost a physical impossibility.
This observation is not accurate and gives only results of use in connection with other calculations. These results at best are also subject to that unknown allowance for really great atmospheric refraction. The geographic student will, I am sure, agree that against this the magnetic needle will offer some check, for if you can be certain that when the needle points to a positive direction, then it is a simple matter to get approximate time with it and the highest noon alt.i.tude; but since the correction for the needle, like that of lat.i.tude and longitude, is based on accurate time, and since it is further influenced by other local and general unknown conditions--therefore even the compa.s.s, that sheet anchor of the navigator, is as uncertain as other aids to fixing a position in the polar basin.
In making such observations an artificial horizon must be used. This offers an uncontrollable element of inaccuracy in all Arctic observations when the sun is low.
My observations were made with the sun about 12 above the horizon. At this angle the image of the sun is dragged over the gla.s.s or mercury with no sharp outlines, a mere streak of light, and not a perfect, sharp-cut image of the sun which an important observation demands.
Mr. Peary"s alt.i.tudes were all less than 7. I challenge any one to produce a clear cut image of the sun on an artificial horizon with the sun at that angle. All such observations therefore are unreliable because of imperfect contact, for which there can be no correction.
The question of error by refraction is one of very great importance. In the known zones the acc.u.mulated lesson of ages has given us certain tables for correction, but even with these advantages few navigators would take an observation when the sun is but 7 above the horizon and count it of any value whatever.
In the Arctic the problem of refraction presents probable inaccuracies, not of seconds or minutes, but possibly of degrees. Every Arctic traveler has seen in certain atmospheric conditions a dog enlarged to the image of a bear. A raven frequently looks like a man, and a hummock, but 25 feet high, a short distance away, will at times rise to the proportions of a mountain. Mirages turn things topsy-turvy, and the whole polar topography is distorted by optical illusions. Many explorers have seen the returning sun over a sea horizon after the long night one or two days before the correct time for its reappearance. This gives you an error in observations which can be a matter of 60 miles.
Here is a tangle in optics, which cannot under the present knowledge of conditions be elucidated, and yet with all these disadvantages, the group of armchair geographers of the National Geographic Society p.r.o.nounces a series of sun alt.i.tudes less than 7 above the horizon as proof positive of the attainment of the Pole. Furthermore these men are personal friends of Mr. Peary, and the society for whom they act is financially interested in the venture which they indorsed.
Is this verdict based upon either science or justice, or honor?
In response to a public clamor for a peep at these papers, a more detestable unfairness was forced on the public. The venerable director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, who was one of Mr. Peary"s jurors, instead of showing his hand, and thus freeing himself from a dishonest entanglement, asked his underlings, H. C. Mitch.e.l.l and C. R. Duval, to stoop to a dishonor to veil the humbug previously perpetrated. Under the instruction of their chief, the first figures of Mr. Peary"s s.e.xtant readings have been taken, and by manipulating these they have helped Mr.
Peary by saying that their calculation placed Mr. Peary within two miles of the Pole.
Perhaps Mr. Peary was at the pin-point of the Pole, but when he allows his friends to use questionable methods to give a false security to his claim, then his claim is insecure indeed.
Mitch.e.l.l and Duval took the s.e.xtant readings at face value. If Mr. Peary or his computers had frankly admitted the uncertainty of the grounds upon which these s.e.xtant readings rested, then one would be inclined to grant the benefit of doubt; but as was the case regarding the verdict of the National Geographic Society, the public was carefully excluded from a knowledge of the shaky grounds upon which these calculations are based. The impossibility of correct time and adequate allowance for refraction render such figures useless as proof of a position. But what about the image of the sun upon the artificial horizon?
An important observation demands that this should be sharp and clear, otherwise the observation is worthless. Mitch.e.l.l and Duval have surely thought of this. Perhaps they have tried an experiment. As real scientific students they should have experimented with the figures with which they played. If the experiment has not been made they are incompetent. In either case a trick has been used to bolster up the deceptive verdict of the National Geographic Society.
A dish of mola.s.ses, a bull"s eye lantern and a dark room are all that is necessary to prove how the public has been deceived by men in the Government pay as scientific computers. With the bull"s eye as the sun, the mola.s.ses or any other reflecting surface as a horizon, with the light striking the surface at less than 7 degrees, as Mr. Peary"s sun did, it will be found that the sun"s image is an oblong streak of light with ill-defined edges. Such an image cannot be recorded on a s.e.xtant with sufficient accuracy to make it of any use as an observation.
Mitch.e.l.l and Duval must know this. If so, they are dishonest, for they did not tell the public about it. If they did not know it they are incompetent and should be dismissed from the Government service.
With all of these uncertainties a course which gives a workable plan of action can be laid over the blank charts, but there always remains the feebly guarded mystery of the ice drift. When the course is set, the daily run of distance can be checked by estimating speed and hourly progress with the watches. Against this there is the check of the pedometer or some other automatic measure for distance covered. The shortening night shadows and the gradual coming to a place where the night and day shadows are of about equal length is a positive conviction to him who is open to self-conviction, as a polar aspirant is likely to be. But frankly and candidly, when I now review one and all of these methods of fixing the North Pole, or the position of a traveler en route to it, I am bound to admit that all attempt at proof represented by figures is built on a foundation of possible and unknowable inaccuracy.
Figures may convince an armchair geographer who has a preconceived opinion, but to the true scientist with the many chances for mistakes above indicated there is no real proof. The verdict on such data must always be "not proven" if the evidence rests on a true scientific examination of material which at best and in the very nature of things is not checked by the precision which science demands. The real proof--if proof is possible--is the continuity of the final printed book that gives all the data with the consequent variations.
FROM A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE POLAR CLAIMS IN A FORTHCOMING BOOK
By CAPTAIN THOMAS F. HALL of Omaha, Neb.
DR. COOK"S VALID CLAIM.
Cook"s narrative has been before the public nearly two years. It has been subject to the most minute scrutiny that invention, talent and money could give. It is to-day absolutely unscathed. Not one item in it from beginning to end has been truthfully discredited. It stands unimpeached. Mud enough has been thrown. Bribery and conspiracy have done their worst. A campaign of infamy has been waged, and spent its force; but not one solitary sentence has been proven wrong. Musk-ox fakes, starved dogs, fict.i.tious astronomical or other calculations may have some effect on popular opinion; but they have none on the actual facts. They do not budge the truth a hair"s breadth and they do not make history.
Cook"s claim to the Discovery of the North Pole is as sound and as valid as the other claims of discovery, or the achievement of any one preceding him in the Arctic or the Antarctic.
VERDICT OF GEN. A. W. GREELY, REAR ADMIRAL W. S. SCHLEY AND OTHER ARCTIC EXPERTS
Dr. Cook is the discoverer of the North Pole.--GENERAL A. W. GREELY.
No one familiar with the Polar problem doubts Dr. Cook"s success. Peary never tried to get to the Pole. He copied Cook"s data and then, by official intrigue tried to "put it over." A study of Peary"s deception on compa.s.s variation will prove that.--CLARK BROWN.
You can prove the discovery of Northermost Land. The Eskimo talk is nonsense. The Polar discussion should be settled by an International Commission--PROF. OTTO NORDENSKJOLD.
Dr. Cook was the first and only man to reach the North Pole--CHAS. E.
RILLIET.
I have gone over all of Dr. Cook"s data, and, in spite of the statements to the contrary, I believe he reached the Pole.--MAURICE CONNELL.
It has always been my pleasure to support Dr. Cook. I can see no reason for doubting his success. Who are his accusers, surely not Arctic Explorers?--CAPTAIN OTTO SVERDRUP.
I am convinced that if anyone reached the Pole, Dr. Cook got there.--ANDREW J. STONE.
From first to last I have championed Dr. Cook"s cause, and after going over the printed records of both claimants I am doubly convinced that he reached the Pole.--CAPTAIN EDWARD A. HAVEN.
Dr. Cook reached the Pole, I doubt Peary, his observations bear the stamp of inexcusable inaccuracy and bunglesome carelessness. One cannot read Peary"s book and believe in him.--CAPTAIN JOHN MENANDER.
Washington, D. C., Jan. 7th, 1911.
Dear Dr. Cook:
... I would a.s.sure you that I have never varied in the belief that you reached the Pole. After reading the published accounts, daily and critically, of both claimants, I was forced to the conclusion from their striking similarity that each of you was the eye witness of the other"s success.
Without collusion it would have been impossible to have written accounts so similar, and yet in view of the ungracious controversy that has occurred since that view (collusion) would be impossible to imagine.
While I have never believed that either of you got within a pin-point of the Pole, I have steadfastly held that both got as near the goal as was possible to ascertain considering the imperfections of the instruments used and the personal errors of individuals under circ.u.mstances as adverse to absolute accuracy.
Again I have been broad enough in my views to believe that there was room enough at the Pole for two; and never narrow enough to believe that only one man got there.
I believe that both are ent.i.tled to the honor of the achievement.
Very truly yours, (Signed) W. S. SCHLEY.
POSITIVE PROOF OF DR. COOK"S ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE