Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883

Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883Author(s): William BarrSource: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 73, No. 4 (Dec., 1983), pp.463-484Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American GeographersStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2562743 .

Accessed: 03/04/2013 06:49

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Association of American Geographers are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 217.73.166.10 on Wed, 3 Apr 2013 06:50:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aag

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2562743?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Articles

Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883 William Barr

Department of Geography, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N OWO

Abstract. 1983 marks the centennial of a milestone event in the history of scientific research in the polar regions, the First International Polar Year. A total of 14 stations was established in the polar regions by 12 different nations, along with a number of subsidiary stations. Focusing primarily on meteorology, geomagnetism, and auroral studies, scientists at these stations carried out a standardized, synchronized program of observations for a full calendar year. In terms of the geographical spinoff from the project, several of the expeditions made notable contributions in the area of exploration and mapping, particularly the American expedition to Elles- mere Island and the French expedition to Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn). The meteorological program naturally produced a wealth of raw data, which are now of great value as a basis for comparisons. Although geomorphology was not part of the official program, several of the scientists made very useful observations, particularly in the area of periglacial forms and pro- cesses. Concerning the marine environment the Dutch expedition, whose ship was adrift in the ice of the Kara Sea for the entire year, contributed very valuable observations on the nature and behavior of sea ice. Its oceanographic contribution was also extremely significant, as was that of the French expedition to Cabo de Hornos. Scientists from several of the expeditions also made extensive and valuable pioneer observations of the indigenous peoples in their respective areas. Worthy of particular mention here are studies of the Eskimo of the North Slope by the American expedition to Point Barrow, of the Inuit of Cumberland Sound by a scientist with the German expedition to Baffin Island, and of the Yahgan Indians of Tierra del Fuego by the French expedition to Cabo de Hornos.

Key Words: international scientific co-operation, polar regions.

THE single aspect of the First International Polar Year (1882-83) that caught inter-

national headlines at the time and public imagination ever since, was undoubtedly the tragic retreat of Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely's American expedition from its station at Fort Conger on Lady Franklin Bay, Elles- mere Island. Owing to a tragic sequence of oversights, errors, miscalculations, and ac- cidents, Greely and his 24 companions were condemned to a wintering, totally without preparation, on the barren, inhospitable shores of Pim Island in Smith Sound (Fig. 1), a wintering that only seven of them survived (Greely 1886).

Two aspects of this disaster tend to have been overlooked. First, it occurred during the retreat from Lady Franklin Bay. Greely and his men had already successfully completed a two-year program involving a wide range of

scientific observations; the journals, notes, photographs, and samples were carefully preserved by the starving men on Pim Island and all the results were subsequently published (Greely 1888). Second, Greely's expedition was only one of 14 similar expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, mounted by 12 different nations. It is the wide scope of this remarkably ambitious pioneer scientific effort that has tended to a degree to be eclipsed by the highly publicized events on Pim Island.

Background and Organization

The origins and organization of the First International Polar Year have recently been admirably discussed by Baker (1982), and hence only an outline of these aspects will be presented here. It was the brainchild of Lieu- Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 73(4), 1983, pp. 463-484 ? Copyright 1983 by Association of American Geographers

463



464 Barr

KAP MORRIS JE SU ITja

ARCTIC OCEAN LOCKWOO

AXEL

HEIBERG ELLESMERE

ISLAND ISLAND

0 0 ~~~~~~~G R E E N L A N D

KAN GRELN

Figure 1. Area of operations and retreat route of the American expedition to Ellesmere Island.

tenant Karl Weyprecht of the Austro-Hun- garian Navy. As co-leader of the Austro-Hun- garian North Pole Expedition of 1872-74 (Payer 1876), Weyprecht had wintered in the ice of the Barents Sea aboard Tegetthoff off the southeast coast of Zemlya Frantsa losifa, which this expedition discovered. On the basis of his experiences and of his wide knowledge of previous polar expeditions, Weyprecht reached the conclusion that the time had come for a drastic change of direction in polar research. Although there were still major gaps in the map of the Arctic and especially of the Antarctic, Weyprecht felt that the era of uncoordinated independent expeditions aimed primarily at geographical exploration, but with negligible scientific results, was over. He particularly denigrated the fact that polar expeditions were widely re- garded as a sort of international steeple- chase, aimed primarily at conferring honor on the various national flags by breaking the record for the highest attained latitude by a few miles. "Decisive scientific results can only be attained through a series of synchronous expeditions, whose task it would be to distribute themselves over the Arctic regions and to obtain one year's series of observations made according to the same method" (Payer and Weyprecht 1875, 33). An international coor- dinating body would ensure an optimal distribution of the stations and standardization of measurements. He envisaged the major effort being directed to meteorology, aurora, and earth magnetism, as these were the areas where the greatest gaps in the knowledge of the polar regions existed (Wild 1882).

The scientific climate was right for a scheme such as Weyprecht's. His particular contribution was that through his drive, am- bition, and connections he was able to bring his scheme to fruition. The all-important influence, as well as financial backing, came from Graf Hans von Wilczek, sponsor of the Tegetthoff expedition. Weyprecht first aired his plan at a meeting of the Austro-Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Vienna in 1875 and then at the 48th annual meeting of the As- sociation of German Naturalists and Physi- cians at Graz in the fall of that year (Heath- cote and Armitage 1959). Encouraged by the sympathetic hearings received from these bodies (and a number of others), Weyprecht and Wilczek compiled an even more detailed proposal for presentation to the International Meteorological Congress scheduled to meet in Rome in September 1877 but in fact post- poned until the spring of 1879 because of the war in the Balkans.

The proposal was very warmly received by this influential scientific body, which formed an International Meteorological Commission with a mandate to convene an International Polar Conference at Hamburg on 1 October 1879. This first International Polar Confer- ence was attended by nine delegates from Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Austro-Hungary, Russia, and Sweden. Apologies were received from Bel- gium, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal for being unable to send representatives (Baker 1982). The Commission worked out a detailed program of observations, the major foci to be meteorology, geomagnetism, and auroral studies. The period of observation would be from the fall of 1881 until the fall of 1882, and it was stipulated that commitments to a minimum of eight stations in the Arctic would have to be received before the program could proceed (Wild 1882).

A subsequent meeting of the International Polar Commission was held in Bern in August 1880. Because by this stage definite commitments to participate had been received by only four countries, namely Austro-Hungary, Denmark, Norway, and Russia, it was decided to postpone implementation of the Interna- tional Polar Year until 1882-83. The third meeting of the International Polar Commis- sion took place in St. Petersburg in August 1881, when it was determined that "the inter-



First International Polar Year 465

national Polar stations are to begin their observations as soon as possible after August 1, 1882, and end them as late as possible before September 1, 1883" (Heathcote and Ar- mitage 1959, 9). It also spelled out what observations should be taken and how: part of the program was obligatory at all stations, part was optional.

The Expeditions

Ultimately 14 major stations were occupied, 12 being arranged in a fairly regularly spaced circumpolar ring in the nothern hemisphere (Fig. 2) and two being in the southern hemisphere. A total of 12 different countries was involved.

The United States mounted two expeditions, both organized by and responsible to the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, United States Army. Both operated for two years: they were established in the summer of 1881 and had already completed a full year of observations when the International Polar Year began. The first of these, led by First Lieu- tenant P. Henry Ray, Eighth Infantry, established itself at Point Barrow, Alaska, and involved seven scientists and observers with a support staff of three (Ray 1885). The loading of the schooner Leo, which arrived to evacuate the party in August 1883, repeatedly had to be interrupted when pack ice drove against the coast, causing the evacuation to be rather rushed. Otherwise, both the establishment and evacuation proceeded fairly easily. This was certainly not the case with the other American expedition, which was established at Lady Franklin Bay, Ellesmere Island. This expedition, led by Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, Fifth Cavalry, and consisting of 25 men, including 2 Greenlanders from the Upernavik area, became the victim of a tragic set of circumstances, probably the most crit- ical of which was the sinking of the relief ship Proteus, crushed by ice in Kane Basin when she was on her way north to evacuate the expedition in the summer of 1883 (Greely 1886). The outcome was that Greely and his men retreated south by their own efforts to Pim Island, where they settled into primitive winter quarters, with only a miserable reserve of rations, in October 1883. When a rescue vessel finally reached them the following

10 soo I

CANADA ~~I2~~~ ob ~~~RUSSIA

NOD GREENLAN KA ARAU

THR D

Figure 2. Distribution of stations of the First In- ternational Polar Year in the northern hemisphere.

June only seven men were still alive, of whom one died during the return voyage.

The British contribution was an extremely modest, workman-like affair. A party of four men from the Royal Artillery led by Captain Henry P. Dawson, operating under the aus- pices of the Royal Society of London with some financial and organizational help from the Royal Society of Canada, established a station at the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Rae on Great Slave Lake (Dawson 1886), midway between the present town of Yellowknife and the village of Rae-Edzo. The Hudson's Bay Company provided both ac- commodation and logistical support. One is struck by two features of this modest British contribution. First, official confirmation of British involvement in the International Polar Year was not forthcoming until the remarkably late date of 3 April 1882 (Mittheilungen der Internationalen Polar-Commission 1882a). Thus, despite a long tradition of polar exploration, Britain was far from being in the forefront of the operation. Second, it is striking that the expedition was mounted by the Royal Artillery and not by the Royal Navy. One can only surmise that after the expense and effort of the Franklin searches, followed by the relatively high loss of life during the Nares expedition of 1875-76, during which four men had died of scurvy and exposure (Nares 1878), the Admiralty had decided to withdraw from further polar endeavors.

The third expedition to the Canadian North was a German expedition to Kingua (Clear-



466 Barr

water) Fiord on Baffin Island. Apart from its leader, Dr. W. Giese, it consisted of a further six scientists and a support staff of six (Neu- mayer 1891; Barr and Tolley 1982). The Ger- mans had a relatively trouble-free voyage to Baffin Island, but at the end of their sojourn their relief ship Germania was unable to reach Clearwater Fiord because of ice. Giese and his men therefore had to make their way to Kekerten, where the ship was lying, aboard an American whaling schooner.

On the other side of Davis Straits the Danish expedition, sponsored by the Danish Meteorological Institute, established itself at Godthaab (Paulsen 1893; Ryder 1885). It was a relatively modest affair, consisting of only six men, including the leader, Professor Adam Paulsen. As with several of the Scan- dinavian stations, Paulsen and his men enjoyed the advantages of being located in a well-established settlement; hence the operation had much less of the atmosphere of an "expedition" than many of the others. Cer- tainly the hazards they faced were consider- ably less.

The next station to the east was the Aus- trian establishment on Jan Mayen, manned by the Austro-Hungarian Navy but financed by Graf Wilczek. One presumes that Weyprecht had intended to lead this expedition himself, but unfortunately he had died of tuberculosis on 29 March 1881. His replacement as expedition leader was Lieutenant Emil von Wohl- gemuth; the total expedition complement was six officers/scientists and eight seamen. It is a revealing comment on ice conditions in 1882 that the expedition steamer Pola spent more than two weeks in early June trying to force her way through the ice to her island destination. Only after a return to Troms0 to refuel was Pola finally able to reach it on 13 July (Wohigemuth 1886; Cha- vanne 1884).

Swedish participation in the First Interna- tional Polar Year involved an expedition mounted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and dispatched to Svalbard. It was led by Professor Nils G. Ekholm and consisted (apart from himself) of five scientists, with a support staff of six (Ekholm 1887). The intended site for the station was Mossel- bugta, near the entrance to Wijdefjorden at the extreme northern tip of Spitsbergen, where the buildings erected by Nordenskiold

during his attempt at the Pole in 1872-73 (Kjellman 1875) were known to be still in excellent condition. But the Swedish naval vessels Urd and Verdandi carrying the expedition were blocked by ice off Amsterdam0ya at the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen and Ekholm was obliged to settle for a more southerly location. Fortunately another abandoned but well-equipped set of buildings was available, recently built by a mining company, on the north shore of Isfjorden at Kapp Thordsen.

As in the case of the Danish operation, the Norwegian "expedition" was located in a well-established community and even had access to a telegraph station. The location was the village of Bossekop on Altafjorden in Finnmark (Steen 1887), where the "expedition" occupied a solidly built Norwegian farm house (Fig. 3). The party, led by Dr. Aksel S. Steen, consisted of only five men. As with the station at Godthaab, the atmosphere was much more that of a research station in a fairly isolated community than that of a polar expedition.

The same remarks apply to the Finnish station, located in the village of SodankylA in Finnish Lappland (Lemstrom and Biese 1886) and organized by the Central Meteorological Institute of the Society of Sciences of Finland. It too was a modest operation, involving simply seven scientists/observers, including the leader, Dr. S. Lemstrom. Even with these limited numbers, however, some of the team moved north to an auxiliary station at the village of Kultala for part of the winter. There, apart from the normal range of observations, a special program of auroral experiments was mounted. In order to continue and expand on the auroral studies begun the previous winter the expedition was continued through the winter of 1883-84.

Within Russia the Imperial Russian Geo- graphical Society was responsible for the organization of two expeditions. The first to be organized, of necessity given the logistics involved, was dispatched to the Lena Delta (Bunge 1895; Jurgens 1885). When it left St. Petersburg on 16 December 1881 it consisted of only five men, all recruited from the Im- perial Russian Navy: leader Lieutenant N. Jur- gens, his assistant, A. Eigner, medical doctor and naturalist Dr. A. Bunge, and two seamen. The early start was necessitated by the for- midable journey they faced. After a long




,,,,,-,,,,,, . .............o . A.......... .......;.0

..;, --f-. ..iE .I: -~. .^.-.....: H ..M . ... - .i- ~~~~~~~~~~~~- -r= . --l =ff-,d- . A. .......... ....... .. .......... - E-S-.. -. A...

0 :t'0;..... . - N e ?Jv~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ir-r sc-t5 X...... .. I.--| -

_ t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .................... ............ . .. .... ... ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~.. .. ....... Figur .. .tto ..ldn ... ....olgia ....... .fteNreinepdto oBseo (Steen~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ........87).... .. ...

journey by train and sledge via Irkutsk, by 3 May 1882 the party had reached Kachuga on the Lena, from where they drifted downriver on clumsy raft-like boats to the delta (Fig. 4). During a gale on 27 July, all four of their craft were driven ashore and swamped near the head of the delta. All the vessels were re- floated, but many of the supplies had been spoiled by water and the magnetic variation instruments had suffered particularly. The station was finally erected near the south end of Ostrov Sagastyr', on the seaward edge of the delta. In the spring it was decided to extend the period of observation for a further year. This was perhaps not such a great hard- ship as might appear, for a Yakut settlement was nearby. There was a steady, if irregular stream of visitors, and mail was delivered once per month in winter and erratically in summer.

The decision to establish a second Russian station, on Novaya Zemlya, was taken at a relatively late date, hence the entire organization and equipping of the expedition suffered from being rushed (Lents 1891; Krivosheya 1886). The expedition consisted of the leader, Lieutenant K. P. Andreyev, two other scientists, a student, and four seamen. Traveling

by the steamer Chizhov, which provided a regular service for the hunters, trappers, and fishermen of Novaya Zemlya, the expedition reached its base at Malyye Karmakuly in Zaliv Mollera on the west coast of the south island on 4 August 1882. It had been given permis- sion to use the buildings of a refuge station for shipwrecked hunters and fishermen built by the Russian government in 1878. Here too the station was located near a native settlement, in this case the people being Nentsi. On the other hand, this was the only expedition (apart from Greely's) that suffered oc- casionally from serious food shortages, owing to the hurried organization, and it was heavily reliant on hunting throughout the year.

According to the program of the Interna- tional Polar Year, a third station was to have been located in the Russian Arctic, that of the Dutch expedition, sponsored by the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and led by Dr. Maurits Snellen (Snellen 1886; Snellen and Ekama 1910). Apart from Snellen himself, the personnel consisted of four scientists and a support staff numbering five men. The expedition sailed from Amsterdam on 5 July 1882 aboard the Norwegian ship Varna, bound for Ostrov Dikson at the mouth of the



468 Barr

oh;

00b;

~~~~~~~~~~~~' __

Figure 4. The craft in which the Russian expedition to Ostrov Sagatyr' drifted down the Lena (Bunge 1895).

Yenisey. But Varna did not reach her destination: having spent the entire month of Au- gust in vain attempts at forcing her way through each of the entrances to the Kara Sea in turn (namely Matochkin Shar, Karskiye Vorota, and Yugorskiy Shar), she finally became jammed in the ice and with it drifted ignominously through Karskiye Vorota. Shortly afterward, following a period of free sailing, Varna joined forces with Dijmphna, carrying a Danish expedition led by Lieu- tenant A. Hovgaard, bound for Mys Chelyu- skina (Hovgaard 1884). Beset in the ice, the two ships slowly drifted northward along the coast of Poluostrov Yamal (Fig. 5), but fortunately, in mid-April 1883 the drift direction changed to southwesterly. On 3 November and again on Christmas Eve both ships were subjected to severe ice pressures and Varna was badly damaged. Although she stayed afloat supported by the ice until 24 July 1883, from Christmas onward the Dutch personnel and Varna's Norwegian crew lived aboard Dijmphna and worked in a hut they built on the ice. On 1 August Snellen and his men, accompanied by Varna's crew, set off across

the ice toward Ostrov Vaygach, hauling boats on sledges. Their landfall three weeks later was a small island off the northern tip of Os- trov Vaygach. From there they sailed south to Khabarovo, where they made contact with the ships Louise and Nordenskiold, which took them back to Norway.

Of the two stations in the southern hemisphere, one, on South Georgia, was mounted by Germany. Led by Dr. K. Schrader, it consisted of seven scientists and a support staff of four. Having traveled to Montevideo by mail steamer, the party there transferred to the German naval corvette Moltke, which took it to South Georgia (Schrader 1891). The island was first sighted on 12 August 1882, and on the 20th Moltke anchored in Royal Bay on the northeast coast, where the station was erected (Fig. 6). In addition to the normal array of buildings, an observatory with a re- volving dome was built to observe the transit of Venus on 6 December 1882, this being an important secondary task of the expedition (Headland 1982). Owing to the relatively low latitude of this station (540 31'S, 360 04'W), temperatures for the most part were mod-



Fi rst International Polar Year 469

l * 52' A_56. 60 64 682

'V4'%/ ' 4- Oc~IN SHAR

MALYY~E. ...... KARMAKULY KARA SEA 72

Z ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~-~,4/17

-4/. ......V/ 7 , POLUOSTROV '--1/3/83

Y MA

BARENTS SEA 8/2 KABAROVO e 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~W ..4..........I

,wd ; g ~~~~~~* POSITION WHERE VARNA SANK 6

68?VA ----- VARNA'S ICE DRIFT 72 68 0 50 100 Km. ...... RETREAT ROUTE

52 56 60 64? 68

Figure 5. Route of Varna's drift in the Kara Sea, 1882-83.

^>-? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~. * ... .

M,.

Figure 6. The German station at Royal Bay, South Georgia, showing the area surveyed and mapped by the expedition (Schrader 1891).



470 Barr

erate; however, frequent fierce westerly gales presented major problems for making observations and for daily living.

The other expedition to the southern hemisphere, the French expedition to Cabo de Hornos, was in many ways the most ambitious of the entire program. Sponsored by the French Navy and led by Commander Louis- Ferdinand Martial, the expedition consisted of two components (Martial 1888). The shore party, which established its station at Bahia Orange on the east coast of Peninsula Hardy on Isla de Hoste, some 70 km northwest of Cabo de Hornos, was led by Lieutenant E.-J.- L. Courcelle-Seneuil. Under his command were five scientists/observers and a support staff of 15 seamen. In addition, the ship Ro- manche, which took the party to Cabo de Hornos and back stayed in those waters for the entire year; she was engaged mainly in surveying the labyrinth of islands south of the Canal Beagle. Commanded by Commander Martial, she carried an additional six officers and 111 petty officers and seamen. The French expedition, therefore, was by far the largest of the First International Polar Year.

As with the German station on South Georgia, the station at Bahia Orange was scheduled to observe the transit of Venus. Al- though the weather was not perfect for the event, the scientists were able to obtain some very satisfactory observations. The temperatures were not particularly low, but throughout the year the sensible climate was probably the worst of any of the stations: the expedition account is an endless litany of gales, rain, sleet, and snow with persistent heavy overcasts and minimal sunshine.

In addition to the 14 major expeditions, there were several auxiliary expeditions. Rec- ognizing that there was a major gap in the network of weather stations on the Labrador coast, especially as an estimated 15 percent of all depressions moving out into the Atlantic from North America crossed that coast, the German Polar Commission decided to mount an auxiliary expedition to Labrador. It consisted of one man, Dr. K. R. Koch, who traveled from London aboard the mission ship of the Herrnhuter Brudergemeinde, Harmony (Koch 1891). On reaching Labrador, still traveling aboard Harmony, he distributed weather screens and instruments to the mis- sions at Hopedale, Zoar, Okak, Hebron, and

Rama, at each point giving the missionaries a crash course in weather observing. The missionaries continued to take the observations of second-order weather stations throughout the winter while Koch located himself at Nain, where he was occupied with a comprehensive range of meteorological and auroral studies.

Another one-man auxiliary expedition, mounted by Sophus Tromholt, formed an off- shoot of the Norwegian station at Bossekop. His special focus was auroral studies, and his observation site was at Kautokeino, some 150 km south of Bossekop (Tromholt 1885). Tromholt visited the station at Bossekop both going and coming and greatly appreciated the assistance and company provided by the local Lapps.

In the southern hemisphere were two sites that might be classed as supplementary observing stations. One was at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where Captain 1. H. M. D. Seemann, agent for the Hamburg steamship company "Kosmos," was provided with instruments by the South Georgia expedition and maintained a second-order station during the year (Schrader 1891). In similar fashion Commander Martial of Romanche presented the Reverend Thomas Bridges at the missionary station at Ushuaia on Canal Beagle, some 85 km north of Bahia Orange, with a set of instruments (Martial 1888). With these, Reverend Bridges maintained a second-order meteorological station for the duration of the expedition.

Even this did not encompass the full scope of the First International Polar Year. In re- sponse to an appeal from Professor Wild as President of the International Polar Commis- sion, dated 20 December 1881 and circulated to as many meteorological-magnetic obser- vatories as possible (Mittheilungen der Inter- nationalen Polar-Commission 1882b), 35 ob- servatories at relatively low latitudes, ranging from Bombay to Havana and from San Diego to Tashkent, participated in the meteorological and magnetic programs of the Interna- tional Polar Year. In addition, the directors of both the Russian telegraph system and of the Austro-Hungarian telegraph systems made available certain telegraph lines within their systems at specific times for the purpose of earth-current measurements. Finally the Me- teorological Council of the Royal Society un-




dertook a synoptic study of the weather of the North Atlantic during the year, based on re- turns from ships' captains, while the Germans attempted a similar project in the South At- lantic.

Geographical Exploration and Mapping

Despite Weyprecht's views on the limited importance of purely geographical exploration and mapping, a very substantial area of the earth's surface at both poles remained totally unexplored. In the north this held true for the entire Central Arctic Basin and for substantial land areas around its periphery, most notably the majority of the Queen Eliz- abeth Islands, almost the whole of northern and northeastern Greenland, and the entire archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya. Hence, although this was not a major focus in most cases, there was still plenty of scope for geographical exploration by expeditions located around the margins of this vast lacuna. And stations farther south still had ample scope for filling in some of the fine detail on the maps. However, it is clear that opportunity as well as motivation must have been the lim- iting factor in many cases; given the extremely full schedule of magnetic and meteorological observations, it was physically impossible for some of the smaller expeditions to indulge in exploration work, no matter how attractive the surrounding area may have ap- peared.

In terms of putting new territory on the map for the first time, Greely's expedition to Fort Conger was probably preeminent. In this case exploration and discovery definitely represented one of the main foci of the expedition (the planning of which, it should be remem- bered, was largely complete long before it was decided that it should be integrated into the program of the International Polar Year). In his general instructions to Greely, dated 17 June 1881, W. B. Hazen, the Chief Signals Of- ficer, made very specific stipulations on the topic (Greely 1886, xii):

The sledging parties will generally work in the interests of exploration and discovery. The work to be done by them should be marked by all care and fidelity. The outlines of coasts entered on charts will be such only as have been seen by the party. Every favorable opportunity will be im- proved by the sledging parties to determine accurately the geographical position of all their

camps, and to obtain the bearing therefrom of all distant cliffs, mountains, islands, etc. The British expedition led by Nares had

made some very impressive sledge expeditions in 1875-76, but nonetheless Greely's party was able to put a remarkable amount of new land on the map. Admittedly, Dr. Pavy's trip in March-April 1882 "for the purpose of discovering whether land exists to the northward of Cape Joseph Henry" (Greely 1888, 165) was less than successful, not because he failed to find land in this part of the Arctic Basin, but because he was stopped by open water and rugged ice while still only a few kilometers off the Ellesmere Island coast. Other expeditions were much more successful. That same spring a party led by Lieu- tenant Lockwood explored the north coast of Greenland as far east as Lockwood 0, some 200 km beyond Beaumont's farthest point. In- cidentally, he also set a new highest-north record of 830 24', beating Markham's farthest by about 6 km. Meanwhile, on the first recorded extensive foray into the interior of Ellesmere Island Lieutenant Greely discovered Lake Hazen and the United States Range, and in May 1883 a party led by Lieu- tenant Lockwood reached the head of Greely Fiord, having completed the first recorded crossing of Ellesmere Island (Fig. 1).

The other expedition involving a major exploration component was the French expedition to Bahia Orange. It enjoyed the advan- tage that the ship Romanche was attached to the project for the entire year. Although much of the area had been explored and charted previously, especially by Fitzroy in Beagle fifty years earlier (Fitzroy 1839), Captain Mar- tial in Romanche was still able to make major contributions. In a series of cruises throughout the year he surveyed, mapped, and sounded east to Isla de los Estados (Staten Island), west to Peninsula Brecknock, and north to Punta Arenas and the eastern entrance to Estrecho de Magallanes (Fig. 7). His surveys focused especially on the area south of Canal Beagle, and here he was the first to explore the intricacies of Seno Aho Nuevo. Throughout the rest of the area covered, however, he added enormously to the detail on the charts, and his account (Martial 1888) contains a wealth of information concerning anchorages, hazards, current and tides.



-4

. . . . . .. .. w

.... ...... .. ..i t... . ....

x77

~~~arn~~~~~~~a ~~~~~%RtD~~~~~~~~O~~~~AtE ~ ~ ~ ~ GTE SEDGE LETEIGEE EFELI.

AI.Z. ..L. U...A.....N

%: ~ ~ t~

S RUB~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1t V

Figure 7. Th map of theCabo de Horos (Cape Hon) area prouced by theFrench expeition on th

basis of Romanche's surveys (Martial 1888).~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. ..... .. .........




Of the other expeditions, the Russian expedition to Ostrov Sagastyr' probably ranks next in terms of its exploration achievements, with particular reference to its surveys of the Lena delta, even whose shape and size were not known accurately previously, let alone the details of its maze of channels. In a number of impressive trips by dog sledge, boat, reindeer sledge, and riding reindeer Lieutenant JUrgens and especially Dr. Bunge criss- crossed the delta, producing accurate surveys of all the distributaries and channels they followed and expanding the area of the delta enormously, especially to the northwest (JU rgens 1885; Bunge 1895).

The other Russian expedition can also claim some achievements in the area of exploration. In April-May of 1883 the expedition doctor, Dr. Grinevetskiy made the first recorded crossing of the south island of No- vaya Zemlya (Grinevetskiy 1883). But it is significant that his attempt was prompted by the arrival at Malyye Karmakuly of a Nenets hunter/trapper who had just crossed from the Kara Sea coast. Grinevetskiy then hired him to guide him on his return trip-a not uncom- mon theme in the history of "exploration."

Another exploring and surveying achievement that is noteworthy for its comprehen- siveness and elegance, if not its magnitude, was the work of the Austrians on Jan Mayen. On the basis of surveys made on foot and by boat in the spring of 1883, Wohlgemuth and his men surveyed the entire island and produced a very elegant map at a scale of 1:100,000. While the station was being established in August 1882, a party of five led by Graf Josef Palffy (who made the round trip aboard Pola but did not winter) attempted the first ascent of the volcanic cone of Beeren- berg, which dominates the island (WohIge- muth 1886); the peak rises to 2277 m and, not surprisingly, the party was forced to turn back at 1570 m after a very creditable effort.

The exploration achievements of the German expedition to South Georgia were similar (Schrader 1891). In the course of several boat trips and overland trips the German scientists thoroughly explored the coast, mountains, and glaciers around Royal Bay (Fig. 6) and produced a handsome map at a scale of 1:50,000. Sixteen of the place names bestowed by the expedition have since been officially adopted, and a further five derived

from the expedition have been added (Head- land 1982).

In Alaska the Americans at Point Barrow stuck fairly close to home, but in March-April 1883 Lieutenant Ray, traveling by dogteam with an Eskimo family, made an excursion in- land up the Meade River to within sight of the Brooks Range. This is the first documented penetration of the interior of the North Slope. Lieutenant Ray's assessment of the area is as follows: "It is very doubtful if this vast stretch of country contains anything that will ever render it of any commercial value to the world" (Ray 1885, 48). Prudhoe Bay lies only some 300 km to the east!

At Kapp Thordsen on Svalbard the Swedes made no major exploring trips. However, Lieutenant Stjernspetz, traveling by boat, did survey and map the Dicksonfjorden area, as well as the immediate vicinity of Kapp Thordsen (Stjernspetz 1891). The Germans on Baffin Island also stuck fairly close to their base on Clearwater Fiord, although they did make two minor survey trips, one to the head of the fiord and another to its mouth in the spring of 1883 (Neumayer 1891). The other expeditions, because of lack of manpower (e.g., the British contingent at Fort Rae) because of their location in a well-explored and even long-settled area (e.g., the Norwegians at Bossekop or the Danes at Godthaab) or because of a combination of these factors, made no significant contributions toward ex- ploraton or mapping.

Meteorology

Of the three major foci of the First Inter- national Polar Year only one, the meteorological program, falls properly within the realm of geography. Observations at all stations were synchronized by adopting a standard time, namely that of Gbttingen. Only one station, the Norwegian station at Bossekop, was within reach of a telegraph station; hence in every other case time keeping was based on regular, precise astronomical observations.

All the stations carried out an identical range of "obligatory" observations. Every hour atmospheric pressure and temperature, relative humidity, water vapor tension, and wind speed and direction were recorded. Every four hours cloud amount and type, di-



474 Barr

rection of cloud movement, and type of precipitation (if any) were observed. Total hours of sunshine and amount of precipitation were recorded daily. Soil temperatures were also measured every four hours: the number of sensors and their depths were variable. Thus the French at Bahia Orange took only two measurements, at depths of 15 and 30 cm; the Austrians on Jan Mayen at seven depths down to 1.56 m.

In at least three cases satellite weather stations were set up in order to combat the problem of a local topography that produced a distorted picture of the wind regime. At the German station on Clearwater Fiord it was suspected that the deep narrow valley at whose mouth the station lay would influence wind readings; hence a flagstaff was erected on a rocky hilltop some 200 m higher, immediately west of the station (Neumayer 1891; Barr and Tolley 1982). Flying from the staff was a long pennant, visible from the station, which could be viewed with a telescope to determine the wind direction. A screen containing barometer, thermometer, and hy- grometer was fastened to the base of the staff; these were read daily by one of the off- duty scientists.

At Kapp Thordsen Dr. Ekholm of the Swedish expedition anticipated a similar problem, as the station was masked by high hills on the north side. The solution was to erect an anemometer and a wind vane on a summit some 500 m northwest of the station and 175 m above it. In a somewhat more so- phisticated arrangement than that used by the Germans, these instruments were linked by electric cables to the station and regis- tered on dials within the station building (Ek- holm 1887). The Americans at Fort Conger operated a similar remote-reading satellite station on Dutch Island 2.5 km south of the main station (Greely 1888).

The types of optional observations carried out by the various expeditions are well illustrated by those pursued by the French party at Bahia Orange. These included studies of lapse rates (with a second station at 430 m), atmospheric electricity, evaporation rates, and solar radiation (Lephay 1885). Lephay's experiments in this last area are of particular interest, as they were especially novel and imaginative. For his measurements he con- structed a pyro-heliometer on the outward

voyage. It took the form of a low, brass, water- filled cylinder, one face of which was coated with lamp-black. A thermometer bulb was in- serted into the water through a hole in the opposite face of the cylinder. The blackened surface was set perpendicular to the sun's rays and the thermometer recorded the heating and cooling of the water. From a wide range of readings Lephay was able to calcu- late the "solar constant" which he measured at 2.172 langleys per minute.

To place the observing program in per- spective one has to remember the small numbers of men involved at many stations (e.g., only four at Fort Rae) and the large number of man-hours simultaneously absorbed by the auroral and magnetic programs. The latter was particularly demanding on the "term days," designated as the 1st and 15th of every month, when the magnetic variation instruments had to be read every five minutes for 23 hours and every 20 seconds for the final hour of the day. In the light of this demanding schedule one can only be impressed by the vast array of meteorological data that was collected, especially in view of the fact that eight of the stations in the northern hemisphere were north of the Arctic Circle (and the remainder fairly close to it) and therefore experienced extended periods of continuous darkness of varying lengths, with all the attendant difficulties, particularly in view of the lamps available at the time.

One of the Russian observers at Malyye Karmakuly, Krivosheya (1886) has discussed at some length the practical problems and even dangers associated with taking an observation at night with a severe gale blowing and in blinding drifting snow: the distorted temperature readings that would result when thermometers were coated with ice, which could not be removed by hand without com- promising the accuracy of the reading; or the problems of anemometers being incapaci- tated by frozen bearings or even having cups blown off. Krivosheya accused Andreyev, the station leader, of knowingly permitting and even encouraging "fabricated" data to appear on the record sheets when for a number of reasons no legitimate data were available. All of this adds a strong note of realism to this particular account and helps enormously to span the intervening century.

Although the data collected represent the




results of a splendid effort by a (generally) devoted group of scientists and observers, one has to agree with Vize (1932) that the value of those data is really rather limited: the spacing of the stations was simply too wide to permit the compilation of an overall picture of atmospheric dynamics during the year. On the other hand they do represent a start. For one year at least we have a complete array of data for a series of polar sites for which no data were previously available. The final reports of the various expeditions present all the raw data of the hourly observations plus some syntheses of monthly means, maxima, and minima, in some cases graphically. Though one year's data clearly possess statistical limitations, they provide at least some inkling of weather conditions a century ago and, if handled with caution, might be used as the basis for some comparative studies with the present situation.

One of the more impressive analyses to emerge from the International Polar Year was Koch's study, made during his winter at Nain, of the sequence of events associated with the passage of a depression across the Labrador coast. The study was based on readings taken every half hour during a number of storms (Koch 1891). Koch reported that the approach of such a winter storm was usually preceded by parhelia or halos around sun or moon; then a veil of cirrus would move in from the south or southwest. The pressure would begin to drop rapidly, often by 2 mm of mer- cury or more per hour. The temperature would rise dramatically, sometimes by as much as 300C over the course of a day, and often approaching the freezing point. Com- monly a calm would prevail on the front side of a low, with heavy snowfall; but usually an east wind would rise, strengthening and veering to southeast or south as the pressure dropped. This would continue until the barometer reached its minimum, to be followed by a calm for an hour or two. As the pressure began to rise a strong westerly wind would spring up, quickly strengthening to gale force with gusts that shook the building. The temperature meanwhile would plummet, while the air was so filled with whirling ice needles that it was impossible to tell whether it was snowing or just blowing snow.

Considerable progress had been made in synoptic-statistical studies a decade earlier

by Ley (1872) and by Loomis (1874), yet neither of them could match this description by Koch of the sequence of events during the passage of a winter cyclone. Indeed it could scarcely be bettered.

Glaciology

Another area of the physical environment investigated (although not in any great depth) by two expeditions that had the opportunity to do so, was glaciology. Both the Austrians on Jan Mayen (Wohigemuth 1886) and the Germans on South Georgia (Schrader 1891) made some attempts at measuring surface flow velocities. The Austrians made measurements over the course of the year on four glaciers on Jan Mayen and determined that their respective velocities varied between 0.0 and 6.25 m per day. On South Georgia measurements of the velocity of the Ross Glacier were made from 7 February until 10 July 1883. Two surveyed boulders on the glacier surface were found to be moving at rates of 0.344 and 0.416 m per day.

Geomorphology

In general, geomorphology was an area that tended to be neglected by the scientists of the International Polar Year. Those expedition reports that do include a discussion of geology (e.g., those from the French station at Bahia Orange and from the German station on Baffin Island) tend to focus almost exclu- sively on petrography. Indeed, some of the most interesting observations on the geomorphology of the various areas visited are to be found in almost casual comments hidden in the various accounts.

An excellent example is provided by some remarks by Dr. Koch, who, during his visit to Rama on the Labrador coast, climbed a mountain 785 m high behind the mission.

Very striking was the enormous degree of shat- tering displayed by the rocks of the summit on which I stood. While the mountains and hills farther south around Nain, Hoffenthal [Hopedale] etc. all displayed rounded domes and smoothed faces, here one encounters only shattered, frost- riven rocks, similar to those on the highest sum- mits of the Alps. Somewhat lower, towards the valley, however, indisputable traces of glacier



476 Barr

activity are again displayed, although they are not present with the same degree of clarity as in the more southerly parts of Labrador. When climbing Johannes [a mountain 700-800 m high] near Hebron I noticed something similar; the lower areas and the mid-altitudes displayed here, as everywhere else, roche moutonn6e forms. By contrast there was nothing clearly of this sort to be seen on the summit dome of Johannes (c 725 m). Hence, as is quite natural, it seems that the higher elevations, above 600-700 m, were not covered by ice, and that in this mountain area east of Ungava Bay only local glaciers existed (Koch 1891, 158). Some 80 years later this striking difference

between the lower and upper slopes of the Torngat Mountains, whereby the upper slopes mantled with extensive felsenmeer de- bris are separated from the glacially smoothed bedrock outcrops of the lower slopes by lateral moraines, kame terraces, and in many places a distinct trim-line, became the subject of intensive investigation by a number of geomorphologists, especially Ives (1958, 1960). Their conclusions basically confirm Koch's deductions.

In a similar manner, during his travels around the Lena delta, Dr. Bunge made a number of extremely astute observations, particularly with regard to the various periglacial phenomena so typical of that delta. For example Bunge (1895, 35) stated:

The tundra everywhere in the delta appears to be divided into a large number of irregular polygons of varying sizes; the sides of these polygons are higher than their centers. Between the sides of two adjacent polygons runs a narrow furrow which serves as a runway for lemmings and young ducklings. This furrow coincides with a crack penetrating deep into the earth and filled with ice. Due to the fact that water is constantly penetrating into these cracks and freezing there, they become steadily wider. . . . Loud cracks from the ground, especially in the fall when the cold is intensifying, indicate that the formation of these cracks is constantly continuing.

In this accurate, if sketchy, description of tundra polygons, Bunge anticipated by almost 80 years the conclusions as to their origin so elegantly and convincingly researched by Lachenbruch (1962).

On another occasion, on the exposed mainland coast just south of Mys Bykovskiy (near Tiksi), Bunge described a typical example of rapid coastal retreat caused by thermal abrasion of cliffs developed in ice- rich sediments containing massive ground- ice bodies. He described clearly the heaps of

ice-rubble lying on the beach below, the product of the undercutting and collapse of blocks isolated by differential melting of ice wedges. It is evident, however, that he did not examine these blocks carefully, for he in- sisted that although they looked like blocks of ice they were in fact simply blocks of min- eral material with the remnants of wedge ice clinging to every face.

Equally interesting are Bunge's (1895) description and discussion of the pingos (bulgun'yaki), which are such a prominent feature of the southwestern corner of the Lena delta. He writes:

Here in the western part of the delta, especially near Turakh, they are very common and consid- erably eased the task of surveying my route. They are earthen or sandy hills, lying totally isolated and rising surprisingly high above the tundra; they are covered by a somewhat different vegetation from their surroundings. The height of Orto-Toebe bulgun'yak, although not very accurately measured, was 70 feet 9 inches. It is of particular interest in that it displays a profile, thanks to which one can see the interior struc- ture of the bulgun'yak. A river flowing right at the foot of the hill is progressively eroding it. Thanks to this profile one can see that the ice here is formed just as on the slopes of Tumys- Bykova [the coastal exposure discussed above, W.B.], only on a much smaller scale. The bulk of the hill consists of sand which lies in beds dip- ping from south-southeast to north-northwest. Towards the northwest similarly stratified earth masses abut onto the sand. The sand here does not contain any organic remains which one can distinguish with the naked eye, as is generally true of the enormous masses of sand lying in the delta.... The origin of the bulgan'yaki may be explained in various ways. It seems most likely to me that they are the remnants of larger elevations the bulk of which has been removed by water over the course of time. This suggestion appears to be confirmed by the vegetation oc- curring here; [on the bulgun'yak] I saw a Poten- tilla which I found [elsewhere] only on the hill ranges of the northwestern part of the delta and at Tumys-Bykova, and one species of Pedicularis which is not encountered at all in the area surrounding the bulgun'yaki. Their peculiar struc- ture and the presence of freshwater algae con- tained in the earth [above the sands] force one, without any doubt, to recognize that they were actually deposited in water (Bunge 1895, 64).

Here again Bunge's description of the form is strikingly accurate and detailed, but his ex- planation of process falls short. The fact that he failed to recognize the exposed ice as part of a massive ice-body, but again assumed it to be a veneer of ice, helps to explain his mis-




take. These are in all probability "closed- system" pingos, identical to those of the Tuk- toyaktuk Peninsula near the Mackenzie delta. Like them, they are almost certainly the product of permafrost encroachment into the talik located beneath a lake, following the drainage of the lake, as has been thoroughly researched by Mackay (1962, 1972b, 1973) and to a lesser degree by Muller (1959).

Phytogeography

Trained botanists accompanied several of the expeditions and in other cases perceptive observers made useful collections and observations; hence the contribution of the In- ternational Polar Year in terms of phytogeography is considerable. For example Ambronn (1890) wrote an extremely thorough article on the tundra vegetation around the German station at Clearwater Fiord, stressing environ- mental controls and responses and recording some very detailed measurements of annual growth rates (shoot length and diameter) of a whole range of species. In a similar general discussion of the vegetation of South Georgia, Will (1890) has written probably the most comprehensive early account of the tus- sock-grass (Poa flabellata) community so typical of the subantarctic islands.

With regard to the Bahia Orange area the official report of the French expedition contains an entire volume (Mission scientifique a Cap Horn 1882-1883 1889) on various specialized aspects of the botany. Taken as a whole, it is a remarkable pioneer compen- dium of information on the phytogeography of this raw, damp, gale-swept area. At the other end of the Americas, despite his comment that "the botanical collection of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition was made under many disadvantages, as there was no officer able to identify more than half a dozen species of Arctic plants" (Greely 1888, Vol. 2, p. 11), Greely managed to accumulate a collection of more than 60 species, which he somehow managed to retain throughout the ordeal on Pim Island. Of particular interest are his comments on the early dates of blooming around Lady Franklin Bay; for example, Saxifraga oppositifolia was found in full bloom on 1 June 1882, and some 20 species were in bloom by 21 June. These com-

ments have since been substantiated by later scientists, who have confirmed that the growing period is unusually long and the summer temperatures unusually high for the latitude in the Lady Franklin Bay-Lake Hazen area.

Sea Ice Studies

Because the majority of the expeditions traveled to their destinations by sea, it is not surprising that many of them contributed observations (varying in detail) on sea ice conditions. For example, Lieutenant Ray and his men at Point Barrow were able to observe the vagaries of the sea ice off that coast almost throughout their two-year sojourn. The expedition's departure had to be rushed because of ice packing in against the coast. As proof of the hazards this could entail, the station provided a refuge to the crew of the whaling ship North Star (Captain Owen) out of New Bedford, after it was crushed nearby in June 1882 (Ray 1885).

The experiences of the Greely expedition added a great deal to knowledge of ice conditions in Smith Sound/Kane Basin, but it is also true that those ice conditions contributed to the disaster the expedition experienced. Unusually open ice conditions, which permitted Proteus to push north without dif- ficulty to her destination at Lady Franklin Bay in the summer of 1881, must have lulled Greely into a false sense of security with regard to summer ice conditions in these waters. The next two summers were probably more typical, resulting in Neptune being unable to get beyond Pim Island in 1882 and leading to Proteus being crushed in Kane Basin in the summer of 1883. Furthermore, later that fall, the very heavy but mobile pack ice in Kane Basin/Smith Sound prevented Greely and his party from reaching a depot on the Greenland coast or the assistance of the Eskimos at Etah, and thus condemned them to their agony of starvation on Pim Island.

Without any doubt, however, the Dutch expedition was able to make the most thorough scientific observations on the nature and behavior of ice. There had of course been nu- merous previous examples of drifts by exploration vessels beset in the ice. Terror under Captain George Back in Foxe Channel and Hudson Strait in 1835-36 (Back 1838); Ad-



478 Barr

Vance and Rescue in 1850-51 in Wellington Channel, Lancaster Sound, and Baffin Bay (Kane 1854); Fox under Captain McClintock in Baffin Bay (1857-58) (McClintock 1859); Hansa in the East Greenland Current in 1869- 70 (Koldewey 1874); Tegetthoff in the northern Barents Sea in 1872-74 (Payer 1876); and Jeannette in the seas north of Eastern Siberia (De Long 1884) immediately come to mind. Many of these ships carried scientists, and the accounts of all contain extremely valuable data on sea ice and its behavior. What distinguishes the Varna expedition is the fact that, like Nansen's drift aboard Fram across the Arctic Basin (Nansen 1897), it was primarily a scientific expedition and the detail and precision of the sea ice observations reflect this distinction.

The drift of the ship with the ice, determined as frequently as possible by Lieutenant Lamie from celestial observations, provided very useful data on the pattern of ice drift in the Kara Sea during that particular winter (Fig. 6). An analysis was also made (Van Ev- erdingen 1910) of the relationship between ice-drift velocity and direction and wind velocity and direction. For almost the entire period of the drift a close correlation between wind velocity and ice drift velocity was established, with the direction of drift deviating by various amounts to the right of the wind direction. The striking exception in each case came in April 1883, when the drift direction changed so dramatically from south-north to northeast-southwest. Van Everdingen as- cribed this change to the influence of a current bearing the discharge of the Ob' and Yenisey westward past the tip of Poluostrov Yamal.

Whatever the cause of this change in the drift direction, its occurrence was extremely fortunate for the members of the Dutch and Danish expeditions, as the new drift direction carried them back toward Karskiye Vorota and eventual safety. Exactly thirty years later another expedition was not so fortunate: Svya- taya Anna, the ship Lieutenant G. L. Brusilov was planning to take through the Northeast Passage, became jammed in the ice west of Poluostrov Yamal in October 1912 (Barr 1975, 1978). As with Varna, she began drifting north, but in her case there was no dramatic change in drift direction. She continued her northward drift through the winter of 1912-

13, the summer of 1913, and then the following winter. By then she had entered the Arctic Basin and had begun to swing west, north of Zemlya Frantsa losifa. Here in the spring of 1914, 11 of her crew, led by the second-in-command V. 1. Al'banov, left the ship to sledge south to Zemlya Frantsa losifa. Of this group two men survived. To this day the fate of the ship and the 10 people who stayed aboard her is unknown.

Apart from the ice drift studies, careful observations were also made aboard Varna of initial ice formation, fracturing, and rafting and the behavior of pressure ridges. Ice thick- nesses were also measured regularly: for example, it was found that the maximum thick- ness attained by unrafted one-year ice was 1.77 m (Snellen and Ekama 1910). The progress of ablation from the ice surface in spring and summer was also carefully recorded. This was dramatically demonstrated by the relative elevation of the hut (Fig. 8), to the extent that stairs and banisters had to be built in order to reach the door. By the end of the melt, 1.14 m of ice had ablated from the surface in the vicinity of the hut.

Oceanography

Forty-six profiles of water temperature and density were compiled during Varna's drift, extending from surface to sea bed (Snellen and Ekama 1910). The maximum depth reached was 227 m, but the average varied between 90 and 150 m. Perhaps the most in- triguing aspect of water temperatures was the occurrence of negative temperatures at the sea bed throughout the year, varying between -0.8 and -1.8oC. Although no comment was made on this phenomenon by the Dutch scientists, this in fact provides clear proof of the occurrence of submarine permafrost throughout this area of the Kara Sea. It is interesting to note that the concept of submarine permafrost has begun to be discussed by scientists only within the past 25 years (e.g., Baranov 1959); it is noteworthy, too, that Bar- anov's map of permafrost distribution under the Arctic seas does not indicate it as occur- ring beneath the Kara Sea. In North America the earliest discussions of submarine permafrost are even more recent (e.g., Shearer et al. 1971; Mackay 1972a, 1972b). But in




.~~

Figure 8. The hut built by the Dutch expedition on the sea ice at the height of the melt season. Note effects of differential ablation (Snellen 1886).

point of fact it was first recorded, although not recognized, by the men of the Varna expedition a century ago.

The contribution made to oceanography by the Dutch expedition was surpassed only by that of the French expedition to Cabo de Hornos. As previously mentioned, the expedition ship Romanche devoted the entire year to survey and oceanographic work amidst the reefs, channels, and fiords of the Tierra del Fuego area, but especially the area south of Canal Beagle (Martial 1888). Apart from basic survey and sounding data, Martial and his men accumulated a vast array of data on water temperatures, salinities, currents, and tides. Theirs was a major addition to the knowledge of this little-known area. Nor did Romanche's oceanographic work end when she left the waters of Tierra del Fuego. Her program of soundings was continued on the homeward voyage. On 11 October 1883, using almost every available cable and line on board, Martial managed to plumb the depths of the Romanche Trench, a slot-like cleft cut- ting the Mid-Atlantic Ridge almost exactly on the Equator to the northwest of Ascension. The depth recorded was 7,370 m (Baker 1982); its official depth is now 7,684 m.

Human Geography

Definitely the major emphasis of the First International Polar Year was on various aspects of the physical environment; nonethe-

less, some of the expeditions made significant contributions in the realms of anthro- pology and human geography. In two cases trained ethnographers were included among the expedition personnel, and these two scientists made extremely valuable pioneer studies of two widely differing indigenous groups.

At Point Barrow J. Murdoch (1892) made a thorough study of the Eskimo among whom he and his companions lived and worked for two years. The result is the first detailed picture of the people of the North Slope, the reference base line for all later studies. Despite a heavy emphasis on the material culture, Murdoch also investigated everything from hunting methods to social life, music, and methods of government. The result is one of the most important and earliest studies of any Eskimo group.

In the case of the French expedition to Bahia Orange, the anthropological observer was the medical doctor, Dr. Hyades. Along with J. Deniker, he produced a monumental, superbly illustrated work on the Yahgan In- dians, the sea-oriented aborigines of the islands south of Tierra del Fuego (Hyades and Deniker 1891). There is an extraordinarily heavy stress in their report on physical an- thropology, particularly anatomical and phys- iological details, but an extensive section is devoted to life styles, hunting, fishing (Fig. 9), and the impact of civilization. The authors also reported at length on the Yahgan language and included an extensive vocabulary.



480 Barr

Figure 9. Hyades' photo of a Yahgan Indian about to hurl his fish spear (Hyades and Deniker 1891).

It should be noted, however, that the Rev- erend Bridges of Ushuaia provided vital assistance to Hyades in his ethnographic and linguistic studies. Particularly in that there is now only a handful of Yahgans of mixed blood surviving, mainly on Isla Navarino, this early and thorough study of this people is extremely valuable.

Although none of the other expeditions included full-time ethnographers among its personnel, in several cases perceptive, well- informed scientists were able to make extremely valuable pioneer studies. The prime example is the study by H. Abbes, an observer at the German station on Clearwater Fiord, of the Inuit of Cumberland Sound (Abbes 1884, 1890). As far as is known, this was the first time Abbes had encountered Inuit, and one suspects that he had had some ethnographic training; his observations on hunting techniques, life-styles, and attitudes are amaz- ingly detailed and perceptive, as are his sketches (Fig. 10). Thus far, Franz Boas has generally been acclaimed as the pioneer re- searcher studying the Inuit of the Eastern Ca- nadian Arctic, on the basis of various articles and reports (e.g., Boas 1887, 1888). But Boas

Figure 10. Abbes' sketches of a selection of harpoons and lances used by the Inuit of Cumberland Sound (Abbes 1890).




arrived in the Arctic on board Germania in 1883, when she was on her way to evacuate Abbes and his companions. Thus Abbes's studies predate those of Boas by one year.

Thanks to Dr. Robert Koch (1891), we have also been provided with some fascinating early insights into the status, lifestyle, and problems of the Inuit of the Labrador coast. He discussed in detail their annual cycle of seal hunting, caribou hunting, char fishing, and cod jigging and also the very important influence the missionaries had exerted on this segment of the Inuit population, whether expressed in terms of their achievement of almost complete literacy or of the inculcation of a passion for instrumental music, which still survives and flourishes. Koch stressed in particular that the numbers of the Labrador Inuit were declining drastically owing to in- fectious diseases, and especially to an alarm- ingly high rate of infant mortality. He seri- ously predicted that the extinction of this group of Inuit was imminent, a prediction that fortunately was far off the mark.

Both Russian expeditions also contributed very useful data on the peoples of their respective areas, although these observations were not made by trained ethnographers or geographers. In the expedition to Novaya Zemlya, the observer was Krivosheya, a student of zoology (Krivosheya 1886). The indigenous people with whom he came in contact were Nentsy, but it is interesting to note that they had been resident on the island for only a short time. Krivosheya reported the total population of Novaya Zemlya to be only 40 people, all of whom had arrived within the previous 11 years. Most (six families) had come with Lieutenant Ye. A. Tyagin, when he established the refuge station at Malyye Kar- nakuly in 1878. Indeed this population represented the outcome of a deliberate government policy of relocation of Nentsy on Novaya Zemlya to buttress Russian claims to sover- eignty in the face of inroads by Norwegian hunters and trappers. Most of the Nenets set- tlers were reindeer herders from the Bol'shezemel'skaya Tundra (east of the Pe- chora), who had adjusted to hunting and trapping for a livelihood. Krivosheya's observations on modes of travel, types of clothing, hunting techniques, and a wealth of other topics provide a very useful insight into this relocated Nenets group at a crucial stage in its history.

In the case of the expedition to the Lena delta the observations on the indigenous people were contributed mainly by Bunge (1895). Two groups were involved here, the Yakuts and the original Evenk inhabitants. Bunge stressed, however, that with intermar- riage and the adoption of the Yakut language by the Evenki the distinctions between them had already become extremely blurred. But as a general rule the Yakuts were more sed- entary, traveled by dog sledge, and de- pended on hunting, trapping, and fishing. The Evenki, by contrast, were much more mobile and almost without exception were no- madic reindeer herders. Even though the Russians had first reached the Lena delta some 250 years previously, it still represented an extremely remote corner of the Empire and Bunge's comments were of great value to both scientists and administrators in St. Petersburg. His observations of the drastic impacts, both cultural and economic, of the Russians on both native groups are particularly informative and were tragically under- lined by the smallpox epidemic that swept down the Lena in the fall of 1883, wiping out entire camps and settlements. By enforcing a strict policy of isolation, Dr. Bunge was able to save the population of Tumat, the Yakut village near the station, but few other com- munities were so fortunate.

Conclusion

There can be no doubt that the widely publicized rescue expedition sent to investigate the fate of Greely's party, and even more so the news of the tragic wintering by Greely and his men on Pim Island, overshadowed the events and achievements of all the other expeditions of the First International Polar Year. Although each expedition published a final report, these documents are written in four different languages, and popular accounts and specialized scientific articles originating from the expeditions raise this total to at least six. As a result of this combination of factors, the full scope of the First International Polar Year has tended to be almost completely overlooked. From the viewpoint of the geographer alone, even a cursory examination of its achievements, such as this article, reveals a rich source of basic information on the polar regions, with respect to meteorology in



482 Barr

particular, but also in terms of exploration and survey, geomorphology, phytogeography, sea ice studies, physical oceanography, and human geography. Thus far these resources have remained largely untapped.

Acknowledgments

The research on which this article is based was made possible by the granting of a sabbatical leave by the University of Saskatchewan. I am also deeply indebted to the staffs of the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, and of the Depart- ment of Geography and the Baker Library, both of Dartmouth College, for their warm hospitality and unstinting assistance. My sincere thanks are also due to Walter Kupsch, University of Saskatchewan, and to Mrs. Bente West of Norwich, Vermont, for their generous help in translating from Dutch and Danish sources respectively. Finally, I wish to thank Trevor Lloyd of Ottawa for his help in locating ob- scure Danish sources, and Brenton Barr of the Uni- versity of Calgary for similar help with some of the Russian materials.

References

Abbes, H. 1884. The German north polar expedition to Cumberland Sound. Globus 45:294-98, 312-15, 328-31, 343-45, 365-68.

. 1890. The Eskimos of Cumberland Sound. In Die internationale Polarforschung 1882- 1883. Die Deutschen Expeditionen und ihre Er- gebnisse, Band II, ed. G. Neumayer, pp. 1-61. Berlin: A. Asher & Co.

Ambronn, H. 1890. General remarks on the vegetation at Kingua Fiord. In Die internationale Po- larforschung 1882-1883. Die Deutschen Ex- peditionen und ihre Ergebnisse, Band II, ed. G. Neumayer, pp. 61-74. Berlin: A. Asher & Co.

Back, G. 1838. Narrative of an expedition in H.M.S. Terror undertaken with a view to geographical discovery on the arctic shores in the years 1836-37. London: John Murray.

Baker, F. W. G. 1982. The First International Polar Year, 1882-83. Polar Record 21:275-85.

Baranov, 1. Ya. 1959. Geographical distribution of seasonally frozen ground and permafrost. In Osnovy geokriologii (merzlotovedeniya). Chast' pervaya, Obshchaya geokriologiya, pp. 1-72. Moscow: lzdatel'stvo AN SSSR.

Barr, W. 1975. South to Zemlya Frantsa losifa! The cruise of Svyataya Anna and Al'banov's sledge journey. Canadian Slavonic Papers 17:567-95.

. 1978. The drift of Lieutenant Brusilov's Svyataya Anna, 1912-1914. The Musk-Ox 22:3-30.

Barr, W., and Tolley, C. 1982. The German expedition at Clearwater Fiord, 1882-83. The Beaver 313:36-45.

Boas, F. 1887. A year among the Eskimo. Bulletin

of the American Geographical Society of New York 19:383-402.

. 1888. The Central Eskimo. United States Bureau of American Ethnology, 6th Annual Re- port, pp. 399-669. Washington: U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office.

Bunge, A. 1895. A description of a voyage to the mouth of the Lena. Appendix to Trudy russkoy polyarnoy stantsii na ust'ye Leny. Chast' I. As- tronomicheskiye i magnitniye nablyudeniya za 1882-1884 g, ed. A. A. Tillo, pp. 1-96. St. Pe- tersburg: Imperatorskoye Russkoye Geografi- cheskoye Obshchestvo.

Chavanne, J. 1884. Jan Mayen und die osterei- chische arktische Beobachtungstation. Wien: A. Hartleben.

Dawson, H. P. 1886. Observations of the Interna- tional Polar Expeditions, Fort Rae. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode for Trubner and Co.

De Long, E., ed. 1884. The ship and ice journals of George W. De Long. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co.

Ekholm, N. G. 1887. Observations faites au Cap Thordsen, Spitzberg par l'exp6dition suedoise. Stockholm: L'Academie Royale des Sciences de Suede.

Fitzroy, R., ed. 1839. Narrative of the surveying voy- ages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, de- scribing their examination of the southern shores of South America and the Beagle's cir- cumnavigation of the globe. London: H. Colburn.

Greely, A. W. 1886. Three years of arctic service: an account of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition of 1881-84. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.

. 1888. Report on the proceedings of the United States expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Grinevetskiy, L. F. 1883. Across Novaya Zemlya. lz- vestiya lmperatorskago Russkago Geografi- cheskago Obshchestva 19:265-91.

Headland, R. K. 1982. The German station of the first International Polar Year, 1882-83, at South Georgia. Polar Record 21:287-91.

Heathcote, N. H. de V., and Armitage, A. 1959. The First International Polar Year. Annals of the In- ternational Geophysical Year 1:6-99.

Hovgaard, A. P. 1884. Dijmphna-expeditionen 1882-83. K0benhavn: Forlagsbureauet i Kj0b- enhaven.

Hyades, P., and Deniker, J. 1891. Anthropologie, ethnographie. Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, Tome VII. Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils.

Ives, J. D. 1958. Mountain-top detritus and the extent of the last major glaciation in northeastern Labrador-Ungava. Canadian Geographer 12:25-31.

. 1960. The deglaciation of Labrador-Un- gava-an outline. Cahiers de Geographie de Quebec 8:323-43.

Jurgens, N. D. 1885. The expedition to the mouth of the Lena. Izvestiya Imperatorskago Rus- skago Geograficheskago Obshchestva 21: 249-302.




Kane, E. K. 1854. The U.S. Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. A personal narrative. New York: Harper and Bros.

Kjellman, F. R. 1875. Svenska polar-expedition cr 1872-1873 under ledning af A. E. Norden- skiold. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt.

Koch, K. R. 1891. History of the supplementary expedition under K. R. Koch to Labrador. In Die Deutschen Expeditionen und ihre Ergebnisse, Band I, Geschichtlicher Theil, ed. G. Neumayer, pp. 145-88. Berlin: A. Asher & Co.

Koldewey, K. 1874. The German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70, and narrative of the wreck of the "Hansa" in the ice. S. Low, Marston, Low, and Searle.

Krivosheya, N. 1886. Novaya Zemlya. Travel notes from the polar expedition of 1882-83. Vestnik Yevropy 4:75-125, 469-514.

Lachenbruch, A. H. 1962. Mechanics of thermal contraction cracks and ice-wedge polygons in permafrost. Geological Society of America Special Paper 70, Boulder, Colo.

Lents, R. E. ed. 1891. Trudy Russkoy polyarnoy stantsii na Novoy Zemle. Chast' I. Magnitnyya nablyudeniya obrabotannyya K. P. Andrey- evym. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskoye Rus- skoye Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo.

Lemstrom, S., and Biese, E., eds. 1886. Observa- tions faites aux stations de Sodankyla et de Kultala. Helsingfors: L'Imprimerie des Hdritiers de Simelius.

Lephay, J. 1885. Meteorologie. Mission scientifique du Cap Horn 1882-1883, Tome II. Paris: Gau- thier Villars.

Ley, C. 1872. The laws of the winds prevailing in Western Europe, Part /. London: E. Stanford.

Loomis, E. 1874. Results derived from examination of the United States weather maps for 1872 and 1873. American Journal of Science, 3rd Series 8:3-23.

Mackay, J. R. 1962. Pingos of the Pleistocene Mackenzie Delta area. Geographical Bulletin 18:21-63.

. 1972a. Offshore permafrost and ground ice, southern Beaufort Sea, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 8:1550-61.

. 1972b. The world of underground ice. An- nals of the Association of American Geogra- phers 62:1-22.

. 1973. The growth of pingos, western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sci- ences 10:979-1004.

Martial, L.-F. 1888. Histoire du voyage. Mission scientifique du Cap Horn 1882-1883, Tome I. Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils.

M'Clintock, F. L. 1859. The voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic seas: a narrative of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions. London: J. Murray.

Mission scientifique a Cap Horn 1882-1883. 1889. Vol. 5, Botanique. Paris: Gauthier Villars.

Mittheilungen der Internationalen Polar-Commis- sion. 1 882a. Mittheilungen der Internationalen Polar-Commission 2:74.

1882b. Mittheilungen der Internationalen Polar-Commission 1:19-20.

Muller, F. 1959. Observations on pingos. Medde- lelser om Gr0nland 153:1-127.

Murdoch, J. 1892. Ethnological results of the Point Barrow Expedition. United States Bureau of American Ethnology, 9th Annual Report 3-441. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Nansen, F. 1897. Farthest north: being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Fram" 1893-96 and of fifteen months' sleigh journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen. New York: Harper & Bros.

Nares, G. S. 1878. Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-76 in H.M. ships "Alert" and "Discovery." London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Revington.

Neumayer, G. ed. 1891. Die Internationale Polar- forschung 1882-1883. Die deutschen Expedi- tionen und ihre Ergebnisse, Band I. Geschicht- licher Theil. Berlin: A. Asher & Co.

Paulsen, A. 1893. Exp6dition danoise. Observa- tions faites a Godthaab. Copenhague: L'Institut Meteorologique de Danemark.

Payer, J. 1876. Die Osterreichisch-ungarische Nordpol-Expedition in den Jahren 1872-74. Wien: A. Holder.

Payer, J., and Weyprecht, K. 1875. The Austro-Hun- garian polar expedition of 1872-74. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 45:1-33.

Ray, P. H., ed. 1885. Report of the International Polar expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Ryder, C. H. 1885. De internationale Polarstationer 1882-1883. Tidsskrift for S0vaesen 18:124-46.

Shearer, J. M., McNab, R. F., Pelletier, B. R., and Smith, T. B. 1971. Submarine pingos in the Beaufort Sea. Science 174:816-18.

Schrader, K. 1891. The expedition to Moltke Har- bour on South Georgia, its progress and return. In Die internationale Polarforschung 1882- 1883. Die deutschen Expeditionen und ihre Er- gebnisse, Band I. Geschichtlicher Theil, ed. G. Neumayer, pp. 91-144. Berlin: A. Ascher & Co.

Snellen, M. 1886. De Nederlandsche Pool-Expeditie 1882-1883. Utrecht: L. E. Bosch en Zoom.

Snellen, M., and Ekama, H. 1910. Rapport sur l'Ex- p6dition N6erlandaise qui a hivern6 dans Ia Mer de Kara en 1882183. Utrecht: J. Van Boek- hoven.

Steen, A. S. 1887. Die internationale Polarfor- schung, 1882-1883. Beobachtungs-Ergeb- nisse der Norwegischen Polarstation Bossekop in Alten. Christiania: Grondahl & Son.

Stjernspetz, H. 1887. Geographical reconnais- sance. In Observations faites au Cap Thordsen, Spitzberg par l'exp6dition su6doise, ed. N. G. Ekholm, pp. 53-55. Stockholm: L'Academie Royale des Sciences de Suede.

Tromholt, S. 1885. Under nordlysets straaler. Skild- ringer fra lappernes land. K0benhavn.

Van Everdingen, E. 1910. Relationship between wind and ice drift in the Kara Sea. In Rapport sur I'Exp6dition N6erlandaise qui a hivern6 dans Ia Mer de Kara en 1882183, ed. M. Snellen and H. Ekama, pp. 139-41. Utrecht: J. Van Boekhoven.



484 Barr

Vize, V. Yu. 1932. Mezhdunarodnyy polyarnyy god. Leningrad: lzdatel'stvo Vsesoyuznogo arkti- cheskogo instituta.

Wild, H. 1882. History of Weyprecht's proposal for international polar scientific research. Mitthei- lungen der Internationalen Polar-Commission 1:1-12.

Will, H. 1890. Vegetation conditions on South

Georgia. In Die internationale Polarforschung 1882-1883. Die Deutschen Expeditionen und ihre Ergebnisse, Band II, ed. G. Neumayer, pp. 172-93. Berlin: A. Asher & Co.

Wohigemuth, E. E. 1886. Die Internationale Polar- forschung 1882-1883. Die Osterreichische Po- larstation Jan Mayen, Band /. Wien: Die Kais- erlich-Konigliche Hof und Staatsdruckerei.



Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883

Documents

Transcript of Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883