Russian Explorers Believed Lost

1916

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada — Two small Russian expeditions which have been missing in polar regions have been given up as apparently lost by the Russian government. Canada has been asked by Russia to make public the fact that these two exploration parties, sent out by the Archangel Society in 1912 for the study of conditions in the Russian far north, have not been heard from in four years. The expeditions were headed by K. A. Russanoff and Lieutenant Brusiloff.

The Russanoff party left Spitzbergen in the motor boat Hercules for Nova Zembla in August, 1912. That headed by Brusiloff started north one month later. The latter expedition was not considered adequately equipped.

Hearing nothing from either explorer, the Russian government in March, 1914, dispatched the Norwegian ship Eclipse to the rescue. Eighteen months later the Eclipse returned to Christiania after having been icebound in the Arctic for many months and having learned nothing of the missing men.

Available records do not state the number of men who accompanied the Russanoff and Brusiloff expeditions. It is known Russanoff's party included the oceanographer Kutchin.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Shoots Wild White Duck

1919

LANSDALE, Pennsylvania — Right in the center of the town under the rays of an arc light, Fire Chief John _. Detwiler shot a white duck. The chief was on his way to the firehouse when he saw three snow-white fowls huddling in the center of the street. He saw they were ducks, but thought they were domestic fowls until he took a closer look and found they were wild. Going home he got a 22-caliber rifle and bagged the one.

He thinks they were of an Arctic species.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Note: John's middle initial isn't discernible. It has to be either B, P or R. But I saw another source that, I believe, had it as H. But it's not an H in this particular article.

Big Turnip Grown in Frigid North

1919

22-POUNDER IS PRODUCT OF ARCTIC CIRCLE.

Cabbage Heads That Children Hide Behind Also Claimed for Icy Regions.

OTTAWA, Ont., Canada. — A turnip weighing twenty-two pounds is a monster vegetable when raised anywhere. When raised almost on top of the Arctic circle it is an event.

A turnip weighing exactly that was grown this year in the Hudson Bay Company's garden at Fort Good Hope, a few miles south of the point where the Arctic circle cuts the Mackenzie River.

At Fort Resolution, in the same latitude as the extreme top of Labrador, potatoes as big as cantaloupes were raised which yielded six and a half pounds to the hill. In the mission garden at Hay River cabbages grew so large that a 3-year-old child could hide behind one of the heads. Onions, lettuce, rhubarb, peas and all the other vegetables familiar in gardens of lower latitudes grew in abundance and to great size.

Not All Desolation.

The story of the agricultural possibilities of the Mackenzie River basin brought back by Dr. E. M. Kindle of the Canadian Geological Survey, who spent the summer there, will doubtless surprise those accustomed to think of that part of the world as a region of frozen desolation.

"The Mackenzie River basin as far north as the Arctic circle," said Dr. Kindle, "is a good mixed farming country. There are fine vegetable gardens at every post between Athabasca and Fort Good Hope. The range of vegetables is the same as on down-East farms. Potatoes have been grown at Fort McPherson, within seventy miles of the Arctic Ocean. I ate fine tomatoes ripened in the gardens at Fort Providence, north of Great Slave Lake.

Wheat Grows Well There.

"The northern limit of wheat is a little past the sixty-first parallel. It will not ripen as far north as Fort Simpson, but for years it has been grown successfully at Fort Providence. For fifteen years it has been a good crop at Fort Vermillion, 600 miles north of Edmonton. It is a heavier crop in the Peace River country than in many parts of the southern prairies. The yield of the Peace River Valley, the Grande Prairie and Fort Vermillion districts this year was about 7,000,000 bushels. Barley ripens farther north than wheat. It grows well at all points along the Mackenzie as far north as Fort Norman and has ripened directly on the Arctic circle at Fort Good Hope.

"The explanation of the wonderful crops of the far North is the long days with their almost continuous sunshine. Actual records show that at Fort Simpson there are 570 hours of sunlight in June and only twelve hours less in July. In the four months from May to August there are 2,147 hours of sun, as compared with 1,805 at Ottawa. Nineteen hours of sunshine a day works magic in gardens and fields."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Arctic Adventure to Lure Chicagoan

1915

Millionaire Sportsman Announces He Will Sail From Seattle, Wash., for Far North in April

John Borden, a Chicago sportsman and millionaire, will embark next spring on his third adventure. He went whaling to Bering Sea two years ago. He had his taste of war last summer on the French fighting front in Flanders. Next spring he will cease to be an amateur adventurer and become a professional whaler and fur trader.

Capt. L. L. Lane, a veteran of the Arctic, whaler, trader, and miner, will be his partner in the undertaking.

"We shall buy or build a schooner," said Mr. Borden, "and sail from Seattle, Wash., in April loaded with merchandise for trade among the Eskimos. Capt. Lane will be in charge of the expedition.

"I shall drop off somewhere up north — perhaps at Point Barrow — and return by steamer. Capt. Lane will continue the expedition until the ice drives him out in the fall. He expects, with good luck, to bring back a cargo worth a quarter of a million in United States markets."

Capt. Lane is fresh from the Arctic. He left Herschel island on Sept. 30 and traveled 1,100 miles by dog sled to Cordova. There he took a steamer for Seattle, where he arrived November 21. He brought the latest tidings from Stefansson, who has been in the Arctic two years at the head of the Canadian Government's exploring expedition.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915.

Is There A Planet "Vulcan"?

1900

Among the special observations to be undertaken during the total eclipse of the sun visible in our southern states on May 28th, will be a systematic search, with the aid of photography, for the supposititious planet "Vulcan," revolving around the sun within the orbit of Mercury.

It was thought that this planet had been seen during the eclipse of 1878, but later observations failed to confirm the discovery. Under the direction of Professor Pickering of Harvard, and of Professor Langley, independent efforts will be made to catch "Vulcan," if it exists, on photographic plates.


Musk-Oxen In Europe

Last summer a Norwegian mariner, Captain Gröndahl, succeeded in transporting two young musk-oxen alive from northeastern Greenland to Tromsö. These are said to be the first living specimens of their species ever brought to Europe. It is reported that they are doing well amid their new surroundings.

The musk-ox, next to the white bear, is the largest land mammal inhabiting the Arctic regions. It attains a height of nearly, or quite, four feet, and is clothed by nature to endure extreme cold. During the Arctic summer musk-oxen become very fat from feeding upon the pasturage which grows in every sheltered spot, but in winter their long fasts make them gaunt and thin. — Youth's Companion.

Bird Builds a Nest Inside Frozen Apple

1920

Is Believed to Be Little Visitor From Arctic Regions

COPENHAGEN, N. Y. — All winter a large frozen apple has hung on a limb of a tree in front of Paul Potter's house here. For several weeks Mr. Potter has observed a small, strange bird picking at the apple.

On a recent afternoon he was viewing the apple from his kitchen window when the bird suddenly flew away from it. Mr. Potter was sure the bird had not been behind the apple, but that it came out of the apple.

To prove that he was not mistaken he secured a ladder, placed it against the tree, climbed up to the apple and found the bird had dug out the apple and had made a nest in it. He states that there are three eggs in the nest.

Mr. Potter believes the bird came from the Arctic regions, and is of a species of snowbird never seen in these parts before.

Those Ravenous Eskimos

1916

They Eat and Digest Food That Would Kill an Ordinary Man

We bear much of American dyspepsia, but there is one native race of America that is certainly not troubled in this respect. The Eskimo defies all the laws of hygiene and thrives. He eats until he is satisfied, but is said never to be satisfied while a shred of his feast remains unconsumed. His capacity is limited by the supply and by that only.

The Eskimo cannot make any mistake about the manner of cooking his food, since, as a rule, he does not cook it. Nor, so far as the blubber or fat of the arctic annual is concerned, is the Eskimo concerned about his manner of eating it. Indeed, he may be said not to eat it at all. He cuts it into long strips an inch wide and an inch thick and then lowers the strip down his throat as one might lower a rope into a well.

Despite all this the Eskimo does not suffer from indigestion. He can make a good meal off the flesh and skin of the walrus, provision so hard and gritty that in cutting up the animal the knife must be continually sharpened. The teeth of a little Eskimo child will, it is said by those in a position to know, meet in a bit of walrus skin as the teeth of an American child would meet in the flesh of an apple, although the hide of the walrus is from a half an inch to an inch in thickness and bears considerable resemblance to the hide of an elephant. The Eskimo child will bite it and digest it and never know what dyspepsia means. — Harper's Weekly.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.

Comment: I don't know, do you suppose this article is true? The part about lowering the meat down their throat like lowering a rope down a well. After all, if the children have such good biting abilities, they're obviously adept at using their teeth. So why would the adults simply partake of big strips of meat by lowering it down their throats?