The New York Herald Newspaper, December 2, 1876, Page 6

: , 6 NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1876.-WITH SUPPLEMENT. “THE ARCTIC, | THE LATEST ARCTIC DISCOVERIES. Dr. Isaac I. Hayes Upon the Late British Polar Expedition. THE PALEOCRYSTIC THEORY. nt Unsound Conclusions from Insufficient Premises. LAND-CLINGING ICE BELTS. Achievements end Experience by Captain Nares’ Command. AMERICA’S NORTHERN LIMIT. The Highest Latitude, Lowest Temperature and Longest Night. PREVIOUS EXPEDITIONS. Why an Open Sea Is Probable and the “Pole Practicable. Wrsr Curster, Pa., Noy. 23, 187 To Tre Epitor or THE Henaup:— I have only to-day received here in the country a copy of Nature, containing more full accounts of the British Arctic expedition than have hitherto been published. In an editorial article the magazine, atter congratulating the officers and men on their safo return, says:—‘It will be seen that substantial additions have been made to our knowledge in many direetions, and that the expe- dition must be pronounced a success, True the Pole has not been reached; but this, in the consideration of al) but the mere lovers of sensation, is a small matter; our explorers have done the next best thing to reach- ing tt, they have proved that the Pole was impracti Dio this year from the quarter whence success was most to be expected.” “Proved that the Pole was impracticable this year!”? An admission which 1 am glad to see made by this ex- cellent journal, and one so thoroughly competent to give a correct judgment. Recurring to my recent letters on this subject in the Heratp you will observe that the criticism which I ventured to make, based upon our then imperfect know- ledge, was that the expedition returned too soon to prove that it would be impracticable always, ing the ground that the year of their trial was ex- teptional, There is no evidence that the route would bo impracticable the following year, Indeed, Nature puts the waole matter in a very cloar manner, thus:—"We mention these points [allading to some observations concerning tho winds] simpiy to suggest that the conditions met with by Sur gallant expedition cau bardiy, without further observations, be regarded as the normal one.” AN ABNORMAL SKASOS, This is precisely the point] made in my letters to the Heraiv, The conditions met by the British expedi- tion were, us it seems to me, abnormal, as Nature in- timates, or at least allows. It is stated that “The prevailing wind during the sojourn of the Polaris was from the northeast; this year itis stated scarcely any any easterly wind at all was nouced ; buta strong current and drift set constantly in from the west along the north coast of America.’’ Allof which tends to show how unreliable are the winds in that quarter, a8 !n almost every other, and that, since the ice changes with the impulse of the wind, how uncertain must be the judg- meut based upon a single season's observations. A southerly wind, by no means uncommon even im winter, at the most remote points hitherto reached for winter quarters, might, and wou'd, In all probability, have pushed the ice to the north, sad maybe have scattered it. For this, how- ever, the expedition did not wait; bat the conclusion was promptly reached that, inasmuch as tee of un- usual thickness had been encouptered, which could be penetrated by ship ner traversed with it must necessarily be permanent, and the sea which it covered was accordingly called “the Paleo- .? or, “sea of ancient ice,” extending to the ‘ature concludes, from the reports of the ex- n, that “round toe Pole doubtless there must be ent barricr of impenctrable floe-bergs. for it would bo rificulous to suppose that 150 feet thick tee, of thousands of sqaare miles in extent, is melted and re lormed cvery year.”? mi KOCRYSTIC HYPOTHESIS, This 1s mere hypothesis, and far less rational than the hypothesis of an open sea. There is not suf- bi t evidepce to sustain it, nothing but inter- ence: of course it would be ridiculous to suppose that “100 tect thick ee’? wonld be “melted and reformed every year.” [have explained in my former letters that such ice 13 exceptional, and that it 1s ouly formed by the piling up of table on tavle under beayy pressure, or by the crowding togethor of great floes, causing cnormous ridges to be suddenly piled upto a great altitude, even fifty or sixty feet, making a mighty tamult and presenting a juJime spectacte, These ridges and overlappin tabies, composing fields often miles in diameter, are, | ho icebergs, drifted to and fro, grounding here and there in shoal places, wedging themselves among isiands or becoming locked on the main land, and often detained within certain iimits for many yeurs before being struck by a favorable wind to drive them through channels free from obstructions and sond them, like the icebergs, into the open sea, thero to molt away. Such fleids have been occasionally met with in Bailin’s Bay, Olatsen records that two such “4slands of ice’? have “remained stationary in Disco Bay for half a century,” and states further that “Dutch whalers have visited them and given them names.” They haye lorg since disappeared. The samo thing hus oceurred even on the coast of Tecland, where comparatively little ico is ordinarily seen. They were met by Dr, Kane and myself in Smith Sound, of rather in the extensive expansion of that water which now bears the name of Kane Basin, ICE MOVEMENT, On two different journeys, in 1854 and 1861, I have travelled over them with great labor, 1 was four- teen days in making forty miles, the greater part of it being over just such flelis as those described by tho Briish explorers, Like them, I was often obliged to Dbroak atrack. I had the advantage, however, of hay- ing dogs. The Engiish appear to despise these useful animals, proferring to drag their sledges themselves, Many of the ice fleids crossed by me seemed to be from fiiteento twenty-live feet out of wator, which would give them a total depth or thickness of from 100 to 200 feet, THK PRERZING LIMIT. It was precisely such ice as this, no doubt, that the British expedition encountered, But, jet me right here say, that where I found such ice in 18541 did not Dna it in 1861, and vice verva, Ice does not form any- whore, by direct freezing, more than eighteen fect, goldom that, and the average Arctic ice 1s not above five fect thick. Sheltered places, free from currents are necessary for the formation of ice so thick as the former figure, The greater part of it melts away during the summer, except where the jand holds it fastand keeps it from the current aud the sun. WHR ZOLAR SRA, Now I have always maintained, from the time of my ret experience in Arctic travel with Dr. Kane, that jhe great Polar basin is in effoct a Mediterranean sea— practically an almost continuous coast line investing it, the only broad expanse leading into it from the southern waters being that between Spitzbergen and Nova Zomba, where an extensive land has been dis- covered by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Poyer «md Wevprecht, There is probably no {ree channey Map of the Most Recent Explorations of Smith’s Sound and the Northern Coasts of America and Greenland by the British Polar Expedition. © re | Ne Os » Highest point ri | with sleds Lat, 8320 cape Ul ¥e hekimostiand J + Norther aay : L rium NTER “\ ‘Dr.Haves’ winter quarters 1860-61 en-Eatee— x Ros: BAFHIN pag iets bay sutA Joading into the Polar basin that is 200 miles wide. 1 much doubt, jadging from the nature of the ice drift, if there is any opening halfso wide, To this land the ice clings. lt forms a belt that is continuous about it, No ship has ever yet sailed through it inte the ocean beyond unless we may except the accounts of the old Dutch and English whalers, more than one of whom yaid claim to having reached the Pole, and many of them to having gone to within 100, 200 or 300 miles of it. One, indeed, went even two degrees beyond it, ac- cording to his own assertion. LARGE SEAS NEVER ENTIRELY FROZE: The idea ot a land-clinging belt and a vast ocean within it, more or less free from ice, is by no means new. It was believed in centuries ago, The hypo- thesis is borne out by numerous observations, nota. ble among them being the open sea of Baron Wrangell, iilimitable to human vision.” Ihave never believed that any extensive body of water can be permanently frozen over, As we have seen there isa limit to the thickness as there Js to the extent of the ice. It forms first against the land, and the belt widens with the advance of winter, partly by freezing and partly by the drifting in under pressure of old floes that the previous summer has not dissolved, This we ob- serve in comparatively small bodies of water, euch as Hudson and Baffin’s Bay, which are never frozen en tirely over in winter, as I remarked in my former letter, and are almost entirely free from ico in sum- mer. The Arctic Ocean must have, from land to land, an average width of near 2,000 miles. Its surface is continually agitated by the winds, and water so agi- tated does not freeze, My view has always been that the land-clinging belt of this vast tnland sea (if the term is admissible) would not be found to change above fifty ora hundred miles, It is a shifting belt, Thus far it has proved impassable to ships. Is it im- passable to sleds? NOT ENOUGH PROOF. Tho British expedition says it is. They certainly made a most heroic effort. Their hardships wero great and their courage of the loftiest character, But were they justified in saying that this ice belt con- tinued to the Pole and that thero was no open Polar Sea? In efloct, as Harper's Weekly puts it, they have shown “the open Polar Sea of Kane and Hayes to be a myth.’ Yet they found open water where we found it; they steamed through it, thas proving the accuracy of our conclusions so far; they noticed gin ice barrier Deyond our furthest points of vision; by this they were arrested; but when, in the spring. they came to traverse it they do not appear to have ventured at any time above twenty miles from land. I submit that this is not enough to prove the non-existence of an open sea within the land ico belt and about the Pole, noris it enough to prove that that very ico belt, which baffled them, has not by this time been wholly scattered and driven away into the vast watery area of the further North, the fragments there perhaps to find, in their vagrant wanderings, a new anchorage by some unknown islands of the dreaded sea 1 will yield to no ove im admiration for Captain Nares, com- mander of the British expedition. Hts superior talents and fine culture, hislofty personal qualities, his energy and skill are well known, and the splendid reputation he acquired while in command of the Challenger ox- pedition around the world, is too widely heralded and applauded to need comment or to gain anything from my praises, The British navy may well be proud of him. His officers and men appear to have done their utmost, avd Thave nodoult that Nature says tray, “that when all the tals is told it will be quite as thrilling and fall of dangers and bravery as any previous narra- tion of Arctic exploration.” INSUFFICIENT PREMISES. This 1s, nowover, not the question. Must the seien- tific world accept their concjusions diter so short an 7: effort? Truo, Baron Wrangell found an open sea north of Siberia, within twenty miles of land. The Bricish did not find water at a corresponding distance. But could they have proceeded ou their course I entertain no doubt that they would ultimately have reached water, more or less open. Of conrse they could not have navigated it even had they reached it, hay- ing no boats, and over such jeo as they encoun- tered it 1s needless to say no boat could be trans- ported. But was that ice permanent? That is tho question. The report speaks of its drifting, therefore it could not have been permanent, It came from somewhere, That it drifted thero proves that it did not form there. Coming there by drift it must somewhere have le{ta void. In ashort time we shall no doubt have the full report of Captain Nares, and the supplemental reports of his subordinate officers, Those will give data whereby to judge of the extent and character of their work and spirit, but nothing can convince me that any conclusions which may be drawn from so short a stay are inany way satisfactory. I have seen as yet no comments of the British press except in tbe copy of Nature before me; but I think a calm consideration of the matter will convince every oue that, \n so uncertain asea as the Arctic, a fow weeks Is not snflicient to definitely deter- mine anything conclusive, for, virtually, this ts whavit was. They entered winter harbor and were frozen fast at once in September. They could not haye had above two months of summer the next year, since they left at the most open season (Angust 1%, and when southerly winds are to be expected, without pausing to change conclusions formea by tho severe lavors of the spring sledging. I repeat what I have so often said—that the time was too short The three weeks following August 11 are the most favorable of all for Arctic navigation. ‘The ie encountered by the ships does not appear to have been more tormidable than that encountered by thousands of whale ships and expeditions before their time, and as for the sledge traveiling, 1 am unable to sce that it was more severe than that of many other explorers. There could, therétore, have been novhing particularly discouraging, except the scurvy, the existence of which it is impossible to explain. 1 have never before heard of it breaking out in a sledge party, even under the most unfavorable circumstances, The sledge parties from Port Fouike travelied over long and exposed journeys at the lowest temperatures, with dried meat and potatoes only for food, with no shelter but the snow hut, and never suffered but trom fatigue, The Polaris wintered 1m nearly the same lati- tude as the Discovery, and fiity miles only south of the Alert, and was more exposed, and while Captain Hall and crew were not subject to naval discipline they were yet generally healthy. It would seem in this case to have been a@ special dispensation of Providence, beforo which we must all bow with humble submission, SCURVY, NOT DESPAIR. All who were interested in Arctic exploration felt disposed to fault-inding when it was known that another season Lad not been given to obtaining indis. putable proof But now it turns out that the health of the ships?’ crews gave way, and that scurvy, “that dire post-scourge of vhe frozon zone,” wast) cause of their return, Here all criticisn, therefore, rests, in view of their sad calamity, and, whatever rogrets we may bave, We must be content with the fine results they have actually achieved for science, and trust to future enterprise for the complote fultiiment of our desires. Their achievements have indeed been great, They haye penetrated, amid the most fearful obstacles, neurer to the Pole than any of their preacvessors— oven Sir Edward Parry, who, like them, traversed the ico fields, The bighest latitude attained by a party un- dor command of Captain Marktam was 83 deg, enwich 65 20 min., or within just 400 geographical miles of the Pole. The party makmg this jour. ney were exposed upon the ice flelds for tho long and almost unprecedented period of seventy-two days, without fire, and at exceptionally low tempera- turcs, olten making only a mile aday, enduring the while untold sufferings. Scurvy broke out among them on the journey, and several deaths among them and other travelling parties resulted. The cause of this it is impossible to explain with our limited intorma- tion, Some expeditions have suffered trom it severely, but most of them have escaped altogether. Dr. Kane's party were attacked by it, though no deaths resulted from that cause. My own party in 1850-61 were not thus troubled, This I attributed toan abundant sup- ply of fresh animal food which we had no difficulty in obtaining at will, cheerfuloess of disposition, aud care- ful hygienic regulations Dr. Kane had only salt provisions. The Polaris wintered in nearly tho same latitude as the Discovery, and while more ex- posed, and while the crew had not the advan- tage of naval discipline, their health was yet generally good. Tho British expedition had, as it would seem, everything needful for health. Nature says:—"No similar expedition ever lett any country so well provided with everything that could be thought of conducive to sustenance and protection, There was an ample supply ot provisions of all kinds, sufficient medical staff, and all precautions were evidently taken throughout the Jong winter to keep every one em- ployed and cheerful and duly exercised.” We have only now to await the tull reports of tho expedition before we can judge of the aggregate results, Mean- | waile we sympathize with those who suffered, admire the persistent struggle they made upon the rough ice fields in the torturing cold, and join with Nature in congratulations at their sale return and their escape, as it would seem, ‘out of the jaws of death,” THE ACHIEVEMENTS. This much, however, we know, and in more than a mere geographical point of view itis important, They have reached the extreme north point of two cont. nents—America and Greenland. America terminates in lautude 83 deg. 7 min, This high point Captain Nares has gracefully called Cape Columbia. Beyond this the lund trends southwest, in which direction Licatenaut Alurich traced it to latitude 82 deg. 10 min., longitude 86 deg. 30 min., seoing land still veyond im the same direction. Greenlana was traced to a point in latitude 82 deg. 50 min., longi- tude 48 deg. 30 min., beyond which the land trended rapidly southeast in the direction of Spitzbergen thus proving Greenland’s insular character, What Captain Hall mistook for land further north, and called President Land, was possibly ice, as the British observers, with it may bo better opportunities, did not see it, The jand above Lady Franklin Bay, which Hall named Grant Land, appears, after the British exploration of that bay, to bo only a continuation of Grinnell Land, which I dis- covered and explored in 1854 and revisited in 1861, Thus it will be seen that this expedition has not onty reached the porthernmost land ever attained by ciyil- ized man, bat, in all human probability, Captain Nares and his people have set foot upon the northernmost Jand oa the glove, This is their triumph, Besides th they have gone further north by ship than any provious navigator; have wintcred nearer to the Pole; have encountered a lower temperature anda longer night than any of their predecessors. A LONG, COLD SIGHT. The sun was absent from their winter quarters 142 days, nine days louger than from my winter quarters at Port Foulke and eight longer than from Dr. Kane's at Rensselaer Harbor. Their lowest temperature was 104 degrees below freezing, which was two dogrees and @ halt lower than my lowest (which 1 encountered at \ 0 while travelling), tho lowest, I believe, be- fore that time ever recorded, the spirit ther- mometer indicating sixty-nine and a half degrees below zoro—that is to say, 101!4 degrees below freez- ing. The general temperature throughont the winter appears to have been much lower than either at Rens- selaer Harbor or Port Foulke, They saw but little animal life, A few seais and musk oxen were cap- tured. Water fowl, which wero plentiful at Port Foulke during the summer, appear to have been few in numbers at the further north. Reindeer, also abundant at Port Foulke (we shot over 200), are not mentioned in the report. They, however, found tho hare, The aurora borealis seems to have been even Jess brilliant than at Port Foulke. An important and most signiticant fact hitherto suspected, and in a measure proven by Dr. Bessel, of the Polaris, 1s that the tides in Robeson Channel set from the north, Vegetation had almost ceased, yet they found the sasifrage, some dwarf oak (willow?) and poppy. ‘They traced the Eequimaux, of a bygone time, to lati- tude 81 deg. 52 min. I had before traced them toabous 81 deg. FORMER EXPEDITIONS—BAFFIN, In conclusion, a brief statement of the various ex- peditions which have figured in the exploration of Smith’s Sound may not, perhaps, be unacceptable to your readers, The Sound itself was discovered by William Bata, in 1616, during the memorable voyage made by that fearless navigator In the ship Discovery, of only*fity-five tons, when in search of » northwest passage to the Indies. He discovered and circumnavi- gated the great bay which bears his name, and among other openings into it which he saw was that to which he gave the name of his friend Sir Thomas Smith, as he did likewise Earl Wolstenholme, Alderman Jones and Earl Lancaster to others, all of which sounds he lookea into and did not return from observing them, as he says, “until persuaded of the absolute imposst- bility of finding what I bad sq ardently longed to dis- cover.” How many lives and how much treasure would have been saved had the worid been convinced by his arguments! They were not, however, deemed sufficient, and from thatday until the time of Sir John Frapklin there was no lack of effort for the accomplishment of a northwest passage. SIR JONN Ross, The next adventurer im this quarter, after Baffin, who looked into Smith’s Sound with the view of find. ing a passage was Sir John Ross, in 1818. Ross gave to the entering capes of the Sound the names of his two ships, Alexander and Isabeila, INGLEFIELD. The next was Captain Inglefield, Royal Navy, in 1852, in a small steamer, while in search of Franklin. He was the tirst to enter the Sound, but ho wag driven out by heavy ice and a florce gale. DR. KANE. Noxt came Dr, Kane in 1853, in the little sailing brig Advance, of 144 tons. Kane tried to reach the west const, but was prevented by bead winds and heavy ie, and was forced into winter quarters on the Green- Jand side, in Jatitade 78 deg. 37 min., whence numerous sledge journeys were made in the fall and spring to | the northward, and what was assumed to be an open sea Was seen in latitude avout 80 deg. 30 min. HAYES, The next in order was my own voyage in the schooner United States, of 133 tons. Kane, I tried to react tho west coast, and, like him, was driven back by fierce head winds and hoavy ice, and, ima crippled and sink- ing condition, 1 was compelled to find a harbor on the Greenland coast, where we wintered, in Intitude 78 deg 17 mim, Thencd were made numerous sledge journeys over tho ie@ in the spring, ‘on Novembor §, 1871. tho principal one being across Kave Basin to Grinnell Land, the coast of which 1 tollawnd toa point that I fixed by an observation with pocket sextant in latitude $1 deg. 37 min. It may have been a few miles north or south of this that my Journey on land terminated, I went a short distance beyond on the ice, and have estimated my last point reached in Lady Franklin Bay at not very far from latitude 82 deg. The reports of the British expedition will show, a8 one of tho ships, the Discovery, win tered at this identical spot, 1 made a long siedgt Journey of forty-five days over the ice before reaching it The actual distance trom winter quarters to thal point was as the crow flies near 250 miles, but by the tortuous route I was compelled to pursue it was not lest than threo times that distance, and I estimated my whole journey going and coming at from 1,200 to 1.300 miles, The British ships found the sca which I had thus traversed mainly open, and steamed through, without much didicuity, BALL, After the United States came the United States gov- ernment Expedition of Captain Hall Having steam, the head winds and heavy 1¢e of the Sound proved no great obstacle to the Polaris, and sho steamed through Smith Sound and Kane Basin and into Kennedy Chan- nel, ‘his channel was discovered and named by Kano, and is simply a narrowing of Kane Basin, Its extension to the north Halil called Robeson Channel, and imo this he penctrated until he encountered ice in latitude 82 aeg. 16 min., when he was driven back, and took up his winter quarters (Thank God Harbor) on the east side of the channel, nearly opposite my furthest point on the Grinnell Land side, There were conflict, j2g opinions among the crew as to the extent and character of the ice there encountered, some of them contending that 1t was but a narrow belt, and that there was an open, navigable sea beyond, Hall made afterward a sledge journey to latitude 82 deg. 9 min., but aid not cross over the channel, The British expe- dition went further by water, one or their ships, the Alert,reaching latitude 82 deg. 27 min., where she win- tered, the peculiarity of her harbor being that the heavy ice, grounding some distance off shore, gave an artificial protection. This harbor was at Cape Unioa, whieh was the last point of land sighted by me, and to which I gave that name. Its position was estimated at lati- tude 82 deg, 45 min., and I then belteved it to be the northwest poiit of America, I came pretty near it: and I can weil forego the fancy I have tor some years indulged myselt in when I find that Captain Nares has gracefully named the real northwest point of America, about 100 miles to the northwest of Cape Union, Cape Columbia. My estimaie (I only sighted it) as to the position of Cape Union proves to be some what in error, aout nineteen miles, according to the British chart, they bringing it south that mach, While alluding to matters ip this quarter I must not neglect to mention a very handsome and touching act done by Captain Nares and his associates. 1 quote from Vature, Robeson Channel was crossed by Cape tain Stephenson and party, and Captain Hall’s grave visited. When at Polaris Bay the American ensign was hoisted and a salute fired ‘‘as a brass tablet, which he (Captain Stephenson) and Captain Nares had pre- pared in England, was fixed on Hall’s grave. Tho plate bore the following inscription:—‘Sacred to the memory of Captain C. F, Hall, of the United States ship Polaris, who sacrificed his life in the advancement of science, This tablet has been erected by the British Polar Expedition of 1875, who, follow- ing in his footsteps, have profited by his experience.’ ?? Of one thing we may be now certain, Smith Sound does expand finally into the Polar Basin, as Captain Inglefield reported in 1852. This was, however, rignt from its mouth at Baflin’s Bay, as Kane afterward also thought it expanded im like manner from Ken- nedy Channel, andasI thought it did trom Lady Franklin Bay, to the east and northeast of which no land was visible, nor did I think any existed. But the air was not clear in that quarter at the time of obser- vation, and heayy clouds hung in the distance, ! THE POLAR BASIN, Now, however, after the efforts of the British exe plorers, we cannot doubt that the shores of the Polar Ocean have been wathed through Smith’s Sound (hitherto knownas the dmerican route) as cer. tainly as they have by the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers in America, and by thy Lena end Kolyma rivers in Asia, All praise jo the British Ex- pedition for giving us this much! It remains now only to explore the comparaively short distances to the south and west of Grant Land to connect with the previous English discoveri@; the equally shors line remaining of tho northeast qiarter of Greenland, and the north shores of the Anstro-Hungarian dis- covery—the extensive Francis-Joseph Land—and then wo shall have completed the toundary line of this mighty ocean of the north, wher¢ the ancients placed “The golden gardens of the ble#,’? where there was neither sorrow, suffering nor death; where geographers of the Middle Ages located fertileislands, inhabited by a race of pigmies, but which our British cousins have found to their cost to possess qualities and associations ofa very different complexion, And now to what generation wil it be left to shog the further wondrous performances of gature:— In that strange, mysterious olime, wher es Aro but the twilight of the summer day? Where summer an eternal sunshins brin; ‘The winter darkness and sablimiey Where reigns dread solitude and tolls the Polar Sea, ISAAC I, HAYES, ‘THE ONLY METHOD OF REACHING THE POLE, To tHe Epiror or THe HeRaLp:— Is it a confessed impossibility to attain the Nort§ Polo? Every expedition to the Arctic regions thus tat has returned, after more or less expense of money, time and toil, suffering and loss of life, defeated in itt main object, with little to show axcopt a few sciontifia potes, Captain Nares is only able to repeat the chronm- icle of his predecessors. To the true explorer na amount of Incidental scientific information will com- pensate for the failure of the grand purpose, the achievement of which has been the dream of bold navigators for centuries past. Is the ambition of science to penetrate every portion of the globe’s sur- face, to be forever baffled by the icy obstacles of the northern zone? Unless the world patiently awaits the predicted mitigation of the climate in the Arctic wastes thero secins to be but one method of effecting that for which so many adventurers had vainly risked their lives, Exploration heretofore has been on the small potato scale, Operations must be enlarged before success will attend tho scheme. in- stead of sporadic enterpriees let there be a general co- operation of all the scientists of the civilizea world and let an association be formed whose meat and drink it will be to overcome hyperborian nature. Let the generosity of the curious and of the true friends o scionce everywhere respond with ample contributions till a Polar fund of millions, if necessary, shall have been obtained, adapted for the service, and let supplies of every con~ ceivable kind be gathered together for not a mere single hibernation in somo icelocked bay but for a protracted siege of years in duration, Let asufficient number of men be enlisted for the under- taking, and let their bounties be unstinted. Let a trusty leader be found to command the foriorn hope which is to always precede the main body and mark out its pathway. Perhaps the Hxratp’s own Stanley would be as capable, untiring and efficient a person as would be discoverable, Let the advance guard proceed on sbips as far north as practicable, and then let them establish apermanent camp amid the perpetual ice. Thon at intervals from this camp to the open Atlantic other camps should be made on shore, if that be possible, or, if not, v is of supply should be stationed and constant communication kept up between the in- nermost explorers and the outer world, The foremost camp above spoken of should as rapidly ag possivie made a grand depot of men and supplies and employed as the base for northward advances, From its shelter there should be a continual pushing forward and the establishment of a cordon of depots ag fur north ag shall be mdispensible to the support and - safety of the vanguard who aro to be always on the move abead, fast or slowly, as they can, and whose ranks are to be supplied right along with fresh men to replace the broken down and tho sick, How many ot this second series of depots would be ‘required would, ot course, depend on the energy and courage of the ad- vance. Inasmauch as the highest point hitherto reachod is about 600 miles from the Pole {t might be prudent to erect at‘Jeast a dozen strong shanties, conveyed in coer on dog sledges, of which there are to be no jack. ever toilsome aud gradual the prog. ress whe accomplished it would iccess- ful in the end, provided the managers out silo of the immediate members of the expedition would remit no whit of their solicitude for the weliare of their meo. An unceasing stream ot sup- plies would have ta be kept up and stoat structar setup that would resist tor years the effects of tne polar climate, But we are supposing an oniimited treasury and un+ flagging enthdsiasin in all concerned. Whether the game 18 worth the candle isanothor thing. Butit wt are bound to discover the Pole let us go about it once for ali in a Way that will bo adequate to the imped ments of the pi There \¢ nothing to ha) eb bY the tinkering, local processes of the past. ro musi be large and Universal attempt to corner Vid Horeas, or he will forever elude human research, = "TH, Then let several vessels be prepared, ©