The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-28 00:00:00

tion from subsequent explorations ; but were those not open
holes instead of expansive seas ? At Gateshead Sound his
(Admiral Collinson's) sledge sank, and he was obliged to
make a great detour. There they were convinced that no
open sea was in sight. There was a general opinion that
because ice wasted away there must be a vacuity at the back
of it, but he contended there was no foundation for such a
theory. The progress of the ship Fox as she approached
the sea increased daily, but the Resolute, which was further
back in the "pack,"made no progress at all. It should also
be remembered that during winter, while ice was making,
it occupied a larger space in the water than it was made ;
and therefore they had that remarkable phenomenon, a
downward drift without any sea left behind it. With
respect to the comparison between the Polar and the An-
tarctic seas he contended that they had no similarity what-
ever, for in the one there was the most open expansion, and
the other was pent up by, the continents. They had got
through the barrier of ice which Ross penetrated by
great • energy to the southward, when he reached
Spitzbergen ; but when they went beyond that they
would meet with what he encountered in latitude 78
—an icy wall. The exploration had better •be taken
by Smiths's Sound than by Spitzbergen, for in that
case they would have an opportunity of 'getting nearer to
the Pole by sea ; but if they wanted to make progress to the
Polar sea they must hold by the land. (Cheers.)
Admiral FITZROY, who was received with cheers, said he
had no pretensions to the character of an Arctic navigator,
but from the time when Parry, Sabine, and others of that
day began' their explorations he had carefully noted the
progress made from year to year for a period of 40 years.
The result of his observations on the subject had been that
a great deal too much stress had been laid proportionately
upon attempts to make passages by the north-west, and
that we had not given sufficient attention or consideration
to what was done by the early Dutch, English, and Russian
navigators, who in the latter period of the 15th and in the
16th and 17th centuries made very successful attempts to
reach the north and eastward, and also very near the North
Pole. In 1818 Barrington and Beaufoy, Fellows of the Royal
Society, gave very credible accounts of Dutch ships reaching
within two or three degrees of the North Pole, and of
finding there an open sea of comparatively warm tempera-
ture, and a swell of the sea indicating that there was no
barrier within moderate distance. The object of the
Dutch in those days was to pass round what they consi-
dered the shortest track to the East Indies by the Arctic
Seas, and it was in making those voyages that some of their
ships went so far north that the sea was partly explored near
the Pole. Indeed there was an instance of a ship having
gone two degrees beyond the Pole. Captain Maury, who
had made the Antarctic regions one of the subjects of his
particular study, mentioned the curious fact of a barometer
falling lower and lower as they got nearer the South Pole,
showing a state of the atmosphere near the Southern Pole
very different from that in equatorial regions connected
with the movement of ice away from those regions. The
simple result of Captain Maury's considerations, and of his
(Admiral Fitzrby's) much humbler observations, was
that there was open water at and near the North Pole, and
a great deal of open water, with also a large extent of con-
tinental land near the South Pole; and we should be want-
ing in our duty as a nation if we wilfully wasted the ener-
gies of those young men who were anxious and willing to
go and explore those interesting regions, important as they
were for commercial as well as scientific reasons, and if we
did not support the efforts of the Royal Geographical So-
ciety, and follow the lead of their President, whom they all
honoured and esteemed. (Cherrs.)
The PRESIDENT asked if Admiral Fitzroy was in favour
of the Spitzbergen or the Smith's Sound route?
Admiral FITZROY replied he was entirely in favour of
Spitzbergen, in the first instance, as a base of operations,
and then from Spitzbergen, at the most convenient period,
to the North and round the North. (Cheers.)
The meeting was briefly addressed by Admiral Omma-
ney, Capt. Maury, and Capt. Richards, the discussion, at
the suggestfon of the President, being eventually adjourned,
and the company separating at 11 o'clock.