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

Proposed Exploration of the North Pole.

Last evening, at a meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society, held at Burlington-house, tho practicability of

reaching the North Pole, taking either Spitzbergen or
Smith's Sound, as the base of operations, was elaborately
discussed before a very numerous audience. Sir Roderick
Murchison, the President of the society, occupied the chair,
and there were present, among others, the Count de Paris,
the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Sheffield, the Earl of
Harrowby, Lord Strangford, Admiral Sir George Bach, Sir
Andrew Scott Waugh, Sir Edwardßelcher, Mr. Alderman
Gibbons, Captain Maury, Sir Charles Nicholson, Mr. John
Crawfurd, Admiral Ommaney, Admiral Collinson, Captain
Calton, Captain Richards (hydrogmpher to the Admiralty).
Dr. Rae; and M. Vigfusson (an Icelander).
The PRESIDENT, in opening the proceedings, said,—
Gentlemen, our main object on the present occasion is to

obtain a fair and full discussion of the relative value of the

two projects for reaching the North Poie which have been
brought under the consideration of geographers and other
men of science—the one by Captain Sherard Osborn, the

other by Dr. Petermann. To Captain Osborn wo have
expressed our deep obligations for his spirited and able en-
deavour to revive the desire felt by all true geographers to
complete their acquaintance with the North Polar regions,
in which the scientific branch of the navy has been so
distinguished. The plan which he propounded was, as

you know, to proceed in ships to Smith's Sound, at the head
of Baffin's Bay, and, leaving them there in safety, to ex-
plore northwards along the west coast of Greenland in
sledges and boats. This plan, in addition to the various
good scientific results to be obtained, has the further
merit of calming the fears of the timid, who dread a repe-
tition of the sad catastrophe of Franklin, by showing
them that there is no analogy between his expedition
and that by which it is now contemplated to reach the

North Pole. The former was an effort to force a passage

with ships through land-locked icy channels ; that of
Sherard Osborn is to avoid all such danger by advancing in
sledges from ships placed in safe stations; it being a fact
that amid the many sledging parties who traversed thou-
sands of miles upon the ice in search of Franklin not a life
was lost. The other project, or that which has been long
advocated by the accomplished geographer Dr. Petermann,

is to try to reach the North Pole tie Spitzbergen, getting
through the pack ice to the north of that island in a steam
vessel. His first letter on this subject was partially read at

a former meeting, and was published at length in weekly
newspapers ; but when it came under our consideration the
time of the assembly was so much occupied in discussing
the natural history questions which the ethnologicalmemoir
_ _

of Mr. Markham elicited that nasal officers and other Arctic

explorers who were present were debarred from delivering
their opinions on the relative merits of the two plans. Since

then Dr. Petermann has addressed a second letter to me,

which will first be read, and then the naval officers are ex.

pected to express their opinions as to onabls the Councils
of the Royal Geographical Society and of the other scien-

fib bodies who advocate a Nora; Polar expeditionto adopt

that which they consider the best scheme for the accom-
plishment of this great object. Now, although I know,that
there are differences of opinion among the Arctic officers
who are present as to which of the two plans offers the
best line of research, let me assure this meeting that these
gallant men are united in the belief that if a well fitted ex-
pedition be sent out success would crown the effort. They
well know that the accumulations of floating ice, which
in old times were considered impassable barriers, havebeen
traversed by ordinary sailing vessels, and that in the
memorable Antarctic voyage of James Ross packs of ice
several hundreds miles in width were passed through,
the intrepid navigator reaching an open ocean beyond.

The question then to be debated this evening is whether
the sledging expedition to the north of Smith Sound and
along the west coast of Greenland, or the effort to traverse
the pack ice to the north of Spitzbergen, or the most

northern point reached by Sir Edward Parry, is to be pre-
ferred, it being recollected that in the days of the last-
mentioned great navigator steam powerhad not been applied
to ships. Happily we have still among us distinguished
Arctic explorers who have been both in the seas of Spitz-
bergen and those of Baffin's Bay, and I am sure that we
shall obtain from them such a hearty concurrence in our
scheme as will, with the appeal of the other men of science,
induce the British Government to fit out a well-found
North Polar expedition, which, in advancing several
branches of science, will sustain that spirit of adventure
which has always been the mainstay of our maritime great-
ness. (Cheers.)
The letter of Dr. Petermann was read by the Secretary.
His project, as described by the President, is to endeavour
to reach the North Pole by way of Spitzbergen by pene-
trating the pack ice to the north of that island in a steam-
vessel. The writer adduced reasons, founded on the voyage
of Sir John Ross in the Antarctic regions, for believing that
it was easy to get through pack ice, and that masses of ice

might be found in one particular locality one year, and in a
different one in another. He referred to instances where
immense masses had been cut through and clear and open
seas found beyond. Even in the highest latitudes, he re-
marked, ice masses occupied but a small portion of the sea •
that they were of an ever changing, drifting character, and
that they offered no insurmountable difficulty to a well
organised expedition.
The PRESIDENT observed that the logic used in Dr. Peter-
mann's letter was extremely good, drawn as it was from the
knowledge he had acquired as to the approach to the South
Pole, which was admitted to be much more difficult than
that to the North Pole.
Sir G. BACH said Dr. Peterraann's plausible and very in-
teresting paper had much to recommend it, easy though it
was to pursue a theory in a comfortable room in Berlin. It
might be that there was a current which set to the north
between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen; that Spitzbergen
was within 2,400 miles of England; and that it was acces-
sible from early summer to late autumn ; that it had capa-
cious harbours, and abounded in reindeer, in Arctic hares,
and in millions of birds ; but no man could pretend to say
or foretel how far the best equipped steamer, commanded
by the most able Arctic officer, could penetrate in that
sea through such openings as the current of winds
might produce through masses of closely wedged ice. Dr.
Petermann said the effect of an Arctic sea was to break up
the ice at the edge of the pack, but he (Sir G. Bach) abso-
lutely dissented from the idea that an expedition could
make progress to the North Pole from the west of Spilz-
bergen. In 1818 he accompanied his friends, Sir J. Frank-
lin and Admiral Beechey, in the very first Polar expedition
in this century from England. They tried incessantly
night and day to force their way to the North; the ships,
the Dorothea and Trent, were greatly damaged, and the
men exhausted, but with their utmost efforts they were
never able to get beyond 80 deg. 30m. Then, again, the
ice there was not like the ice westward ; some of it was
five miles in diameter, much of it from 40 to 42 feet in
thickness, and only two or three feet above the surface.
Still they went on persevering ; one of the ships, the Do-
rothea, was crushed and scarcely seaworthy, but she was
patched up, and after trying ineffectually for three months
to penetrate to the north in one direction they were com-
pelled most reluctantly to abandon the attempt. They
then went along the ice from Spitzbergen towards Green-
land, going along the edge of the packed ice until they
were arrested by impenetrable masses off the coast of Green-
land, and in all that space there was not an opening of half
a mile. That being so, and the season being far advanced
towards the end of September, they were compelled to re-
linquish the enterprise and return to England. Dr. Scoresby,
the captain of a whaler, however, often told him that he at
one period got as far as 82 degrees north, but that never
occurred a second time with him. (Hear, hear.) With re-
spect to Captain Osborn's plan he should say that if his two
vessels should be fortunate enough to find an open season
—that was, open weather with the ice so loose that they
could sail among it and take up their station in Smith's
Sound—and if in the following winter the ice should be
found closely wedged and immovably fixed, he saw no
reason why a party properly equipped, and not finding any
very large spaces of open water, should not succeed in get-
ting very near to the Pole, if not to the Pole. (Hear.)
Sir EDWARD BELCHER knew personally what sledge
travelling was, and he had seen the difficulty of meeting
open water when he could not launch his boat in
it. He saw great difficulty in carrying a vessel round
to Smith's Channel. They knew on several occasions Go-
vernment expeditions had failed in that, and he believed
the practicability of going up Davis's Straits and of getting
up to Smith's Channel, in the hope next year of going
thence further north, was very doubtful. With regard to
the expedition to which Sir George Bach had alluded, the
question was, did they go the right way ? He
(Sir Edward Belcher) thought they kept too much to-
wards Greenland, and that they were seeking for whaling
ground, and not to advance the cause of science. In that
they made a great mistake. Whales liked warm water, and
they all kept towards the Equator, and he had no doubt
that if Scoresby had pursued a course to the eastward of
Spitzbergen he would have drifted round the Pole. As re-
garded the sledge system, he much doubted its feasibility.
They would have a long, weary, and uncertain voyage
in order to reach the opening of Smith's Sound. Granted
that they secured the vessels the first year, and that sledg-
ing operations were duly prepared, if the sea was open in
May, as he believed it would be, he would ask if their
sledges were to be boat sledges, flt to pass over open water.
If so the attempt was wilder than that of Parry, and both
Richards and Osborn well knew the difficulty attending
any such operation. He enjoyed the friendship of the late
Sir James Ross, and they frequently conversed on travel-
ling by boat sledges. Sir James was accustomed to say
that no one-could comprehend the severe labour imposed
on the men when those boats got into snow. They
were to be unloaded, and even then they could scarcely be
extricated. On some occasions, when the snow had melted,
they were detained for hours, not advancing a mile in
two days. He (Sir E. Belcher) also met Baron Wrangel
and Mathiewskin, his lieutenant, at Petropaulovski in 1826,
after their unsuccessful exploration by dogs, and their
simple observation, "What could we do when we met with
water ?" was just what he would put to the sledge pro-
jectors. On the other hand, their vessels would be able to
finish and report, if not successful, in one season ; recruit
and start afresh, as Ross did, in the second ; and in ac-
cordance with experience gained the Government could
add to the force or reduce it, as events warranted.
Admiral COLLINSON said the question of an open Polar
Sea had its origin in the remarkable expedition of Baron
Wrangel from the coast of Asia, and it received confirma-