The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1853-11-08
From the New York Evening Post.
DISCOVERY OF A NORTHWEST PASSAGE.

| A passage by the Artic ocean, around the
northern continent of America. has at last been
discovered. Commander NJ Clure, Of tho Brit
ish Navy, has accomplished what tho mari
time enterprise of nearly two hundred years
has failed to accomplish. He has sailed from
Davis Straits on the east, through tho great
Artic ocet to near Behring's Straits on tho
west, and has shown an uninterrupted water
communication from tho north Atlantic to the
north Pacific. His course, as near as we can
gather it from the brief announcement Of the
fact made by tho English Admiralty, was
through the Prince of Wales Straits, connec
| ting with Barrow's Straits, to cliff south of
Melville Island, called Banks Land and thence
through foes and hummocks Of almost impcn-
etrable ice to place called Baring's Island, in
| the Bay of Mercy. The precise position OF
| this island we are unable to ascertain, but il
appears to be sufficiently far east, and near to
the outlet of Behring's Straits, on the coast
of Asia, to settle the prncticability of the pass
age. tf..t Al
What Commander Mcclure has thus done,
has been tho dream of geographers and pilots,
over since Cabot discovered the northern con-
tinent of America rs short cut to India
"To Agra and Lahore Of Great Mogul,
Down to the golden Chersonese."
Among the first adventurous who attempted
brothers, named Cortereal. who, in the early
part Of the sixteenth century, sailed towards the
Pole. and were heard of no more. An Eng
lisnman. Sir Hugh Willoughby some fifty
years later, sought to find China by the coast
of Labrador, but both he and his crew left
their bodies on the frozen plains. where they
were found by the Esquimaux Indians. Sir
Humprev Gilbert. at n subsequeni period. went
down, off the coast of Newfoundland. in ma
king similar experiment. In 1910, Hudson,
the famous navigator, from whom our North
River was named. after discovering lTudson's
Bay, set adrift. with eight of his sailors, by
mutinous portion Of his crew. and was sup
posed to have been DESTROYED bv the icebergs.
In 1923 Bafiin added the knowledge of the
vast inlet Of tho sea, since called by his name
to our Artic geography. In ls4l, Behring, a
Russian, explored the straits on the eastern
side of the continent, and in 1873. Captain
Phippes made many explorations in tho north;
but the Artc discovery of modern times may
be said to have begun in 1918 with Sir John
Ross, who passed through Davis's Straits and
Baflin's Bay to Lancaster Sound. The next
year Franklin, about whose supposed loss so
much has been said. undertook to trace the
looked for passage, from tho mouth of the
Coppermine river, eastward, by the shore, TO
Hudsons Bay He was accompanied by Mr..
Buck ana Dr. Richardson, and they made one
Of tho dreariest journeys on record, without
meeting with much success.
The same year, Lieut.. Parry had gono to
Lancaster Sound, and, passing through tho
straits named by him Barrow's Straits had
discovered Wolington's Channel, Regents
Inlet, Baythurss. Byam, Martins, Melville.
and other islands, now called the Parry Islands.
These places have ever since boon tho ulti-
mate land msrk of Artic research, for no navi-
gators have succeeded iD going beyond them,
and all the discoveries since made, have had
only moro or less reference to them. Parry
saw. too, and defined Banks's Land, TO the
southwest of Melville Island-one of the points
of departure in MCluro's more recent expedi
ton.
Parry, Ross aud Captain Fronkln made
subsequent voyages all Of which added some
thing to our information, and in 1880 and 1896,
Captain Bach went eastward beyond Frankln's
point; but these explorations were nearly all
carried on within and below the delineations
of Parry. No one. saws late writer, had ven
tured beyond Cape Walker, in the direction of
Banks Land, to tho west and south of North
Somerset or Como beyond Parry Islands to the
northwest, or to the north through Wellington
Channel. Neither had any attempt been made
from Baffin's Bay, above Lancaster Sound, to
enter tho remote waters supposed to flow a.
round the Pole. 1t will be seen, therefore,
that Commander M Curo mas gone sufficient
ly beyond Banks Land to enter the regions of
Captain Beechy's discoveries in 1926, to tho
north Of Behring's Straits, he has solved the
problem of a northwest passage.
But now that it is solved, of what uso will it
be? As means of transit to China, it can
never afford tho least facility. and in no other
commercial aspect does i, hold out any prom
ises to enterprise. "Tho treacherous and
hummockry labyrinths Of the Polar sea- as
somebody describes them, arc wholly unfit for
ordinary navigation. so that tho geogra phical
and scientific results of the discovery are
those alone, which are likely to be of any per-
manent interest.