Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-01-01
The Mytk;c Sea.

/ For ages there has existed myth concerning
4 Northern Ocean, whose shores We're the i'm
penetrable barriers of the ice. and whose waters
had life and music all its own The Scandi-
nayians remember the myth, and to this dav in
Sweden and Norway and to this Northern Is
/ land, the great unknown sea has existence in
the belief of every superstitious mind TO Us,
who reason philosophicallv that nothing is
hidden, it not deemed probable any such
body of water did or could exist and though
great many navigators have asserted their belief
III the myth, 1t has not had sufficient date to
claim attention. a few minds. keen from OBJ
servatlon and sagacious from nature still clunr
to the ancient story and suffered ii not to die
One of these minds was DR.. Kane who returns
home with tidings that the lost sea is found.
Our readers doubtless perused the narrative
of the Kane expedition with a breathless atten
tion, and from it learned that the intrepid navi-
gator left his vessel fast in the almost impene-
/ trable mountains of ice in latitude Is deg 10
min north, pushing his way in sledges and on
foot to latitude 81 deg. 30 min. where he stood
upon the shores of, to his eyes, limitless sea.
Three hundred square miles did he scan with
eye and glass, yet no bounds to that expanse of
water We're found; for fifty-two hours did a heavy
gale from the north heave up the heavy surf and
vet It brought down particle of ice. showing
that around the pole all was ocean life instead
Of frigid death. Thus was the veil penetrated
surprise seized upon the philosophical specuIa
tor, and now the world is busy at the solution
OF tins wonderful problem Of a Northern Sea
LIST The Doctor represents those waters as
IIfnPid as any summer sea. BY what process in
nature can that high latitude so modify the tenn
perature of the air as to leave the sea unfrozeu
Where the doctor wintered the Thermometer of
ten stood ten deg. below Zero and vet in 4 still
more northerly cline there is a sea which never
Is frozen Science stands supplied for all its
aXioins are repudiated, and new laws are to rec
oncle the facts to theory.
ID Bird and fish life IS there exis+ant in tho
greatest profusion. There the hawk and elder
duck range in unlimited freedom while whales
and wairus sport in such herds as to make the
waters swarm with their huge meriment Can
these all live without proper food Does the
duck mfest these regions without the berrie,
and grasses, and bulb for sustenaEce ? Here
then - another query for the Spectator to an
sWer, and the mystery of that Northern Sea be-
comes more and more exciting.
Over the grand ice barrier which DR.. Eane
passed, was new land, and he called it Wash
mgton' giving names also to its bays and capes
Beyond this Is that sea and that sea batbes
the intangible North Pole-it holds the ,nysfer,
OF the northern lights in its keeping-it keeps
the secret of its own life within its bosom Will
man ever solve that secret and open up that ur
known world We shall patiently wait in hope:
Tor IN our minds Is vague thought floating that
'he sea winch whirls around the poles of this
earth holds IN Its keeping the key to a thousand
mysteries. and we have faith to think that in our
years, should we be three score and more-that
the mythic sea shall give up its long kept Sc
cret.-Sasdpshg Register