Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-02-23
THE POLAR SEA.
10 tie Editor of The N. Y. Tribune:

70 tie Editor Of The NJ T. Tribune;
SIR. In your paper of the Goth inst, you gave
q communication from Eagle River, Lake Superior
showing that DIR. Kane did not first discover the
open ocean (which surrounds the North Geo
graphical Pole, but that this was done on the
ice, Just as Kane did it, some thirty years since,
by a Russian in the employment of his govern
ment.
Now as early as October last, when the press
was busily attriDuting this discovery to DIR. Kane,
l gave to the Buffalo Express a communication
for the benefit of such as wished to have the tacis
in the case, showing that this ocean was not only
seen but saiied upon, more than one hundred years
sincel 1t was navigated in l154 by a whaleship
from Greenland; and to save repeating the particu-
lars here, / enclose the article entire for your peru
sal, rs you may not have noticed it earlier.
Whatever may be the laudhblc anxiety of indi
yiduals to figure foremost in matters OF this sort,
it is certainly Of still higher Importance to science
that the actual facts of history should be rreserv-
ed; and it is solely with this view that | trouble
you in this instance. Truly yours,
II. W. HASKINS.
Buffalo, Jan. %, 1856.
The following is the article referred to by our
correspondent:
1.-The return of the expedition sent north to seek
for DR.. Kane and his party, that had been so long
amid Aartic ice, has once more directed public at
tention to that region of cold; and we see it men
tODpu t0aC the CDlel discovery uluue ny tnlS OK pc
ditiOn, is that the sea is open to q great extent to-
the north of the regions where all the Polar Expe-
ditions' have been stopped by ice, and some Of
them lost.
This fact is one of interest, but its Importance
can only be fully seen by. connecting it with what
was before known upon this subject, and which
this new observation so well confirms.
"That the sea is constantly nnfrOzen for o great
distance around the North geographical pole has
long been believed by those who have been at the
pains to become acquainted with the facts in the
case. The Greenland whale ships have brought
us numerous accounts of heavy sea-swells which
they often encountered from the northeast o!
Spitzbergen, which could only come from an open
sea; and persons who have resided in Lapland have
testified that in tho coolest Winter weather there,
n continued n%ortherly wind dtcdys produces a
thaw, which ceases only with such wind. Parry
at Melville Island, noticed the SAME thing. These
facts show that such wind had come from open
water instead of having passed over u frozen sur
face.
CDR. Kane left his vessel fast in the ice, in lati
tude 7So AS north. He then pushed his way upon
the ice in sledges to latitude $40 30, from which
point the sea was all open, as far as the eye could
reach. This fact derives much interest from con.
n%ection with our prior knowledge upon the same
point. 1t is now one hundred years since that
same open sea was both seen and sailed upon, in
the same latitude. In 1854 q Greenland whale
ship, as cited by Metcalf, called the Sea Nymph
and commanded by Capt. WILSON,, IN the latter enc
of June, after sailing through drifting ice from 74'
to sc of north latitude, proved to have got north
of all the ice, and the Captain then pursued whales
to the latitude 800 l5/, where the sea was all open
as far as sight could extend. This position of the
Greenland wLale-ship is several degrees north o.
the point at which DIR. Kane left his vessel; and i
is just one quarter of a degree short of the extreme
point which was reached by DR.. Kane, by travelling
upon the ice, after leaving his vessel. The Green
land Captain was anxious to push on to the geo
graphical pole, but the superstition Of his crew
} prevented.
at is evident, then, that this open sea is con
stantly open, and not occasionally so, for, although
we do well know that, in parts OF the Northern
Oceans, the quantity and extent of the ice varies
greatly, some years with others, yet this open SET
is in higher latitules than that, and is evidently
open at all times, according to The testimony which
we have upon the subject. That this may no
seem to &c a contradiction, we have only to recol
lcct that the latitude of a place is not the chic
element in determining its temperature. Instance
Quebec, whose latitude is 470, and yet its mean an
nual temperature is almost as low as that Of St
Petersburg, whose latitude is Coz. The greater ex
tent of land, and of course of frozen surface il
winter, which surrounds Quebec, fully account
for this difference; and as this polar ocean is 0
3 sufficient extent and depth not to freeze, the win'
| from its surface is always warmer than that whicl
has passed over an ertended surface of snow o
ice"