The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-01-11
Cause of the Polar Sea.

around the north pole has long been sns-
pected by Arctic navigators. Rose. Parry,
DeHayen, and others, while densely sur
rounded by ice noticed that birds were
flying northward continually, as If towards
a zone of milder temperature, and that the
clouds, that hung over the far distant horl-
zon in that direction, betokened the presence
of large body of water De Haven and
others penetrated far enough up Lancaster
Sound to think they deserted this open
ocean. 1t was reserved, however, for DIR.
Kane, in: he expedition which he personally
conducted to remove all doubts regarding
this Polar Sea- Is existence is no longer
dream 1t has ceased to belong to the mere
speculations of geographers. No one can
call it a fable any more In truth, science
now that the fact itself is proved steps in
and accounts for it SO conclusively that the
wonder is how any intelligent mind could
have made the subject a matter of question.
For the laws of nature render q Polar sea as
necessary to the economy of the globe as
they do the Gulf stream, the trade winds,
mountain ranges, rain, sunshine, day or
night
Every school boy knows what is meant by
the procession of the equinoxes. If there
sun, no such real movement of the earth,
the sun would shine all the year round YER
tically on the equator, and the two poles
have their day and night oftwelve hours du.
ration like the temperate and torrid regions.
But the oscillation of the globe-its dip, so
to speak, to the plane of the eciptic, inclines
the north pole for six months towards the
sun, and the south pole towards it for the
H. AZ
northern summer, when it is day on the
| Greenland side Of the pole, it is day also
| clear up to the north pole and for twenty
three degrees and half on the other side
Thus, during the Arctic summer, there is a
space of twenty-three and and "a half de-
grees on both sides of the north pole, on
which the sun never sets Over this vas,
surface, therefore, there is, for that period
a heat too great to permit the formation oil
ice; while south of this latitude, where the
sun sets nightly, the GOODNESS of the night
connteracts, in part, the heat of the day.
| Hence the phenomenon of an open sea
around the pole in spite OF a colder belt to
he souttl of it. Hence also the fact that the
actual pole does not agree with the pole OF
greatest cold
1t is probable, likewise that the magnetic
1 influences, which are known 10 exercise sc
subtle and potent a control over the earth,
have some thing to do with this peculiarly.
| 1t is certain at least that the magnetic pole
is in a different latitude from the actual
pole, and that it closely approaches to the
Locality of the pole of maximum cold 1t has
also been conjectured that the Gulf stream,
that mystery even vet to men of science,
plays an important part in this matter though
as u cause or an effect remains to be de.
termincd. 1t is known that this current
reaches to the shores Of Spitzbergen, and ii
has been traced further north, as if whirling
about the pole. The supposition is, there
fore, that it circles round the Polar Sea, re
entering lower ATTITUDES near Behrings
straits, and thence passing eastward along
the northorn shores of America II the
Gulf stream really circumnavigates the pole
in this way, we hit On the solution of the
origin OF that strange current, which SET
Mcclure eastward from Behring's Straits,
and which bore De Haven, powerlcss. south.
ward through Davis Straits and far into tue
Atlantic The subject is one to be decided
by a careful array and analysis of facts. II
richly deserves thenotice of men Of science
-[Sun.