The Portland daily press., 1865-02-24
Arctic Explanations.

Captain Sherard Osborne, r. n, recsnay
read before the Royal Biographies ooclesy
of London an interesting paper IN winch 70
argues the perfect practicabllity Oh al e1P'u Pr
ration of that space around the North fole
which ia now a blank upon our maps. nc
said n MOS not true that Arctic exploration
was esnecially dangerous. During tnirty-si1
voors Of glorious enterprise, from 1910 70
1s54 by ship, by boat and by sledge' England
gs;rlv lost only two ships and 128 men out OF
fortv-two successive expeditions. Forty thou
sand miles had been traversed by foot parties
in search of Franklin alone, and yet not one
of these parties had been lost. An equal
amount of geographical discovery had never
been accomplished on the earth's surface with
so small an amount Of human sacrifice. The
discoveries in physical science we're full of
practical Importance. The clue obtained to
those mysterious currents, the Gulf Stream
and the Ice Stream,-the discovery of the
magnetic pole, and observations made in rela-
ton to 1t, adding SO greatly to our Knowledge
of the laws of declination and dip,-as well
as the many chronological discoveries made,
have been of the greatest value. 1t was prob
able that man would be found existing much
farther north than was at present believed,
aud his mode of existence would be very sim
liar to that of our remote ancestors in Eu-
rope, who used the flint weapons, at period
when an Arctic climate prevailed over Britain
and great part of the continent. Many me-
neurological problems of the highest interest
were also to be solved.
Captain Osborne thought that all expedi-
tons of the kind should be conducted under
the auspices of the government and the navy.
DIR. Kane's sufferings arose from the INSULT
Gent supplies and imperfect arrangements
necessarily attendant on purely private en-
terprise, but this was no reflection on those
warm-hearted Americans who had so nobly
come forward to aid in Arctic enterprises
The chivalrous and generous Kane never pen
ned those touching accounts to brighten men
from this grand field, but to caution us to
avoid his mistakes and to show how nobly the
worst evils can be borne in good cause. The
government had plenty of wooden ships rot
ting in her arsenals. He thought the navy
needed some action to wake it up from the
sloth of routine, and Arctic exploration was
more wholesome, both in a moral and SAN
itary point Of view, than any more Ashantee
or Japanese wars. Would it therefore be too
much to ask for a fraction Of the vast sum
yearly sunk in naval expenditure, for two
small screw vessels, and 100 officers and men,
out of the $4,000 annually placed at the dis
posal of the admiralty Captain (Sir Leo
pold) McClintock, who had already spent ten
years in Arctic seas, was ready to give up
the command of one of the finest frigates in
the service to take charge of such an expedi
ton. Captain Osborne concluded by an elo-
quent appeal to the Society to give its en-.
| lightened support to the project.
Admiral Sir Edward Belcher afterwards
made some remarks warmly advocating the
proposed expedition. He said if this great
problem was to be solved, it should be solved
by England. 1t should not be agitatsd here
and the Americans be allowed to get the start
of us as they did in Japan. Other eminent
scientific and naval gentlemen also strongly
supported the project.