The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-04
The North Polo.


The North Pole is in danger. There is no
telling how long that ancient institution will
hold out against its numerous assailants. They
come from every quarter, like Grants armies
advancing on the heart Of the late confede-
racy; and now the curtain seems likely to be
lifted and the mystery of ages revealed. The
ancients looked towards the North Pole with
awe, as the abode of dread and evil influences;
but we moderns, less given to supernatural
reveries, look that way to speculate. Some
who pretend to wisdom and are not yet con-
WINGED, with Solomon, that sail is vanity, are
determined to prove that the North Pole is in
the middle of vast Continent; others are
equally convinced that it is in the middle Of
great frozen sea while still others again main
tain that it is in the centre of sea that is al
ways open and never was frozen, and never will
or can be, because of the currents Of the ocean,
which bring the warm waters from the tropics,
and the winds which, blowing over watery
area of more than two thousand miles dame
ter, keep the surface of the sea always in
motion, thus rendering it as impossible to be
| frozen as the great Atlantic itself. Foremost
among these latter reasoners is our county
NAH DR.. Hayes, and DR.. Kane before him
held the same view.
Who is right and who wrong seems now
likely to be proven one way or another. The
French, under Lambert, propose, to settle the
business by way of Behring Strait; General
Kane (brother Of the celebrated Doctor thinks
Alaska dirt cheap at seven millions, merely as
base from which to operate against the
North Pole; the English are ventilating
the subject continually before their Geo
| graphical Society, and could they have
decided which were the better way to
| go about it they would have gone about it
long ago. Russia is not yet astir in the mat
ter; but somebody proposes a joint expedition
by that country, America, England and
France. The Germans have already an expe-
dtion to the east of Greenland, making its
way north, on the hypothesis Of DR.. Peter
mann, the Gotha geographer, that Greenland
extends clear across the Arctic Ocean, stretch
ing through fifty degrees, or three thousand
nautical miles, Of latitude. A preliminary
voyage, to be renewed next season, has just
been completed, after reaching latitude eighty
degrees thirty minutes, according to last ac-
counts. The Swedes have another expedition
operating from Spitzbergen, and have reached
latitude eighty degrees. Although he has
nothing to do directly with the North Pole
Captain Hall is now at the foot of Hudsons
Bay gathering together the last links of the
melancholy history of Sir John Franklin,
the greatest North Pole voyager of them all ;
and now, lastly, DR.. Hayes calls our attention
once more to his favorte scheme Of storming
the North Pole by way of Smith Sound.
This latter is the American route. II was first
opened by DR.. Kane in 1854. Dr. Hayes was
with him on that memorable voyage, saw the
advantages Of the route and followed upon his
old commanders tracks in 1860 with a little
Insignificant fore-and- aft schooner. Returning
home in the early period of the war, the i'm
portant results Of his expedition were swal-
lowed up in the Bull Run and Balls Bluff
sorrows, and the whole subject was lost sight Of
and forgotten when the explorer himself be-
gan Immediately, as q United States surgeon,
to busy himself with constructing and manag-
ing the largest hospitals for sick and wounded
soldiers that were ever heard Of
The expedition of DR.. Hayes aimed to reach
the North Pole; but in this 1t was not success
full, although the Doctor did himself reach the
open Polar Sea, not with his schooner how
ever, as he had hoped but with dog sledges,
not returning until stopped by the open water
within less than FIVE hundred miles of the Pole,
and on land nearer to 1t than had ever been
attained before by any explorer.
The Doctor made a hard fight with his
schooner against the heavy ice Of Smith Sound
and the heavy September gales, and not until
his vessel was fairly in sinking condition did
he give up the contest and come home to reft
and add steam power for another effort, salts
fed that II was through the want Of steam
alone that he was bafIled in his attempts to
break through the ice barrier and navigate the
open sea beyond.
His plan now was to found a colony by
gathering around q small nucleus of white
hunters the natives at the mouth of Smith
Sound and while pushing on thence the Sc
cond year with steamer, he would send home
his schooner freighted with oils and furs.
Thus would the expenses Of the exploration
be borne for an indefinite time. If he did not
succeed one year he would press on the next
and with self-sustainng colony at his back,
only eight hundred miles from the Pole, the
plan seemed reasonable enough, and to us who
stay at home Il has the additional advantage
Of appearing safe. Animal liie-reindeer,
foxes, bears, waterfowl, walruses, seals, whales,
&c.-is very abundant in and about the
mouth Of Smith Sound, and the Doctor says Q
valuable cargo may readily be gathered there
every year. His party captured in ten