The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-01-18

the opposite side OF the Polar Ocean rum whence
it WIS seen by Wrnngell and .Anjou. Observation
has also proved that the temperature rises rs you
recede from the land towards the north. Parry
who wintered both Mt Melville Island and Igloolik
Island, in Hudson's Bay, found the season more
advanced in Ma ut the former than at the latter
place, although Melville Island is nearly six de-
grccs farther north than IglOolik. Franklin also,
who wintcred ut Great Bear Lake, found the tenn
peratare during the winter nearly as low as Parry
found it nine degrees farther north. In Spitz-
bergen, which is of small extent and separated
from any large body of land by q distance Of more
than three hundred miles, deer propagate in 500
of latitude. Rain also has been known to fall in
the latter part of December at Cherrie Island, in
lat. 757. The fact also that icebergs, which re-
quire land for their formation, are only found near
the coast of Greenland. is evidence that no great
body of land exists in this Polar Ocean to decrease
its temperature and interrupt Its navigation.
Assuming then the existence Of this open Polar
Ocean Though possibly not entirely u~ncncumbered
by the ice), ] venture TO give my own opinion of
the best route by which n passage from one ocean
TO the other can be accomplished, and a near yicin-
iy to the North Pole reached ut the same time.
Nearly all the attempts which have heretofore
been made to reach the North Pole and communi-
Gated by vessels by a northern route between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, have been prosecuted
through Bafin's Bay and the Greenland Sea, ,ohere
Lhey hare uniformly encountered an adreTse cur
rent, trhieh together ,rih Me large masses Of rae
rrhieh irere driGed south By THIS current, hare
Arrays 6a5ged thar attempts.
Parry in 1877 undertook to reach the North Pole
10 u.a N 81 boats draurn urnn slefOaS Tho birbaS,
point which he attained was lat. 80 As, and in
reaching this point he Travelled north two hundred
and nincty-two miles, and found himself hut one hum
dred and seventy-two miles from the place Of his de-
parture thirty-hve days before, showing n current set
ting south at the rate of three and n half miles per
day. IT this, the highest point which he reached, he
also found the ice broken in small pieces and not SO
thick as that farther south, ShOTlng there must hare
been much open rrdisr 10 Tie north 10 cause sufficient
srsH 10 break up n ice in this manner. In his de-
~scription OF the ice AZ this point he says So small
was the ice now around US that We were obliged 10
halt for the night upon the only piece of ice in any
direction on which We could venture to trust our boats
while we rested Such was the ice in lat 81 9 As.
The -Adrance and Rescue, under the command of
DE Haven, WAS frozen up in Wellington Channel, and
from the III of October, 1850, until the Sth of June,
1851, n period of two hundred and forty-nine days,
drifted through Barrow's Strait, Lancaster Sound and
Bafin's Bay, a distance of nearly one thousand
the same rate of drift which Parry
found north of Spitzbergen in the summer season.
One Of Sir Edward Belcler's ships, the Resoiuie,
by him near Melville Island, drifted
through the same channels, and was found by an
American whhler in Davis Strait, about one thousand
miles from where she was abandoned.
The great quantities of drift-wood and the character
of the wood (found only in high northern latitudes)
which is found upon Spitzbergen, Iceland and Green
land, is another evidence of the existence of this con-
tinuous current from the north towards the south,
and which must have carried this wood across the
Polar Sea from the shores of Asia and America, as it
could not have reached there from any other quarter.
Having thus shown from well authenticated evidence
the existence Of this current, the question naturally
is ats cause
When we take into consideration the fact that in
the whole of Northern Asia, east of the Ural Noun
tains to Behring's Sea, and rs far south as latitude
N, and in some instances as TAR as 10 N, The
rirsrs AL fov info the .9refie Ocean, two of them,
the Yenisei and Lena, being navigable for beats a
Of iro thousand mules each, together with
the rivers on the North American Continent from 6o0
comprising an area of nearly five million square
miles, il is evident there must be some outlet for this
great volume Of water. That any great portion of
this water finds its way south through Behring's
Strait, is dispruved by the observations of whalers,
have cruised in this region since 1917. The cur
rents here have been found variable In the spring
and summer the current is always found setting 10
Wards the north, which IS probably owing to the large
river Anaiyr ON the Asiatic, and the rivers which
IMPLY into Behring's Sea ut Port Clarence and Nor
ION Sound on the American side, whose waters are
much increased by the melting of the snow during
The spring and early summer months.
In the autumn and winter months, from Informal
ion derived from the natives Of the coast and whalers
hat have winterel in Plover and St. Lawrence bays,
he current is found setting towards the south. The
orce and direction of these currents are also proved
~ the drifting Of vessels which have been wrecked
iorth Of Behring's Strait. The bark Gratitude, of
Bedford, was wrecked near lat. 6s4 : and long.
I6s : about forty miles from Cape Lisbourne, in the
.arly part Of July, 1865, and IN the month Of August
vas seen near Herald Island, one hundred and seventy
niles in y. n. W. direction from where she was
The Ontario, Of New Bedford, was wrecked
n September, 1866. in lat. zoe %, and during the
winter was seen by the natives drifting
through Behring's Strait towards the south, and il is
eported some of them visited her. She was after
saris seen ON shore in about lat. Ga 90.
II appears evident, therefore, that these winter and
currents nearly equalize or compensate each
ther, and that Behring's Strait affords AN INSULT
lent outlet for the great body of water which flows
nto the Polar Sea from the northern slopes Of Asia
NIL America
As the evaporation IN this region is nearly if not
compensated by condensation and precipitation,
We must conclude that the avenues for the discharge
4 this great body of water are the passages between
Iova Zembla, Spitzbergen, Greenland and Davis
strait where this continuous current has been fouad
citing towards the SOUTH
Let any person look ut a chart of the Northern
Hemisphere, and they will see that the form of the
'olar Ocean is nearly circular, it, circumference being
i've or six thousand miles In two-thirds of this cir
umference, large rivers are flowing into the sea at
OCULAR intervals, while in the other third there are
penings for the escape of this water; and unless this
yater ~ absorbed DIV the atmOspnere anu carried south
" the wind (Which tqeOry l think is incorrectly, it
must find its way south by some of these channels.
Instead then, like ~Sisyphus, of ceaselessly contend
ny against insurmountable obstacles and these con-
inuous adverse currents, which have been found to
xist. and the causes of which I have endeavored to ex-
lain, | would wish to profit by the experience and OBJ
Of former navigators, and avoiding the diff
iculties which they encountered and endeavored to
1 would avail myself of the assistance of
his current for the purpose of crossing this Polar
)cean. In earlier times there were great difficulties
n the way of sending expeditions from the Pacific tor
purpose, but since the opening of the gold fields
{ California these difficulties have in a great measure
disappeared, and the facilities at the present time for
Itting out Polar expeditions from the Pacific are
equal TO those Of the Atlantic side. With the
xception of the vessels, the other Appliances for a