The Hawaiian gazette., 1868-11-18
Arctic Researches.

In the Address to the Royal Geographical
Society osLondon, delivered at the Ami
versary Meeting on the 25th Of May, 1865,
by Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, Bart, we
are happy to find highly hattering comment
on the interesting report of our Capt Thomas
Long, regarding the best route for reaching
the open Polar Sea, which report was pub
lished in the p C. 4drsrttsY Of January last.
Stating the efforts hitherto made by British,
German and French Arctic Explorers, Sir
Roderick says:
Whilst such are the preparations and hopes
in European countries, great amount of
fresh knowledge has been obtained by our
American kinsmen, who, in their whaling
vessels, have pushed their enterprise through
Behring Strait, far beyond the land first
sighted by kellett, and beyond IS n. lati-
tude, have coasted extensive high lends
which lie of the coast of Siberia, from which
they are, it is thought, separated by the sea
first seen by Wrngell. These, Indeed, are
great advances since the days when Collinson
(whose discoveries in another direction have
never been surpassed), determined the out
line of the whole northern coast of America,
and Kellett first saw Herald Island.
One of these masters of American whalers
Captain Long-has communicated to the
Preifc Commercial AdtsTtiSs7, of Honolulu, a
report which, in giving lively sketch of the
progress of Arctic discovery from the days
of Hudson and Frobisher, has enuneiated
the opinion that if ever transit by water be
made between the Eastern and Western
Oceans, it will not be by lines hitherto tried,
but by an enterprise directed from Behriug
Strait
Looking at the fact that the Arctic Sea is
L a. ~
bergen, Nova Zembla, and Siberia, aud that
it is the recipient of enormous bodies of
water poured into it by many large rivers,
he infers that the surplus must be mainly
discharged either by Spitzbergen or by Smith
Sound and Baffin's Bay. Now, all navigators
who have endeayored to get towards the
with powerful outflow of water transport
ing and moving out the ice southwark into
the Atlantic. Thus it was that Parry, hay
ing proceeded with great perseverance in
sledges 292 miles nothwards, and having
reached lat 81 -, was only 112 miles from
his starting point, so steadily had the broken
ice been carrying him and his party south
wards by this great channel. Considering
that the same outflow of water and ice has
been met with by all explorers to the north
of Smith Sound, Capt. Long maintains that
Behring Strait stands in favorable contrast
TO the other openings into the regions of the
Polar Sea, and is the channel in which the
effort should be made. He affirms, from the
experience of whalers since 1S47, that no
great body of water finds its way south
through Behring Strait and that, at least in
the spring and summer, the current is always
found setting to the north, owing, as he in
fers, to the discharge of the rivers on the
North American shore, and that of the Ana
dyr, on the Asiatic coast. He suggests.
therefore, that a strong vessel of 200 to 500
tons burthen, and provided with sufficient
steam-power to get through temporary OBJ
stacles, should follow the Asiatic shore from
Behring Strait as far as Cape kekurnai or
Cape Schelagskoi. From some point between
those eaDes the course would be TO the north
of the Laachoo Islands, whence the course
towards SpitzbeTgen or the Pole would be
influenced by the currents proceeding from
the great Siberian rivers. If the vessel were
Obstrueted by ice to the nOrthward of these
Is, the outflow current, though not so strong
as Immediately to the north of SpitZbergen
or in Bafiin's Bay, would, he thinks, eventu-
ally carry the ship through one of the chan
nels into the Atlantic.
Another route by which the voyage might
in the opinion OF Captain Long, be accom-
plished, is to proceed from Behring Strait to
the mouth of the Lena, then directly north
beyond Cape Sievero Vostosehni, aud then
westward, towards Spitzbergen.
Inc letter OF thlS experienced WnaliDg cap
tain is highly entitled to the notice of all
persons interested in Arctic exploration, in
asmuch as he assigns strong grounds for be-
lieying that, hitherto, we have been toiling,
like Sisyphus, against natural obstacles: he
believes that notwithstanding a few minor
obstacles on the Siberian coast, If we once
get a stout but small vessel into the current
caused by the Yenissei and other great Sibe-
rian streams, she would, if eniangled in
the pack, be unquestionably carried forward
into the Atlantic.
Capt. Long concludes that the passage
from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean will
eventually be accomplished from Behring
Strait by one OF the two routes which he
has indicated, and adds, 81 have as much
faith in this as have In any uncertain future
event, and much more than / had fifteen
years ago IN the Atlantic telegraph