The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-21
captain HalPs Polar Expedition-Its DfniJ
cnltics and It's Probabilities.

ne stanch little steamer Polaris, expressly
and carefully prepared and equipped in every
way for car oaigning among the frozen seas
and icebergs b.,vond the Arctic circle, will
leave this port via Newfoundland, Davis
Strait and Baffins Bay, ia search of tho North
Pole. The records of the various explora-
tions-English, Dutch, Russian and Amer-
can-in those Northern seas since the dis
covery of this Continent, chiefly in search Of .
northwest passage, are so full of the disfcul-'
ties, hardships, sufferings and dangers to be-
encountered, and 80 full, withal, of fatal dis
asters, that Notwithstanding the Arctic expert
ence of Captain Hall, his perfect knowledge Of
the requirements of polar expedition and his
complete equipment for this adventure, it is
possible that neither he, nor any of his ships
crew, nor his ship may ever return to tell the
story of their trials and their GROWING mis-
fortunes We think it highly probable, how
ever, not only that the Polaris will return "ali
GUS victory for American enterprise of an
actual visit to the North Pole.
But the longest day of our summer is here,
and one would think that Captain Hall ought
now to be at the head of Bafin's Bay instead
of being still in the port of New York. By
hardly be over three thousand five hundred
miles to the North Pole, and if the Polaris
were now at Upernavik she might, perhaps,
run through to the Pole and get back to some
Greenland winter station before she would bo
closed in by the ice. But the difficulty in
Davis Strait just now is the mass of ice and
the icebergs drifting down in the Arctic current
from the Pole. The strait will hardly be cleared
of this drift ice sufficiently for northern
passage against the sea current till, perhaps,
the middle of July, and Upernavik or Disco
Island may be as far as the Polaris will be
able to advance this summer. Indeed, 1t ap-
pears to be the purpose Of Captain Hall 10
winter at Disco Island.
And here, we think in following this old
beaten route Of Davis Strait and Bafins Bay,
upon which there have been so many failures
and 80 many disasters, Captain Hall makes a
great mistake. The movements of the great
ocean currents to and from the North Pole
should have guided him in the selection of his
route. What are these currents2 They are,
FIRST the great Atlantic equatorial current, or
Gulf Stream, which from the Capes Of Florida,
in northeasterly course, sweeps over
the Atlantic to the British islands and
thence up into the basin Of the Pole by way Of
the Spitzbergen islands. Next, there is the
great Pacific equatorial current, known as the
Japan Stream, which, from tho islands OF
Japan, sweeps in a northeasterly course across
the Pacific to Behring Strait, where the
current is divided, one branch passing up into
the polar basin through that strait and the
other sweeping down by the coast of Alaska,
British Columbia and Oregon, giving those
regions their soft winter climate. In addition
TO these two great ocean currents drifting into
the polar basin ii receives an immense supply
of water from those great rivers of Asia-the
Yencisi, the Lena and the Obi-and from the
into the Arctic Ocean.
Now, as there is very little evaporation
from the polar basin, those immense volumes
of water flowing into it must have an outlet
somewhere, unless Captain Symmes was right
in his theory that the earth is hollow shell,
ship may sail by entering the hole at the
North or the South Pole. But, having no faith
in ''Symmes' Hole" we must have an outlet
for the vast currents of water discharged
into the polar basin; and we have 1t in
the heavy Arctic current which, from
hat haoir p,N9
and Davis Strait, bringing with 1t its
squadrons of icebergs into the main Atlantic.
1t is against this heavy Arctic current that
Captain Hall proposes to reach the North
Pole, instead of taking the route Of either OF
those ocean currents which would help him to
his destination and perhaps give him an open
sea nearly all the way. Explorers by tho
Bafln's Bay route, in attempting to move
northward over the frozen sea on sledges,
have discovered that the whole illimtable
field of ice over which they were travelling
moved southwark faster taan they could move
northward over the ice. Here, then, is the
great difficulty to Captain Hall, by this route,
after leaving his steamer for his sledges and
portable boats.
There is, no doubt, an open sea around the
Pole, resulting from the vast bodies of COM
paratively warm water carried into that basin.
This open sea can hardly be considered mere
theory, inasmuch as, from the broad, encir-
cling fringe of icebound waters this side, DR..
Kane and Captain Hayes, north latitude 81
35, saw it, sea Of sparkling open water AZ
far as the eye could reach. 1t may be said,
however, that as Captain Hall, from expert
ence, knows oil about this Bafin's Bay route,
he knows that with his steamer, his sledges,
and his boats, he can find a way to the open.
sea around the Pole, and is morally certain Of
reaching the Pole itself. We have great faith.
In his exnerienca and bis enthusiasm. and. in.