The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-12-02
The Open Polar Sea.

The Open Polar Sea.
REPORT OF LIEUTENANT PAYER, OF
THE GERMAN EXPEDI1TON-THE
BEST ROUTE TO THE NORTH POLE
The Geographical and Statis-
tical Society of Frank-fort-on-the-
Main has received a report from
Lieutenant Julius Payer, one of
the two leaders of the German
expedition to the North Pole.
1t is dated October 8, from the
Norwegian coast, on board the
ship Haral Haarfage," and pre-
sents some.,new facts of very great
interest. After some intrOduc-
tory remarks, the report goes on
to say:
The preliminary expedition for
the exploration of the sea between
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla,
which is 10 be followed next year
by an exp ,Iition of greater mag
nitude, haa achieved a very un-
expected result: one which is Op-
posed to all previous calcula-
tions. The reason why the prin-
cipal object of the expedition
viz The exploration of King
Karl's Land-bas not and could
not be consistently carried out
will be explained to you by Navy
Lieutenant Weyprecht personal
ly. AS an offset against this fail
ure there appears, however, the
discovery of an extensive open
polar sea in place of the unknown
waters, which were formerly con-
sidered unnavigable. The Rus
slams, the Swedes and even the
German expedition of 1868, vain
ly attempted to penetrate even
as far as the Southern part of this
polar sea. But the result now
obtained is calculated to give q
different turn to the whole polar
question, and to create new ba-
sis for the exploration of the
North Pole.
It is very much to be regretted
that the great German North
Polar Expedition of 1S69-'7O did
not take this route, through the
sea of Nova Zembla, as it was
originally pointed out by DR..
Petermann, who declared it to be
the best route for penetrating
into the heart of the Polar basin.
In spite of the fact that the
highest authorities have hitherto
decidedly opposed every route
east of Spitzbergen, and that the
numerous Russian expeditions
during the present century have
not even been able to sail round
the Southern part of Nova Zem-
bla, and although the voyage OF
the Norwegian, Johanneson, last
year, close to the coast of the
double island to the Sea of Kara,
to the Sea of BarentZ, was; con-
sidered an extraordinary and
doubtful event, in spite of these
facts to the contary, our oxperi-
ence has proved the existence of
extensive open sea north of Nova
Zembla.
The Sea of Kara has been ex-.
plored by the navigators, Simon
sen and Nattisen and others, and
reported to be almost completely
free from ice. Simonsen has not
found any ice even around the
White island. On the strength of
these explorations the connection
Of the open Sea of Nova Zembla
with the waters Of the North of
Siberia may be considered an cs
tablished fact. With this dis
covery vanishes an immense ter
ritory of ice from our maps. The
year 1871 will undoubtly be rep
resented rs very favorable to the
ice navig ton, although "unfa-
vorable" >&rs have often been
spoken Of r:itnout cause or proof.
But the waIr.is hunters of Form
gia are unanimous in regarding
last summer as the worst season
ever experienced. Even the steam
or Germania, OF the German ex-
pcdition, has not succeeded in
penetrating into the Sea of Kara.
In Norway the fact that sailing
vessels have achieved higher re-
suits than steamships is attribu-
ted to the faulty construction of
the Germania as a sailing vessel
as we'll as a steamer, and it is,
therefore, a matter of great i'm
portance to subject this vessel to
an impartial examination.
The question now arises, how
came the result of the present
polar voyage to be so essentially
different from all that had hither-
to been experienced We are as
f,i, from, tho praS11rnntiOn to be-