The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-07
Our New Arctic Expsditis..


difficult and perilous voyage of Polar dis
covery. The enterprise and dauntless energy
of its commander lend more than the usual
interest which attaches to Arctic resea riches
and the bold conception which distinguishes
this new attempt to find the Pole from pre-
vious endeavors will excite the curiosity and
may provoke the emulation of all the maritime
Powers.
The novel and daring feature of Captain
Halls plan is that his avowed purpose, after
reaching the highest latitude attainable in his
ship, is to make grand sledge journey to the
Pole" After leaving New York he goes rst
to Newfoundland, to pick up few sealers to
complete his party; thence to Greenland for
asupply of skins and stock fish. and then, after
supplying himself with the best Esquimaux
dogs, he will move toward Jones Sound, lati-
tude seventy-four degrees north. Moving
northward from Jones Sound, he hopes to
reach the seventy-eighth or eightieth parallel.
and there to winter until the spring of 1872,
when he will start with about one-half Of his
party, on sledges, directly for the Pole.
Accompanied by party of picked men and
equipped with every provision that modern
science and Arctic experience can suggest, 1t
is not improbable that, whether he attains the
goal of his desire or not Captain Hall will out
strip every other Polar explorer.
To weigh intelligently the merits and wis
dom of this hazardous enterprise ii is neces-
sary to consider the physical conditions
under which it will be prosecuted. In
the celebrated journey of Captain Parry,
north of Spitzbergen, journey made by
sledge, 1t was found that the ice drifted south
ward with more rapidity than 1t was possible
for the exploring party to advance in the de-
sired direction toward the Pole, and Parry,
than whom no investigator was ever more
hardy, skilful or intrepid, turned back foiled
and frustrated. 1t is true that sledge jour
neys, under favorable circumstances, have
been made with great speed and despatch, and
this is in Captain Halls favor. Peter the Great
once travelled from Moscow to ST. Peters
burg over Indifferent roads, in mid
winter, by sedge in forty-sx hours,
and the Emperor Alexander more than once
made the same journey in an open sledge in
forty-two hours. The distance between the
two cities is about four hundred and eighty
miles, or twice as great as that between the
point from which Captain Hall expects to
begin his sledge journey Gin the spring of 1922
and the Pole ITSELF An accomplished master
of sledge travelling, as the new commander is
known to be, and borne by the dogs of King
Williams Island, of matchless festness and
endurance, it is not incredible that the expo
dition may ultimately reach the highest lati-
tude of the Western Continent, and, at any
supposed open Polar Sea. Captain Hall is
evidently not q believer in the announced
result of the labors of the second Grinnell ex-
petition under Kane. He is, on the contrary,
perfectly confident that what is known as
Ellesmere Land, north Of Jones Sound, pro-
ton he is supported by the opinion of
McClintock, Sherrard Osborne and other
eminent English Arctic explorers. But
their views are open to suspicion from the
well known fact that the international jealous
les of scientific men have frequently caused
them to cast the slur of improbability and
doubt upon every great discovery made by
foreign nation, unless that discovery is
established by evidence wholly indisputable.
Should the present American commander
will, in the early part of his sledge journey,
stumble upon the open Polar Sea, ''along
whose Shores" according to Kane, ''seals
were sporting and waterfowl feeding, whose
waves came rolling in with measured tread
like the majestic pillows of old ocean, and
whose solitude, the cold and boundless expanse
and the mysterious heavings of its green
waters lent their charm to the scene"
Whether subsequent investigation will con-
firm the substantial accuracy Of Kane's mar
ratlve it is, perhaps, reserved for Captain
Hall to decide. But if it be founded at all in
fact the present expedition cannot hope for
the full execution of its purposes.
There is unquestionably an immense drain
age of continental rivers into the Arctic
basin with the return of every spring
by the careful and moderate estimate OF the
eminent geographer Keith Johnston, the water
thus let loose by the vsrnal sun upon the sur
face of this basin represents the melted snow
and drainage of five millions Of square miles,
which exceeds by two millions of square
miles the total area contained within the
entire periphery of the Arctic Sea. This
volume Of warm water, pouring into and diff
flsing itself over the Arctic ATTITUDES, is still
further augmented by the dissolution of Ice
masses under the midsummer sun, whose
temperature, as far north as Yakutsk, the
coolest habtation of man, is frequently known
to reach sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Add to
these thermic resources of the Arctic basin
the fall of summer rains, the latent heat
evolved in their formation and the combined