Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-11-08
The ProbabIe Discover Of the Pole.

American researches. just as Co
lumbus inferred the existence of q
continent in the far west from the
tropical wood he saw drifting into the
Canaries, physical geographers have
long since argued, from the drift
wood of the West Indies picked up
on the coasts of Spitzbergen, that the
Gulf Stream penetrates the mysteri-
GUS periphery of the Pole. In the far
famed and memorable expeditions OF
DIR. Kane the existence of an open
Polar sea was distinctly announced
as the result of his explorations and
afterwards reiterated by his followers.
But in Europe the honor Ofthis great
discovery was persistently denied the
American geOgrapher, and, after his
death, through the influence of those
who envied him the glory, veil Of
| incredulity was thrown over his mar
rative and the open Polar sea spoken
| Of as a myth. 1t now seems that the
Germans, after the lapse of nearly
| twenty years, are beginning to appre-
eiate the labors of Kane and to learn
that there Is some credit to be given
to American enterprise.
But, while to DIR. Kane belongs the
honor of the first discovery of the
open sea around the Pole, the physi-
cal hypothesis upon which its exis-
tenee was first demonstrated also be-
longs to an American. During the
progress of the Japan expedition,
under Commodore Perry, the flag
officer of the squadron ordered
survey of the waters and currents of
the Western Pacific, and committed
the charge Of it to Captain Silas Bent,
who discovered, in a gale OFF the coast
of Formosa, the powerful Karo SeivO,
or Japanese Gulf Stream. which
drifted his vessel for several DAYS TO
the northward against furious storm
driving it to the southwark. 1t be-
came evident to this sagaciOus officer
that the Karo Scivo was a stream of
equal or vaster volume than the
Mexican gulf current, and that the
former was as hot as the latter, and
that both these heat bearing rivers in
the ocean were necessarily discharg-
ing themselves into the Polar Basin.
Anticipating by several years the
Carpenter theory of oceanic c.rcula-
tiOn announced last winter, the
American seamen argued for tie mild
to the hydroststie or hydrodynamic
interchange of waters from the EQua-
tOrial to the Arctic circle, and even
went so far as to suggest the possi-
bility of steaming to within a few
hundred miles of the North Pole by
following tho Gulf Stream with the
water thermometer. At the time this
hypothesis was announced it was re-
ceived with little favor abroad, and
not much more at home, until last
year, when Professor Carpenter him
self endorsed it, and when DIR. Peter
man, of Gotha-the protector of the
present German expedition-publish-
ed the results of thermometTic deep
sea explorations in the waters lying
between Nova Zembla and Spitzber- |
gen. The most recent and trust !
worthy Investigations collected by
the indefatigable Peterman-whOse
labors were Upsetting all his own |
theories-show that on the west coast /
of Nova Zembla the Gulf Stream 1
maintains a breadth of al least one /
hundred and twenty miles, and a /
temperature OF fifty-four degrees
Fahrenheit, cooling down, at depths !
of thirty or forty fathoms, only from I
four to six degrees. Other observa-
tions charted by the German geOgra-
pher conclusiEely establish a Gulf
Stream temperature of fOrty-oDe de-
grees Fahrenheit in still higher lati- |
tudes, although there have been |
always occasional ice drifts difficult
to pass. ~ ~ H-
In this country many were anxious
that Captain Hall should test the Bent |
theory, now popularity know as that
of the Thermometric Gateways to /
the Pole" But it is, perhaps, better
that Captain Hall should not have
it. To cross the seas be-
tween Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla
should be eattempted onlyby a thorough
sailor, and one, like Sir James &.
Ross. fully acquainted with ice belts.
1t took Sir James, when breaking
through the ice belts around the South
Pole at one time not less than forty
six days, from the 18th Of December,
1871, to the 2d Of February, 1912, to
work through an ice stream OF about
five hundred miles In width; but he
was rewarded by findingon the other
side a great open sea free Of Ice.
Modern geography is intensely in
terested in discovering what lies
beyond that ice belt crossed by Ross
in the Antartic regions, which all
before ehim-COOk, Balleny T
aud even Wilkes-had believed and
declared to be an inn
barrier to further progress
toward the South Pole. According
to common prejudice, he should have
found a steady and progressive inr
crease of ice and cold as he advanced
but this was by no means
the case, as Ross sagaciously antici-
pated. The brilliant anticipatiOns OF I
Ross were not disappointed, and after
breaking through the iee-wall which
threw itself as q Gordon around the
Pole, he found an open sea, in which
he could sail without difficulty thou.
sands of miles. In the first year after
emerging from the ice belt, there was
to be seen mot a particle of ice in
any direction from the masthead" I"
and on the very next day the gallant
explorer deserted Victoria Land, with
It's lofty volcanic cones towering to
the height of Mont Blanc, and
thus H restored to England the honor
of the discovery Of the southern
most known land, which had been
nobly won by the intrepid Belling
hausen and for more than twenty
wears retained by Russia"
There can be little doubt if such q
and skillful sailor as Ross
could now take steam vessel, armed
with an ice saw at her prov, into the
sea between SpitZbergen and Nova
Zembla, where it is penetrated by the
Gulf stream with its potential thermic
that brilliant geographic
cal discovery would crown the expert
ment. The ice belt once broken
the steamer would have but
little difficulty in making her seaway
to the highest latitude reached by
Parry on foot, and the sight of the
Pole itself recompense the explorer.
1t is a remarkable coincidence, con-
frming the reports of the North
German expedition, that Ross and
Kane. at different times and at the
earth's antipodes, observed the fact
now telegraphed of the seas swarm
ing with whales" Further intelli-
genee will be awaited with liveliest
interest.
There is evidently much reason to
hope that either the American or
German expedition will solve the
mystery Of geography.
The scientific world will never rest
fiIl that ia done. for Ito borrow q fre-