The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-10-26
The Probable Discovery Of the Pole.

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expedition are highly interesting verifcationi
of American researches. Just as Columbus
inferred the existence Of continent in the fal
| 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 Spitz
bergen, that the Gulf Stream penetrates the
mysterious periphery Of the Pole. In the far
famed and memorable expeditions of DR.. Kane
the existence Of an open Polar sea was dis.
tinctly announced as the result of his explora.
tons and afterwards reiterated by his
followers. But in Europe the honor of this
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 narrative and the open Polar sea
spoken Of as myth. II now seems that the
Ge-: Germans, alter the sPs ss Of nearly .~Sa.y
years, are beginning to appreciate the labors
of Kane and to learn that there is some credit
to be given to American enterprise.
But, while to DR.. Kane belongs the honor Of
the first discovery Of the open sea around the
Pole, the physical hypothesis upon which its
existence was first demonstrated also belongs
Japan Expedition, under Commodore Perry,
the fag-oficer of the squadron ordered sur
vey of the waters and currents Of the Western
Pacific, and committed the charge Of it to Cap
tain Silas Bent, who discovered, in gale off
the coast of Formosa, the powerful Karo Scivo,
or Japanese Gulf Stream, which drifted his
vessel for several days to the northward
against a furious storm driving 1t to the SOUTH
ward. 1t became at once evident to this saga
cious officer that the Karo Scivo was 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 immense
heat-bearing rivers In the ocean were inces-
sanity discharging themselves into the Polar
Basin. Anticipating by several years the
Carpenter theory of oceanic circulation
argued for the mild temperature Of the Polar
Basin due to the hydrostatic or hydrody-
manic Interchange of waters from the
Equatorial to the Arctic circle, and even went
so far as to suggest the possibility of steaming
to within few hundred miles of the North
Pole by following the Gulf Stream with the
water thermometer. At the time this hypothe-
sis was announced it was received with little
favor abroad, and not much more at home,
until last year, when Professor Carpenter him.
nlC -
Gotha-the protector of the present German
xpedtion-published the results of thermO-
metric deep sea explorations in the waters lying
between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. The
most recent and trustworthy Investigations
collected by the indefatigable Peterman-
whose labors were upsetting all his own
that on the west coast of Nova
Zembla the Gulf Stream maintains a breadth
of at least one hundred and twenty miles, and
a temperature of fifty-four degrees Fahren-
heit, cooling down, at depths of thirty or forty
fathoms, only from four TO six degrees. Other
observations charted by the German geogra-
pher conclusvely establish Gulf Stream tenn
perature Of forty-one degrees Fahrenheit in
still higher ATTITUDES, although there have
been always occasional ice drifts, difficult 10
pass.
In this country many were anxious that
Captaia Hall should test the Bent theory, now
popularity known as that of the ''Thermometrc
to the Pole" But il is, perhaps,
better that Captain Hall should not have
attempted it. To cross the seas between
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla should be
attempted only by thorough sailor, and one,
like Sir James G. 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, lS4l, to the I'd Of
February, 1912, to work through an ice stream
OF about five hundred miles in width; but he
was rewarded by finding on the other side
great open sea free of ice
Modern geography is intensely Interested in
discovering what lies beyond that ice belt
crossed by Ross in the Antartic regions, which
all navigators before him-Cook, Balleny and
even Wilkes-had believed and emphatically
declared to be an impenetrable barrier to
further progress toward the South Pole. Ac-
cordiug to common prejudice, be should have
found steady and progressive increase OF ice
aud cold as he advanced Poleward but this
was by no means the case. as Ross saga
ciousy anticipated. The brilliant ant.cipa'
tons of Ross were not disappointed,
and, after breaking through the ice-wall which
threw itself as "a Gordon around the Pole, be
found an open sea, in which he could sail with
out difficulty thousands Of miles. In the first
year, after emerging from the ice belt, there
was to be seen mot particle Of ice in any
direction from the masthead, and on the very
next day the gallant explorer deserted Victoria
Land, with its lofty volcanic cones towering to
the height of Mount Blanc, and thus restored
To ENGLAND the honor of the discovery OF the