The New York herald., 1872-11-02
Tidings from the Icelsss Polar
Its Biographical Impert.

Tidings nrom tho Icelsss Polar seas
Its Geographical Inpert.
The important tidines which We publish to-
day from the great open Polar Sea will be read
with deep interest, as furnishing new evidence
Of the existence of that mysterious phenom-
enon first made known by the American ex-
plorers under DR.. Kane. This time the ex-
plorer is the bold Norwegian, Captain Nils
johnson, who, as late as the latter part of last
August, rediscovered and re-explored for the
second time the islands lying to the east Of
Spitzbergen, and, moreover. discovered from.
the mountains of the islands seas free Of ice
to the northeastward and the indications Of
powerful oceanic currents serving to keep open
the higher Polar seas
For two and half centuries, as DR.. Peter
mann, the great German geographer (through
whom the present intelligence comes), has
said, these lands have been danced about ON
the map" by the various photographers of diff
ferent expeditions. Last June Captain Alt
mann, of Hammerfest, visited them, and now
the investigation of Captain johnson furnishes
accurate data for their geography The value
of this discovery must not be measured
by the significance or magnitude of the
land explored, but is highly important as
revealing certain long-desired points Of
observation and research as to the physical
geography of these high latitudes in the
Atlantic and as to the existence and cause Of
the Polyhymnia, seen last year to extend to
the northeastward by the Austrian explorers,
NJ kos~ I~1
attained the high latitude of nearly eighty
degrees north, and from the SUBMITS OF the
hills found that the sea to the northeastward,
in the tract of Payers and Weyprechts expeI
dition Of last year, was ''entirely free from
ice." This corroborates the Austrian reports
of the iceless sea stretching towards the Pole.
along the supposed pathway of the prolonged
equatorial surface current and the Gulf
Stream, between Nova Zembla and Spitzber-
gen. The islands visited by the Norwegian
explorer lie in the very throat or, at least, ON
the edge, Of the great Polar ice current, which
in July, 1927, when only four hundred and
thirty geographical miles from the Pole, COM
PEELED Sir Edward Parry to give up his adj
vance northward, because in that height Of
Arctic Summer all the ace ields were in mo-,
ton, and swept faster to the south than his
men could drag their boats to the north. T.
the observations now announced show an Ice
less sea northeast Of the newly discovered
islands the strong inference is that in the deep
channel eastward and nearer to Nova Zembla
this years expeditions will find warmer
weather, southerly winds and the extension Of
the Gulf Stream, producing and maintaining
an open water gateway to the extreme latitudes
of our globe. The fact observed by Captain
johnson Of enormous piles of driftwood
strewn longitudinally along the coast of the
newfoundland, proves that the currents Of
the Arctic Ocean are neither idle nor feeble
forces, but play stupendous part in breaking
up the ices and mitigating the climate Of the
Pole. Viewing the Norwegian exploration in
this light, it will be of great interest and Of
permanent value in Arctic geography.