The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-02
The Arctic Expedition OF M. Pnvy
Via Behring Strait.

The Arctic Expedition of M. Pavy
Via Behring Strait.
The North Polar Expedition, which re-
( Gently sailed from San Francisco, promises to
be one of the boldest and most brilliant of
+ modern adventures. Its enterprising leader,
: NJ Octave Pavy, was for several years the
secretary and friend Of the eminent French
: geographer Gustave Lambert, who was about
to undertake polar voyage under the aus
pieces of his own nation when the Franco rus-
sian war broke out, in which he persisted.
The plan Of the new French explorer for
reaching the North Pole is certainly recon-
mended by its novelty, and has also the judg-
ment Of many skilful and learned physicists to
sustain it. Sailing from San Francisco to Pc
tropaulovsh and other Siberian settlements,
M. Pavy proposes to obtain there dogs for his
sledges, dried salmon for provision and rein
deer skins for clothing, and thence, early in
August, to pass through Behring Strait and
move directly to Kellett Land or Wrangell
Land and land his supplies. He goes pro-
vided with raft, made of four hollow India
upon which, when united and dashed together
he can place deck and all the furniture Of q
ship. This raft is similar to that in which his
sailing master, Captain Mikes, who accompa
MES him now crossed the Atlantic, and with it
he proposes to pursue any open-sea discoveries
he may make when he has obtained his highest
latitude by sledge journey.
The novelty of this plan does not consist SO
much in the mechanical continuance Just de-
scribed as in the theory Of its author that Kel-
lett Lcad, which lies to the northwest of
Behring Strait, is prolonged towards the Pole,
perhaps as far as the eightieth or eighty fifth
parallel Of latitude. 1t is very well known that
the Kuro Siwo, or warm Pacific Gulf Stream,
that rnoves through Behring Strait in north
eastwardly direction, is diverted by some I'M
known agency north Of the strait and caused
to run in q westward instead Of in its normal
eastward direction. This circumstance has led
NJ. Pavy to the conclusion that continental
Strait, and that this land is the eastward ex-
tension Of Kellett Land. On the northern
shores of this supposed continent he believes
he will find the open Polar Sea Of which Kane
beheld but a small blight, and he hopes to
cross the sea around the Pole and return home
by Smiths Sound.
A glance at a circumpolar map shows that
this hope is by no means unwarrantable. When
Sir Edward Parry in 1918, made his famous
voyage over the ice north of Spitzbergen, in
the attempt to reach the Pole he traversed
five hundred and eighty nautical miles, nearly
sufficient to have taken him to this
destination, but he found that he had
only advanced one hundred and seventy
two miles, as the ice on which he was
travelling was drifting southwark much faster
than his weary men could move northward
At the extreme point of his advance the ice
did not show any indication of proximity to
> q permanent body of ice, and the continued
drift showed that there was an open space
both in the direction Of its course and in that
it had drifted from. There was no indication
of an approach to q solid continent Of ice,
which has by some PERSONS been imagined to
: extend from the Pole southwark" Now, this
fact, SO well stated by Parry, strongly sustains
the deduction of M. Pavy, that, once on the
shore of the Polynia, whose mysterious pillows
wash the Pole, he will have but little difficulty
in navigating it with his buoyant raft and
reaching the long-coveted goal of Arctic dis
covery.
The chief doubt Of his success arises from
the questionable character of Kellett or
Wrangell Land, over whose ice-clad surface he
expects to make high latitude. 1t is, of
course, problematical whether Kellett Land is
insular or continental. The analogy of the
circumpolar land masses would lead TO the
strong conjecture that whether its longitudinal
extent is as considerable as NJ. Pavy thinks or
not, its latitude is great and, if So he may find
it comparatively easy to reach by this land q
higher point than even Parry attained. Cap
tain Kellett, of the English navy, in the ship
Herald, in 1S49, saw land extending with high
peaks northwest of Behring Strait In 1867
Captain Bleven, in latitude II degrees and 20
minutes north and longitude l75 degrees west.
saw in this vicinity lofty mountain ranges run
ming northwards as far as the eye could see. In
the same year, in the month of August
Captain Long rediscovered these peaks and
ranges, seen by Kellett, and remarked that they
were visible until lost On the distance. This
distinguished navigator also gave it as his
opinion that the true way to reach the Pole is
in the very line now selected by the French
disciple of Gustave Lambert.
J Columbus OWNED the existence Of o con-