Connecticut western news., 1873-03-14
Arctic Elaboration,

To the generality of mankind the fas- cination which leads so many to take part in arctic exploration is incompre- hensible. Even those who see some method in Livingstone's madness, can discover nothing to justify the risking of life and treasure in efforts to pene- trate the frozen zone, which must ever remain impracticable for human uses.
 But to the men of science, the question of the prospective discovery of the pole and the results which may flow from it, is fraught with an interest that has attach vestigations. Who knows what meteor ological and magnetic mysteries may not be solved when that hidden region shall have been peirceds: what zoologi- cal and ethnologieal secrets may not be divulged! There may lie the key to the laws of storms, of atmospheric and oceanic currents, and of the tides. Be- hind that, frozen barrier there may be placid seas and warmer regions rich in animal and in vegetable, life. There may still exist genera and species long supposed to be extinct, and perhaps vestiges and remains of man cut off for ages from communi ication with his kind. The possibility that all or any of these mysteries may be unlocked by him who first shall enter that charmed region, lends fascination to arctic exploration not easily appreciated by the masses, and in comparison with which the perils and hardships incident to 1t are reckon ed as of little account. This, as well as the love of adventure inherent in man kind, is what leads men yearly to tempt those inhospitable climes, and attracts ability and skill from easier paths to in vestigations attended only by privation and danger. Since the days when the adventurous keels of the Northmen first ploughed those seas, nearly all civilized nations have interested themselves in the arctic problem. The ships of Venice and of England long sought there the mythical northwest passage, to the In dies; Danes, French, and Dutch, emu- lous of the Spaniards, who monopolized the other routes, pursued the quest with energy and zeal, some seeking the passage from the east and some from the west; Russians tried to penetrate northward through Siberia, and by ship through Behring's Straits and later, when this commercial dream was ended and science alone demanded further ex- ploration, England sacrificed some of her noblest sons on the altar of polar investigation. America, too, has not been behindhand in adding to the world knowledge of those desolate re- gions. Even now Captain Hall and his companions are Drawing the rigors of the arctic seas in the hope, not vain one we trust, of being the first, to reach the open waters and perhaps the pole itself.
 Worthy competitors from Sweden, Nor way, Austria, Russia, and England, are in the field, striving to reach the coveted goal through different paths. It is prob able that some one of these parties will solve the long mooted question of the existence of an open polar sea. Most of the precedent geographical doubts have been cleared up by the numerous explorers before them, so that undivi- ded attention can be given to the great problem. If it be not settled now, science may well fear that difficulties, insurmountable by human skill and perseverance, lie in thew 1m