Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-06-07

The Result Of the Polaris Expedition.
The intelligent St. Johns (Newfoundland)
correspondent of the New York Erenino Post
furnishes some interesting additional informa-
ton concerning Captain Halls expedition, and
in making an estimate of the results holds that
Ii is great mistake to suppose that the voyage
of the Polaris has been q failure. Solid and
valuable additions to our knowledge OF the
geography of the regions north of Smiths
Sound have been made by Captain Hall and
his party; and the possibility of reaching the
pole by this route may now be regarded as set
tied. When, in 1854, Mr.. Morton, of Kane's
party, stood on Cape Constitution, in latitude
about so as N, he was satisfied that he saw
the waters of the open polar sea break
ing against that headlsnd. And when,
gitude JOo 30, on the opposite shores of Grin
nelPs Land, he too was honestly of the opinion
that Kennedy Channel expanded into the open
polar basin. Little did he image that ten
years after. Captain Hall, in the Polaris, would
sail through these waters, and find here a bay
sixty miles in breadth from east to west, and
eighty-fve miles in length from north to south,
and that be would winter in a harbor on the
Greenland side opposite the spot where he stood,
in precisely the same latitude, but sixty miles
farther TO the east. This is what Captain Hall
Ulu, anu nenceiOrtn name ana HayeS'S open
polar sea will be known as Polaris Bay and
their theory of an open polar sea at this point
must now be regarded as incorrect. This i'm
portsnt point the voyage of the Polaris has
placed beyond all doubt.
The writer saws in this connection:
Having crossed the mouth of this bay, the
FOlaris entered a channel twenty-five miles in
width and fOrty-fve miles in length, which
Captain Hall named RObeson's Channel, after
the Secretary OF the American Navy. At the
northern extremity of that channel he found
himself in lat. $50 10. The land on the Green
land side here trended eastward. and another
inlet or bay opened, but the weather was too
hay in that direction to determine its extent
On the American side land was visible to lati-
tude SO, within four hundred and twenty
miles of the pole What a glorious chance of
solving the problem OF centuries, and winning
the laurel crown! Here the question arises,
Why did not Captain Hall now press on? He
met with ice at this point, but il was by no
means an impenetrable pack. He could have
gone on, and wished to do so; and
must rest on Captain Buddington,
who concluded that il was unsafe to ad-
vance, as no harbor might be found in which
to winter. What pity that the party did not
resolve to dare everything, and seize the golden
opportunity which may not recur in the next
they might have found that Greenland extends
to the pole, and that a watery channel sewers
n from Grinnell Land all the way; or possibly
they might have found themselves in the omen
polar sea, somewhere beyond latitude S3o. fhe
existence of such q not vet determined
but so Tar il seems that the evidence is in favor
of Petermann's theory of Greenland being pro-
lOnged over the pole. Some other daring ex-
ploreT will follow IN his track, and the mystery
of the pole may yet be solved