Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-10-21
ARCTIC DISCOVERY.
"A Claim that Americans Have Found Land
Higher Than the Austrians. se


Higher Than the Austrians. se
DR.. Hayes, in letter in the New York
Tribune, respecting Arctic discovery,
writes:
The route to the Pole by way of
Smith Sound was first tried by DR..
Kane, and it's practicability was first
demonstrated by myself. Crossing
Smiths Sound with dog sledges over the
ice from DIR. Kanes winter quarters, [
discovered and reached Grinnel Land,
finding everywhere near it a smooth
belt of ice of the last winters freezing,
proving while the centre and eastern
sides of the sound were choked with
heavy and almost impossible hum
mock, the west coast was entirely free
when the present winter had set in.
This fact l reported to DR.. Kane, and
upon my return to the United States
from that expedition, I published the
opinion that by hugging the west coast
free passage could be had through
the Sound. Upon the strength of this
argument my expedition of 1860 was or
gained but not having (by reason of
lack of means) the steam power which I
desired, [ was unable to reach the west
coast in the teeth of heavy gales and
drifting ice-felds, and was forced into
winter quarters, with my little schooner
badly crippled, on the east side in lati-
tude IS deg. II min. In this respect
my fortune was exactly that of DR..
Kane, neither of us having steam power.
From winter quarters [ travelled north
with dog 'sledges over the ice nearly 300
miles, measured as the crow flies, until
[ was arrested by open water little be-
low latitude 80 deg, my highest de
termined position by solar altitude being
81 deg. 81 min. on Grinnell Land.
Beyond this [ made a good pull north
ward, but having no solar altitude 1
could not fix my position beyond 81
| deg. 81 min. with accuracy. Captain
Hall traversed Smith Sound in the
| steamer Polaris without difficulty, as 1
had long before predicted could be
done, and passing over the route which
I had passed over with dog-sledges, he
reached the open water which I had
sighted. His highest latitude was 88
deg. Is min.-some 25 or 30 miles
nearer the Pole than mine. But he was
there in August, a most open month,
while I was there in May, before thaw-
ing had fairly set in. He was in ship,
and in dog sledge but the open sea
was to both our eyes the same, and, as
believe, in both cases, illimitable, ex-
cept as here and there INSTRUCTED by
loose, drifting fields of ice. The high
way to the Pole was, believe, open to
Capt. Hall, and had he lived I believe
he would have reached it. believe the
same thing could have been done by my
old commander, DR.. Kane, in August,
1853, and by myself in 1860, had either
of us been blessed with steam, and I
believe, as [ have repeatedly asserted
publicly, that the Sound can be navi-
gated with steam-power any year, and
in proof of this we might cite the fact
that Capt. Hall experienced no difficult
ty whatever in the Polaris, which, as if
in six days from Uppernavik to the
sci; and even the land he sighted be-
You'd must, [ think, have been some
thing beyond 50 deg, which seems
to have been the northernmost point
Cape Vienna-seen by the gallant Off
GERS of the Tegetthoff For in 1864 [
traced the outline Of the land, which I
named Cape Union, on the west side
Gmperfectly traced, it is true, owing to
the great difficulties of the situation),
to latitude 80 deg. IS min, and Capt.
Hall must have seen land beyond this.
So I must think the American Grin
nell Land must have been sighted lit
tie farther moth than the Francis Joseph
Land Of Messrs. Payer and Weyprecht.
take messpride in thinking this, as it
is not only an American discovery but
my own, and has been traversed by no
other white man except my one compan-
ion in 1854, and my three companions
in 1861. think may still, therefore,
claim the discovery Of the most north
ern known body of land on the globe,
for on the Greenland side Capt. Hall
did not extend the surveys of DR.. Kane
| (Which terminated about latitude 80
degrees and so minutes) SO far north as
he sighted beyond my own surveys on
the opposite side. [ have said this
much in order that might show some
grounds for asserting my belief with you
that Smiths Sound is ''the most, or
only, available route to the Pole.