The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-12

tuaC ueuP VI Ceu thousand O1nclol neaQS cut
off and piled up so that we could be sure that
their locust-like political lives were at an end,
and that we would never again have to feed
them.
The Mysterious Tides OF the North
Polar Ocean-The Most Important
Discovery Of the Hall Expedition.
The late testimony of the Polaris survivors
brings to light for the first time what is, per-
haps, the most important contribution yet
made to Arctic geography. DR.. Bessels' evi-
dence established. from his own observations,
the remarkable fact that the tidal wave near
Cape Hatherton, on the northwest coast of
Greenland, comas from the Pacific Ocean. At
Newman Bay, near the Polar outlet of Smiths
Sound, and at an extremely high latitude, the
tide rose always before it did at Polaris Bay,
further south; while, still further SOUTH at
Littleton Island, instead Of coming from the
northward, the tide comes from the South.
and hence is Atlantic born. This astonishing
discovery throws more light over the physical
geography of the North Polar area than all
else yet announced The tidal wave is, so to
speak, the pulse of the sea, and enables the
scientist to make many accurate deductions.
The lunar attraction, which causes the
tides, is exerted mainly on the equatorial belt
of waters. While moving to the north and
south of the Equator in its revolution the
moon maintains itself at the zenith of tropical
and sub-tropical regions, and it is clear that
no tidal wave could be originated at either
pole. Any throbbing of the sea witnessed
within the Polar circle must, therefore, be
communicated from one of the great oceans,
and it is certain that, if the evidence of DR..
Bessels be correct, the tidal wave at Newman
tide from the south has, of course, been long
since known; andsDr. Kane in 1863, noted
that after northerly gale in Kennedy Chan
mel, near Cape Constitution, the mid-channel
current was driven south, while near shore
the tidal current was moving towards the
north.
Very grave geographical considerations
must hang upon this new discovery Of Cap
tain Hall expedition. If the tides of Smiths
Strait in its northernmost outlet, advance
thither across the broad expanse of the cir
cumpolar ocean from the Pacific, how do they
pass from the Pacific to the Arctic basin? No
other inlet exists save the narrow water way
of Behring Strait, and it is apparently next to
impossible that the breast of the Pacific tide
can surge through this gorge and then pulsate
across the Arctic Ocean. Between Behring
Strait and Newman Bay, as the bird flies, it is
eighteen hundred miles. It is well known
that the grand tidal waves of the Atlantic and
Indian oceans, which knock for admission at
the Straits of Gibraltar and Babelmandeb,
respectively, do not penetrate into the Medi-
terranean or Red seas. But the Strait Of Glib
raltar is only fifteen miles wide at its western
side, and 'the Gate of Tears" Tor Babelmandeb)
is little less than seventeen miles, while
BehriDg Strait is about four times as wide, and
its width is computed from fifty-five to sixty
five miles. 1t is just possible, therefore, that
the Pacific wave may be propagated into the
Arctic Ocean and be transmitted across its icy
waters towards the point at which Dr. Bessels
supposes he observed it coming into Newman
Bay. The average velocity of this tidal in
tumescence in the Pacific is about five hun
bred miles On hour, and if it does commune
cate its motion Though our best co-tidal charts
do not show it) through the Behring gateway
it would require an open sea for its transmits
sion across the circumpolar basin in order to
pget into Smiths Sound from the northward.
If DR.. Bessels is right, then it will almost
surely follow that the great ocean around the
North Pole is not ice-bridged; for were it
frozen over the tidal water wave could not
undulate across its rigid and solid bosom.
''The tidal wave,' says Lieutenant Maury,
"can no more pass under an icy barrier to be
propagated in seas beyondethan the vibrations
of musical string can pass. with its notes,
fret upon which the musician has placed his
finger"
1t is we'll known that from principle first
applied by Airy and Whewel the dis
tinguished mathematicians, the depth of an
UNEMPLOYED sea can be determined very
closely by ascertaining the velocity of the
tidal wave. So that the discovery of DR..
Bessels and the data on which it is based, will
furnish the physicist with means of approx
imately determining the depth of the sea
whatever it may beg through which the New
man Bay tides are propagated.
It cannot be denied that, possibly. the tidal
phenomenon discovered Cat the highest points