The star. (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1874-1875, 1875-03-26
An English Arctic ExpeditiOn

An English writer says of the pro-
posed arctic expeditions:
Two ships are to proceed to the en-
trance of Smiths sound this year. One
will stay there and set to work estab-
fishing depots northward; the other
will sail northward, and when stopped
by ice, or when, arrived at the
furthest point from which it
seems practicable to keep up commu-
same spider-like fashion, begin stretch
ing out a line of depots northward. This
will be the work of the autumn and win-
ter. of 1875; and in 1875 the advanced
ship will send out a sledgiDg expedition
toward the pole, which, instead of car
rying all it's commissariat along with 1t,
will find much OF it cached in the depots
OF the previous year. Now, ten miles a
day is good average sledging, and If the
advanced ship steamed as high as the
Polaris, it is argued that the sledging
party might easily perform the five hun
dred and odd miles TO the pole and back
in one hundred days. d. We do not say it
could not. But surely there is flaw in
this reckoning. Five hundred miles as
the crow flies are one thing. But five
hundred miles north, following along the
cost is quite another. On the most care.
full calculation the distance should, it
may be imagined, be reckoned as double.
Do what we. will to lessen it's dangers,
that will be tremendous undertaking.
The majority of people who read glib
newspaper articles have probably the
yaguest notions of what such an expe-
dition means. In The first place, there is
the chance of the dogs dying, and with
out dogs it is quite certain we should
never reach the pole, unless we sue
ceeded in outsailing Captain Hail.
A gain it is not smooth Ice that has to be
traversed. A sledge has generally to
keep what is called the ice foot or solid
ice clinging to the shores of the straits,
because in the center the ice becomes
sooner rotten in the summer. Should
this ice cease or become SO rotten as
Hayes and Payer found it, the party
would have to take to the boat. For we
presume no advance is to be expected
along the snow and glacier-covered bor-
der of the land itself. And here, where
the talk of an open sea may have made
some people think the perils of the at
tempt will be over, it may very likely
prove that they have, only begun. Let
any one recall to himself the dangers,
described by so many graphic pens,
which beset a strong ship manned by a
full crew in the Polar seas, AND then
think Of frail boat with its boat crew
launching ON what may be a stormy sea,
with every peril from the ice as great or
greater than further south. Surely,
when those who for years have decried
an expedition suddenly turn round and
say that the foremost ship might ap-
proach within five hundred miles of the
pole; ana, with the knowledge of sledge
travelling we now possess, the distance
there and back mightbe tfaversed in one
h,ndrad dayc fhnv Qrp bIO WI ipU hat m nj
too soon after blowing cold. Such Ian
guage in such quarter argues either
Considerable ignorance or careless un-
LIBERALIZATION of the hazards to be I'M
dergone. No; not all the experience OF
all the explorers that ever lived could
make the expedition other than terrible
struggle against terrible odds. Our
main hope lies in our steamer outstrip-
ping Captain Halls. Could it do this,
and do it early in the summer, the
wisest policy might, after all, be to make
the grand attempt this year. Ii imme-
diate success is only to be won by good
fortune, an immediate return in some
shape is certain. And even if the pres
ent' enterprise fails it will, we may be
confident, do something to lessen the
risks of future explorers. The same
people who make light OF the difficulties
TO be encountered now would be the
first to throw cold water on a repetition
of the attempt should those difficulties
prove insurmountable. II is more pru-
dent and more patriotic to be prepared
for partial failure. If Captain Mares
can reach the poles, SO much the better.
LII he. can get beyond Hall and Parry it
will be u grand contribution to future
discovery. But-if he does neither, but
simplye does his best, let us be satisfied,
and determined never again to desist
from the enterprise which is our birth
right till patient toll is finally crowned
by triumph.
The semi-centennial anniversary Of