Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1875-06-18
ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

The various expeditions undertaken
to solve the geographical and scientific
problems centering around the North
Pole have thus far done little more
than to partly clear the way for a final
solution. Indeed, they have not salts
fed us that such solution is certainly
a~ttainable, and Arctic research is still
q cropping in the dark.
Within the Polar circle, there Is an
area of fully 1900, 900 square miles, re-
specting which we are entirely ignor-
ant whether it is water, ice or land,
and whether its climate admits OF veg
citation and is adapted for animal life.
It is this terra incognitd to which the
ambition of Arctic explorers is direct
ed. 1t is very commonly taken for
granted that the physical condition ex-
isting within this area are such as
to preclude forever the possibility of
its explorations; and many of the ex-
ceptional few who regard it as possi-
bic that research may be carried far
beyond its past limit, yet expect no
other good result than the settling of
certain scientific questions. There is,
however, a handful of sanguine scien-
lists and geopraphers who have great
faith in the existence of an open Polar
sea, surrounded with all the forms Of
organized life that we find in the more
temperate ATTITUDES and possibly af-
fording some new highway for the
worlds 1t is a vague Won
dering hope of this kind that nor
than anything else keeps alive the in
terest in Arctic exploration.
1t is generally accepted as settled
that there are only four ways of entry
to this UNEMPLOYED region-either
through Behring's Straits, or between
Nova Zembla and Spitzenbergen, or
between Spitzenbergen and Greenland,
or to the west of Greenland, through
Davis Straits and Banin's Bay. The
failure of the successive persistent
efforts of McClintock, Parry and Nc
Clure to force a passage through the
ice packed waters of the Arctic Archi-
pelago seems to have settled the inn
practicability of the Behring's Straits
route. The possibility OF finding a
passage between Spitzenbergen and
Nova Zembla or between S~pitzenberg-
en- and Greenland has been well and
perseveringly tested by Swedish, Ger
man and Austrian expeditions, but
with d~iscouraging results, the almost
uniform testimony being that the sea
of Spitzenbergen is SO covered with
pack-ice the year round that nc adj
advance northward can be made be-
You'd the 50 degree line. The attempts
to our knowledge of ocean currents.
The west OF Greenland route has been
the favorite with American explorers,
and with results atfording more hope
of success than has attended research
in any other direction. Baflin was the
first discover of this route; two cen
turtles later Ross and Parry retraced
his steps and confirmed his much
doubted reports; hen came Franklin,
Inglefeld, Kane, Hayes and Hall, each
explorer adding sonnet hing to our geo.
graphical knowledge of that region
and contributing facts which slightly
aid the judgment in deciphering the
chances of this problem; but none of
them making any important north
ward progress beyond Smiths Sound.
One incident occurred in DR.. Kane's
expedition which has excited more in
terest than any other connected with
these northern explorations. The stew
art of his vessel, Morton, during the
detention of the "Advance at Upper
navik, undertook a hunting expedi-
ton with an Eskimo, and on June "a,
1854, reached a cape in latitude Sl.l0,
which has since borne his name,
where his advance was stopped by per-
pendicular cliffs, 1000 feet high,
against which the sea was washing.
xl0 hoCCituCu III "a WV
and could discern no floating ice, and
the horizon seward exhibited what is
known as a water-sky as distinguished
from ice-blink, indicating an absence
Of ice for a distance of fifty miles. He
found a large variety of sea fowl in
countless numbers and killed a bear
and her cub, and seemed to have got
into an altogether new climate. His
statements have never been impugned,
though his theories have failedt to COM
mand credence, and his discoveries
laid the basis for what Is known as
"Kane's open sea-" Seven years later,
DR.. Hayes, on the opposite of Smiths
Sound, found an inlet, since known as
Lady Franklin's Bay or Strait. This
turned out to be about opposite to the
point on the Greenland shore, where
Morton made his discovery; and the