The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-03-11
The Coming English Arctic Expedi-
ton.

The plan of the expedition is, it is said,
as follows: Two ships are to proceed to
the entrance 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,
OF when arrived at the furtherest point
from which it seems practicable to keep
up communication with its consort, will,
in the same spider-lke fashion, begin
stretching out a line of depots northWard.
This will be the work of the autumn and
winter Of 1875, and in 1876 the advanced
ship will send out a sledging expedition
toward the Pole, which, instead of carry
ing all its commissariat along with it, will
find much of it cached in the depots of the
previous year.
Now, ten miles day is good average
sledge travelling, and if the advanced
ship steamed as high as the Polaris, it is
argued that the sledging party might
easily perform the five hundred and odd
miles to the Pole and back in one hundred
days. We do not say it could not. But
sureaH1tnie is flaw in this reckoning.
Five\ ed miles as the crow flies are
one tin Nego five hundred miles north,
following coast, is quite another. On
the most liberal calculation the distance
should, it may be imagined, be reckoned
ast pie. Do what we will to lessen its
dangRs, that will be tremendous under
taking. The majority of people who read
glib newspaper articles have probably the
vaguest notions of what such an expedi-
ton means. In, the first place, there is
the chance of the dogs dying, and without
dogs it is quite certain we should never
reach the Pole unless we succeed in out
sailing Captain Hall. Again, it is not
| smooth ice that has to be traversed A
sledge has generally to keep to what is
called the ice-toot, 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 border Of the land itself
And here, where the talk of an open sea
may have made some people think the
| perils of the attempt will be over, it may
very likely prove they have only begun.
Let any one recall to himself the dangers,
described by SO many graphic pens, which
| beset strong ship manned by full crew
in the Polar seas, and then think of a frail
| boat with its boats crew launching or
what may be 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 sud-
most ship might approach within 500 miles
of the Pole; and, with the knowledge of
sledge-travelling we now possess, the dis
| "a I'D 4
in one hundred days" they are blowing
hot much too soon after blowing cold.
Such language in such a quarter argues
either considerable ignorance OF careless
differentiation of the hazards to be under
gone. No; not all the experience of all
the explorers that ever lived could make
the expedition other than a terrible strug-
gle against terrible Odds
Our main hope lies in our steamer out
stripping 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. Should we, therefore,
be daunted by such an outlook, and shrink
from the venture? II immediate success
is only to be won by good fortune, an i'm
mediate return in some shape is certain.
And even 1t the present 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 repe-
tition of the attempt should those difficult
ties prove insurmountable. 1t is more
prudent and more patriotic to be pre-
pared for partial failure. If Capt Mares
can reach the Pole so much the better.
If he can get beyond Hall and Parry it
will be a grand contribution to future dis
covery. But if he does neither, but simply
does his best let us be satisfied. and de-
termine never again to desist from the
enterprise which IS our birthright till pa
tent toll is finally crowned by triumph
! [Cornhill Magazine.