Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-11-09
The Last Polar Expedition.
tChicago Tribune.l

lhc LdSt TOidF EApeuitlOn.
fChicago Tribune.l
The British Arctic Expedition has
returned, having failed, as has every
other of the numerous expeditions
that within the past two centuries
has been sent out to make the long
sought Northwest Passage from the
Atlantic TO the Pacific. The vessels
that went out upon this expedition =
the Alert and the Disoovery-were by
all odds the staunchest and best
equipped that ever sailed for the Arc
tic seas on a voyage Of discovery. Both
were steamers OF the most approved
model, and equipped with powerful
engines so as not to be dependent up
on contingencies OF wind and tide.
They were fitted out with every con-
trivance that ingenuity and expert
ence could suggest and money buy
to provide for the comfort and safety
of those on board. Besides being
loaded down with supplies, they were
accompanied by third ship with a
full cargo of supplies. which were
discharged at Disco, where a depot
was established. The expedition was
under the command OF Capt. Mares,
one of the best officers in the British
Navy, and an experienced Arctic nav
igators The crews were selected
from among large number of men
who had sailed the Arctic seas, and
back Of all was the British Govern
ment ready to do all that could be
done to insure the success Of the ex-
pedition it sent out.
The expedition sailed from Ports
mouth on the 29th day OF May, 1875,
with the expectation that during the
summer OF that year the Alert and
consort could steam % the pole. But
with all the resources at his COM
mand and concentrating these upon
one vessel, the Alert, Capt Mares
found it impossible to penetrate fur
ther north than the SD parallel.
From there detachment was dis
patched northward over the ice by
sledges. But such were the obsta-
cles encountered that in seventy days
they succeeded in penetrating one
degree and twenty minutes further
northward, though travelling 200
miles to accomplish it, when they
reached S3 deg. 20 min. north, and
were within 400 miles OF the pole.
They found ice $50 feet thick; the
temperature for fortnight was SO
below zero; once it fell to 1O4 below
the freezing point, being the most in
tense cold ever experienced by hu-
man beings,-at least by any who
survived to report the fact. There
were times when the sledge party
could not advance one mile per day
through the towering walls formed
by the tapping of the great ice-ledges.
The sufferings OF this party were in
tense. Peterson, the interpreter, died
FROM frost bite. The others died on
the sledging expedition, and the sur
vivors who reached the ship. after
terrible suffering, returned only to
report the impossibility of reaching
the pole or of working a Northwest
Passage. The expedition settles
that there is no open Polar Sea, that
President Land, laid down upon the
maps of Capt. Hall, does not exist,
and that the Northwest Passage does
not exist.
The expedition passed beyond the
verge of animal life. In those icy
solitudes was neither bird nor beast,
not even the polar bear, nor the Are
tic fox, nor the seal, were to be found,
while they were far beyond any tribe
OF the Esquimaux. Yet there were
discovered coal fields, showing indu-
bitably that in the vast cycles of the
ages, so many ages ago that the inn
agination can scarce comprehend ii,
the temperature there was warm
enough, from the earth's internal
fires. for centuries upon centuries
growth OF the ferns, which in other
great cycles We're transformed into
the coal. The chief result of the ex-
pedition, however, is To demonstrate
that the open Polar Sea, and the Po-
lar Continent, and the Northwest
Passage are myths; and that the per-
ling of life in bootless Arctic explo-
rations should cease.