Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-06-09
Arctic Explorations.

From the London Daily Telegraph
When the two vessels wers last seen,
open water lay before them, and they
we're bearing straight up northward for
Prudhoe Land and Cape Isabella: The
season was in all respects eminently ia.
vorsble, and there was every reasc for
hoping that a very high latitude would
be reached. Unfortunately, as the re-
cent voyage Of the Pandora abundantly
demonstrates, there is nothing more
treacherous than arctic seas and arctic
skies. In the morning there may be q
fresh rolling sea, without a CLINT of ice,
and a watery sky stretching round the
whole circle of the horizon. By the sf-
ternoon the wind will spring up, great
foes will drift steadily in, and before
night closes the vessel will be hopelessly
beset. 1t ia consequently possible that
the Alert may have stopped at Cape Bar
row, in latitude eighty degrees, CT even
as far south as Cape Isabella and Cado.
gan Inlet. On the other hand, when we
remember how Hall, in the little Polaris,
a mere river steamer of small power and
i'll adapted for ice navigation, with a
company, all told, of thirty men, women
and children, including eight Esqui-
msux, steamed up Smith Sound and
Kennedy Channel in one working sea-
son, a distance of $50 miles, we can not
but venture to hope that Capt. Mares
may have been able to push the Alert
through the hitherto unexplored waters
Of Lincoln Sea up to the shadowy and
far-of land, or even, it may be, to the
S5th parallel. The Polaris, without the
slightest let or impediment, reached as
high a latitude as 81 degrees l6 minutes
north, and at this point Jaw ~northward
of her a navigable sea with a water sky.
She was a mere wooden gunboat Of 3S7
tons, and had been in no way strength
ened or specially fitted out for her work;
while the Alert was originally a powerful
vessel OF l,045 tons, and has been over
hauled and fortified for her encounters
with the ice, and furnished with new and
powerful engines and boilers. We know
from Mr.. Lamont's experience how q
steamer, if her bows are properly iroaed
for the work. can charge and crush her
way through ice which would hopelessly
stop the progress of another vessel, and
there is consequently some reason for
believing that the sledging party, which
must now be we'll on its way, has posi-.
bly, not got more than four, or at the out
side FIVE, degrees to cover before it
reaches that extreme apex Of the earth,
which is, to use Markham's words, "a
spot where the suns altitude is equal to
its %declination, and where bearings have
TO be taken by reference to time and not
to the magnet" but which yet is the
Ultima Thule of ell arctic discovery, and
the express goal of thepresent expedi-
ton. Remembering the achievements
Of Parry in 1927, when be left his vessel
on the S~pitzbergen coast and made his
way over the great polar pack as far as
IS degrees As minutes north, we can see
no cause TO despair Of the success OF the
sledging parties which at this moment
should be pressing northward. Parry, it
may be recollected, found that the vast
sea of ice over which be was travelling
drifted to the south faster than bis
sledges were able to move toward the
horth. he travelled, as far as actual dis
lance went, liz miles from his vessel,
but near the end Of his journey he per.
ceived that he was losing mere by the
southerly movement than be was gaining
by the days work. Tothis difficulty the
present sledge company are not likely to
be exposed. In all probability the ice
between Lincoln Sea and the Pole is no
portion Of the polar pack, and its south.
ward drift, even if %perceptible, will mol
prove serious hindrance.