Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1876-03-23
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either nngulfed rthey were necessarily
whi1ad round euntil thpv were twisted

1
either ungulfed or they were necessarily
whiled round suntil they were twisted
and crushed to pieces. At the same
time, as Lady Franklin believed; it
was quite possible that the boats might
live for years in this polar whirlpool
and that her husband and his compan-
| ions met the more awful fate of staiva~
ton. But whether it is by drowning
or starvation, it is my unalterable cons
| vic,ion that it was at the Pole where
Sir John and his brave crew met their
death. 1t must. have been. a terrible
moment when the appalling conscious
ness fell upon them that they were
hopelessly bound in that subtle maels
stroni."
"Are you of the opinion" asked
him ''that subsequent explorers have
entertained this theory ?" Theory"
he cried, ''it's no theory. The open
Polar Sea has been seen. With an
open Polar Sea a whirlpool is as much
a property of its tides as salt is of it's
composition. With the equatorial cur-
rent distributing its equilibrium, and
the rotary motion impaired to its
unobstructed tides by the moon, can
you or any one else explain to me how
it can be otherwise Why, we know,
as an astronomical, we'll ascertained
fact, that our globe is fattened, SO to
speak, at the poles that its diameter
is many miles less than that of the
equator and undoubtedly the revolving
action of the polar tides is responsible
for this remarkable fact"
l was not convinced but there
seemed more in history than l was
prepared to controvert. "Then you
don't believe in the well worn hypothesis
that the creWs of the Erebus and Ter,
ror were trying to reach Great Fish
River when they dropped and persisted,
man after man :" '.Pshaw! 1t is the
hypothesis of towards. If they had
started from King Williams Land.
some of them of them in fact
would have reached the Esquimaux
settlements while in any case the
bones of scores of them would have
been found. The fact Is, these polar
expeditions are frauds. l have seen
over dozen of them leave the country,
and they always do leave with drums
beating and flags flying. 1t is either
the Union Jack or the stars and stripes
that is going to be hoisted at the pole
in few months. The Alert and Dis~
covery, under the command of Capt.
Mares, will just do the same as the rest
have done. He will probably take
look at the open polar sea but the
captain is much too cautious a sailor to
embark on it with any purpose of pros
ceeding to the pole. When he reaches
Bafin's Bay he will do as our Pandora
commander has done. He will turn
into Lancaster Sound, the winter
around Barrow Strait, and then he will
come home with some Attic lichene, a
new sort of snife or curlew, and prob
ably bear. Then he will write a book,
and her Majesty will confer upon him
the honor of Knight-hood" (Here
the captain was relieved of spasm of
profanity, lasting and potent, that l am
compelled to omit.)
"Then there is in your opinion no
insuperable. difficulty in reaching the
North Pole, Captain ?"
"None whatever. The difficulty
begins when you get thereto get
away from the spot again A circlet
of ice surrounds the open Polar Sea
between the 80th and s5th parallels,
but this belt of ice can be easily crossed
with sleds, and boats can be conveyed
in the same way. Every Polar nav-
igator knows / speak correctly and
submits the fact in confidence to his
professional messmates, but they all
do their id best to hoodwink the
public and the sand blind members of
the Royal Geographical Society. Every
Polar explorer knows as well as do
that navigators who follow faithfully
in Sir John Franklin's footsteps will
share his fate and If the crews of the
Alert and Discovery are never more
heard of we shall know that they have
pushed onward to the Pole like indom-
liable sailors and persisted like heroes.
Then that will be the end of the Polar
enterprise farce. But you mark my
worGs-no boat will ever reach the
North and South Pole and return to
tell the story of the solution of the
mysterious geographical problem
A Cambridge youngster, aged six,
who went to a neighbours house, re-
marked ''Will you please let me see
your parlor carpet, for auntie says it
makes her most sick every time she
comes here!"