The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-12-28
THE SEA AROUND THE
POLE.
Nor the Most d TiyhtTtsI Country I' the
TorId 10 Winter or S,s ~ Uier In.

arctic expedition show yet more clearly
the difficulties encountered. \ new
name j. proposed tor the ocean that IS
supposed to surround the Pole-the
'PaInocrystic sea-. T., the sea Of
ancient ice. The belief Of tie explorers
is that the ice there has been accumu-
Iating for years if rot for centuries. ard
that the sea is never free from it. The
description given of this ice shows that
it is quite different from that which Is
found forming each winter in high Iati-
tudes and breaking up and floating
southwark with every open summer. At
its lowest point the ice OF that north
ernmost sea foated fifteen feet above
water level it resembled low iCebergs;
in places its thickness was from one hun
dred and fifty to two hundred feet. The
accounts indicate, though they do not
distinctly state, that this ice is in motion,
and a map in Nature gives the direction
Of the shaft as to the eastward. That
the ice is in separate masses is further
presumabIe from the fact that soundings
were obtained at the highest Latitude
reached by the sledges, proving that the
depth of the sea at that point was only
seventy fathoms. 1t is possible, however,
that the soundings were obtained through
hole in the ice, made by blasting.
The obstacles which this ice presented
to sledge travel can now be better under
stood. Its masses had been damned
together 50 as to create an utterly ir-
regular surface, which could only be re-
duced 50 that sledges were drawn over it
by making q road with the pjckax. The
actual advance made to the northward,
with the greatest labor, was only seventy
three miles from the place where the
Alert was harbored. but nearly four
times that distance was passed over by
! the sledge party in dragging their loads
5 nv instsIlments, and Seyenty-tWO days
were consumed in the effort. 1t is
! evident that the task of sledging along
. the shore was much less arduOus than
| that of advancing northward over the
frozen sea. The party that went to the
westward made three or four times the
progress, and the party to the eastward
more than twice as much, as that which
went northward. The route OF the west
ern coast party after rounding Cape
Joseph Henry was nearly due west for
the first half O their course, and south
Of west for the latter half, ending in lat.
eighty-two deg, ten min, and long.
eighty-six deg. thirty min. The route
has been spoken Of in kilograms as along
the north coast Of the continent, partlcu-
larIv in specifying the position OF Cape
Columbia, lat. eighty-three deg. seven
min, long. seventy deg thirty min,
the highest land discovered; but Mr.
Richard 4. Proctor, commenting upon
the news, says this land on the western
side of smith sound is s range Of islands
The eastern coast party traced the
western shore OF Greenland in q north
easterly direction up to lat. cighty-twc
deg. fifty min. and long forty-eight deg
thirty min. The hsghest point reached
by the expedition is now exactly sPeci
fed at eighty-three deg. twenty min
twenty-six sec.
Before L Discriminate opinion can bt
formed as to whether these results pre-
clude further attempts by the Smith
sound route, it will have to be sh0wt
whether the thick ribbed ice Of tn,
'Palpocrystic sea" is permanent OIL
changing in its position at the head o
Smiths sound. lit drifts at all, there
is possibility that in some years it may
move southwark. English writers, since
the return Of the expedition, seem to re-
yard the gate by Smiths sound is hope
lessly closed. Theysgenerally speak Of
the Spitzbergen route as the only al,
tentative. Mr., Proctor makes the re-
suit an occasion for expressing hope
that antarctic rather than arctic re-
searched will next be attempted. Ger,
taiulv the results Of the British expedi,
ton cannot be called encouraging to
polar explorers, though it has furnished
gcographers with nearly six hundred
mile, Of the southern boundary Of a
hitherto unknown sea- Trl5'aes,