Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-11-09

lieve he could have steamed to the
North Pole, and I venture to say, that,
whether the Alert could or could not
have gone there, one years experience
was not enough to prove it.
| am firm bell ever in an open Polar
Sea. 1t is not sea available for the
purposes of commerce, but it is GER
tainly sea Or ocean, as you may please
to call it. Whatever interest attaches
to it is of purely scientific character.
To pursue science requires patience,
and to go with a great Government ex-
petition, especially to make scientific
discoveries, with the distinct under
standing that there is no other motive,
seems to me to require something more
than simple 'tIt can't be DONE" So
far as getting to the North Pole is con-
cerned, am sure it can be done, and
in failing to do it after only one years
trial, [ think the English expedition
has shown lamentable lack of En-
glish pluck. They say they had
dreadful time of it; some people were
frozen and three or four of them died.
That was their own fault. Travelling
In the Arctic regions is not more ter
rible or more dangerous than travelling
anywhere else. 1t is a matter Of care
and judgment. Accidents may happen,
but it is the duty of a commander to
see that they don't happen. / believe
[ have made as long sledge journey
as any one on record. experienced a
temperature during that journey of
seventy degrees below zero, and yet
there was never in all the sixty days
occupied by the journey SO much as a
frost bite to any of the party, and vet
this was in the exact region where the
English expedition has been, finding,
as they say, eighty feet of ice. The
Polaris was in the same quarter and
got nearly as far north. .aa-i .e9A '
The POlaris met with no such ice, but
met with the same evident demoraliza-
ton. In my opinion there is no serious
trouble about getting to the North
Pole, but | don't believe it can be done
in one year, and May be not in two,
and [ must say, and that most emphat-
ically, that the results of this last of
the Arctic expeditions are in no way
commensurate with it's pretensions any
more than they are with its oppOrtuni-
ties. Its like will never be seen again,
and the chance for a grand achieve
ment has been thrown away. Inshort,
the whole thing is a failure without
the explanatory cause, "We stuck till
the last moment, and did what we
could" They had food and all man
ner of stores for two years more, and
should, in my judgment, have stayed
there until those stores were eaten up.
I believe in exploration, and [ believe
in it's independence of all questions as
to the cuj bono? We may have our
own views as to utility, but when once
undertaken [ think a scheme should be
carried through to completion. Ac-
cording to your telegram the English
expedition has reached SO deg. 20 min,
and yet, with plenty of food, abundant
health, the eyes of the world upon
them, they say there is too much
ice. Believing in an open Po-
lar sea, / think it can
be navigated. The English expedition
saw great quantities of ice. They
never left the land, and along the land
you always find ice in the Arctic
waters. [ believe that / reached be-
yOnd the land belt of ice in 1861. With
a boat | could have gone to the pole.
An ice-belt in summer depends much
upon the prevailing winds, but as for
a large body of water being at any
time frozen over, even with the lowest
temperature, it is unknown. Hudson
Bay, Baffin Bay, and other Arctic wa
tiers, even though comparatively small,
are never frozen over. The deep sea
water in all the oceans and seas of the
earth has a uniform temperature of
about thirty-fve degrees. The sur
face water under the equator is often
eighty-five degrees, or even eighty
eight degrees.
In the Arctics it is generally down
to twenty-nine degrees, but even there
it does not freeze unless the air is en-
tirely calm, for water in motion does
not freeze. I have seen waves rolling
at fifty degrees below zero, without
particle of ice in sight. The next day,
when the air fell to calm, the whole
sea was covered with a crystal mantle. |
The Arctic Ocean is over 1900 miles |
in diameter, and if anybody will once
get over the land-clinging ice-belt and
into the middle of the Arctic Sea, he
might sail about to his hearts content,
and |, for one, cannot see why this En-
glish expedition should so soon have |
abandoned the field.
A Slight Mistake.
II. ----- = e, t.# a-5zE 3 Z