The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-11-17
COOL READING.
The Polar sea -EHgIaHd's Atte,npt 10 Find
It's Pole q Farce that Cost
ST5OOOO.


$4,000.
have always believed in the exist
ence of an open Polar sea I think !
stood upon It's shores in 1871. I believe
that sea navigable, and I am utterly at a
loss to understand why the Alert and
Discovery did not sail upon its waters,
unless we assume that the spirit which
animated Batiin, Ross, Parry, and the
lost list of arctic heroes has died out with
the advance of steam, the telegraph and
home comforts. Now please remember
that this great English expedition really
started where | left of. The north pole
was only approached by some eight miles
nearer than l approached it. ] is said
that the ice was eighty feet thick. In
plain English, don't understand how it
happened that a grand expedition, fitted
out with such great flourish of trum-
pets, at such enormous cost, should have
got frightened after one winter, and hur-
ried home with the old cry that the north
pole can't be reached. They did not stay
there long enough to prove it or tell any
thing about it. To be sure, the matter
of getting to the north pole is Of little
consequence in business point of view.
1t may be of no consequence whatever.
but here is al expedition fitted out ex-
pressiy to do it; has unlimited time; has
every possible advantage; has the IN
qualified support Of the British govern
ment, and yet, frightened by one win
! tiers experience, hUrries home to report
another failure. The Polaris better;
for even after the death OF poor Capt
Hall, it stuck until it was crushed by
the ice. Had Capt Buddington been
imbued with the same emotions as actu-
sted Capt. Hall, l believe he could have
steamed 10 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 believer in an open Polar
sea. 1t j. not q sea available for the pur-
pose OF commerce., but it is certainly a
sea or ocean, as you may please to call
[.
Of purely scientific character. To pur-
sue science require patience, and TO 60
with great government expedition, es-
pecisily TO make scientific discoveries.
with the distinct understanding that
there Is no other motive. seems to me TO
require something more than q simple
i, cant be done. so far a. getting to
the north pole l. concerned, am sure
it can be done and in falling do itafter
only one years trial, / think the English
expedition has shown a lamentabie lack
Of English pluck. They say they had a
dreadful time Of it; some people we've
frozen and three or four of them died.
That was their own fault Travelling in
the arctic regions Is not moro terrible or
more dangerous than travelling any
where else. II j. q matter Of care and
Judgment. Accidents may happen, but
tits the duty of a commander to see
that they don't happen ] believe I
have made as long a sledge Journey as
( any one on record. experienced d tenn
Perature during that journey Of seventy
: degrees below zero, and yet there was
never in all the sixty days occupied by
the journey, 50 much as q frost bite TO
sny Of the party, and yet this was in the
exact region where the English eypcdi-
tion has been, finding, Is they say, eighty
feet of ice. The Polaris was in the game
quarter, and got nearly a. far north.
The POlaris met with 10 such ice. but
met with the same evident demoraliza-
ton In my opinion. there Is 70 serious
trouble about getting to the north pole,
but I don't believe IL can be done in one
year, land may be not in two and
1 must say, and that most emphaticaIly,
that the results Of this last Of the arctic
expeditions are IN no way commensurate
with its pretensions any more thaa they
are with its opportunities. It's like Will
never be seen again, and the chance for
q grand achievement mas been thrown
away. la short the whole thing Is a
fsiluTe without the explanatory cause
1--WE stuck till the last moment, and did
what we could" They had food and all
manner of stores fer two years more, and
should, in my judgment, have staid there
until those stores were eaten up.
In the .arctics it j. generally down 70
twenty-nine degrees, but even theFe it
does not freeze unless the air Is entirely
calm, for water in motion does not freeze
/ / have seen waves rolling at fifty de
gress below zero, without particle of ice
IN sight The next day, when the all
fell 70 calm, the whole sea was covered
with 9 crystel mantal The Arctic
ocean is over 20O0 miles in diameter
and if anybody viii once get over the
land clinging ice belt and into the middle
Of the Arctic sea, he might sail there tc
+ his hearts content, and !, for one, can
not see why this English expedition
should 50 soon have abandoned the field
( There are certain avenues to this great
mysterious, unknown water.
There Is the oft tried Behring strait
there is Bafin bay, there is the Spitz
bergen sea and the Greenland sea. II
this last quarter the Germans have found
9 new land This land lies midway be
tween Spitzbergen and Nova Zsmbla
which land predicted many years age
in an address before the American gee
graphical society. 1t completes the al
most continuous line oflsnd that invests
the great Polar basin.
In conclusion. allow me to say that
this great English expedition from which
so much WAS expected looks like farce
The Pandora was sent out TO carry let
tiers, which she left at Littleton island
near which I wintered in l86O-6I, and
with the best intentions in the world
discovered the great expedition, not
where it was expected to be, but a mid
ocean on its way home. And now, after
all, the great object has not been attained
The scientific world and the curious o.
all civilized nations are grievously disap
pointed. For once they were convinced
that, since the British government hal
expended the best efforts and spent It.