The New York herald., 1876-12-02
THE ARCTIC.
DR.. Isaac |, Hayes Upon the Late
British Polar Expedition.
THE PALEOCRYSTIC THEORY.
Unsound Conclusions from insufficient
Premises.
LAND-CLINGING ICE BELTS.
Achievements and Experience by Captain
Mares Command.
AMERICAS NORTHERN LIMIT.
The Highest Latitude, Lowest Temperature
and Longest Night
PREVIO XPEDITION
Why an Open Sea Is Probable and the
Pole Practicable.
AMERICAS NORTHERN LIMIT.
The Highest Latitude, Lowest Temperature
and Longest Night.
PREVIO XPEDITION
Why an Open Sea Is Probable and the
Pole Practicable.
wEsr CHESTER, Pa. Noy. 2s, 1876.

WEST CHESTER, Pa, Nov. %, 1876.
To THE EplroR HERALD
] have only to-day received here in the country
n copy OF Nature, containing full account
OF tho British Arctic expedition than have
hitherto been published In editorial article
the magazine, after congratuating the officers
and their safo return. says:-"lt will be
seen that substantial additions have been made to
knowledge in many directions and that the expc-
dition must bc pronounced success. True the Pole
has not been reached but ths in the consideration OF
oil but mere OF sensation, is a small matter;
explorers have done the best thing reach
ing It, they have proved that the Pole impractical
bic this year from the quarter whence
most 20 be expected
Proved that the Pole impractcable this year!'
An admission which am glad to made by this
cellent Journal, and one SO thoroughly competent to
give correct judgment Recurring to my recent
this subject in tho HERALD you will observe
tha, the criticism which venturcd 10
make, based upon then imperfect know
ledge, that the expedition returned too
soon to prove that 1t would be mpractcable always,
taking the ground that the year OF their trial was
reptional There evidence that tho route
would DO impractcablc the following year. Indeed,
Nct.re puts the whoe matter in very clear manner,
hus--'We mention these points alluding to
observations concerning tho windsl simply suggest
hardly without further observations, be regarded
as the normal oncn
ABNORMAL
This is precisely tho point made in my letters to the
HERALD The conditions met by the British cxpcdi-
tion were, us 1t seems me, abnormal, Nature In
Inmates, at least allows. II is stated tnat 1.-The
prevailing wind during the sojourn of the Poldris
from the northeast this year is stated scarcely any
any castcrly wind all nouccd but strong
drl constantly in from the along the north
coast OF America" All of which tends to show how
unreliable the winds in that quarter, as Ia almost
every other, and that since tho ice changes with til
impulse Of the wind, how uncertain must be the judg
ment based upon single seasons observations.
\ southcry wind, by means uncommon
winter, at the most remote points
hitherto reached for wintcr quarters. might, and
would in all probability, have pushed tho ice TO the
north, and maybe have scattered it, For this, how
ever. tho expedition did not wait; but the conclusion
promptly reached that, inasmuch ice OF un-
usual thickness had been encountered, which could
nciihcr be penetrated by ship nor traversed with
scds, it must necessarily be permanent, and tho
which it covered accordingly called "thc Palco-
rrystc sea or ice extending the
Pole. Nature concludes, from the reports OF the
pedi:cn ground Pole doubtless there DO
apermancnt barrier OF impenerablc foe bcrgs for II
would 30 ridiculous TO suppose that l5o feet thick ice.
Of thousands OF square miles in extent, is melted and
rc formed every year.
rnE PALEocRysric HYPOTHESIS.
This hypothesis, and far less rational than
The hypothesis Of open There is not suf-
Gcient evidence TO sustain It, nothing but inter-
cce OF course it would DO ridiculous suppose that
'.l5o cc thick icc'i would be ''meltcd and reformed
every year, have explained in my former letters
that such Is exceptional, and that 1t Is
only formed by the piling up OF table
la5e under heavy pressure, or by the crowding
together Of great hocs causing enormous ridges be
suddenly piled up TO grca, altitude, even fifty or
Sixty icct, making mighty tumult and presenting a
most sublime spectacle These ridges and overlapping
tables, composing 0elds often miles in diameter, are,
ike the Iccbergs, drlftcd to and fro grounding here
and there in shoa places wedging themselves among
the Islands or becoming locked on the main land and
are often detained within certain limits for many
years beng struck by favorable wind drive
them through channels free from obstructions and
send them, like the cebergs, into the open sea- thcro
10 melt away such 1cds have been occasionally met
with in Batln's Bay. olaiscn records that two such
"isands of icc'' have .'rcmained stationary in Disco
Bay for half century," and states further that
"Duich wnalcrs have visited them and given them
names" they have lorg since disappeared The
same thing has occurred the coast OF Iceland
where comparatively little leo is ordinarily
Sound, rather in the extensive expansion OF that
water which bears hc name OF Kane Basin.
MOVEMENT.
On two different journeys, in 1854 and 1861, have
travelled over them with great labor. | was four
teen days making forty miles, the greater part of It
being over just such fields those described by tho
BRUSH explorers Like them, was often obliged TO
broak track. had the advantage, however, of hav-
ing dogs The English appear TO dcspisc these useful
ANIMALS prefcrring drag their sledgcs themselves
Many of tho Ice fields crossed by to be from
fifteen TO twenty-five feet out OF water which would
give them total depth thickness from 100 to 200
teet
fREszrSG LIMIT
IL was precisely such leo as this doubt that tho
British expedition encountered But let me right
here say that where found such ice 1854 did not
ma Il in 1861 and Ice does form any.
where by direct freezing, than eighteen feet,
seldom that and the average Arctic ice not above
Hvc feet thick Sheltered places free from currents
.rc necessary for The formation Of ice thick the
former figure The greater part OF mclts away during
The summer except where the land holds it fast and
keeps IL from tho current aud the sun.
THE
Now have always maintained, from the time Of my
srst experience in Arctic travel with DR. Kane that
be great Polar basin is In cioct Mediterranean
practically an almost continuous coast limo investing
NJ tho only broad expanse leading into 1t from the
southern waters being that between spitzbcrgen and
xova zcmba, wncrc an extensive land has been dts
covcrcd by tho Austro-Hungaran expedition Of Pcycr
sd wsyprccht. There 10 probably no irce channcI