Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-11-22

Arctic heroes has died out with the
advance of steam, tho telegraph, and
home comforts. Now, remember
that this great English expedition
really started where / left of. The
north pole was only approached by
some eighty miles nearer than APP
pr0ached it. 1t IS said that the ice
WIS eighty feet thick. Ia plain
English don't believe it, and |
don't understand how it happened
that a grand expedition fitted out
with such great flourish of trump
cts, at such enormous cost, should
have got frightened after one winter,
and hurried home with the old cry
that the north pole can't be reached.
They did not stay there long enough
@ tell anything about it. To he
sure, the matter of getting TO the
moth pole Is one of little eonse-
qaence in business point OF view.
L may be of no consequence what
eyer, bat here is an expedition fitted
out expressly to do it; has an unlim-
tied time; has every possible adven-
tage, has the unqualified support of
the British Government, and are yet
frightened by one waters expert
ence, hurries home TO report another
failure. The Polaris did better, for
even after the death OF poor Capt.
Hall it stuck until it was crushed by
the ice. Had Capt. Buadington
been imbubed with the same emo
tions as actuatea Capt. Hall believe
he could have steamed to the north
pole, and ! venture TO say that,
whether the ALERT could or could not
have gone there, one years xperi-
eace was not enough to prove it.
| am firm believer in an open po-
lar sea. 1t Is not a sea available for
the purpose of commerce, but it is
certainly a sea or ocean, as you may
please to call it. Whatever interest
attaches to it is of purely scientific
character. To pursue science re-
quires patience, and to go with
great Government expedition, es-
pecially to make scientific Discoveries,
with the distinct understanding that
there il no other motive, seems To
me to require something more than
a simple at can't he done" So far
rs getting to the north is concerned,
/ am sure it can be done, and in fail
ing TO do ii after one years trial
think the English expedition has
shown Il lamentable lack of English
pluck. They say they had q dread
tui time of it, some people were fro
zen, aud three or four Of them died.
That was their own fault. Travel
ing in the Arctic regions is not more
terrible or more dangerous than
anywhere else. 1t is a
matter OF care and judgment. Acct
dents may happen. but it is the duty
Of q commander to see that they
don't happen. / believe | have |
made as long sledge journey as !
any one on record. / experienced a
during that journey of
70 degrees below zero, and yet there
was never in all the sixty days occu-
pied by the journey SO much as a
frost-bite to any Of the party, and
yet that was in the exact region
where the English expedition has
been, finding, rs they say, eighty
feet of ice. The Polaris was
in the same quarter, and got nearly
as far north.
The Polaris met with no such ice,
but met with the same evident de-
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, ard may be
not in two, and | must say, and that
most emphaticaIIy, that the results
of this last Of the Arctic expeditions
are in no way commensurate with
its pretensiOns any more than they
are with its opportunities. It's like
will never be seen again, and the
chance for a grand achievement has
been thrown away. In short, the
whole thing is a failure, without the
clause, 1--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 staid
there until those stores were eaten
up.
In the arctics IL is generally down
to 20 degrees, but even there it does
not freeze unless the air is entirely
calm, for water in motion does not
freeze. have seen waves rolling at
50 degrees below zero, without par
ticle of ice in sight. The next Gay,
when the air fell to calm, the whole
sea was covered with a crystal man
tie. The Arctic ocean is 1000 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 there to his
hearts content, and / for one, can
not SEQ why this English expedition
should so soon have abandoned the
field. There are certain avenues 10
this great, mysterious, unknown
water.
There il the oft-tried Behring
Strait, there Is Baf1in bay, there Is
the Spitzbergen sea and the Green