The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-12-08
THE SCI AROUND THE
POLE.
Eot He Igost DeIightSd Country II, the
Uorgd to Wfnte4 or summer. In.

nor me Asost Deiight1,d Country IL, ia
Hor{d to Einte1 Summer In.
A dditionaI details from the ret urne
) arctic expedition show yet more clearl,
the difficulties encountered. \ new
name is pro posed FOR the ocean that
supposed to surround the poIe-th,
''Palaocrystic sea-. G., the sea o
ancient ice. The belief of the explorer
is that the ice there has been accumu-
lating for years if not for centuries and
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 lati-
tudes and breaking up and floating
southwark with every open summer. At
. its lowest point the ice OF that north
ernmost sea aoated 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 mo tion,
and a map in Nature gives the direction
of the shaft rs to the eastward. That
the ice is in separate masses is further
presumable from the fact that ssundings
were obtained at the highest latitude
reached by the sledges, proving that the
depth of the sea at that point was only
seventy fathoms. tits possible, however,
that the soundings were obtained through
q hole in the ice, made by blasting.
The obstacles which this ice presentcd
to sledge travel can now lse better under
stood. Its masses had been iammed
together so as to create an utterly ir-
regular surface, whic'., could only be re-
duced 50 that sIedr. .es were drawn over it /
by ID aking q roa3, with the pickax. The
actral 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 /
by installments, and seyenty-t~o days /
were consumed in the effort II 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
deg. thirty min. The route
has been spoken Of in telegrams rs along
the north coast Of the continent, particu-
iarly in specifying the position Of Cape
Columbia, lat. eighty-thrce deg. seven
min, long. seventy deg. thirty min,
the highest land discovered; but Ar.
Richard A. Proctor, commenting upon
the news, says this land on the western
side of Smith sound is a range of islands.
The eastern coast party traced the
western shore OF Greenland in a north
easterly direction up to lat. eighty-two
deg. fifty min and long. forty-eight deg.
thirty min. The hsehest point reached
by the expedition is now exactly speci-
fed at eighty-tbree deg. twenty min.
twenty-six sec.
Before . determinate opinion can be
formed as to whether these results pre-
clude further attempts by the Smiths
sound route, it viii have to be shown
whether the thick ribbed ice of the
'Palpocrystic sea- is permanent or
changing in its position at the head of
Smiths sound. Fit drifts at all, there
is a possibility that in some years it may
move southwark. English writers, since
the return Of the expedition. seem To re-
gard the gate by Smiths sound as hope
Iessly closed. Theysgenerally speak Of
the Spitzbergen route as the only al
tentative. Mr.. Proctor makes the re-
suit an occasion for expressing a hope |
that antarctic rather than arctic re-
searched will next be attempted. Ger
tainly the results of the British expedi-
ton cannot be called encouraging to
polar explorers. though it has furnished
geographers with nearly six hundred
miles OF the southern boundary Of
hitherto unknown sea Tribune.