, 1877-01-13
The Sea Around tllc Pole.


the difficulties encountered. \ new
name is proposed for the d5can that is
supposed to surround The poIc-thc
"PllroCrystiC seal T, the sea OF an
crnt ice. The belief OF the explorers is
that the ice there has been accumuIating
for years it not for cen uries, and that
the sea is never free from il. The de-
scripton given Of this ic. shows that it
is quite different from lhNt which is
tound forming each wi.llr i'll high lati-
tudes and breaking up and floating
southward with ever bpen summer
At its lowest point the 5. Of that north
crnmOst sea floats fit,.n feet above
water level; it resemble low icebergs;
in places its thickness US from $50 to
200 feet The accounts Udcate, though
they do not distinct Y St tie, that this ice
is in motion, and II map in Nature gives
the direction of the dir. rs TO the east
ward, That the ice !. ~ separate masses
Is further prrsumllr 'rpm the fact that
soundings were ohnur ut the highest
latitude reached 10y .Io ,cdges, proving
that the depth "t the sea at that point
was only seventy ftiom'. II ispossble,
however that the ,oondings We're OBJ
tainca through ho,. N the ice, made
by blasting
The obstacles which mis- ice presented
to the slcdgc uav.l r,H now be better
undcrSt Od lis ma~,a- had been jam
med together so a- t. .rrate mn utterly
irregular surface, wti.n could only be
reduced 50 that Srdrr- were drawn over
1t by making roa with the piCk-aX.
The actual advance made to the north
ward, with the Creates labor, was only
seventy three miles from the place where
the -1LeW was harborrd, but nearly four
times chat distance was pissed over by
the sIedge party in dragging their loads
by Instruments, anl seyenty-twO days
were consumed in the effort. It is evi.
dent that sledging along the shore was
much less arduous than that of advan-
cling northward over the frozen sea.
The party that went to the westward
made three or tour times the progress,
and the party to the eastward more than
twice as much, as that which went north
ward. The route of the western coast
party atter rounding Cape Joseph Henry
was nearly due west for the first half of
their course, and south Of west tor the
Latter half, ending in latitude eighty.two
deg. ten min. That route has been spo.
ken OF in kilograms as along the north
coast OF the continent, particularly in
speci'ying the position of Cape Colum-
ola, latitude eighty-three deg. thirty
min., the highest land discovered but
Mr.. Richard A. Proctor, commenting
upon the news, says this land on the
western side OF Smiths Sound is range
ot Islands. The eastern coast party
traced the western shore OF Greenland in
northeasterly direction up to latitude
eighty-two deg, fifty min. and longitude
torty'eight deg. thirty min. The high.
est point reached by the expedition is
now exactly specified at eighty.three
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 will have to be shown
whether the thick ribbed ice of the "Pa.
leocrystic sea" is permanent or changing
IN Its position at the head of Smiths
Sound. If it drifts at all, there is a nos.
sioility that in some years it may move
southward. English writers, since the
return OF the expedition, seem to regard
the gate by Smiths Sound as hopelessly
closed. They generally speak of the
spltzbergen route as the only alternative,
Mr. Proctor makes the result an occasion
for expressing hope that Antarctic
rather than Arctic research will next be
attempted. Certainly the results of the
British expedition can not be called en-
couraging to polar explorers, though it
has furnished geo2raphers with nearly
SIX hundred miles of the southern boun-
diary of hitherto unknown sea.
An English writer. speakin, of FIibr