The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-11-22
Arctic Explorations.

The reports of another projected Arc
tic expedition turns our attention to the
intense interest which has so long attached
to the frozen regions of the north. Since
the Icelandic rovers found the rich fish
cries of New Foundland and the Green
land coast, since the expedition of the
Cabots demonstrated that if the much
coveted Northwest passage to India
should be discovered, it would be all but
useless to commerce, those frozen regions
have witnessed the enterprise, and often
the fate, of the boldest navigators of al
most every succeeding generation. The
Cabots in 1897 set out in the hope of find
ing direct passage to Cathay and India,
but succeeding in reaching only 81 deg.
30 min. north, the mere margin of the
great ice bound north, while in 800 the
brothers Cortereal met with nothing but
disaster in their voyage to go deg. north.
In 1853 Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his
crew, was sacrificed to the desire of find
ing passage on the north of Europe.
Then Martin Frobisher discovered the
entrance to Hudson's bay, and first gave
a scientific interest to the expeditions.
Davis followed. Barentz lost his life,
and Hudson reported that passage to In
dia through that region was impossible.
But in his last expedition, from which
he never returned, the discovery of Hud-
son Bay again raised the hopes of the
traders, and explorations received new
impulse. Without pausing to mention
numerous minor expeditions, we may no.
tice Baffin, who for fifty years was unex-
On 1aH hu hoa a
sedge expedition of Won Wrangell and
Anjou, unexpectedly checked by an open
sea, at nearly II deg. north latitude.
Notwithstanding the offer of a large re-
ward to the discoverer of passage to
India, offered in 1743, the expeditions
soon were largely undertaken in the in
tsrests of science, and efforts to reach the
pole succeeded search for commercial
highway. Captain Phipps, Captain Cook,
Mackenzie, failed to penetrate farther
than Hudson had gone. In 1918 the ex
petitions under Captains Ross and Blu
chan, the one aiming at passage to the
west and the other to the pole, set out
and were followed by expeditions under
Parry and Franklin, who had served MS
lieutenants on the previous ones, all alike
fruitless. Four simultaneous efforts were
made in 1924, aud in 1927, Captain
Parry reached 80 deg. As min. north,
where he despaired of reaching the pole.
In 1929 Captain Ross succeeded in locat
ing the Magnetic pole, and when we come
to the last expedition of Sir John Frank
lin, 1916, a survey of the entire northern
coast of America had been accom-
plished. Then followed numerous ex-
petitions in search of Sir John Frank
lin, and again others for exploration, the
most important being the Polaris expedi-
ton from our own country.
Looking over the accounts of hardships
and privations endured by these men, the
number of expeditions in which the bold
leaders have lost their lives, it would
seem that men would long since have
been discouraged in spite of the greatest
importance of the results to be attained,
and when we add that men concede that
no practical commercial interest can at
tach to the efforts, surprise becomes
amazement on hearing of the elaborate
preparations now making for another at
tempt to battle the efforts of nature TO
seal portion Of this world from our in
vestigation. Glory cannot urge men to
an undertaking which the masses decry
as lacking in practical utility, and still
we find men willing to leave their homes
for winter on the bleak coasts of the
far north that they may be Injured and
acclimated, prepared to meet the greater
hardships of next springs northward
voyage. Their devotion and enterprise
command the admiration and praise OF
all intelligent people, and the care mani
tested in the preparations gives hope that
favorable summer will bring valuable
additions to scientific neutrality-suspicious.
eye.