The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1877-01-24
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY "a, 1877.
The Polar Sea.
ESaLAxD's ArrKxPr TO FIND THE POLE.

have always believed in the existence OF an
open Polar sea- think stood upon its shore
in 1861 / believe that sea naygable, and ! am
utterly at loss TO understand why the Alert
and Discovery did not sail upon its waters. unless
we assume that the spirit which animated Balm,
Ross Parry, aud the long list OF Arctic heroes
has dies out with the advance of steam. the tele
graph and home comforts. Now, please remem-
ter that this great English expedition really
started where l lett of. The North Pole was
only approached by some eighty miles nearer
than approached il. IL is said that the ice was
eighty feet thick. 10 plain English, don't be-
lieve it, and | don't understand how 1t happened
that grand expedition, fitted out with such
great flourish of trumpets 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 to prove it or tell anything about II.
To be sure, the matter of getting TO the North
Pole is of little consequence IN business point
Of view. 1t may be Of no consequence whatever,
but here is an expedition fitted out expressly to
do it; has unlimited time has every possible
advantage has the unqualified support of the
British Government, and yet, frightened by one
winters experience, hurries home to report ano-
ther failure. The Polaris did better, for even
after the death Of Captain Hail. it stuck until 1t
crushed by the ice. Had Capt. Buddington
been imbued with the same emotions as actuated
Capt. Hail. believe he could have steamed 10
the North Pole and venture TO say that, whe-
Their the Alert could or could not have gone
there, one years experience was not enough to
prove it.
am firm believer in an open Polar sea. 1t
is not sea available for the purposes OF CON-
merce, but it is certainly q sea or ocean, as you
may please to call it. Whatever interest at
taches TO it, is Of purely scientific character.
To pursue science requires patience, and TO go
with a great government expedition, especially
to make scientific discoveries, with the distinct
understanding that there is no other motive,
seems to me TO require something more than
simple Ii can't be DONE" So far as getting to
the North Pole is concerned, am sure it can
be DONE and, in failing to do il after only one
years trial think the English expedition has
shown a lamentable lack OF English pluck. They
say they had dreadful lime Of III some people
were frozen, and three or four Of them died.
That was their own fault. Travelling in the
Arctic regions is not more terrible or more dan
gerous than travelling anywhere else. 1t Is a
matter Of care and judgment. Accidents may
happen, but it is the duty of commander to see
that they don't happen. believe L have made
as long a sledge journey as any one ON record.
experienced temperature during that journey Of
zoe below zero, and yet there was never in oil
the sixty days occupied by the journey so much
as frost-bite to any of the party, and yet this
was in the exact region where the English ex-
petition had been. finding, as they say eighty
feet Of ice. The Poans was IN the same quar-
ter, and got nearly as far north.
The Polaris met with no such ice but met
with the same decentralization. In my opinion
there is serious trouble about getting to the
North Pole, but don't believe it can be done
in one year, and maybe not IN two, aud must
say, aud that most emphatically, 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. Its like
will never be seen again. and the chance for
grand achievement las been thrown away. In
short, the whole thing is failure without the
explanatory clause " we stuck till the last mo-
meni and did what we could" They had food
and all manner of stores for two years more, and
should, in my judgment, have staid there until
those stores were eaten up.
Ia the Arctic it is generally down TO 29 de-
grees, but even there it does not freeze unless
the air is entirely calm for water in motion does
not freeze l have seen waves rolling at sos
below zero, without q particle OF ice in sight.
The next day when the air fell to calm, the
whole sea was covered with crystal mantle.
The Arctic Ocean is over 1000 miles in diameter
and il any one will once get over the land-cllng
ing ice belt and into the middle of the Arctic
Sea, he might sail there to his hearts content,
and /, for one, cannot see why this English ex
petition should so soon have abandoned the field.
There are known avenues TO this great mysteri
Gus unknown water.
There is the oft-tried Bebring Strait, there is
Bafin's Bay, there is the Spizbergen Sea and
the Greenland Sea. In this last quarter the
Germans have found new land. This land lies |
midway between Spitzbergen and Nova Hembla |
which land predicted many years ago in an nd-
dress before the American Geographical Society. |
1t completes the almost continuous line of land |
that invests the great Polar Basin.
In conclusion, allow me TO say that this great |
English expedition from which so much was ex-
pected looks very ike farce. The Pandora |
was sent out to carry letters, which she left at |
Ettleton Island, near where | wintered 10 1860 |
and '6l, and with the best intentions IN the |
world, discovered the great expedition, not where |
it was expected to be- but in mid-ocean on its |
way home. And now, after all, the great object |
has not been attained. The scientific world and |
the curious OF all civilized nations are grievlousy
disappointed. For once they are convinced that |
since the British Government had expended its |
best efforts and spent its means to the extent of
$4,000, we should have some positive know
ledge as to what Nature is busy with about the |