New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-10
THE P0LIR MYSTERY.


Interesting details of the recent voyage of
the Rodgers in the Arctic basin have been tele-
graphed TO The Herald from San Francisco.
Wrangcll Land appears to have been
thoroughly explored by land parties, and the
fact established that the Jeanette did not
effect n landing there. From mountain 1900
feet high an almost unbroken view of the whole
island was obtained, and the clear water north
ward, instead of being an elusive lead was
shown &c be IN open SEA. After the survey OF
the shores had been completed, the Rodgers
steamed a distance of 100 miles north and
northwest of the island, without catching
glimpse of land. Very little ice was encoun-
tered. and the soundings indicated depth OF
cighty-two fathoms. The highest latitud
reached By the Rodgers was 73' IA on Scptem-
Der 10, when, owing to the lateness of the sea-
son, she was forced to turn back. The pracu-
cability of making much higher latitude on the
Behring Strait meridian has thus been demon
sirated Wrangell Land, instead of being the
southernmost edge of another Greenland, Is
only an outlying island of the Siberian coast,
while nUrthward stretches an unknown sea,
which may be as accessible in favorable seasons
as the North Atlantic between Cape North and
Spitzbergcn and Franz Joseph Land There is
every reason for believing that the Jeanette
entered this sea- Whether she penetrated it
successfully and found a refuge in some UNI
trodden realm of ice, or whether she was
caught in the pack and carried toward the
polar archipelago which skirts the American
Continent is now the most perplexing question
upon which geographers aud nayigators can
expcnd their resources OF conjecture.
The latitude reached by the Rodgers, al
though the highest so far recorded on the
Behring Strait meridian, is nearly on line
with Upcrnavik, Greenland, where so many of
the Ballin's Bay expeditions have obtained sup
plies before entering upon serious work.
1t is fully nine degrees lower than the highest
latitude reached by Parry in 1921 by Mares IN
1876. and by the Austro- Hungarian expedition
which recently discovered an unknown noun
famous coast 300 miles north of Nova Iem0la.
The Rodgers might have gone 800 miles on
the same meridian without passing the parallels
of Kane's final area of discovery or the winter
quarters of the Poaris Search has not been
made for the Jeanette in any latitude where
she could have been shut in, provided she had
the same open sea before her in 1879 which the
relief vessels have found this season. If the
succeed in reaching some new Spitzbergen or
an edge of Arctic mainland far to the north
where Captain De Long has been wintering and
pursuing his explorations, or where possibly he
has been hopelessly imprisoned The open sea
which has been travcrsod so easily as far as
latitude 1924, would have tempted the ex-
plorer to go on until land should be sighted or
the passage of the vessel permanently OBJ
structed. AT the same time it was his Intention
10 attempt the northwest passage it he could
not open way toward the Pole and the ocean
current, if Captain Hooper is to be believed,
would have carried him in the same direction
If his vessel had been caught in the pack. Ac-
cordingly search must be made for him next
summer in Melville Sound and among the
islands explored by Mcclure, Mecham and Nc
ClintOck.
From the beginning the interests of COM
merce. humanity and science have been curl
ously blended in the history of Arctic discov
cry. Ii was the prospect of finding the shortest
massage from the Western to the Eastern world
that allured Sir John Franklin to his death in
the regions of eternal ice it was in the despe-
rate hope, first of rescuing him, and finally of
learning his melancholy fate and finding his
grave, that vessel after vessel was dispatched to
Lancaster and Melville Sounds and it was in
the cause of science and geographical discovery
that Kane and Hall, Sir George Mares, Payer
and Weyprecht and De Long set their faces
toward the Pole. Yet how quickly one motive
prompts another. The disappearance of the
Jeanette on her scientific cruise excites appre-
hension before she has been absent her allotted
time, and vessel after vessel is sent out to look
for the lost and another season may witness
extended explorations in those waters where
Franklin dragged out the last wretched winters
of his life in searching for that elusive passage
north of the Continent which it is now fancied
De Long may have been forced to attempt.