The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-05-20

ofthe Arctic seas. a northwest passavo
to China, or in almost superhuman
efforts to reach the pole. During all
these three hundred years, from tbo
days of Barentz downward to tbo
fastest explorations of NordenksioId
and Payen and our dead De lam,
the record of Arctic exploration baa
been that of series of bitter d,san.
pointments, of misadventures. Of snf
fering almost invariably, ard fro.
quently of loss Of ships and of ife
Whoever leads an Arctic exploration
leads forlorn hope. Our own ey.
plorers, Kane and Hayes and Hall
added something to our knowledoa
of those Icy solitudes but Kane Lost
his ship, and only after many weary
days was able to bring his party bact
to Greenland. Hayes was baffled and
returned. and Hall, after living foro
long time with the Esquimaux as tho
Esquimaux did, died among them or
near them, with all his hopes of fame
extinguished. And now, when the
news has freshly come to us oftbe
finding Of De Long and ten of biV
men dead of starvation on the in.
hospitable shore of Eastern Siberia.
of the total disappearance of CHM
and of all who were in his boat or
the burning of the search steamer
Rodgers. and of the sending IAN.
other steamer to the rescue Of her
officers and crew, Congress is asked
to appropriate money to fit out an.
other expedition for Arctic expIora.
ton. What hope have we that new
expedition will fare any better than
those that have preceded it? Isn
any more likely that it would pene.
trate to the pole than those expedi.
tions led by Parry and Ross, and
Beechey and Fraklin, and Markham
and Mares, and numbers of Others. or
than that so calamity conducted BY
our own Kane, who got nearear to it
than any of his predecessors? Since
then only Mares, with his sledge-
parties and his men broken down
with scurvy. has gone beyond him,
1t seems a little thing to say that
Mares, when from the instructions
interposed, snd the condition of his
men, he was compelled to abandon
his quest, was within three hundred
miles of the pole. On land, even
though mountains blocked the way,
success, with patient endeavor, would
be certain. But in the Attic regions,
where the ice is piled up into hard
crystal barriers in every conceivable
direction, and a passage for the sleds
carrying provisions has to be made
with infinite labor at almost every
few feet of the way, and when every
step in advance carries the working
parties further from their base of
supplies, even at the favorable aver
age rate of three miles day it would
take a hundred days of sledge iouv-
ney to reach the pole from the point
where Mares had to turn back. When
it was reached there must be prOvi
sion enough left to last the party or
its tedious return journey to the ship
Howgate's plan to build SHORE
station at the point nearest the pel'
that could be approached by a ship
provision it, for two or three years
and send out from thence workin!
parties to establish and provision new
stations in advance, within practi
cable distance of each other, is tn
only plan that has yet been deviset
whereby the pole might possibly b
reached. leaving it, however. still
doubtful whether the supplysh
when sent home to return with fres
supplies the next year, would be abb
to penetrate as far north as it did tn
year previous. We know that fror
Cape Constitution, Washington Lane
in latitude 1927. where Morton IT
ported to Kane he mad discovered a
open polar sea, Capt. Mares foun
only icefields stretching away as fs
as the eye could reach. All thes
facts 60 to show the difficulties an
dangers of Arctic exploration /; no
futile every attempt has been to reac
the pole by ships and sledge journey
and how slender the chance would
, of attaining it even by Howgate
plan. Why. then. with our sorro
, still fresh for the loss of De Long an
his companions, should Congre
sanction repetition of the risks thu
with him, as with many others, hay
ended so fatally ?-BdttinaOre Sun.