The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1884-08-13
ARCTIC ADVENTURE

restless
irresistible as the force OF vitality. While
men live there will be men to seek to know
the unknown. and to explore the uudiscov.
cred. More than . ZOO years ago Heredotus
said that the foundation of the Nile would
never be known. But men have gone on
hunting for them in spite of constant failure.
Thirty years ago Bayard Taylor said there
remained two discoveries for the adyentur-
Gus to make-to reach the North Pole
and explore the circumpolar region.
and to drink from the head waters
of the Nile under the shadow
of X :mandjare. Undismayed adventure
finally found the nead-waters of the Nile.
and they are now hardly less familiar to
geography and general literature than the
head-waters of the Missouri. We may be en-
tirely sure that the adventurous daring that
has so long and disastrously sought TO reach
the Pole will go on, no more dismayed by
tina failure OF Franklin and Kane and De
Long and Greedy and their associates in
Arctic exploration than were Spoke and
Grant by the centuries of failure over which
they mouHted to success. The Pole may
never be reached, but so surely as it
is not, so surely will the unrest
ing force OF curiosity and enterprise
emulation and daring go on trying There
is an irresistible power of attraction in a
mystery that may be approached with a con
stantly increasing nearness If it be abse-
iutely and obviously unsttainable, like the
mysterious source and force of life, it will
give power to the boldest enterprise. But If
it may be gained upon, as any mystery of
mere material existence may be, slowly by
more or less certain approaches, by daring
persistence and increasing knowledge, then
it is as certain as the endurance of human
nature that adventure will work
for it, dare for it, and die for
it. Nothing that precedent or
prudence can present will obstruct it or
even delay it. The press may cry out
against the waste of precious lives in the
icy fields of the Arctic seas, but precious
lives will keep on trying to break through
the icy barrier that bars the way to the last
great mystery of geography. Most probably
no Government will ever send ont another
Arctic expedition. Most certainly ours
never will, or give National aid to any. 1t
penetrating these forbidding regions have
been developed than we can imagine now
But private enterprise, muni6cence
and emulation will supply the
place of Governmental aid and
the effort to reach the Pole will 60 on. Gree.
ly's expedition got within 400 miles of it.
Morton-Kane's man-at Cape Constitution,
on what X ane thou oht was the omen Polar Sea
where there was no ice and the air was noisy
with the cries of aquatic birds, could only
see to latitude so. Two degrees OF advance
have since been made by the actual presence
of the explorers beyond the remotest point
of sight. And a degree here means a great
! gain. There are but seven LETT in the gap
between Greedy and the Pole, and it is safe
to predict that one of these will
come off ON the side of exploration
within few years. The mystery is slowly
approached. One man falls short OF for
mer mark. Another goes a little further.
The rising tide sends one wave farther on,
the next runs short, the next advances fur
ther still, and steadily, in spite of huctua-
tions, the water covers more and more of the
beach, till it is all covered. There is no rea-
son, physical or moral, why so may not be
reached as well as $50, or why SO should be
any more absolutely unattainable than
either. Some adventurous ship, luckily
striking favorable season, may sail clear up
to $40 and send sledge party OF dozen or
more farther, The possibility of this, we
think, will keep arctic adventures alive, and
make in finally successful