Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-07-31
New Light on Arctic Geography.

New Light on Arctic Geography.
In a geographical point of view the
discoveries of the Greedy expedition
will be full of interest For not only did
it reach the highest northerly point
ever yet attained by explorers, but the
observations made in North Green
land and Ola the northeastern coast of
Grant Land throw new light upon
the probable character of the circum-
polar area. Until 1876 the highest
north point reached was 80 deg. 45
min, by Parry, in 1927, when that
ice, navigator made his famous sledge
journey north of Spitzbergen. In May,
1876 Commander Markham exceeded
this latitude, reaching by sledgc SO
deg. 30 min. 26 sec. But Lieutenant
Lockwood and Sergeant Brainafd, of
the Greedy party, attained SO deg. "a
min. north.
This achievement IS geographically
unimportant, except that the observa-
tons recorded by Lieutenant Lock
wook and Sergeant Brainard when at
their farthest north point indicate the
oceanic conditions still nearer the
Pole. From their high position, at
an elevation of two thousand feet,
they could discern 1'no land, north or
northwest" and they were turned
back in 1888 by open water on North
Greenland, the party barely escap-
ing drift into the Polar Ocean," Dr.
Pavy also, it seems, In 1882, follow
ing Commander Markham's route,
twas adrift one day in the Polar
Ocean. north of Cape Joseph
Henry" These observations do
not exactly bear out the the
DRY of motionless "sea of ancient
ice," densely packed, off northern
Grant Land and Greenland. Nor do
they sustain the theory of IAN open
sea around the Pole" the dream of
many Arctic explorers only ten years
ago. But, of far more consequence
to science, they corroborate in some
degree the reasoning of a few eminent
physicists (based on the observed flow
of the Polar and anti-Polar currents),
which leads to the conclusion that
water preponderates over land In the
inner Arctic basin. Scoresby forcibly
said: 'It is possible that the icebergs
found in the sea between Greenland
Spitzbergen may come from the Pole, "
and Parry found north of Spitzbergen
that the higher he went north the ice
was more broken. Referring to these
and other like facts, the German geog-
rapher DIR. A Muhry asserts that
''all these indications point to the
correctness of the general assumption
of the oceanity of the inner North
Polar basin, or the absence of land
there, which does not preclude the ex-
istence of isolated islands and rocks,
inferred from the ice coming from
there and from the birds of passage
going there"
While this inference is now strik-
mgly corroborated by the observa
tons of the Greedy expedition, it
throws no encouraging ray of light
across the hitherto impenetrable and
dark expsnse between the !" farthest
north" yet reached and the Pole it
self. Indeed, it must rather dampen
the ardor of most ice explorers, by
whom it is held as a canon of Arctic
exploration that great northward
advance can only be made along a
cost line. But if the preponderance
Of water over land 10 the immediate
oircumpolar basin is as decided as tie
Greedy exploration seems to indicate,
the climatic phenomena Of North
America and the meteorology Of the
North Atlantic Ocean may be more
clearly elucidated than they have
hitherto been, and possibly with some
TACTICAL results.