St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-10-27
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The Arcttc Discoveries.

The loss of life has been fearful in Arctic
explorations, and the question is frequently
asked to what end is this costly sacrifice
The answer is science and geography have
gained Immense advantages, and Invaluable
information is yet to be gained. j. E..
Nourse in a letter in the October Century,
states what has been gained by arctic explor-
atoms, and intimates that other equally val
liable discoveries remain yet to be made.
He saws:
ga true estimate Of what arctic exploration
has gained will, in part, be reached by COM
parison of the knowledge of our own contin-
ent half century ago with that shown up
on the school-boy's map of to-day The
maps of 1925 exhibited for our northern coast
line Baffin's Bay only on the east, and west
ward, dots only for the mouths of the Mack
enzie and Hearne rivers, up to the icy Cape
OF Cook, and the Behring Sea,-aI which
was then known except the new sweep of
Parry's voyage in the far north. The charts
OF to-day accurately delineate the zone of
land and the coast-lines within the Goth and
Is degrees of west longitude, up to Cape
Perry, latitude II degrees 81 minutes, re-
gion now largely freQuented by the trader
To these add the explorations in the Eastern
Hemisphere bv the Russians Danes. Austri-
ans, Dutch and Swedes crowned by the cir
cumnavigaton' first in the worlds history.
OF northern Asia. And now Lockwood has ex-
| tended the line of North, Greenland.
Again, no Arctic expedition has ever been
| frultlesS OF commercial and scientific gains
Cabot failed to find the passage, but he es-
tablished the claims for our inheritance of
English liberty and law. The first ATTEMPT
to find the passage by the northeast, brought
from the Inflated Willoughby news like that
from our belong:
'''He with his hapless crew,
| Each full eXerted at his several task,
| Froze into statues
| But Willoughby's second ship made the
discovery of Russia's wealth. anew Indies
for England, the beginning of maratime
commerce on tine north. Among the direct
or indirect gains of this kind for us have
been the whaling grounds of the northeast
and the fisheries of Behrng Strait, a region
rendered safe by the voyage and charts of
the Vj'scenaeS, the exploration of the Coast
Survey, and latest by the Co17ria and the Sig
nal Service. Alaska is now attracting fmmi-
| grafton; but its shores. seemed forbidding in
the extreme before the surveys of Rodgers
and the trial observations of Dali and others
were charted for the guidance of the mari
ner. The increasing returns to the govern
ment and to the merchant from the fur seal
and the otter have shown the wisdom of the
purchase.
''Still higher results are associated with
the photography of the great oceans; The
observations needed Tor the further knowl-
edge of the laws governing the origin and
the course of storms; and magnetism, with
its relation to the compass, the telegraph and
the telephone. we shall never accurately
know, says the president of our own Geo
graphical Society, the laws of aerial and
oceanic currents, unless we know more
about what takes place in the Arctic Circle. ~