Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1884-09-20
THE ARCTIC FIELD.

THE ARCTIC FIELD.
TnE yAIIE AND IMPORTANCE OF ARC-
TIC DISCOVERY FROM VARIOUS
Further EnsrtA will be Cnavailinx and will
H'.:. :.'' IN ''''''''' s''''''Ar'' '''' Of
Judge DAILY writes letter on the ne
role achievements of the Greely E1plo-
rag Expedition, in which he discusses
incidentally the value and importance Of
Are &c discovery from the standpoint Of
common humanity as well as that Of the
geographer and man Of science. He
agrees with common people that further
efforts to reach the north pole will be
unavailing, and if persisted in will result
in fruitless suffering and loss of life.
The "open polar sea-" he says, was
shown to be an error and delusion by
the explorations of the Alert and Dis
covery in 1866. The experience of the
sledging parties Of this expedition proved
by observations what science had already
shown must necessarily exist north of
the eighty-second parallel of latitude,
viz, a frightfui and impossible barrier
of ice broken up in hummocks and tum-
bled into every conceivable shape, con-
stituting an obstacle which the whole
human race, if their united efforts were
concentrated upon it, could not over
come. The limits OF mans .power over
the globe which he inhabits are reached
when he approaches this awful verge.
Mountains be may dig down, rivers he
may turn out of their course, deserts he
may fertiIize, CULTS he may fill up, bnt
the icy pole he can never reach until the
axis of the earth itself turns toward the
sun. Astronomers tell us that this will
come to pass somewhere in the illimita-
BILE future, and that as climatic condi--
tons once existed which enabled the
formation of coal in Greenland and the
growth Of the sequoia gigantea, the big
trees of California, i'm the Arctic circle,
so we may expect those conditions
eventually to RETURN. But for us Who
are now living the pole is inaccessible.
1t is hedged about with an impenAtralAe.
wall Of frost. The utmost efforts of:the
eS plorers who leave their ships and teke
to sledges after pushing as far as ships
can go. are only equal to p mile or two
day, accomplished by cutting narrow
passes through interminable ice walls
vhichspeedily fill up with driving snow
SO that the very road opened with so
rlnch labor is lost on the return. And
since provisions and fuel must be carried
on the backs of men or dragged over the
rough pathway the limit of such terri
Bile labor is measured by the muscular
strength Of the individual and his power
TO resist the benumbing effects of cold.
It IS vastly creditable to Greedy and his
saen that they penetrated a few miles
further than the English Sledgers under
Sir George Mares, but they discovered
nothing except that the ice OF 1882 was
The same as that of 1875.
= But it is possible, says Judge DAILY,
to add largely to our knowledge of the
structure of the earth within the Arctic
Circle without the sacrifice OF life.
Continuous observations, he says,
around the polar basin, extending as far
inward or toward the pole as favorable
opportunities offer, are quite another
matter, for We shall never accurately
know the laws of aeriel and oceanic eur
rents unless we know more than we do
now about what takes place in the Arctic
Circle, and this will not in my judgment
Le abandoned, Notwithstanding the Ca
lamity that has befallen the present ex>
uedltion. No loss of life has hitherto
attended the establishment of the many
governments which have preceded ours,
nor, as the event has shown, would any
have attended the one established by
our Government had it been properly
carried ont and attended to by these
who undertook the direction OF it at
Washington or to whom the command
of the vessels sent out in 1882 was in-
trusted" This view is not opposed to
the popular dread OF Arctic discovery,
which derives its strength from the tales
of suffering and death so often reported
on the return Of the explorers in respect
Of which the Greely expedition seems te
yield nothing BY comparison with any
which has gone before. The project O
establishing fixed stations and providing
them with the necessaries Of life Is rea
soaable enough If the men who go there
can be kept to their appointed work ant
restrained from endeavors to outdt
F. others In achieving the impossible.
A WORTHY old lady Offers the following
advice to girls: "Whenever . fellov
pops the question, don't blush and STAR
at your foot. Just throw your axm'
around his neck, look him full IN tn
! oh b.