Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-07-25
A NEW POLAR SCHEME.
Engineer Dunsford Proposes to Blow Up
the North Pole with Dynamite.

Engineer Dunsford Proposes to Blow Up
the North Pole with Dynamite.
II. A. 81. Dunsford, an English civil en-
gineer, has issued pamphlet in which he
discusses the question, "Did nature intend
the Arctic sea to be open and the climate
moderator And is it possible to do by
means of dynamite what nature has unac-
countably omitted to do?" "Were the ice
cap removed from the North Pole" says
the author, "the two warm streams would
flow as they do now; but, instead of be-
coming chilled as they do, they would flow
past the pole and southwark as warm
streams. They would prevent the ices re-
forming, and do away altogether with the
excessive cold Of the Arctic regions" 1t is
to this end that nature has been working
since the beginning of history.
We know from Caesar and Livy that the
rivers of Gaul used to freeze over in win
ter, and that Germany was land of frozen
morasses. Nineteen hundred years have
changed the climatic conditions of these
countries. From the records of the Hud-
son Bay company we know that the winter
on the shores Of the great bay has grown
shorter at the rate of one day in ten years,
SO that the season during which the sea is
open for navigation is twenty days longer
now than it was 200 years ago.
Sir John Barrow noted in 1S15-18 that
the ice barrier on the east coast of Green
land began to break up, and he regarded it
as one of the most important, though least
noticed events in the history of the world.
Since that time the ice barrier has steadily
retreated northward, and should it con-
tinue to move toward the pole 1t will
eventually leave channel by which the
Japan current can flow without hindrance
from Behring sea through to the Atlantic.
When this becomes possible the exist
ence of the remainder of the ice cap, thinks
Mr.. Dunsford, will be of short duration;
for when the open way is made the wide
belt of cold water will disappear, and the
warm currents reaching the ice will solve
the problem. Mr.. Dunsford proposes to
aid nature in its attempt to open an Arctic
route by attacking the ice with dynamite;
the Arctic currents would of course carry
the masses of ice southwark. The great
difficulty will be to open channel wide
enough for a warm stream that will not
lose all of its heat on the way; the main
barrier would be the ice belt north and
northwest of Greenland. Of course until
such channel is completely open it would
freeze over every winter, but Mr.. Dunsford
thinks the new ice would be smooth and
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face or submerged mines could be laid;
then, winter being over, any desired Sec
ton could be instantaneously broken up.
The scheme proposed is certainly a little
staggering, and one is soon lost when the
possible results are contemplated. With a
reduction In size and temperature of the
Arctic current part of the Gulf Stream
may be detected up Davis strait and BAT
fms bay, meeting the warm waters of the
Japan current in the Arctic ocean. There
would be fewer icebergs in the north At
lantic and fewer storms; the temperature
of the east coast Of America would be
higher during the winter and spring
months, and our friends in Boston would
be no longer so miserable on account of
their east winds. Who knows but the
shores of the Arctic may yet be made habit
able, that great cities may not spring up
on Hudson bay and at the mouth of the
Mackenzie river, or that future generations
may not, by means of dynamite, raise pine
apples on the shores of Melville sound?
The palm leaf fan may yet form part of the
Esquimaux' costume-Chicago Herald.