The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-06-11
whatever to reach the north
nnla or to haln the ca1lse OF scianna

anything whatever to reach the north
pole or to help the cause OF science.
Again when Lieutenant Greedy started
out in 1881, he had no intention of steer
ing the Proteus towards the pole. His
instructions were to make observations of
scientific nature and establish me-
neurological station. During the three
years following dozen ships were sent
TO rescue Lieutenant Greedy, and although
this WAS their only object they did it very
badly with the result that cannibalism
was talked of. In the same way when
the Jeanette sailed in 1879 under Lieuten-
ant belong, a series of rescuing parties
were started in her train and the scientific
world has not yet got tired of arguing as
to the spot where the Jeanette would
have been found If anybody had been
skillful enough to find her before she sank.
Thus it has come to pass that perhaps
three fourths Of the money, men, ships
and supplies which have been furnished
for Arctic explorations have been wasted
from scientific standpoint in rescuing
people who would have done much better
to stay at home.
Now different theory seems to have
gained acceptance among Arctic explor-
ers and although they apply this theory
in different ways yet they are in the main
agreed that the best and most feasible
plan of approaching the North pole is to
will not break up and float away, land
contains some form of animal life to
sustain the explorers, land will not
grind ships to pieces, and land al
lows sure method of retreat
and communication, with supplies
cached IN the rear or with Esquimaux
settlements. In other words, the accepted
idea is to move northward with dogs and
sledges, leaving provisions at proper in
ha TIM fIo
dogs when no longer required, and then
having got within say five degrees or 500
miles of the pole, pushing on in party
OF two or three determined men, each
carrying or dragging provisions for two
or three months.
But suppose the land stops? Then
what? Lieutenant Peary in his recent ex-
petition found that Greenland was cut
In two by strip of water at latitude 81
degree 81 minutes. How is it possible
to know how much farther the land
on the other side of that strip of water
will extend? OF course. there is no way
of answering this question except that
Judging by the usual formation of PENN
sulas and island groups, there is good
reason to think that land extends far to-
ward the north pole and that the Arctic
circle is dotted with islands of greater or
less extent. These islands, it is be-
lieved, have much to do with holding the
ice foes firmly together in the norther-
most Arctic regions;,8 indeed, it is
I thought by the best authorities that the
Arctic sea is solid mass OF ice above the
S5th parallel of latitude. The once en-
tertained theory of an open polar sea
and an s'icy barrier,' which could be
penetrated has been generally, may say
almost universally, abandoned.
hansen, the intrepid Norwegian ex-
plorer, is on his way to the Behring sea
throught which he will pass into the ter
rible ice foes which lie to the north of
Siberia. He calculates that the westward
drift of the ice foes, at the rate of mile
or two day, will, in the course of two
or three years, take his ship within very
few miles of the north pole. He has
studied the polar currents at the surface
very carefully, but may have overlooked
| the deeper currents which carry the
ice bergs. The fact that he will
be obliged to remain prisoner
in the ice during all these years
even should his theory prove correct,
does not disturb him in the least. AS to
the danger from the crushing power of
the ice foes, Nansen declares that his
ship has been built on new plan with
shelving sides on such model and with
such powerful bracing that it will be abb
solutely impossible for her to be crushed.
The worst that can happen will be to lift
her bodily out of the water and squeeze
it as 1t were up to the surface of the ice.
He says that it is matter of Indifference
to him, and is just as well pleased to let
the ship wait in one position as in an
other. CLEVELAND MoFFETT.