Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24

power machine. If we could not Improve
upon Parrys methods we should have no
right to hope to excel his achievement. But
We do improve vastly upon him in plan and
equipment, as ] shall presently show. With
ordinary fortune we should eclipse his
achievement. If we do we shall score
success, for Parry, despite start OF a
month later, Notwithstanding mis- unncces-
sarily heavy and clumsy equipment, reach
ed latitude 50 degrees 10 minutes, L record
which stood for half century unbeaten
and which to this day has been outcome
only forty miles. In more than sixty years
with al the advantages OF steam power,
with great improvement in the art OF SIe1S-
ing, with adaptation of deg power TO the
burdens which Parry had only men to drag
his achievement has been barely out
stripped.
We know this pack can be traversed by
men, with more or less speed and with al
most certain safety. We know this to be
true, because il has been done. Parry lraV-
ersed the pack, DeLocg and Melville trav-
ersed it. the Russians have sledgel upon it
for thousands of miles to the north OF
Siberia; Payer and Wayprecht escaped over
1t from Francis Joseph Land to NoEaya
Zemb!a, did Leigh Smith; Capt. KClIe-
wey, the German explorer, lived to travel
hundreds of miles through the grinding
pack on the east coast of Green land; Capt
Tyson and his party drifted a thousand
miles on az ice foe. passing whole winter
in the waste of water and ice. and being
rescued in the spring with the eighteen
men, women and children of the party. not
only alive, but in perfect health; Greedy
traVersed the restless pack of that narT wv,
trap-like water, Smith sound, for a dis
lance of 800 miles, only to be sHatche1 in
the nick of time from the sta rvation which
mad carried off two-thirds of his party after
land was made. The pack is not without
Its dangers, but there is no record in all
arctic exploration experience of a life beng
lost within it.
4 Rough Road to- Travel.
The region which we are to traverse dur
ing the coming summer. over which we are
| to make our dash for the pole. may, after
| all. prove more forbidding and uncomfort-
| able than dangerous. That it can be cross
| ed by sledging party admits of no doubt
| Whether or not it can be Travelled at a
! sufficient rate of speed to enable us TO do
| in a single summer what others have failed
! to do in years, remains to be seen. Speech
| lation as to what we are likely to accom-
| plish must necessarily be of little value and
| yet a few facts may prove Of interest to the
! reader. The pack has been travelled at
! varying rates, from three or four to thirty
miles in a day, according to weight of
| equipment, strength of men and conditions
| of road. Parry Travelled from sixteen to
twenty miles per day. but made only four
| or five net advance on account of the ne
ceSSty of breaking his loads into from
| three to four parts and going from five to
seven times over most of the road belong
| and Melville often Travelled total distance
| of from twenty-five TO thirty-two miles in
a day. and at the close of this long day S
| toll had the satisfaction of knowing that
| they had made a net advance of but two
| or two and a half miles, having been forced
| TO carry their loads forward in seven parts
and thus going thirteen times over the
/ whole road.
! How the Pole May lie Conquered.
| Our effort is organized upon the assump-
ton that man or dog carrying or drawing
| but moderate load can travel two miles
an hour. or twenty to twenty-five miles
per day, over the pack. At this rate of
speed he could easily. within a hundred
days, march from Spitzbergen to the pole
and back. The question, therefore, becomes
one Of energy. The road, though difficult.
is not impracticable. The problem is how
to carry out a journey of this Sort away
from known lands, with but doubtful de-
pendence to be placed upon game secured