Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-28
THE POLAR PROB EN-
The Throwing Stick Theory ssri-
susly Questioned.
WHAT COMMODORE MELVILLE SAYS
The Great Ice Cap Makes a Drift
Unlikely.
WHAT Is AT THE POLEP

Commodore George w. Melville. the hero
OF the Inflated Jeanette expedition, and
one Of the best authorities on arctic mat
ters. said to Star reporter today that the
finding Of an Alaskan throwing STICK in
the drift wood on the west coast of Green
land near Godhaven, was by no means con-
elusive proof to him that 1t had drifted
across the. polar seas. Neither would he
accept the find as evidence of the existence
of current flowing in the direction indi-
Gated.
''Oh. yes" he said. st am perfectly ia
miliar with those throwing sticks. I have
one Of them at home. They are. more
properly speaking. spears or darts, and are
used by the Indians OF Alaska in the cap
ture of birds and other game. It is quite
possible, under favorable conditions Of
wind and weather. for one of these sticks
to drift from Alaska through Boring
straits, but that it would ever reach the
opinion, extremely improbable.
THE Alaskan Indians at st. Michael and
as FAR north IS Cape Prince of Wales,
which is the westernmost point of the
American continent and directly opposite
the east cape of Asia, which Is the eastern
most point of Siberia, and, in fact, the ma
tives all along the coast. trade and barter
with each other in all sorts of articles,
copper kettles, spears. iron, woodwork and
instruments OF the chase, and at times they
have even been known to intermarry, al
though the Tschutchees Of Asia and the
natives at Cape Prince of SWales are not
always on the most amfcable terms. The
fact remains however, that they do trade
back and forth all articles of barter, and
1t Is therefore quite probable that the
throwing stick mentioned as having been
Greenland
really commenced its drift from the north
coast of Siberia. There would be no ques-
ton at all of the possibility OF this throw
Ing stick passing in trade between the ma
t1ves at Cape Prince of Wales. going away
eastward to the North American archipel-
ago, north of Hudson bay, where the ma
tives trade after the manner above de-
scribed with the Tschutchees, by whom it
might be traded along to the coast of
Greenland But for many years 1t has
been the opinion of whalemen that ships
that were caught in the ice pack north
ward and westward of Herald Island would
be carried off still farther to the north
ward and westward. Where they would
come out Is an unknown quantity. Some
whalemen at San Francisco informed the
officers Of the Jeanette before that vessel
sailed for the arctic that il We got into
this current we might drift across the
north pole. or we might go to hades,' but
the probabilities were that We would never
come out anywhere.
Not Very Likely.
1.-The probabilities Of ship coming out
are very slight. and to my mind it is very
Improbable that she would drift across the
polar region or to the pole. 1t is true that
the winter the Jeanette was beset in the
ice there were two or three of the whaling
fleet beset at the same time and carried to
the northward and westward. The Mount
Wallston. In particular, was known to have
hoe Off tnv hxy,
by the winds, and she was spewed out of
the northwestern drift and brought up on
the fixed ice Of the coast of Siberia. Anthem
tic information Of the movements of this
ship was supplied by the Tschutchees in
habiting the northeast coast of Siberia,
Now, as regards the existence of a contnu-
ors drift from the north and west of Hera Id
Island 1t would be difficult to state whether
the wood and other drift material that
come out of the great Siberian rivers to
the eastward of the Lena are carried to
the northward and westward, either by the
current or by the winds that usually pre-
vail from the southwark and eastward
The drift of the Jeanette which started
from the northward and westward of
Herald Island, continued in q zgzag direc-
ton for distance of 1900 miles into the
question among the officers of the shin
whether we were carried by the current or
by the southeasterly winds. The consensus
or opinion, however, was that the drift was
r
rents. One reason for this belief was that
after We had drifted to the northward and
westward in the ice in the springtime. when
the prevailing winter winds had ceased to
back to within sight of Wrangel Land and
within less than forty miles of where the
ship was originally beset.
scientists and geographers of the sea
nave plainly stated that there can be few
or no currents in sea as shallow as the
Arctic ocean Is across where We drifted for
twenty-five months. Soundings were taken
every day, a drift lead was down at ali
tunes ana a drag net was used to drag the
bottom or the ocean, and al no time did we
ma the ocean deeper than from sixteen to
thlrty-hVe or at most forty-five fathoms for
any distance. l remember distinctly one
occasion when we had made pretty high
northern drift that we got a sounding Of
eighty fathoms, for it was Considered
very remarkable. Now. it is true that drift
WOOD. paddles, canoes. portions of hunting
known to exist on the northeast coast of
Siberia have been found on the east coast
OF Franz Josef Land, Nova Zembla and the
opltZpergen, where great windows of wood
beaches. 1t Is not so well known, however
that any great amount of drift wood has
been found in the drift ice that comes to
the southwark along the east coast of
greenland, although 1t is well known that
this drift ice does turn around Can't Fare
well, the southernmost point of Greenland
ana continues northward along the west
coast Of Greenland, well up toward Cane
YORK, Where the ice meets the southern
drlft or ice coming to the southwark be-
tween Greenland and the land to the west.
ward, where the whole pack is eventually
delivered into the Atlantic ocean.
The Great Ice Cap.
1T is a well-considered theory that an
ice cap exists at the pole. held In place
without doubt by the numerous islands or
islets that have been discovered as Tar
north as the arctic explorer has gone. This
great Ice cap is What is known as Sir
George Mares Paelo-Chrystic sea. Its south
ern margin is considered to be in about
IS degrees northern latitude, with a base
line of 300 miles. From observations in
the Alps and elsewhere Of moving glaciers.
Ice being plastic body, the conditions
stated should give the ice cap at the pole
vertical height Of about 200 feet Now
If this Ice cap is reality, as theorized bv
pSE IN TOWN. HONEH.