The herald., 1896-02-24

ClC regions ID tubJ uelu Dy OOmmOOOre
Melville, of the engineering depart
ment of the navy. Commodore Mel
Vile believes the north pole is covered
by an eternal and enormous ice cap,
extending over land and sea alike. and
reaching q thickness at the pole of
something like 2000 feet, tapering down
to nothing 800 geographical miles from
the pole, or at the eighty-fifth parallel
of latitude, where its thin edge is con-
stantly worn away by the action of the
sea. Commander Melville likens his
ice cap to an inverted saucer clappsd
upon the apex OF the earth, with rhe
pole for its center. or to piece of utty
which one might mold upon the top OF
an orange, smoothing it down to thin
edge. The commodore brings out this
pet theory of his on all occasions.
Some years ago he declared ths eternal
ice cap had smooth surface over
which once could easily travel to the
pole, an idea which he proposed 10
demonstrate, "by going there himself"
A few days ago be trotted it out ag ain
as the reason why DR.. Nansen could
not have reached the pole in the Fran,
saying that his theory is now accepted
by all arctic students In this the
good commodore surely overshot the
mark. So far as is known in Washing
ton, Mr.. Melville is the only arctic en-
thusiast in the world who subscribes
to this peculiar notion.
Melville's picturesque theory is ab-
surd, but he will be able to cling to it
and to preach it till some one goes to
and beyond the eighty-fifth parallel
and returns with word that there is no
eternal ice cap there, with smooth
surface and a vertical thickness of
more than 2000 feet at the pole. Hun
dreds of men have bsen nearer to the
pole than Melville ever was, but their
testimony is no more valuable than
his, 30 far as personal observation is
concerned. Reasoning by analogy,
scientists pretty generally agree that
the climatic and other conditions to be
found at the north pole do not differ
more than trifle from the conditions
already found in other. parts Of
the polar basin. If the north pole is
land, then, indeed, it will be glacial
capped, for all arctic lands, and all
antarctic lands, are covered by eternal
ice, varying in thickness according to
their area and slopes. But if the geo.
graphical apex OF our earth is sea, then
it will be found very like the Arctic
ocean in parts already visited, far north
or Siberia, where the Jeanette was
sunk. north Of Spitzbergen, where vari-
GUS expeditions have been stopped by
the polar ice pack, and north of Grin
nell Land, in North America, where the
ice is rarely if ever broken up by the
tides or currents, and where it assumes
that most permanent and formidable
character termed by Markham and
Psrr "paleocrystic."
Unless meteorologists are mistaken
and it is not likely they are-the re-
gion of the pole. if sea. is covered by
ice averaging eight feet in thickness,
with bummocks twenty or thirty feet
high at the edges of the foes. This ice
gains in bulk by precipitation during
the summer, and loses by melting and
the action OF the sea. 1t is upheaved
by expansion and ruptured by contrac-
tion in winter. In summer it has small
openings of water between the foes.
Neither in winter nor in summer ia it
wholly stationary, but it drifts much
more IN summer than in winter. On
account of the action of tide and cur
rent, and because of the law that even
in the arctics ice will waste away at a
certain depth below the surface of the
sea, the formation of glacial cap upon
the ocean is impossible. All over the
globe the sea has the same temperature
at great depths.
Melville's theory or an eternal ocean
ice cap is as indefensible as the old
notion of an open, polar sea. Neither
exists save in the imagination. Con-
trary to the general belief, the north
pole is not the coldest place in the
world. The pole is not as cold as that
part OF Siberia near the mouths of the
Lena and the Yana, whence this doubt
full news Of Nansen comes. At the
pole the mean annual temperature is
reckoned at degrees Fahrenheit above
zero. In summer it is often doubtless
so warm there that the lucky explorer
who reaches its neighborhood will pull
at his sledge with bare hands and with
out any coat to cucumber him. Dur.
ing three months Of summer the msr-
curry would not fall below 10 degrees
above zero. He might pass q whole
winter there without seeing the mer-
curry drop any lower .rl.an it occasion
ally falls in Manitoba and Northern
Minnesota. But he would find q
steadier cold. For three months,
probably, he would have no higher
temperature than 20 below.
Arctic climate, like many other
things in that region, is little under
stood by people who have not given
the subject special study. In that
country it is always cold when the
wind blows, summer or winter. But
even in winter; when the wind is light
or still, well-clad man can move about
in comfort. WALTER WELLMAN.
AN AWNING SAVED HIM
e. T. Simon has a Narrow Escape Last
Night
E. T. Simon had narrow escape from
serious if not fatal injury last night about
1O:15 o'clock. He was climbing up the
fire escape on the Spring street side of the
Nadeau hotel, and held in one arm heavy
advertising banner that was to be stretched
across the street. Simon got underneath
the balcony on the third story and reached
up to another round in the ladder. He
failed to catch good hold though, for
with scarcely moments warning he
plunged headlOnp towards the pavement.