Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-05-30
AT THE NORTH.POLE.
IF ANY MAN EVER REACHES IT HEWILL
 BE SURELY LOST.

The Impossibility ot Getting Bearings- Dense Fogs and Extreme Cold are There For Six Months the Sun Hangs in the Sky Without Rising Setting.
 If any. one really got to the pole hs would. in common parlanee, be utterly "at sea-" simply because at the pole there is no possibility of aseerta1ning ones whereabouts. 4. person arriving there would find an altogether differ ent world before him. Like blind man he would grope about and ya1nly endeavor to get back whence he came: This by no means enviable situation IS calculated to destroy the illusions which he may have cherished when starting on his polar expedition. His completely changed situation would be accounted for by the fact that when stationed at the pole the direction Of the north would be found to coincide with the line of tue zenith-that is to say, the point exactly above us. The opposite point, viz, the nadir, would coincide with the direction to the south. The longitudinal circles, and hence also the meridian of the local ity. would coincide with the circles Of latitude; an equator would coincide with the horizon. Hence an astronom1- cal determination of the locality, acc cording to latitude and longitude, is precluded.
 gr1l,o h coid rnorardo ia. terming ones bearings in any direc- tion. The compass, too, will fail there, because it's horizontal intensity is so slight as to preclude the possibility of it's action. The only criterion foI judging that one has arrived at the pole is that the observed latitude of the sun, after having been corrected to al titude above the rue horizon, is found to coincide with the value of the dec lination of the sun for the day in ques. tion.
 Moreover, in those regions there is scarcely a day on which dense fogs do not prevail, and sixty or more degrees (C.) of cold, such as mostly exist there, will enhance the difficulties of observation to such an extent that 1t can only be a question of approximate estimates. Such conditions are by no means enyiable, and are scarcely cal. eulated to induce us to long for them with all our hearts.
 But these are not the only things which are likely to make a sojourn at the pole neyer-ending torment. Worse than all the rest, one cannot count the passing hours there; in other words, there is no criterion for deter- mining the time of day. During 8 period of six months the sun will neither rise nor set, but during the whole of the time will always remain either above or below the horizon. As the earth reyolyes around it's axis in twenty-four hours, the sun apparently describes, during the same interval, circuit of 360 degrees around the sky, being visible at an altitude equal to the declination whenever declination is of the Same name as the pole at which che observer is stationed.
 Zhe numerous attempts hitherto made 10 reach the pole have, as mat. ter of course, been by water-that is to say by ships and sledges. The idea that one might get there by an aerial passage has not gained ground until recently, but if We consider that bal looms are not navigable, and hence are liable to be carried away by air cur rents in any direction that may acci- dentally prevail, and in the most un- likely event only to the pole, no one possessed of but moderate allowance or common seQse will comprehend how success could have been expected from such an enterprise. Moreover, determi. nations of locality cannot possibly be made from balloon with any approx innate degree of accuracy.
 THE LITTLE EkCVcl OpEDiA