Year: 1868

upon which be offered some remarks.
He also mentioned Collinson, Mcclure,
Osborne. and Kane in terms of praise for
the noble efforts they had made, and
passed on in the same strain to Bellot,
Sutherland, De Haven, McDougal, Me-
cham, Pimm, and Richards. Ia refer
ence to the feasibility of Arctic explora-
tions, he said that firmly frozen bodies
Of water of any considerable extent are
not known. Baffin Bay is never sealed |;
Hudson Bay is as open at its center in
midwinter as in July; the coast of ST.
beria is lined with narrow belt, while
all beyond ia open; and even Bafiin Bay
in its upper part, which, as the North
water" may be regarded almost as a
separate sea, is never closely sealed /;
there is much drift ice in the sum mer,
though little fixed ice in winter. Upon
its margin passed the winter lS60.6l,
and there, even at forty degrees below
zero, we were always within sound of the
beating surf. SO persistently, indeed,
did this water refuse to close up, that,
until the darkness Of the winter had
passed away, and March had come with
the sunlight and the greatest cold of all
the year (68 deg below zero), we were
kept close prisoners within the bay
where we were harbored-the troubled
waves breaking necessarily upon the
capes on either side. And it is fact
worthy to be borne in mind, that the
deep sea water preserves throughout the
world a uniform temperature, little re-
moved from 40 deg. Fahrenheics scale,
while the surface water partakes more OF
less Of the temperature of the air. That
is, while in the tropical regions the
surface water has often temperature
as high as SO deg, in the Polar regions
it is almost continually at the freezing
point of sea water, 28 rs degrees Shall
the victory, then, remain with the sea, OF
shall we make it ours? Shall we mol
make one more effort to plant over it the
standard of our science, to wave over II
the flag of our country2 The time ia
favorable. The sea is not less formidable,
it is true, nor yet less tickle than before,
but We have learned much by experience,
and am fully persuaded that these Po-
lar waters may be navigated. 10 that
end, as you have seen, there are four
routes. Without here entering into an
elaborate discussion of the reason there
for, l give the preference to that by Smith
Sound. My views are in this respect in
no way changed, but rather they are con-
6rmed by events. / give this simple
enumeration of its advantages: l. Land
as q base of operation. 2. The oppor.
tunity to colonize party of hunters and
natives as permanent support. The
colony was, indeed, the key to the plan
which / had proposed for 1862. Had
been able to return that year, i would
have started with two vessels, one small
steamer, the other a sailing vessel, as
a store ship. Pushing through the
middle ice" of Baffin Bay. ]
would have steered for Port Foulke,
my old winter harbor, at the mouth
of Smith Sound. Here / would
have secured the auxiliary vessel, and
remaining only a sufficient time to see
the natives gathered together, and the
wheels of my little colony set in melton,
| would have sought the west coast OF
Smith Sound With the steamer, and
through the land leads have worked my
way to the Polar water. Failing to &C.
complish this the first season, l would
have secured harbor for the winter, and
pushed on the work as opportunity
offered. Failing altogether, in the event
of finding the ice toe closely impacted
at the head of Smith Sound to admit OF
passage, would still have secured my
end, for with provision depot now with
in six hundred nautical miles OF the
Pole, with the colony at my back, and
in the winter readily accessible, with
dogs breeding there, furs and provisions
accommodating, l would have overcome
the obstacles which embarrassed me in
l860-6l, and which had embarrassed Dr..
Kane before me. Once in this favorable
situation, l would have brought up my
available strength from the colony, and in
the early spring have put out depots OF
provisions along the line of Grinnell
Land, and following them up with boat
mounted ON runners, | would then have
sought the open water and the Pole.


Such was my plan seven years ago. 1t
is my plan to day / believe it reason
able, and experience convincss me that
It is practicable | even believe that the
chances are greatly in favor Of the sue
cess of the first part of the scheme-that
is to say, that the ice belt can be pene-


trated with the steamer, the open sea
nayigated, and Behring strait and the
Pacific ocean reached. The plan which
/ have thus sketched does not differ me
terially from the plan which | laid
before you eleven years since. But
the expedition with which actually
took the field was by no means
what my fancy had originally painted
it. Instead of the two vessels which were
at first proposed, and one of which should
be a steamer, was forced to content my
self with one small schooner, pnd to start
without the much needed steam, the alb
seuce of which cost me the main purpose
Of the voyage, for ] hazard little in say,
ing that with the steam vessel l would
have resched the polar water and the
North Pole in September, 1860 But
public opinion at that time was much
opposed to the further risk Of life in that
much maligned region, and the few of Us
who stood together for the voyage at
every hszsrd. in concert with our friends
in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and
Albany, had TO own that We could do no
more than e. out the little schooner, and
therefore the expedition became Ike the
German expedition in she past summer,
in some sense. experimental