Year: 1879

From the Philadelphia Inquirer. July 81


Polar expeditions are pleasant or exasperating
things to talk about these days. just you feel dis
posed view them, when every pore is turned into
q rivuiet and one thinks seriously of taking out
. policy against nquetaction. At the present time
few persons would object to u slice of the Arctic
regions and il the journey not great many
doubtless would HE thither and take seat in q
cosey nook OF some iceberg. While We are melting
away the officers and crew OF the Jeanette are
about to leave San Francisco tor the North
Pole just at this moment many oi us envy them,
not the honors paid them by the citizens of the
tropos The Pacific coast. but the prospect of
being in cool place. Tnis expedition is peculiar
being the first cd out to penetrate the mig
REGIONS OF the North by way of Behring Strait Ships
have heretofore passed through Behring Strait,
rounding Point Barrow and going to the northward
to rescue aud relieve Sir John Franklin but this is
the rst purely polar expeditions that has been
despatched by way of behring strait.


There are great many questions 20 be determined
by the exploration of the Arctic Circle The
uetlc pole. to be Investigated. Meteorological
conditions are to be investigated and geological and
many other branches of study will come In We
have been endeavoring to solve the great problem Of
the OF storms. and between the Equator aud lat
tude sixty degrees the ground has been pretty
fully gone by the meteorologists OF different
countries including those of the United States, but
beyond sixty degrees, with the exception OF occa
sonal gations made by Arctic explorers, very
little is known. There have been no opportunities
compare the observations made by explorers there
with those made within the of latitude between
the Equator and the eixtieth degree 1t is pro-
posed TO make investigation in connection with the
International system and IL 1t be determined
what changes take place with change Of latitude. II
is the theory some that the Pole Is the ultimate
point reached by storm centres. and there they be-
come di,spatcd.


Another question is: Can Arctic continent be
inhabited should one existr This may be by the
already expressed surise that the latitude of IS de-
grees is ABOUT the point of lowest mean tempcra-
turc The earth s about twenty-six miles greater in
diameter ut the Equator than from pole to pole hav
ing enlarged at point and hatcned at another be-
caus revolving motion. Lower temperatures
are ascend high latitudes. and the
aggression OF the poles may. by iessen,nq the dis
.aIce OIL the surface the earth centre, Afford
warmer temperature. which will enable the hardy
Esquimaux. Alinos or some hyperborean race to
list upon Arctic continent


Those hardy mariners of the Jeannette WILL doubt
less have AL the cold they endure. In attempt
ing to reach the northern regions by of Behrng
strait they liable to be carried from home
stead toward 1t. should they be cast away their
vessel become wedged In by the ice 1eds. This has
been the experience of all who have attempted the
route. while those on the other side. by way of
Baihn's lay and Greenland, in of accident
hourly drifted toward home and relief.