Year: 1877

The following extracts from letter
from Professor Loomis, the distinguished
meteorological, Of Yale College, to CAP
tain Howgate, in support of the latter's
scheme of Arctic colonization, will be
found of interest as illustrating the
scientific benefits to be derived from a
Polar expedition based upon his plan:
l see no reason for abandoning
| further effort because former expeditions
have not accomplished all that was ex-
pected. If we review the Polar expedi-
ticns since Captain Parry first voyage,
more than half century ago, we find
that every expedition has proved in some
sense failure; that is, has accomplished
less than was anticipated, and some may,
therefore, conclude that ali the labor
which has been expended on this Polar
problem has been wasted. / take very
different view of the subject, and con
slider the results of the many Polar ex-
petitions, from the first voyage of Cap
tain Parry to the present time, are worth
far more than all the money and labor
which have been expended on them.
There is no problem connected
with the physics of the globe which does
not demand observations from the Polar
regions, and generally the Poles and the
Equator are more important as stations of
observation than any other portions of
the earth's surface. If the information
which has been acquired upon various
subjects in the numerous Polar expedi-
tions of the last half century were ami
hilated, it would leave an immense
chasm, which would greatly impair the
value of the researches which have been
made in other parts of the world.
In the attempts which are now being
made by the joint efforts of the princi-
pal nations OF the globe to determine
the laws of storms, if we could have
daily observations from group of
stations within the Arctic Circle, it is
believed that they would prove of the
highest value in enabling us to explain
the phenomena of the middle ATTITUDES.
How can we fully understand the cause
of the great changes of temperature
which so frequently occur during the
cold winter months, unless we know
where this cold air comes from, and how
can this be determined without fixed
stations of observation extending north
ward even to the Polar regions? The
vast extension of the commerce of the
world in recent times, and its increased
security, are due, in no small degree, to
more accurate information respecting
the physics of the globe, in
cluding such subjects as the mean direc-
ton and force of the prevalent winds,
the laws of storms, the use of the ba-
rometer in giving warning of the ap-
preaching violent winds, the surest
mode of escaping the violence of storm
when overtaken by a gale, the most ad
vantageous route from one port to an
other, the direction and velocity of the
currents in every ocean, the variation of
the magnetic needle in all latitudes and
its changes from year to year, together
with many other problems; and most
of these Investigations have been greatly
facilitated by observations which have
been made within the Arctic regions.
n n The demands of science are by no
means satisfied, and we may confidently
anticipate that any advance in our
scientific knowledge respecting questions
connected with the physics of the globe
will impart increased security to COM
merce. If steamer starting from New
York and travelling northward could
pass directly over the North Pole
through Behring Strait into the Pacific
Ocean it would be a triumph of geograph
ical science equal to the first discovery
of America.