Year: 1873

will meet, and the strength of parties will be
tested at once.


Arc We TO Have . New Arctic Ex-


peditions-The Behring strait Polar


Gateway.


The restless spirit of geographic research is
again agitating a new Polar expedition. Mr..
Herbert Spencer tells us it is law of human
nature that q man caught once in trap has
strange infatuation to be caught in 1t
second time; and certainly the history OF
Arctic adventure affords strong confirmation
of Mr.. Spencers remark When the great
German explorer, Adolph Schlagintweit, who,
with his accomplished brothers, scaled the
loftiest pinnacles of the Thibetan Himalayas,
was seized by robber chief and beheaded in
front Of Kashgar, the tragedy seemed to
paralyze the many schemes of Central Asian
exploration. The sufferings Of Mungo Park
did not recruit the army of African explorers.
But it seems that every fresh failure to find
the Pole has provoked renewed zeal in that
long tried undertaking. We are told that
under the pressure of those who desire new
discoveries in the unconquered and mysterious
land, where


The earth Is rock--the heaven


The dome Of greater palace Ice,


the Navy Department is considering the pro-
ject of new Arctic expedition What this
may come to- in the present state Of finances,
does not now appear certain, although it is
known that the most sagacious, practical and
judicious officers Of the navy favor the send
ing out of such an expedition.


While it is idle to oppose or thwart such an
enterprise, since sooner or later it will be re-
vived, it may be well to suggest anything likely
to vary the disastrous experience of such re-
search, and especially, if possible, to indicate
safer lines of investigation than those which
are already thick strewn with ruin and loss.
The choice of o new route to the Pole seems
now to be reduced to the route via Smiths
Sound, or that which it is understood the
Navy Department strongly favors, via Behring
Strait. 1t seems hardly possible, after Mr..
Leigh Smiths experience of the past summer,
that future exploration will seek Polar gate
way through the icy seas and ice islands which
cluster around Spitzbergen, so that, for the
present, attention is riveted on the two first
named lines. The first has been SO much dis
cussed recently that we need not dwell upon
it, except to say that no other avenue has led
the geographer to SO high a latitude. But as
the English government will doubtless have
powerful expedition to test that route in the
spring of 1874, if the United States is then
sending out a similar expedtionary party, it
may be well to consider the Behring Strait
route.


Although the mass of warm water which
enters the circumpolar ocean through the
channel of Behring Strait is not very large, it
may be sufficient to destroy the summer ices
north Of that strait and open partial way to-
wards the Pole. It was said by Captain
Sherrard Osborn, not long since, when speak
ing Of the voyage of Captain Mcclure, that he
had shown how sit is possible to set sail from
Liverpool, and SO, leaving Greenland on the
right, skirt the great American Continent,
leave Kamtchatka on the right and cast anchor
in the waters of the Mikado." McClure's
discovery of this open communication was
undoubtedly proof that the warm waters of
the Japan stream entering the Arctic Ocean
through Behring Strait combined with melted
ices of the continent to liquify and loosen
the coast ice; and Judge DAILY, of the Geo.
graphical Society, has expressed his convic-
ton that it is this same body of water through
Behring Strait which is found flowing east
ward through Melville and Lancaster Sound,
and finally emerging into Davis Strait
So far no researches have explained the
absence of the Gulf Stream influence in
the scene of Mr.. Leigh Smiths recent voyage,
and it is hard to explain it. The body of
warm water drifted into the Polar basin by
this Atlantic current must be many times as
large as the Behring Strait current What be-
comes of the former? Is it lost in the mid
Arctic Ocean, or is it diverted, as DR.. Peter
mann and others contend, over towards the
Siberian seas? If the latter be the true solu-
ton of the mysterious disappearance of the
Gulf Stream in these high latitudes, then we
may suspect its thermal effects would be most
powerfully felt to the north Of Behring Strait,
where it would also combine with the Behring
Strait warm stream.


Exploration alone can solve this problem,
and as geographical problem it has deeply
interested some of the first minds Of the
world. The French government just prior
to the Prussian war, after hearing the gifted
Gustave Lambert's reasoning decided to test
the Behring Strait route and, but for the sud-
den collapse Of the Empire, in one of whose
battles he fell, the experiment would doubtless
have been made. II must be confessed that