Year: 1876

will be remedied. And while we thus give
thanks we may hope that even the present
untoward events may be turned to our good
day shall not be lost upon us in the future.
British Arctic Exploration-Engl 81 lish


and American Criticism.


Public opinion is divided in England re-
garding the conduct of the Arctic expedition
sent out under the command Of Captain
Mares Some British journalists object to
the manner in which Dr. Hayes, the Arctic
explorer, has criticised in the HERALD the
recent attempt oftheir countrymen to reach
the North Pole. They complain that, while
his opinions are entitled to great respect, he
expresses them without due regard to the
feelings Of the British public in general and
the returned expeditionists in particular.
On the other hand, several correspondents
of q leading London journal not only in
dorse the views of DR.. Hayes and the
HERALD regarding tho conduct of the expedi-
ther, in suggesting a rigid inquiry into the
cause of the failure and do not hesitate
to characterize it as indicating deplor-
able want of perseverance on the part
of the explorers. The scurvy trouble
is fully dealt with by these English
critics. one of whom gives list of the guam
titles of antiscorbutics supplied to the Alert
and Discovery in addition to their already
ample stores of prepared provisions. BY
the writer's showing there must have been
something radically defective in the manage
ment Of these government ships, when i'll
supplied whalers are generally exempt from
this Arctic scourge. II is even suggested
that for the future the British Board Of Trade
can have no case against merchant shippers
and whalers on the ground that their crews
have suffered from scurvy.


In his recently printed communications
to the HERALD DR.. Hayes gave what we con-
slider to be very sound reasons for his belief
that Captain Mares conclusions regarding
the permanent character of the Arctic ice
were based upon false premises. His own
sledge journeys in Smiths Sound were made
over water that was found open by Hall
and Mares. This is shown by the fact
that the former took the Polaris as far
north as latitude 50 deg. 16 min,
and the latter the Alert to SO dog.
"a min., while Hayes and Kane found the
limit of navigation very much further south.
DR.. Hayes, however, was stopped in his
northward journey not by 'Paleocrystic
sea- or by ''ancient ice" one hundred and
fifty feet thick, but by open water over
which his sledges Of course could not pass.
1t is reasonable, therefore, to infer with him
that if he had had boat he could have
reached the Pole, or at least point as near
to it as was attained by Markham with
sledges. The assertion of Captain Mares
that route to the Pole is impracticablc
when weighed against all the evidence
to the contrary is found to be very
other statement in his report that no land
exists northward of Cape Columbia and that
president Land" is an Arctic myth Con-
sidering that his sledge party travelled a
comparatively short distance toward the
Pole from tho northernmost point of the
American cOutlueut anu WaS ODSUT uCLeQ Dy
heavy masses of ice, over which it had to
climb, and was furthermore enveloped in
mist, there are no grounds on which we can
accept the report Of mo land when it was
absolutely impossible to determine whether
land lay to the northward or not. 1t is GER
tain that in this sen of '.ancient ice" seventy
fathom soundings were found at the most
northerly point attained (; but Markham did
not discover whether the water shoaled to
the north or to the south from the point
where he took soundings 1t is to be re-
gretted that Kane, Hayes or Hall did not
have such an equipment as was furnished
to Captain Mares. If either of these ex-
porers had been so fortunate there is no
doubt that the Stars and Stripes would long
since have been planted at the Pole.