Year: 1875




practicability of reaching the North Pole by
what is known as the American route"-that
pursued by Kane. Hayes and Hail. through
Bafins Bay and Smith Sound, where the
most important achievements, results Of re-
cent Arctic exploration, have been accom-
plshed


The discussion Of this subject has recently
excited much attention in Europe, and the
Royal Geographical Society has so strongly
represented the matter to the British
government that an expedition has been
resolved upon at the national expense
and to sail under the command OF Cap
tain Mares, r. n, of Challenger fame.
There are to be two steamships, built ex-
pressly for ice navigation, and everything Will
be furnished which experience can suggest.
1t will, no doubt, be the best equipped e1pedi-
ton of its character ever sent from any
country.


Although heartily glad, in the interests OF
science, that such resolution has been taken
by the British government we must never
theless, acknowledge that it is to us something
of national humiliation that no similar
steps have been taken in our own country
for the sending of another expedition
to q quarter which Americans have ex-
plored and which the English now come
10 claim and so reap the reward OF our ex-
perience of three voyages. The government
and people seem to have become alarmed by
the disastrous results Of the Polaris Expedi-
ton, without remembering, at the same time,
its important achievement, for tho Polaris
penetrated nearer to the Pole than any former
ship, so far as certainly known. The Polaris
was not constructed for this kind of service,
and, although admirably strengthened, when
caught by the ice and severely nipped, had
little chance of escape from situation which
occurs not unfrequently to every vessel that
penetrates the Arctic regions In the seal and
whale fisheries. These vessels are constructed
upon peculiar model, with good deal
of dead RISE which enables the ice to
slip beneath them, thus saving their timbers
from the powerful pressure, and, generally,
from disaster. Of this class the Tigress. re-
Gently in the possession of the government,
and sent out to search for the Polaris party,
is a fine sample, and it is unfortunate that she
was not retained for another expedition. The
Polaris was built for the navigation Of shoal
waters, with bulging sides and fat bottom,
and was, naturally enough, destroyed by the
first serious nip" Vessels of the class of
the Tigress can be had in Newfoundland at
any time, and the English have gone there
for one of them, the Bloodhound.


We do not think that any better use could
be made of the public money, or one which
would be mere popular with the people, than
the organization of an expedition to the North
Pole; for, in an enterprise of that character,
there is something peculiarly touching to
American spirit, and, in schemes Of an adven-
turous nature, there is something in which
Americans are always ready to take
pride. There is but one objection
generally raised to the proposition to ex-
pend money for such q purpose-namely,
the danger which it involves. That this is
purely imaginary we have already taken occa-
sion to show. Who ever heard of complaint
made of any appropriation of the public
money for substantial scientific investigation?
Between two and three hundred thousand
dollars would, indeed, be required to thor
oughly equip and organize an expedition to
the Pole-a sum largely exceeded by the total
expenditures for the observation of the transit
of Venus, for which the country would have
cheerfully acquiesced in the appropriation of
much larger amount had it been at all neces-
sary. But the scientific results to be obtained
from the North Pole are unquestionably OF as
important a character and have as close a
bearing upon the questions now agitating the
scientific world as the enterprise for the OBJ
servation of the transit of Venus. The ex-
ploration of our Western country has always
been, in a scientific point of view, far in ad-
vance of the material growth or practical
needs for information and so, in
deed, it is with discovery every
where. To show how wide the range is
wherein observations are necessary we have
only to enumerate the currents and temper
ature of the sea and its depth, and the currents,
temperature and pressure of the air, while in
geography, in every department of natural
history, in geology, in mineralogy, informa-
tion is much needed for the completion
of those generalizations which scientists have
begun recently to make, not merely for the
qualification of their own fancies but for the
general good of mankind.


In this connection it is worth while to note
with what enthusiastic interest the recent i'm
portant discoveries of the Austrians and Ger
mans were received by the whole world and
the Germans, proud of the achievements of
their seamen and men of science in the icy
regions, are about to equip another and more
important expedition at cost of more than
two hundred thousand dollars. This is to
follow the line OF the Greenland coast, on the
east side, while the English are to operate
through Smith Sound, on the west side.
The suggestion has been made that these two
expeditions, each comprising two powerful
IL a. l.,f l..