RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



407 



navigation must be supplemented by sledge- 

 traveling. The exploration of fifty miles of coast 

 by a sledge-party is worth more to science than 

 the discovery of five hundred miles of sea or 

 coast by a ship. In the former case, the land is 

 accurately mapped, and its fauna, flora, geology, 

 and physical features, are ascertained. In the lat- 

 ter a coast is seen, and its outline shown by a 

 dotted line on a chart, and that is all. The two 

 methods will not bear comparison. 



The experience of centuries of arctic research 

 has thus resulted in the establishment of three 

 canons, which form unerring guides to us who 

 inherit that experience. The first is to navigate 

 along a coast-line and avoid the drifting pack. 

 The second is to winter at a point beyond any 

 hitherto reached. The third is that a ship must 

 only be looked upon as a base of operations, and 

 that sledges are the main instruments for discov- 

 ery and exploration. 



With these rules as a sure guide, the best 

 route for an arctic expedition had to be decided. 

 The question was, by which route leading to the 

 unknown polar region could these essential con- 

 ditions best be found ? In the first place, there 

 must be coast-lines leading into the unknown 

 space, both for navigation and for sledge-travel- 

 ing. In the second place, there must be a fair 

 prospect of securing winter-quarters beyond the 

 threshold of the hitherto discovered region. In 

 the third place, there must be unknown coast- 

 lines extending beyond the winter-quarters. 



In lSVo Smith Sound, at the north end of 

 Baffin's Bay, and the east coast of Greenland, 

 alone met such conditions. Of these two routes, 

 Smith Sound offered two coast-lines for examina- 

 tion instead of one, and its navigation was re- 

 ported to be less precarious up to the farthest 

 point hitherto reached. The Smith Sound route 

 was consequently the best by which to recom- 

 mence the discovery of the vast unknown area. 



This was the train of reasoning, very briefly 

 stated, by which we arrived at the conclusion 

 that, to secure the true objects of arctic discov- 

 ery, and to make a successful commencement of 

 the examination of the unknown area, the first 

 expedition should proceed by the route of Smith 

 Sound. 



The true object of the late Arctic Expedition 

 was, then, to penetrate up the channels leading 

 north of Smith Sound, to cross the threshold of 

 the unknown region, and to winter at a point be- 

 yond any that had previously been reached, and 

 by sledge-traveling in various directions to se- 

 cure those rich scientific results which the exami- 



nation of an unknown region invariably yields, 

 to the utmost possible extent, with the means at 

 their disposal. 



This was a most difficult task. The late ex- 

 plorers have performed it, and they have thus 

 achieved a great and memorable success. And 

 this leads us to the consideration of the true test 

 of the success of an arctic expedition. It must 

 be borne in mind that, unless a new expedition 

 excels all that have gone before in the same di- 

 rection, it cannot succeed. The first and only 

 condition of success is that an expedition should 

 cross the threshold of the unknown region ; and, 

 when it is remembered that this cannot be done 

 unless the farthest points attained in the course 

 of former efforts are not only reached but passed, 

 it will be seen that this in itself is no slight 

 achievement. 



A successful arctic expedition is, then, one 

 which has crossed the threshold of the unknown 

 region and entered upon new ground. The ex- 

 tent and amount of that success must be meas- 

 ured first by the nature of the difficulties and 

 dangers which were encountered and overcome, 

 and secondly by the variety and importance of 

 the results that have been secured. 



The expedition, commanded by Sir George 

 Nares, and consisting of the two ships Alert and 

 Discovery, answers to the first essential test. 

 The leading ship crossed the threshold of the 

 unknown region, and the British flag was hoisted 

 in a latitude where no flag of any nation had 

 ever been hoisted before. It also wintered at a 

 point beyond any hitherto reached. The expedi- 

 tion was, therefore, successful. We would now 

 invite the attention of our readers to the difficul- 

 ties that were encountered and overcome, and to 

 the scientific results that were secured, in order 

 that a correct judgment may be formed of the 

 amount of success achieved, and of the value of 

 the results. Upon these considerations depends 

 the cogency of the arguments by which the con- 

 tinuance and completion of arctic research can 

 be advocated. 



The first point for our consideration is the 

 preliminary work of the expedition by which it 

 reached the remote point in the previously-un- 

 known region which secured success ; in other 

 words, the ice-navigation. In passing through 

 Baffin's Bay the same difficulties were overcome, 

 neither more nor less, as are encountered every 

 year by the hardy and intrepid whalers from 

 Dundee, and as were met with by previous arctic 

 expeditions which have proceeded up Barrow's 

 Strait, Wellington Channel, or Regent's Inlet. 



