78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



AECTIC EXPLORATION AND ITS OBJECT. 



By Dk. FKANZ BOAS. 



THE severe sufferings of the last Arctic expeditions, and the losses 

 of life and property they occasioned, have depressed the public 

 mind in regard to Arctic explorations. Great hopes have given way to 

 the conviction of the impossibility of penetrating the ice-bound seas 

 and accomplishing the task which formerly seemed easy. The effect 

 of these failures is even more profound than we could anticipate ; for 

 scientists themselves, and other men of intelligence and influence, now 

 doubt if Arctic expeditions could be of any use either for mankind or 

 for science. And the public mind to-day is so thoroughly imbued with 

 these ideas, that it is necessary for every geographer to combat them 

 with all his power. 



"We may be allowed to pass by the objections of men who measure 

 the advantage of every study and of every enterprise by their influ- 

 ence on commercial welfare. The scientist's objections are those we 

 wish to refute. Many do not consider the discovery of new lands and 

 new seas a task worthy a life's work, as they do not consider it a bene- 

 fit for science for their science, which is the deduction of laws from 

 facts. They do not regard the composition of the wonderful picture 

 of the world, as Humboldt tried to delineate in his " Cosmos " a science 

 equal in its worth to the one which abstracts physical laws that govern 

 matter in the worlds as well as in the atoms. However, cosmography, 

 the study of the world and its development, is not at all inferior to 

 physics, the study of its laws. 



Geography is one of the branches of science which represent the 

 world as we see it to-day, and as it is developed into its present state. 

 In its method and subject it is related to astronomy and history. Its 

 domain is the study of the surface of our planet, as it has been developed 

 by the physical action of land, atmosphere, and water, as well as by 

 the relations between land and the organisms which live on it. Re- 

 garding geography thus in its proper place in the system of sciences, 

 we can not be allowed to consider any one of its objects as of no con- 

 sequence and not worthy of being pursued with the same perseverance 

 as those of physics, of astronomy, or natural history. In every branch 

 of science the connection between the phenomena and processes, and 

 the reasons for their distribution in space and time, can only be under- 

 stood by the most thorough and detailed investigation. 



If it be granted that every fact added to our knowledge is of value 

 for science, not by itself, but by connecting other facts already known, 

 there is no reason for excluding geographical researches from this 

 principle, or to consider discoveries of unknown regions as trifling. 



For the scientist it is not the benefit of commerce which makes 



