148 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [Feb. 28, 1859. 



Dr. Kink's method, and besides, as the elements and process are all fully 

 stated in the printed report of the expedition, no one need be misled. 



I say this much in justice to Dr. Kane, and I beg you to believe without 

 any purpose or desire in an unfriendly manner to question the procedure of 

 Dr. Eink, who I hope will see in this letter, if it should come to his notice, 

 only a proof on my own part of the same disposition which he manifests to 

 guard against erroneous apprehension of all the details of so important an 

 expedition. I think he will agree with me, that it would be an excess of 

 requisition to hold Dr. Kane in the strictest scientific sense responsible for 

 an inaccuracy, if it should hereafter be found, upon fresh obsei-vations, that a 

 few miles of error appear upon a chart which was constructed from materials 

 obtained with great difficulty, in peculiar circumstances, and which he has 

 published with full notice of all the known sources of possible error. 



What is probably of more present importance is the question of the open 

 Polar Sea. If we assume that the latitudes of the capes above-mentioned are 

 as suggested by Dr. Rink, then the only consequence will be that the open 

 sea, if it exists, will be so much nearer to us, and of course proportionately 

 easier of access. 



You are already familiar with the evidence which inspection of the explora- 

 tions of Dr. Kane renders probable that during at least a part of the year 

 the Polar Sea is free from ice. The approximate coincidence of the poles of 

 magnetic and frigorific force, the tendency of all isothermal projections in the 

 Arctic regions, the observations of Russian navigators, and of Sir Edward 

 Parry and others, had made it probable, according to established rules of 

 scientific deduction, that, after passing the belt of ice which encloses the cir- 

 cumjacencies of the Pole, there would be found open water during at least a 

 portion of the Arctic summer of every year. To these accumulative proofs, 

 what was added by the report of Dr. Kane ? Precisely the kind of evidence 

 that was needed, viz. positive testimony. Morton avers that in the high lati- 

 tude reached by him (and it is of little moment for the present question 

 whether the latitude was 80° 41', 80° 56', or 81° 12') he saw open water with 

 very little ice, although a gale of wind had blown for two days from the 

 north-east; also flocks of birds and two bears. We know that he went 

 beyond any parallel determined by Dr. Kane. Cape Frazer, the highest point 

 reached on the west side of the channel, was determined by my own observa- 

 tion at latitude 79° 42' 9" ; and by none of the ship's company, except 

 Morton and Hans, was any open water seen. Is there any reason to distrust 

 the statement of these two persons ? In the first place, their report corresponds 

 with the previous proofs and probabilities above briefly cited, which were 

 already in the possession of scientific men : secondly, Morton had always the 

 confidence of his commander, as he has my own, in his veracity as a subordi- 

 nate observer : thirdly, he brought with him to the ship bear-skins, in attest- 

 ation of one part of his report,— and it is well known to Arctic navigators that 

 the polar bear is usually found in the neighbourhood of open water : fourthly, 

 the Esquimaux Hans was not capable of entering into any conspiracy to 

 deceive ; he was with difficulty understood, except through an interpreter ; 

 and upon his return to the brig I learned from him with such aid that he had 

 seen much water, with pieces of ice and many birds. In such circumstances, 

 to deny the report of Morton seems to require a scepticism scarcely warranted 

 by the state of the evidence. 



You will find various corroborative data in the narrative of his commander. 

 If we assume the greatest intensity of cold is in the neighbourhood of the 

 magnetic pole, then either that degree of cold continues to the Pole, or the 

 increase of temperature is so slow that the freezing-point of sea-water is not 

 passed before reaching the Pole,4f the opinion attributed by the press to Dr. 



