PROMOTION OF ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY. 327 



a good measure of success is quite possible. The couucil is desirous 

 of giviug Mr. Jacksou all tlie eucouragement and assistauce in its 

 power, and we lieartily wish him all the success that is attainable with 

 the means at his disposal. 



Westward the archipelago of Spitzbergen ends in the parallel where 

 that of Franz Josef commences. It has long been a favorite idea with 

 inexperienced theorists, that the pole might be reached by a ship 

 shaping a northern course through the ice to the north of Spitzbergen. 

 This idea trangresses the best established of our Arctic canons, which 

 is never to enter the drifting pack away from land. But it occurred to 

 Sir Edward Parry that, although the impracticability of sailiu g to the pole 

 by the Spitzbergen route was sufficiently proved, the same object might 

 be attained by traveling with sledges over the ice. Parry undertook 

 this feat in 1827 with two flat-bottomed boats 20 feet long, with run- 

 ners on each side of the keels shod with metal, so that the boat entirely 

 rested on the runners when on the ice, and became a sledge. They 

 started with seventy-one days' provisions, and on June 23 tlie boats 

 were hauled on the ice iu 81° 13' north. The weight of each boat with 

 provisions was 3,753 i)ounds, or 2G8 pounds per man, there being twelve 

 men and two officers for each boat. The ice floes were found to be of 

 small extent and intersected by high ridges of hummocks, the snow 

 was soft and heavy, and there was much water lodged on the floes; 

 but the southerly drift exceeded 4 miles a day. The advance north 

 under such circumstances was liopeless, and Parry resolved to retrace 

 his steps on July 23, when he was in 82° 45' north. From this point 

 there was a strong yellow ice blink overspreading the northern horizon 

 and showing that the polar pack extended far to the northward. 

 Parry's great mistake was in starting so late in the year, lie ought to 

 have been at least two months earlier. The daily allowance of food 

 was insufficient, and the weight to be dragged, of 208 pounds per man, 

 was f\ir too great. 



Undoubtedly, if these errors were avoided, a much farther advance 

 to the northward might be made under favorable circumstances. The 

 object of such an expedition would be to get farther north than any- 

 body else — "to beat the best record" — a motive which was so earnestly 

 deprecated by Lieutenant Weyprecht as the bane of good Arctic 

 work. Still, it is a sporting thing to attempt, alid as those who are 

 engaged in it will acquire valuable experience iu the ice, it deserves 

 every encouragement. Mr. Walter Wellman, a journalist of Washington 

 City, with funds amounting to £4,000, has undertaken to make a renewed 

 attempt to attain a very high latitude north of Spitzbergen, and has 

 already started on his adventurous undertaking, with a few carefully 

 chosen assistants. He is a capable and resolute man, and a thoroughly 

 well-planned effort will be made under his auspices. He will land on 

 Danes Island, near the northeast angle of Spitzbergen, m the present 

 month. Thence he will push northward in aluminium boats of a new 



