1881. 47 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Scz. 
seventeen persons all told, including Lieut. Schwatka, U. S. A., the 
commander of the late American Franklin search expedition, who has 
most cordially volunteered to accompany this party, on the part of 
America. 
To attempt to reach the Pole in the usual manner, there would be 
required six sledging parties of five men each. Each man would have 
to drag 215 pounds. The Lecturer believed that the journey could be 
performed by means of sledges, as he had not the most remote idea 
that there is an open sea about the Pole. Starting in April or early 
May with the six sledges, they would go fifty or sixty miles on the 
journey ; and then sledge No. 6 would stop and bury in some safe place 
all its spare supplies, as a depot for the return journey, and that sledge 
would return to the ship. After going fifty or sixty miles more, the 
fifth sledge would stop in the same way, bury its spare provisions, and 
return to the ship. The first sledge would keep on until the Pole was 
reached. In this way the journey might be made in 106 days, but 
would be far more difficult and laborious than that proposed by the 
following plan. 
On arrival at St. Patrick’s Bay, three snow observatories will be 
established, one situated in the immediate vicinity of the coal mine, at 
St. Patrick’s Bay, another fifty miles further north, and the third the 
same distance to the south. These observatories will be connected by 
telegraph wires, and hourly meteorological observations will be taken 
and transmitted to the central station. Thus accurate information as 
to the direction and force of the wind, simultaneously over a distance of 
one hundred miles, will be obtained and immediately plotted at the 
central station. When the proper wind curve for reaching the Pole is 
found to exist, the attempt will be made by means of balloons. These 
will be of large size, and three in number, costing altogether about 
£12,000. Each will carry three men, be provided with a boat car, a 
set of Esquimaux dogs, and provisions for fifty-one days. The total 
load for each balloon will be between one and one-half and two tons. 
The gas for inflating the balloons will be generated, at least mainly, 
from the abundant coal at this harbor, and, to prevent the too rapid 
diffusion and loss of gas, it is proposed to employ a double envelope 
of silk with an intermediate layer of gold-beaters’ skin. It has not 
yet been decided whether to use pure hydrogen or a mixture of coal 
gas and hydrogen. The Commander has convinced himself by experi- 
ments with balloons, both in polar regions and in England, that they 
can be satisfactorily used in the way above proposed; and he hopes 
to cover the distance from St. Patrick’s Bay to the Pole, 496 miles, in 
from eighteen to twenty-four hours. The altitude of the balloons will 
be regulated at about one thousand feet by means of a trail rope. 
