president's address — SECTION E. 201 



Commander Pearv still maintains his attack on the north pole, 

 and on April 21st, 1906, reached 87° 6' N. latitude, or about 203 miles 

 from his goal, when he was compelled to retire. 



The difference in conditions observed on approaching either pole 

 are remarkable, and so far no satisfactory explanation has been forth- 

 coming. Whilst Scott's great southern journey was approximately 

 parallel to the south-eastern coastline of Victoria Land, it was over the 

 surface of the great ice sheet originally discovered by Sir Jas. Clark 

 Ross. The evidence we have tends to show that this ice sheet is hun- 

 dreds of feet in thickness and extending uninterruptedly towards the 

 pole. Some authorities have suggested that it is of glacial origin, in 

 which case the surface altitude would increase with increase of latitude ; 

 but no such increase was observed, either by Scott during his southern 

 journey nor by those (Royds and Bernacchi, Cross, Plumley, Scott, 

 and Clark) whom he sent to the S.E. nearly 200 miles for the special 

 piu-pose of observing the conditions of the ice. As far as is known, 

 then, the Great Barrier ice is hundreds of feet in thickness (possibly 

 in places reaching 1,000ft.) and covering a sea surface. The more 

 northern portion is probably afloat, whilst it seems possible that at 

 the more southerly parts reached by Scott's parties the ice extends 

 to the sea bottom. In any case the ice surface is certainly not drifting. 

 On the other hand, Commander Pearv, in extreme northern latitudes, 

 met with comparatively thin " floe " ice intersected by open leads and 

 drifting rapidly to the eastward, the more northern ice moving more 

 rapidly than that to the south. 



It will be remembered that Nansen, in the Fram, found, as he 

 anticipated, a westerly current to the north of Asia, which he hoped 

 would take him across the pole, but which actuallv carried the Fram 

 to lat. 85° 55' N. in long. 66° 33' E. The experience of this westerly 

 current in the extreme north beyond Siberia, and the easterly current 

 found by Peary north of Grant Land, seem to imply the existence of 

 one broad current across the high polar seas, and that the north pole 

 itself is covered with water (or more correctly water-borne ice), since 

 should a current sweep, say, from Behring's Strait across the pole to 

 the meridian of Greenwich, the direction followed by the Asiatic side 

 of that current would be described as westerly, and that of the American 

 side as easterly, although the water streams would be running in the 

 same direction and parallel to each other. 



During the year we have been advised of the successful accom- 

 plishment of the North- West Passage by Captain Amundsen, in the 

 Norwegian ship Gjoa, after a voyage of over three years. This is the 

 first occasion on which a navigator has taken his vessel from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific by the coast of North America and its islands ; but 

 McClure, over 50 years ago, brought his crew in the reverse direction 

 during the Franklin search, being thus the first to make the North- 

 West Passage, although he had to abandon his vessel (the Investigator) 

 in the ice. The accomplishment of the North- West Passage brings 

 to our minds the names of many gallant navigators and British heroes 

 from the days of Queen Elizabeth. Frobisher and Davis, equally at 



