210 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



difficulty of dragging a cartload of provisions, etc., over such accu- 

 mulations of iceberg fragments and of sea-ice squeezed and crumpled 

 up between them. It is evident that we must either find a natural 

 breach in this Arctic barrier or devise some other means of scaling it. 



The first of these efforts has been largely discussed by the advo- 

 cates of rival routes. I will not go into this question at present, biit 

 only consider the alternative to all land routes and all water routes, 

 viz., that by the other available element an aCrial route as pro- 

 posed to be attempted in the new Arctic expedition projected by 

 Commander Cheyne, and which he is determined to practically carry 

 out, provided his own countrymen, or, failing them, others more 

 worthy, will assist him with the necessary means of doing so. 



To reach the Pole from the northernmost point already attained by 

 our ships demands a journey of about 400 miles, the distance be- 

 tween London and Edinburgh. With a favorable wind, a balloon 

 will do this in a few hours. On November 27th, 1870, Captain Eoher 

 descended near Lysthuus, in Hitterdal (Norway), in the balloon 

 " Ville d'Orleans," having made the journey from Paris in fifteen 

 hours. The distance covered was about 900 miles, more than double 

 the distance between the Pole a ad the accessible shores of Greenland. 



On November 7th, 1836, Messrs. Holland, Mason, and Green 

 ascended from Vauxhall Gardens, at 1.30 P.M., with a moderate breeze, 

 and descended eighteen hours afterward " in the Duchy of Nassau, 

 about two leagues from the town of Weilburg, " the distance in a 

 direct line being about 500 miles. A similar journey to this would 

 carry Commander Cheyne from his ship to the North Pole, or there- 

 about, while a fresh breeze like that enjoyed by Captain Eoher 

 would, in the same time, carry him clear across the whole of the cir- 

 cumpolar area to the neighborhood of Spitzbergen, and two or three 

 hours more of similar proceeding would land him in Siberia or 

 Finland, or even on the shores of Arctic Norway, where he could take 

 the Vadso or Hammerfest packet to meet one of Wilson's liners at 

 Trondhjem or Bergen, and thus get from the North Pole to London 

 in ten days. 



Lest any of my readers should think that I am writing this at ran- 

 dom, I will supply the particulars. I have before me the " Norges 

 Communicationer" for the present summer season of 1880. Twice 

 every week a passenger excursion steam packet sails round the North 

 Cape each way, calling at no less than twenty stations on this Arctic 

 face of Europe to land and embark passengers and goods. By taking 

 that which stops at Gjesvaer (an island near the foot of the North 

 Cape) on Saturday, or that which starts from Hammerfest on Sunday 

 morning, Trondhjem is reached on Thursday, and Wilson's liner, the 

 Tasso, starts on the same day for Hull, "average passage seventy 

 hours." Thus Hammerfest, the northernmost town in the world, is 

 now but eight days from London, including a day's stop at Tromso, 

 the capital of Lapland, which is about 3 N. of the Arctic circle, and 

 within a week of London. At Captain Roher's rate of travelling 

 Tromso would be but twenty-three hours from the Pole. 



These figures are, of course, only stated as possibilities on the sup- 

 position that all the conditions should be favorable, but by no means 

 as probable. 



What, then, are the probabilities and the amount of risk that will 

 attend an attempt to reach the Pole by an aerial route ? 



