AERIAL EXPLORATION OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 213 



it have a sensible effect, though in case of a " near shave" between 

 landing, say at the Lot'odens or Iceland, and being blown out to sea, 

 it might just save them. 



As already stated, Commander Cheyne believes in the possibility of 

 returning to the ship, and bases his belief on the experiments he 

 made from winter quarters in Northumberland Sound, where he 

 inflated four balloons, attached to them proportionately different 

 weights, and sent them up simultaneously. They were borne by 

 diverse currents of air in four different directions, according to the differ- 

 ent altitudes, viz. N. W., N. E., S. E., and S. W., " thus proving that 

 in this case balloons could be sent in any required direction by 

 ascending to the requisite latitude. The war balloon experiments at 

 Woolwich afford a practical confirmation of this important feature iri 

 aerostation." Cheyne proposes that one at least of the three bal- 

 loons shall be a rover to cross the unknown area, and has been called 

 a madman for suggesting this merely as an alternative or secondary 

 route. I am still more lunatic, for I strongly hold the opinion that 

 the easiest way for him to return to his ship will be to drift rapidly 

 across to the first available inhabited land, thence come to England, 

 and sail in another ship to rejoin his messmates ; carrying with him 

 his bird's-eye chart, that will demonstrate once for all the pos- 

 sibility or impossibility of circumnavigating Greenland, or of sailing, 

 or sledging, or walking to the Pole. 



The worst dilemma would be that presented by a dead calm, and it 

 is not improbable that around the Pole there may be a region of calms 

 similar to that about the Equator. Then the feather-paddle or other 

 locomotive device worked by man-power would be indispensable. Bet- 

 ter data than we at present possess are needed in order to tell accu- 

 rately what may thus be done. Putting various estimates one 

 against the other, it appears likely that five miles an hour may be 

 made. Taking turn and turn about, two or three aeronauts could 

 thus travel fully 100 miles per day, and return from the Pole to the 

 ship in less than five days. 



Or take the improbable case of a circular wind blowing round the 

 Pole, as some have imagined. This would simply demand the work- 

 ing of the paddle always northward in going to the Pole, and always 

 southward in returning. The resultant would be a spiral course 

 winding inward in the first case, and outward in the second. The 

 northward or southward progress would be just the same as in a 

 calm if the wind were truly concentric to the Pole. Some rough ap- 

 proximation to such currents may exist, and might be dealt with on 

 this principle. 



Let us now consider the third danger, that of the darkness. The 

 seriousness of this may be inferred from the following description of 

 the journey of the Nassau balloon, published at the time : " It seemed 

 to the aeronauts as if they were cleaving their way through an inter- 

 minable mass of black marble in w r hich they were imbedded, and 

 which, solid a few inches before them, seemed to soften as they ap- 

 proached in order to admit them still further within its cold and 

 dusky enclosure. In this way they proceeded blindly, as it may well 

 be called, until about 3. 30 A.M., when in the midst of the impenetrable 

 darkness and profound stillness an unusual explosion issued from the 

 machine above, followed by a violent rustling of the silk, and all th 

 signs which might be supposed to accompany the bursting of the bal- 



