Jtme 20, 1878] 



NATURE 



201 



THE GREAT FROZEN SEA 1 



MANY readers, we believe, will prefer this brief 

 brightly written narrative of the last English Arctic 

 Expedition to the two weighty volumes of Sir George 

 Nares's, recently noticed in these pages. Capt. Markham 

 is an enthusiastic Arctic explorer, and as these volumes 

 testify, is well fitted by his personal qualities, his expe- 

 rience, and accomplishments, to take a leading part in 

 work of this kind. He has evidently a thorough know- 

 ledge of Arctic work and a full appreciation of the kind 

 of observations which ought to be attended to in an 

 Arctic expedition. His interesting volume affords a very 

 satisfactory idea of the incidents of the expedition and of 

 the nature and amount of work done. 



Capt. Markham' s name must be known to all as the 

 leader of the sledge party that attained the highest 

 northern latitude, and as might be expected, his pages 



contain an impressive narrative of the adventures of the 

 party. As one reads the story of this heroic attempt to 

 reach the pole he is not merely surprised that the party 

 turned when they did, but that they did not resign the 

 attempt at the end of the first week, for it must then have 

 become evident that the goal was unattainable by that 

 route at that season with the means at command. Had 

 the men not been made of splendid stuff, physically 

 and morally, they could not possibly have endured the 

 terrible hardships described by Capt. Markham. Cer- 

 tainly Sir George Nares did not exaggerate when, in 

 addressing his men before leaving England, he told them 

 " that if they could imagine the hardest work that they 

 had ever been called upon to perform in their lives inten- 

 sified to the utmost degree, it would only be as child's 

 play in comparison with the work they would have to 

 perform in sledging." 



Capt. Markham seems to think that work by the 



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Highest northern camp, 33* 20' 26" N. lat 



Smith Sound route is practically complete; and he leaves 

 one with the impression that it would be useless to 

 attempt to reach the pole by that route. Assuming that 

 the attainment of the pole is in itself a worthy object for 

 an expedition, we are inclined to think that the conclu- 

 sion as to its unattainability has been too hastily drawn 

 from the experience of one expedition. At the same 

 time we quite agree with Capt. Markham that there are 

 other routes which, while they hold out some hope of a 

 successful passage to the pole, would also afford oppor- 

 tunities of obtaining valuable scientific observations. 

 Capt. Markham rightly says that Behring Strait is a 

 portal leading to a vast region, the history of which has 

 hitherto been as a sealed book. This, it is stated, is the 



' The Great Frozen Sea. A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of] the 

 Alert during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-76. By Capt. A. H. Markham, 

 R.N. (late Commander of H. M.S. Alert). (London; Daldy, Isbister, and 

 Co. 1878.) 



route to be followed next year by the expedition to be 

 sent out by Mr. Gordon Bennett. Mr. Bennett is having 

 a map of the polar regions constructed for the purpose 

 of showing the effect of the various currents towards and 

 from the polar area, and, if one may judge from this, 

 there is much to say in favour of the Behring Strait 

 route ; but all such polar-current charts must be re- 

 garded with grave suspicion, as being founded so largely 

 on conjecture. We quite coincide with Capt. Markham' s 

 strong advocacy of the route by Franz Josef Land. So 

 far as known at present, that, we think, is the best basis 

 of operations for further work towards the north. Per- 

 haps we may hear of something important being done in 

 this direction by the Dutch Expedition which recently 

 went out in the Willem Barentz. 



Capt. Markham gives a fair idea of the kind of scien- 

 tific work carried on by the expedition, and we hope that 

 the many magnetical, hydrographical, meteorological, 



