82 



NATURE 



[Nov, 23, 1876 



web of fine interlacing water-ways, is nothing but a net 

 constantly in motion irom local, terrestrial, or cosmical 

 causes. All the changes and phenomena of this mighty 

 network lead us to infer the existence of frozen seas up to 

 the Pole itself; and according to my own experience 



gained in three expeditions I consider that the states of the 

 ice between 82° and 90° N.L. will not essentially differ 

 frotn those which have been observed south of latitude 82° ; 

 / incline rather to the belief that they will be found worse 

 instead of better" 



Noon on December 21, 1873. 



This is almost prophetic of the results obtained by the 

 English expedition, and is one more proof of the accu- 

 racy of their observations. Still that there are one or 

 more bodies of open water in the polar basin, bodies 

 which are never permanently frozen over seems evident 

 from even the comparatively little information we have. 



Hall saw only water and easily penetrable ice where our 

 sailors were baffled by the impenetrable ancient ice. 

 This simply shows that there is a constant shifting of the 

 southern ice border, but that its position and that of what- 

 ever open water exists within the basin itself will ever be 

 so favourable as to enable a ship to navigate to the Pole 

 is to us quite incredible. That the polar ice, like all other 

 phenomena, is subject to some laws in its movements, we 

 must believe ; what these are we as yet know not, but that 



Icebergs at the Base of the Middendorf Glacier. 



The ice seems to be in almost constant motion within the 

 basin except in the immediate vicinity of coasts, and in 

 order that this may happen there must be open spaces 

 somewhere. The southern edge of the Novaya Zemlya 

 ice varied in the years 187 1-2-4 by about 300 miles, and 



The View from Cape Tyrol. CoUinson Fiord — Wiener Neustadt Island 



they have some connection with the sun-spot period, is 

 most likely. These and other points can only be satis- 

 factorily settled by an international ring of Arctic obser- 

 vatories. 



As to the future of the polar question, Payer believes 

 that the days of large expeditions are past, and that until 

 we are able to devise some aerial method of reaching or 

 crossing the polar area, we ought to content ourselves 



