120 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



nication by open water either with the Atlantic or 

 with the Pacific, that ocean would be so limited in 

 extent that the moon's attraction could exert no more 

 effective influence upon its waters than upon the 

 waters of the Mediterranean where, as we know, no 

 tides are generated. This, then, would be a tideless 

 ocean, and we must look elsewhere for an explanation 

 of the tidal waves seen by Dr. Kane. 



We thus seem to have prima facie evidence that 

 the sea reached by Kane communicates either with the 

 Pacific or with the Atlantic, or which is the most 

 probable view with both those oceans. "When we 

 consider the voyages which have been made toward 

 the North Pole along the northerly prolongation of 

 the Atlantic Ocean, we find very strong evidence in 

 favor of the view that there is open-water communica- 

 tion in this direction, not only with the spot readied 

 by Kane, but with a region very much nearer to the 

 North Pole. 



So far back as 1GOT, Hudson had penetrated within 

 8J (or about 600 miles) of the North Pole on this 

 route. "When we consider the clumsy build and the 

 poor sailing qualities of the ships of Hudson's day, we 

 cannot but feel that so successful a journey marks this 

 route as one of the most promising ever tried. Hudson 

 was not turned back by impassable barriers of land or 

 ice, but by the serious dangers to which the floating 

 masses of ice and the gradually-thickening ice-fields 



