60 THE OBJECTS OF POLAR EXPLORATION. 



The Greely ExpedAtion. — Lieat. Karl Weyprecht, as 

 Commander of a successful Austrian Expedition in 1872 

 and discoverer of Franz Josef Land, had become famous as 

 an able and daring explorer. When, therefore, he appeared 

 in September, 1875, before a meeting of German scientists 

 with an original and definite project for establishing a 

 series of co-operative Polar stations, his opinion carried 

 great weight. He pointed out that the nu^nerous costly 

 expeditions that had previously been sent out, had done 

 little more for physical research than to show that the Polar 

 regions offers one of the most fertile fields for the investiga- 

 tion of natural phenomena, particularly in reference to the 

 physical condition of the earth. 



True, recent expeditions had been abundantly furnished witli 

 their scientific men and the most approved instruments, but 

 it was a fact that each expedition had had no fixed plans laid 

 down for the observation of phenomena, and tlie results had 

 been unsatisfactory to the scientific world. It lias long been 

 admitted that the laws governing the winds and the great 

 ocean currents will never be thoroughly understood until the 

 physical condition of the Polar basin and the movements of 

 the great ice masses are known. Hence the importance of 

 scientific explorations in Polar regions. There are also many 

 problems of magnetism and electricity wliich might have a 

 most interesting solution, provided systematic experiments 

 were conducted in the far north. 



Weyprccht's plan was, that each country should establish 

 one or more Polar stations, to remain several years, and con- 

 duct a series of simultaneous observations according to a pre- 

 arranged plan. He thought that year by year these stations 

 might be gradually advanced toward the north, and finally, in 

 some favorable season, a dash might even be made to the Pole 

 itself He soon had many enthusiastic followers. In 1879 

 the International Polar Conference was organized and at once 

 took active measures to secure the co-operation of a sufficient 



