ARCTIC REGIONS AERIAL EXPLORATIONS. 1?'! 



usually adopted as supplementary to the first, is that of 

 dragging sledges over these glacial accumulations. The 

 pitiful rate of progress thus attainable is shown by the 

 record of the last attempt, when Commander Markham 

 achieved about one mile per day, and the labor of doing 

 this was nearly fatal to his men. Any tourist who has 

 crossed or ascended an Alpine glacier with only a knap- 

 sack to- carry, can understand the difficulty of dragging a 

 cartload of provisions, etc., over such accumulations of 

 iceberg fragments and of sea-ice squeezed and crumbled 

 up between them. It is evident that we must either find 

 a natural breach in this Arctic barrier or devise some other 

 means of scaling it. 



The first of these efforts has been largely discussed by 

 the advocates of rival routes. I will not go into this ques- 

 tion at present, but only consider the alternative to all land 

 routes and all water routes, viz. : that by the other available 

 element an aerial route as proposed to be attempted in 

 the new Arctic expedition projected by Commander Cheyne, 

 and which he is determined to practically carry out, pro- 

 vided his own countrymen, or, failing them, others more 

 worthy, will assist him with the necessary means of doing 

 so. 



To reach the Pole from the northernmost point al- 

 ready attained by our ships demands a journey of about 

 400 miles, the distance between London and Edinburgh. 

 With a favorable wind, a balloon will do this in a few hours, 

 On November 27, 1870, Captain Eoher descended near 

 Lysthuus, in Hitterdal (Norway), in the balloon "Yille 

 d'Orlcans," having made the journey from Paris in fif- 

 teen hours. The distance covered was about 900 miles, 

 more than double the distance between the Pole and the 

 accessible shores of Greenland. 



On November 7, 1836, Messrs. Holland, Mason, and 

 Green ascended from Vauxhall Gardens, at 1.30 P.M., 

 with a moderate breeze, and descended eighteen hours 

 afterwards " in the Duchy of Nassau, about two leagues 

 from the town of Weilburg," the distance in a direct line 

 being about 500 miles. A similar journey to this would 

 carry Commander Cheyne from his ship to the North Pole, 



