

CONTINUOUS POLAR EXPLORATION 3 z 3 



them to be worth more to humanity than tons of whalebone or 

 ingots of gold ; and as no reproach is cast on those who risk their 

 lives for money, one might justify even the risk of life for scien- 

 tific research in the arctic. But there is no need of this. Every 

 careful student knows that in most cases the work involved no 

 risk nor even greater hardship than is welcomed by an active 

 man. Dr. Boas spent a year in Baffin Land in comfort and 

 safety, traveling hundreds of miles, with Eskimo guides or alone, 

 living mostly on the game of the country, and bringing back an 

 unprecedented harvest of scientific facts, at a cost of seven hun- 

 dred dollars. Considering the desultory character of most of the 

 past work, the wonder is that disasters have been so few. Each 

 explorer had to proceed independently to formulate his plan from 

 book knowledge ; inquire for means to obtain outfit and trans- 

 portation ; knock at a hundred doors before he met his patron ; 

 gather a party of novices ; then start out with the haunting con- 

 sciousness that, if he failed to accomplish anything in the limited 

 time at his disposal, he would not have another chance. After 

 returning he was generally unable, owing to the expensive meth- 

 ods of the past, to take the field again ; his companions, with their 

 precious experience, scattered over the world. The next expedi- 

 tion had to go through the same process. Could any business, 

 say farming, be profitably conducted if the farm was worked one 

 year and then abandoned for ten years ? 



"Arctic exploration," says Mr. Peary, "must, like anything 

 else, be made a business and carried on from year to year, profit- 

 ing by each added item of experience, taking advantage of every 

 occurring opportunity." By doing the easiest and safest work 

 first, the next will be made easier ; and when a corps of experts 

 has been developed, the list of difficult tasks will dwindle to very 

 little. Lockwood and Brainard, in 1883, accomplished in six days 

 a distance which, it had taken them twenty-two days to accom- 

 plish the year before. "Hazardous expeditions into the open 

 ocean," says Dr. Boas, " without the shelter of land and without 

 any line of retreat, such as De Long's expedition, must be aban- 

 doned, as they will almost always end in disaster. Progress must 

 be made cautiously and founded on the discoveries and experi- 

 ences of past expeditions. It is only thus that scientific results 

 can be obtained." 



The expedition to Jones Sound, planned for 1897, is intended 

 to initiate a system of continuous arctic exploration. Its object 

 is to be the scientific research above indicated, and to this all else 

 will be subordinated. Special attention will be paid to geology. 

 Disasters having been plainly due to lack of a secure and always 

 accessible base, the first object will be the establishment of a base 

 at the mouth of Jones Sound, which Julius von Payer calls " the 



