94 orEN POLAR SEA NOT FOUND. 



of 480 feet ; and lastly, at page 307, where he compares it with the 

 points from which former expeditions are supposed to have seen 

 the open sea, of 580 feet. How this very doubtful height was 

 measured, is not mentioned, and yet it is from this position that the 

 size of the surveyed open space is to he given. Nor have I been 

 able to find due information of how clear the air was, nor where 

 the sun was at that time. Morton speaks of a dark rain-cloud in 

 the n.w. ; and a delineation of the open sea, with Morton in the 

 foreground, "from description" as it is called, is also given at page 

 307. But with the exception of a mysterious round body bathing 

 one half in the sea, but which cannot be the sun at this season of 

 the year, a long way above the horizon, even at midnight, one sees 

 nothing but the sea bounds bordering the horizon. Neither is it 

 quite clear in what direction the oft-mentioned Cape concealed the 

 prospect towards the east. We see the coast-line on the chart broken 

 abruptly off by the farthest point that Morton saw. We ought to 

 have the necessary information about all these questions in order 

 to judge of the correctness of the calculations by which Kane, at 

 page 302, came to the result, that Morton could see from his " look- 

 out " to a distance of 36 miles, and that he had consequently sur- 

 veyed an Open Sea of more than 4000 square miles. Every one 

 acquainted with the nature of " looking out " after ice will admit 

 the folly of determining with certainty, by sight alone, from a 

 height of some few hundred feet, that flat ice is not to be found on 

 the sea in the farthest margin of the horizon, or at a distance of 

 36 miles. If even, as I much doubt, it could be possible, under 

 very favourable circumstances, to discover it at such a distance if it 

 were there, it however becomes an impossibility to determine its 

 absence with certainty. If we now remember that the part of the 

 sea which Morton had already passed, after he left the Humboldt 

 glacier, was kept open by the strong current, that this stream-hole 

 must be regarded as one of the most unusual on account of its 

 breadth, and that it is not at all decided if this strong current did 

 not continue past Cape Jefferson, on which he stood, it appears 

 probable that such a stream could continue its thawing activity far 

 past this point ; and even if it were correct that there had not been 

 ice 36 miles out before this channel-opening, there is, however, no 

 reason to seek such distant causes as those which the author has 

 assigned in order to explain this phenomenon in another manner. 

 Should there really be an open Polar basin in the summer, or at 

 certain other periods, there is at all events no reason to suppose 

 that this Open Sea had been reached by this expedition. 



In conclusion, let me touch on the coasts discovered on this 



