TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE, 159 



good reason for believing that the motion of the ice-field 

 was due to the wind alone. If we suppose this to have been 

 really the case, then, as there is no reason for believing that 

 northerly winds prevail uniformly in the Arctic regions, we 

 must regard Parry's defeat as due to mischance. Another 

 explorer might have southerly instead of northerly winds, 

 and so might be assisted instead of impeded in his advance 

 towards the Pole. Had this been Parry's fortune, or even if 

 the winds had proved neutral, he would have approached 

 nearer to the Pole than Nares. For Parry reckoned that he 

 had lost more than a hundred miles by the southerly drift of 

 the ice-field, by which amount at least he would have ad- 

 vanced further north. But that was not all ; for there can be 

 little doubt that he would have continued his efforts longer 

 but for the Sisyphsean nature of the struggle. It is true he 

 was nearer home when he turned back than he would have 

 been but for the drift, and one of his reasons for turning 

 back was the consideration of the distance which his men 

 had to travel in returning. But he was chiefly influenced (so 

 far as the return journey was concerned) by the danger caused 

 by the movable nature of the ice-field, which might at any 

 time begin to travel northwards, or eastwards, or westwards. 

 If we suppose that not the wind but Arctic currents 

 carried the ice-field southwards, we must yet admit the pro- 

 bability nay, almost the certainty tliat such currents are 

 only local, and occupy but a part of the breadth of the 

 North Atlantic seas in those high latitudes. The general 

 drift of the North Atlantic surface-water is unquestionably 

 not towards the south but towards the north ; and whatever 

 part we suppose the Arctic ice to perform in regulating the 

 system of oceanic circulation whether, with Carpenter, we 

 consider the descent of the cooled water as the great moving 

 cause of the entire system of circulation, or assign to that 

 motion a less important office (which seems to me the juster 

 opinion) we must in any case regard the Arctic seas as a 

 region of surface indraught. The current flowing from those 

 seas, which caused (on the hypothesis we are for the moment 



