78 



NATURE 



[Nov. 30, 1871 



with sledge boats over the ice to the north of Spitzbergen ; 

 and he actually reached the farthest northern point that 

 has yet been attained by civilised man. But the rainfall 

 was exceptional that year ; and the ice was in a very 

 unfavourable condition. It was not until he reached 

 82° 43' N. that he descried the strong yellow ice blink 

 overspreading the northern horizon, and denoting the vast 

 ice fields over which he hoped to travel. His provisions 

 then only sufficed to take him back to his ship, and he 

 was obliged to return. He made a mistake in the route 

 and in the time of year ; but he has the credit of having 

 been the pioneer of Arctic travelling, and of having 

 pointed out the true way of exploring the unknown Polar 

 region. 



In deciding upon the best route, .Sherard Osborn had 

 his own great experience in the ice, and the recorded 

 observations of Parry and Ross, and of generations of 

 previous explorers to guide him. Tire first Arctic canon 

 is, " Never take the pack if you can possibly avoid it, 

 but stick to the land floe." The second is, " Reach the 

 highest possible parallel in your ship, and then complete 

 the exploration by sledge travelling." A glance at a Polar 

 chart will show that the first canon can only be followed 

 by passing up the west coast of Spitzbergen, or the west 

 coast of Greenland. But the Greenland coast reaches a 

 higher parallel than that of -Spitzbergen. Therefore the 

 Greenland coast is the route to follow, — up Smith Sound 

 and Kennedy Channel to the farthest point attainable. 

 A vessel can almost always reach Smith Sound in one 

 season, for the same reason that a vessel seldom finds it 

 difficult to sail up the west coast of Spitzbergen, namely 

 that she is to windward of the ice. She sticks to the land 

 floe and lets the pack drift past her. Out of thirty-eight 

 exploring vessels that have gone up Baffin's Bay from 

 1 818 to i860, only two have failed to reach the open water 

 at its head which leads to Smith Sound, before the 

 navigable season was over. From the position that may 

 thus always be reached by an exploring ship, sledge 

 parties could be despatched to the North Pole and 

 back — a distance of 96S miles — a distance often exceeded 

 by the Arctic sledge travellers in search of Franklin ; as 

 well as to complete the exploration of the northern coast 

 of Greenland, and of the land to the westward. Such was 

 the plan proposed by Osborn in 1865. It was feasible ; 

 it promised useful scientific results ; it ensured a vast 

 accession of new geographical knowledge ; and the 

 Government could scarcely have refused to adopt it if 

 there had been unanimity in the counsels of geographers 



nd explorers. 



But a fatal apple of discord was thrown into their 

 midst by the eminent geographer of Gotha ; and the 

 Admiralty seized on this want of unanimity as an excuse 

 for postponing indefinitely the consideration of the sub- 

 ject. Dr. Petermann has done serious injury to the cause 

 of Arctic exploration by thus forcing his theories into 

 notice at a time so extremely inopportune. It was in 



1852 that he first brought forward the theory that 

 there is an open navigable sea between Spitzbergen 

 and Novaya Zemlia leading straight to the Pole 

 especially late in the autumn. He assured the Ad- 

 miralty that the Erebus and Terror were somewhere 

 near the Siberian coast, and that they could be reached 



without serious difficulty by this wonderful route. Had 



he been listened to, and had our gallant countrymen been 

 then alive, it makes one shudder to think of the conse- 

 quences if the searchers had thus been led off the true scent. 

 That time no harm was done. But in 1865 Dr. Peter- 

 mann found more willing listeners. He again declared 

 that the sea between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlia 

 was the easiest and most navigable entrance to the un- 

 known region ; and he added two new discoveries ; first, 

 that Parry, at his farthest point, found a perfectly navigable 

 sea extending far away to the north ; and second, that 

 Smith Sound is a ciil tie sac (of which he published a 

 map), and unconnected with the Polar Ocean. The first 

 discovery is surely a dream, for Parry himself saw a 

 strong ice blink overspreading the northern horizon at his 

 farthest point. The second exists only in Dr. Petermann's 

 iimgination, and, before he announced it, he should have 

 called to mind the fate of a certain range of mountains 

 named alter the late Mr. Wilson Croker. The only tangible 

 grounds for believing in an open Arctic ocean navigable 

 to the Pole, are that the Russian explorers Hedenstrom, 

 Anjou, andWrangell, saw patches of open water and rotten 

 ice oft" the northern coast of Siberia in March and April, 

 and that Dr. Kane's ship's steward reported having seen 

 a wide extent of open water in June to the north of 

 Smith Sound. The K\isiiwc\ polynias or water holes are 

 in all probability caused by winds and currents acting on 

 a shallow sea, and, so far as we yet know, they are merely 

 local. The same thing was observed by Barents off 

 Novaya Zemlia in November, and an oft'-shore wi i.t "ill 

 carry the ice from the head of Baffin's Bay at all seasons. 

 But this does not make the sea navigable. The open 

 water of Dr. Kane's steward in June was only what might 

 be expected at that season, though Dr. Hayes found the 

 same spot covered with ice within a few days of the same 

 time of year, in 1861. Dr. Petermann's arguments un- 

 foitunately had the effect of destroying that unanimity, 

 without which it was hopeless to attempt a successful 

 representation of the importance of Arctic exploration at 

 the Admiralty. 



The ostensible reason given by the Duke of Somerset 

 for postponing the cjuestion, was in order that the results 

 might be learnt of a Swedish expedition then engaged in 

 exploring Spitzbergen, under the direction of Professor 

 Nordenskiold. Those results fully confirmed the correct- 

 ness of Sherard Osborn's views. Nordenskiold reported 

 that no vessel could force its way through the closely- 

 packed ice north of Spitzbergen ; but that the ice moves, 

 after long southerly winds, considerably to the north. "All 

 experience seems to prove," adds Nordenskiold, "that the 

 polar basin, when not covered with compact, unbroken ice, 

 is filled withclosely-packed,unna\igabledrift-ice, in which 

 some large apertures may be found ; though in favourable 

 yeais it may be possible to sail a couple of degrees north 

 of the 80th parallel in September or October." 



Dr. Petermann has since promoted the equipment of 

 Arctic expeditions, which were expected to prove his 

 theory, and to disprove the opinions of Captain Osborn. 

 But he has sent prophets to curse his opponent, and 

 behold, they have blessed him altogether ! In 1S68 the 

 first German Arctic Expedition sailed under the com- 

 mand of Captain Koldewey, with instructions to pene- 

 trate as far north as possible along the east coast of 

 Greenland, or to try to reach Gillis Land, east of 



