Nov. 12, 1874] 



NATURE 



37 



THE EXPLORATION OF THE ARCTIC 



REGIONS* 



'T'EN years ago, when arctic exploration was sought to be re- 



-*■ vived by the Royal Geographical Society, all, I think, were 

 agreed as to the main points of the subject, while a diversity of 

 opinion arose regarding one point, which appears to me only of 

 secondary importance now — namely, the route to be chosen. 

 There was a great deal of discussion upon this point, and 

 whether it would be more advisable for a new English expedition 

 to proceed west of Greenland up Smith Sound, or east of it, 

 anywhere in the wide sea between Greenland and Novaya 

 Zemlya. 



From the results arrived at by actual exploration since 1S65, 

 and the light shed by it upon the subject, it appears to me that 

 a real ground for any such diversity of opinion no more exists, 

 as the most noteworthy fact brought out by the various recent 

 polar expeditions is a greater navigability in all parts of the 

 arctic seas than was formerly supposed to exist. 



For my part, I readily admit that the Smith Sound route has 

 turned out to be a great deal more practicable and navigable 

 than could formerly be surmised from the experience of Kane 

 and Hayes. Certainly both these attempts were made mth in- 

 sufficient means, Kane's Adraiicc' being only a sailing brig, 

 heavily laden and blown about by unusually strong gales, and 

 Hayes' schooner, the Unittd States, a mere sailing vessel of 133 

 tens, not fit for navigation in the arctic seas. When, therefore, 

 Hall in 1S71 tried this route with the Polaris, he achieved most 

 astounding results, for he sailed and steamed from Tessiusak 

 without interruption in one stretch through the ill-famed Melville 

 Bay, Smith Sound, Kennedy Channel, and into new seas as far 

 as 82° N. lat., a distance of 700 miles, with the greatest ease in 

 seven days, and even reached beyond the S2nd parallel. Vet his 

 vessel, the Polaris, was only a small, weak-powered steamer, by 

 no means well fitted for the work, and manned by a motley crew, 

 hampered by Eskimo families and little children. 



While I thus readily admit my expectations to have been far 

 exceeded by recent experience, similar progress has also been 

 made on all the other routes into the central area of the arctic 

 regions, and a great deal has been achieved, even with small 

 means. From the results already arrived at, it is evident that 

 with approfriate steam-vessels, making use of the experience 

 gained, that central area will be penetrated as far as the North 

 Pole, or any other point. 



As I cannot but think that an English exploring expedition 

 will soon leave for the arctic regions, I take this opportunity to 

 state to you explicitly that I withdraw everything I formerly 

 said that might be construed into a diversity of opinion on the 

 main points at issue, and that I now distinctly approve before- 

 hand of any route or direction that may be decided on for a new 

 expedition by British geographers. 



For those expeditions which I myself have been able to set 

 on foot since 1S65, the most direct and shortest routes and the 

 nearest goals seemed the most advisable, as only very small 

 means could be raised, and these chiefly by promising to break 

 new ground and open new lines of research never before 

 attempted. With the same small means at our command, we 

 could not have done as much a.s we did elsewhere. At my 

 instance, more or less, seven veiy modest expeditions and sum- 

 mer ciuises went forth. The first one, a reconnoitring tour in 1S6S 

 under Captain Koldeway, consisted of a little Norwegian sloop 

 of only about sixty tons, no bigger than an ordinary trawling 

 smack ; she was purchased at Bergen, received the name of 

 Ccrmania, and went towards East Greenland, then to the east 

 of Bear Island, on to the north of Spitzbergen beyond the Sist 

 parallel, and surveyed portions of East Spitzbergen not before 

 reached by English or Swedish expeditions. Next year, 1S69, 

 started the so-called second Geiman expedition, consisting of 

 two vessels, a screw steamer of 143 tons, called the Germania, 

 and a sailing brig of 242 tons, called the Hansa, as a tender ; 

 they went again to East Greenland, explored this coast as far as 

 77° N. lat., and discovered a magnificent inlet, Franz-Joseph 

 Fjord, extending far into the interior of Greenland, navigable, 

 and the shores of it enlivened by herds of reindeer and musk 

 o.xen. It was also shown that the interior of Greenland in this 

 region consists not of a slightly elevated table-land, as formerly 

 supposed, but of splendid mountain masses of Alpine character. 

 The account of this expedition, which also wintered on the coast 

 of East Greenland in 72rN. lat., is before you in an Enghsh dress. 



* A letter addressed to the President of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 a copy of which has been forwarded to us by Dr. Pctermann. 



Besides this, I got my friend Mr. Rosenthal, a shipowner, to 

 allow two scientific men. Dr. Dorst and Dr. Bessels, to ac- 

 company two of his whaling steamers, one to explore the seas 

 east of Spitzbergen, the other those east of Greenland ; both 

 made highly interesting and valuable scientific observations, 

 which have not yet been published. In 1S70 my friends Baron 

 Heuglin and Count Zeil went from Tromso in a small schooner of 

 thirty tons to East Spitzbergen, and collected most interesting in- 

 formation on a region never before visited by scientific men ; and 

 when Baron Heuglin had been out a second time, the next 

 following year {1S71), again with one of Rosenthal's expeditions, 

 he published a valuable work in three volumes. In the same 

 year Payer and Weyprecht went in the Isbjorii, a sailing vessel 

 of forty tons, from Tromso, to explore still further northward 

 than Bessels the sea east of Spitzbergen, which was done with 

 great success as high up as 78° 43' N. lat. (in 42 J E. long. Gr. ) 

 and as far east as 59" E. long. The scientific results of this 

 ciuise have also not yet been (ully worked out. 



Thus from the interior of Greenland, in 30° W. long, to 59° 

 E. long, east of Spitzbergen, a width of about ninety degrees 

 of longitude has been explored, and highly interesting results 

 obtained. The cost of these seven expeditions and cruises was 

 about 140,000 thalers, or altogether 20,000/., of which 5,000 

 thalers, or 750/., were contributed by the Government of Germany; 

 all the rest by private individuals, my friend Rosenthal spending 

 upwards of 30,000 thalers. Half of the results of these expe- 

 ditions have not yet been published, but the work of the second 

 German expedition in four volumes, and that by Baron Heuglin 

 in three volumes, are finished, and are, I think, a credit to the 

 explorers. 



I have mentioned these details in order to show that such 

 endeavours to extend human knowledge, improve the spirit of 

 the navy, and foster a taste for the progress of science, are J not 

 necessarily expensive. A really effective expedition will cost 

 more, but also accomplish more ; in this respect a reviewer in 

 the Athethctim, in reviewing our second expedition, says that 

 " to start en expeditions such as these in vessels ill-adapted, ill- 

 .strengthened, ill-found, and ill-provisioned, is but to court 

 failure ; " to which I say Amen. 



One well-appointed English expedition of ore or two strong 

 steamers may well be able to penetrate to the furthest points of our 

 globe. Even the whaling shif s, now furnished as they are with 

 steam, penetrate as a rule to where it was thought impossible for 

 such a fleet to pursue their valuable fisheries ; the ill-famed 

 middle ice of Baffin's Bay is to them no moie impenetrable, and 

 extreme points reached by former discovery expeditions in the 

 course of a long series of ) ears are now visited ard passed by 

 one whaling vessel in the course of a few summer months. 



Up to 1869 the general opinion was that from Bear Island in 

 74^° N. lat. there extended the line of heavy impenetrable pack- 

 ice eastward as far as Novaya Zemlya ; that, working along this 

 coast, the furthest limit of navigation was at Cape Nassau ; and 

 tliat the Kara Sea was entirely and always filled with masses of 

 ice, totally impracticable for any navigation. But the Nor- 

 wegians, with their frail fishing-smacks of only thirty tons at an 

 average, have for five consecutive years every year navigated all 

 those seas hitherto considered as totally impenetrable ; they have 

 repeatedly circumnavigated the whole of Novaya Zemlya, 

 crossed the Kara Sea in every direction, penetrated to the Obi 

 and Yenisei, and shown beyond the sliadow of a doubt that navi- 

 gation can generally be pursued there during five months of the 

 year, from June to October, and moreover, that the whole of the 

 Kara Sea and the Siberian Sea far to the noith .are every year 

 more or less cleared of their ice, both by its melting and drifting 

 away to the north. I have had the journals of many of these 

 cruises sent to me from Norway, containing a mass of good ob- 

 servations made at the instance of the Government Meteoro- 

 logical Office under the superintendence of Prof. Mohn, at 

 Christiania. If another proof of confirmation weie wanting, it 

 has been furnished by Mr. Wiggins, of Sunderland, who this 

 summer also navigated through the Kara Sea as far as the 

 mouth of Obi. 



As to the sea between Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen, the 

 very first time in our days its navigation was attempted, namely, 

 by Weyprecht and Payer in 187 1, it was found navigable even 

 in a small sailing vessel of forty tons up to 79° N. lat., and in 

 the eastern half of it no ice whatever was met with. The 

 experience of their last expedition in 1872 certainly has been the 

 leverse, as they encountered mudi and dense ice, at least in the 

 direction of Cape Nassau ; but it woiJd lead to erroneous conclu- 

 sions, if it were not taken into account that the Norwegians at 



