86 



NATURE 



I Dec 3, 1874 



bergen ; a matter which may be important to a company wishing 

 to establish a line of packets between the two points, but which 

 has no bearing on the question of exploration. His second 

 reason was that the Spitzbergen seas form the widest openings 

 into the unknown region, 'lliis is one of the strongest objec- 

 tions to the route, for the navigation must be conducted ia a 

 drifting pack, which is fatal to a successful a ivance. Tlie third 

 reason is still more remarkable, namely, that the " Spitzbergen 

 seas are more free of ice than any other part of the arctic 

 regions." This assertion is diametrically opposed to the expe- 

 rience of all who have visited those sens. The fourth reason is 

 that "the drift ice north of Spitzbergen offers just as much or 

 as little impediment to navigation as the ice of Baffin's Bay." 

 This statement is made in the face of the fact that a fleet of 

 whalers has annually passed through the ice of liaffin's B.iy for 

 the last fifty-six years, while the pack north of Spitzbergen has 

 never once been penetrated. The fifth assertion is that "the 

 sea north of Spitzbergen will never be entirely frozen over, not 

 even in winter, nor covered with solid ice fit for sledge travelling." 

 This is possibly true, and it forms another strong objection to the 

 Spitzbergen route, for these streams and pools of water, while 

 making exploration by sledges impossible, would add to the 

 danger of wintering in the pack. The sixth assertion is that 

 from Sir Edward Parry's ftirthest point a navigable sea was 

 extending far to the north, and that in 82" 45' there was a per- 

 fectly navigable sea. The assertion is the very reverse of the 

 real fact. Parry, at his extreme point, found the ice thicker and 

 the floes more extensive than any he had previously met with, 

 and there was a strong yellow ice blink al\\ ays overspreading the 

 northern horizon, denoting field-ice. The seventh assertion is 

 that " the polar region north of Spitzgergen consists of sea and 

 not land." This is the very reason that the Spitzbergen route is 

 the worst that can be selected, land and land-ice being essential 

 to a real advance. The eighth and last reason is that Parry's 

 voyage only took six months. Here is another reason against 

 the f xample being followed, for a hasty voyage of that kind 

 must fail to secure the scientific results to be obtained from arctic 

 research. 



So much for Dr. Petermann's first letter to Sir Roderick 

 Murchison. The only point in the second letter is the argument 

 that there will be no difficulty in boring through ths polar ice- 

 fields north of 80°, because Sir James Ross got through the 

 extensive pack in the antarctic regions in lat. 62" S., after it had 

 drifted and become loose for many hundreds of miles over a 

 boundless ocean. The fallacy of this comparison was fully 

 exposed by Admiral CoUinson.* That arctic explorer pointed 

 out that the antarctic pack was drifting away from a solid line of 

 immovable grounded ice-cliffs, and of course left open water in 

 its rear, because there was no moving ice further south to take 

 its place. The exact analogy of the voyage of Sir James Ross in 

 the south is that of .Scoresby in the north. The antarctic pack, 

 in lat. 75° S., is analogous to the ice met by the whalers in the 

 early spring in 75° to 76° N., through which they can usually 

 pass. The open water north of Spitzbergen is analogous to the 

 open sea found by Ross in the south ; and the polar ])ack which 

 Scoresby found bounding that open water to the north, (rom 

 whence the ice he had passed through had drifted, is analogous 

 to Ross's line of impenetrable ice barrier. 



Dr. Petermann finally asked for any reason, however slight, 

 why it would not be as easy to sail from Spitzbergen to the pole 

 ajid lack as to go up Bafiin's Bay to the entrance of Smith 

 Souird. This is a curious instance of the w.iy a preconceived 

 theory destroys the power of seeing the simplest facts. The 

 reason is clear enough, and is well known to all arctic navigators. 

 North of Spitzbergen the sea is encumbered by a dr.fting pack, 

 through which no ship has ever penetrated. In Baffin's Bay 

 there is land-ice, along which vessels can creep while the pack 

 drifts past. Tlie consequence is, that whereas a fleet of whalers 

 pisses up Baffin's Bay every year, no vessel has ever gone far 

 into the pack north of Spitzbergen. 



Although these fallacies were completely exposed at the time, 

 the letters containing them caused a barren discussion which 

 gave the appearance of dissension among geographers, and 

 destroyed the previously hopeful prospect of the English Govern- 

 ment being induced to consider dapt. Osborn's proposal favour- 

 ably. Unanimity was essential to success ; and thus Dr. Peter- 

 mann's inopportune letters had the effect of tlu'owing back arctic 

 discovery for ten years. 



At the same time the eflbrts of Capt. Osborn and his fellow 



* Royal Geographical Society's Proceedings, ix, p, iiS. 



arctic voyagers in 1S65 bore some good fruit. His own paper is 

 an important document, which clearly states the true principles of 

 arctic exploration, and has been invaluable for reference. Dr. 

 Hooker prepared a statement of some of the scientific results of 

 an arctic expedition ; and Commodore Jansen, of the Dutch 

 Navy, contributed an admirable memoir on the discoveries and 

 proceedings of his countrymen in the Spitzbergen seas. 



Having thus seriously,injured and retarded the progress of dis- 

 covery, so far as England was concerned, Dr. Petermann called 

 upon his o\\'n countrymen, with some success, to undertake arctic 

 voyages in pursuit of his theory. Two or three such voyages 

 were undertaken. In 1S6S the Gcnnania made a voyage to 

 Spitzbergen with exactly the same result as had attended the 

 hundreds of voyages which preceded it ; and in 1S69 another 

 Gcnimiiia followed the track of Capt. Clavering in 1S23 to 

 the Pendulum Island, on the east coast of Greenland, adding 

 nothing whatever, so far as navigation is concerned, to our pre- 

 vious knowledge. Capt. Koldewey commanded both these 

 expeditions, and he returned after being fully convinced of the 

 fallacy of Dr. Petermann's theory, and that Smith Sound is the 

 route for effective north polar exploration. It is much to be 

 deplored that these gallant German explorers, who certainly 

 might have done really good work if they had been guided by 

 the practical experience of their predecessors in arctic navigation, 

 should have been made to waste their energies in accordance 

 with a fanciful and baseless theory. 



The other arctic work that has been achieved since 1865 

 was not undertaken under Dr. Petermann's auspices, or to 

 prove his theories ; and the results have been much more im- 

 portant. The Swedes have done admirable scientific work in 

 Spitzbergen. The Norwegians, under the auspices of Prof. 

 Mohn, of Christianii, have circumnavigated Spitzbergen and 

 Novaya Zemlya, and revisited Wyche's Island in 79° N., which 

 was discovered by an English ship ia 1617. Capt. Hall sailed 

 far up Smith Sound, proving the accuracy of Admiral Osborn's 

 views ; and lastly, Lieut. Payer and Capt. Weyprecht discovered 

 the extensive region between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, 

 and proved the utter fallacy of Dr. Petermann's theory, which 

 he propounded in 1S52, and has since so persistently adhered to. 

 The ice drifted with the wind, and there \\-as no sign either of a 

 warm current or of a ncvigable polar basin. 



In 1S72 Admiral Sherard Osborn read his second paper, 

 again urging the renewal by England of arctic exploration by the 

 route of Sm th Sound, with the west coast of Greenland as a 

 base. Fortunately, complete unanimity was secured, and, thanks 

 to the tact, judgment, and perseverance of two successive Presi- 

 dents of the Geographical Society — Sir B.rrtle Frere and Sir 

 Henry Rawlinson — the Government his resolved to fit out a 

 naval arctic expedition of discovery to proceed by way of Smith 

 Sound. Success has thus at length crowned the efforts of the 

 Society, and baseless theories have had to give place to the 

 experience of practical men. 



Yet we have been again visited by a long letter from Dr. 

 Peteimann, which, h owever, did not arrive until the question 

 was settled. Its precise object is, therefore, not very apparent ; 

 but, remembering the injury done by the two previous letters in 

 1865, it is certainly incumbent on those who have, after much 

 labour and watchfulness, reached the goal, to defend the ground 

 which has been gained, even when the old opponent has become 

 apparently harmless. 



In his third letter Dr. Petermann begins by the assertion that 

 actual exploration since 1S65 has proved that there is "greater 

 navij;ability in all parts of the arctic seas than was formerly sup- 

 posed to exist." There is really no ground for this assertion. 

 Our knowledge of ihe arctic seas previous to 1S65 has not been 

 increased to any material extent, and the amount of navigability 

 in those seas was as well known before that date as it has become 

 since. Tlie voyage of Capt. Hall, satisfactory as it is, merely 

 proved that practical arctic men were right, and that the theorists 

 were wrong ; and although it is verj' generous of Dr. Petermann 

 to withdraw his opposition to the Smith Sound route, he must 

 surely be aware that the time has now passed when that opposi- 

 tion would have any effect. If the voyages since 1S65 have not 

 added much to previous knowledge, they have at least had the 

 eflect of disiiroving a theory which has done more than anything 

 else to retaid discovery. 



Most of Dr. Petermann's letter consists of a recapitulation 01 

 the work accomplished by tlie Norwegians on tire coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya, and by other recent voyagers, the point of 

 which is not apparent ; and of an attempt to make out that 

 Payer and Weyprecht were not the discoverers of Franz-Joseph 



