THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 81 
TO) Wishes, INO AeOles, 
Synopsis of an address to the Astronomical Section of the 
Hamilton Scientific Association, June roth, 1902. 
BY CAPTAIN J. E. BERNIER. 
As a Canadian he felt proud to explain to the people as- 
sembled his plans in regard to his proposed trip to the North 
Pole. Both the north and south poles are attracting universal 
attention, and by reaching these points not only will a great 
achievement have been accomplished, but geography will be 
facilitated, as observations can be taken from the extreme points 
of the globe. 
While over in England in 1898 he became acquainted with 
an arctic explorer, and contracted the “ polar fever,” the result 
being that he has studied the questions ever since. 
During the course of his lecture he had a number of charts 
thrown on the screen, showing the routes taken by former ex- 
plorers. With these, and other illustrations of a like charac- 
ter, he enabled his audience to gain a clear and comprehensive 
idea of the polar region. 
The route he proposes to take is better, in his opinion, than 
that taken by former explorers, as his will be a slow drift, while 
some of the others had to contend with the ice coming from the 
pole, caused by the rotation of the earth and the discharge of 
rivers from Siberia. 
Referring to other explorers and the great difficulties they 
had to contend with, he mentioned Captain Parry, Captain 
Bauendahl, Captain Tyson, Lieut. Peary, Mr. Wellman, the 
Duke of Abruzzi, Prof. Andree and a few others. 
After having referred at some length to these, he came to 
his own proposed trip. In the first place, he needed money. 
The Dominion Government had granted him $80,000, and he 
