PLAN FOB TEE EXPLORATION OF THE ARCTIC. 745 



A good supply of medicines, a skillful surgeon, and such fresh provisions 

 as could be found by hunting parties would enable them to keep off scurvy 

 and maintain as good a sanitary condition as the inhabitants of Godhaven, 

 in Greenland. Game was found in fair quantities by the Polaris party on 

 the Greenland coast, and by those from the Alert and Discovery, on the 

 mainland to the west, especially in the vicinity of the last-named vessel, 

 where fifty-four musk-oxen were killed during the season, with quantities 

 of other and smaller game. The coal found by the Discovery's party 

 would render the question of fuel a light one, and thus remove one of the 

 greatest difiiculties hitherto encountered by Arctic voyagers. 



There seems to be little doubt that Lady Franklin Bay can be annually 

 reached by a steam-vessel, as Capt. Hall went as high as Cape Union, be- 

 tween latitude 82° and 83° with the Polaris, and Capt. Nares still higher 

 with the Alert. It is possible that the last-named point may be reached 

 with the vessel, in which case coal and provisions could be deposited there 

 to form a secondary base of operations for the exploring party. If this 

 latter can be done, the road to the Pole will be shortened by about ninety 

 miles in distance, and three weeks or more, in time — two very important 

 items. It should be clearly understood, that the only use to be made of the 

 vessel which it is hoped to obtain from the Government, is in the trans- 

 portation of the men and supplies to the location of the colony. When 

 this is done, the vessel will return to the United States and await further 

 instructions. To the expeditionary corps brought from the United States 

 should be added a number of Esquimaux families to serve as hunters, 

 guides, &c., and also an ample number of Esquimaux dogs, so indispensable 

 for sledging, and so useful as food when their capacity for work is gone. 



The colony should be kept under the strictest discipline, and to this end 

 should be formally enrolled in the military service, save perhaps the strictly 

 scientific members. By discipline only can such control be exercised as 

 will be indispensable to the successful prosecution of the work. One cannot 

 read, without pain, the account of the Polaris expedition, where the bonds 

 of discipline, only too loose before Hall's untimely death, were entirely re- 

 laxed after it. The first in command of the new expedition should be a 

 man able not only to gauge men, but to control them, and his second should 

 be like unto him. Enthusiasm and energy are desirable, but coolness of 

 temper, firmness of rule, persistency of purpose, and a well-balanced mind, 

 fertile in resources and expedients, are indispensable to success. 



The outfit of the expedition should include among other things, an ample 

 supply of copper telegraph wire to connect the colony at Lady Franklin 

 Bay with the subsidiary depot at Cape Union, and thence northward, as 

 far as practicable. Copper wire is strong, light, flexible, and a good con- 

 ductor, and can be worked while lying upon the dry snow or ice without 

 support. The necessary battery material and instruments should be taken 

 to equip the line, and the battery left permanently at the bay station, 

 where, fuel being abundant, it could be kept from freezing. A special 



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