KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



this loss of life and waste of treasure ? " In view of these things, it is the pur- 

 pose of this paper to propose a new plan of Arctic exploration, which will not 

 endanger life to any considerable extent, or cost much public patronage, but will 

 perhaps secure more important results than have hitherto been obtainable. It is 

 proposed that our Government, with the' cooperation, if possible, of other civil- 

 ized nations, turn over this whole business of Arctic exploration to an Arctic 

 corps of explorers, composed of native Innuits, who should be secured, educated 

 and employed by the Government, under the command of an American naval 

 officer, in the following manner: Let our Government secure through the aus- 

 pices of the Moravian missionaries, laboring among the Innuits, twenty or more 

 of the young men of that people who have arrived at the age of eighteen or twenty 

 years. The age fixed upon should be the time of life when their physical nature has 

 become accustomed to the rigors of an Arctic climate, while the mind is still in 

 a receptive condition. Sufficient inducements should be offered these young 

 men to become cadets at the Naval Academy, where they should be instructed 

 in the English language, and given a regular naval education. If difficulty is 

 experienced in obtaining the whole corps of Innuits at first, secure one and edu- 

 cate him, and the way would doubtless be opened to obtain as many Innuits as 

 were wanted, upon whom would gradually dawn the possibilities of a new life. 

 These native Innuits, as soon as they could comprehend the project, would un- 

 doubtedly respond with alacrity, to the universal call, to explore their native 

 country, and to dissolve the mists which have hung over the polar regions so 

 many centuries. Let these young men be employed in the navy, as the Arctic 

 Corps of Explorers, and put under the command of some naval officer, of hardy 

 constitution, like Captain Hall. By adopting as far as necessary methods of Jiv- 

 ing employed by the Innuits, supplemented by improvements offered by civiliza- 

 tion, such a corps would be enabled to prosecute Arctic exploration under the 

 most favorable auspices possible. They would possess the personal qualities 

 demanded by the rigors of an Arctic climate, be familiar with the methods of 

 living adopted by the natives, supplemented by improved methods, and possess 

 for their work of exploration the knowledge and equipments of modern scientific 

 research. Let the Government build a vessel adapted to Arctic exploration, 

 and furnish it with all the necessary equipments. Sledges could be used in high 

 latitudes, and the work could be carried on systematically over a period of years, 

 long enough to solve all the questions of the Arctic regions which have been 

 studied at such a disadvantage and sacrifice of life and property, by nearly all 

 civilized nations, for the last eight centuries. Possibly the ice barrier surround- 

 ing the polar sea could be passed, and a vessel launched on that mysterious ocean, 

 whose tides have ever beaten on unknown shores, where science would reap an 

 abundant harvest, whose circles of facts have ever been broken in polar seas. 

 The captain, the prow of whose proud ship plowed the waves of the Arctic sea 

 beneath the very pole, would have unlocked the mysteries of this unknown region, 

 and brought some compensation to the nations whose efforts have been baffled 

 for centuries, and whose mariners lie uuburied in many Arctic lands. Other 



