32 
SCOPE AND VALVE OF ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS 
THE SCOPE AND VALUE OF ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS^ 
By General A. W. Greely 
In a brief twenty minutes one can touch only in a desultory 
wa}’’ on this great topic that engages the thought and attention 
of so many famous members of the Geogra])hical Congress, yet 
a somewhat general outline of the scope and value of Arctic ex- 
ploration may not he amiss. 
This, however, is neither time nor place to present in detail 
those phases of Arctic exploration that appeal so strongly to the 
popular fancy. If one would gain an adequate idea of the true 
aspects of such voyaging, he must turn to the original journals, 
penned in the great White North by brave men whose “ purpose 
held to sail beyond the sunset.’’ 
In these volumes will be found tales of ships beset not only 
months, but years ; of ice packs and ice fields of extent, thick- 
ness, and mass so enormous that description conveys no just 
idea ; of boat journeys where constant watchfulness alone pre- 
vented instant death by drifting bergs or commingling ice floes ; 
of land marches when exhausted humanity staggered along, 
leaving traces of blood on snow or rock ; of sledge journeys over 
chaotic masses of ice, when humble heroes, straining at the drag- 
ropes, struggled on because the failure of one compromised the 
safety of all ; of solitude and monotony, terrible in the weeks of 
constant polar sunlight, but almost unsettling the reason in the 
months of continuous Arctic darkness ; of silence awful at all 
times, but made }mt more startling by astounding i^henomena 
that appeal noiselessly to the eye ; of darkness so continuous 
and intense that the unsettled mind is driven to wonder whether 
the ordinary course of nature will bring back the sun, or whether 
the world has been cast out of its orbit in the planetary universe 
into new conditions ; of cold so intense that any exposure is fol- 
lowed by instant freezing; of monotonous surroundings that 
threaten with time to unsettle the reason ; of deprivations wast- 
* Address delivered before the Sixth International Geographical Con- 
gress, London, at the Polar Session, July 29, 1895. 
