North Polar Exploration. 337 



scientific authority for asserting that there are many questions 

 of the greatest importance which call for investigation in the 

 North Polar region. 



Foremost among them is the subject of geographical dis- 

 covery — the exploration of the northern side of that wonderful 

 glacier-bearing continent of Greenland, and the completion of 

 our knowledge of any other land that may exist within the un- 

 known area. A very noble and unmistakeably English work is 

 this. To use the words of one who has himself taken no small 

 share in such work in former days, and who is now President of 

 the Eoyal Society, " It is the greatest geographical achievement 

 which can be attempted, and will be the crowning enterprise 

 of those Arctic researches in which our country has hitherto 

 had the pre-eminence." Phenomena never yet seen by mortal 

 eye will be observed by the bold explorer who reaches the 

 Pole. He will see the sun revolving with a uniform altitude 

 from the day it comes north of the equator in March until it 

 returns in September, its altitude being equal to its declination. 

 He will ascertain new facts connected with terrestrial mag- 

 netism, and a series of valuable observations on variation and 

 dip over this unknown area, will be of real practical utility. 



One of the greatest scientific desiderata of the age is the 

 accurate measurement of an arc of the meridian near the 

 Pole, and this object alone would justify the despatch of a 

 scientific expedition. By the measurement of these arcs in 

 different latitudes, the length of a degree has been found to 

 increase in regular proportion from the equator towards the 

 Pole. The most northern measurement hitherto made is in 

 latitude 66 o- 20 N. No measurement has been made sufficiently 

 near the Pole, and it is of the utmost importance that this 

 should be done, in order to ascertain the shape of our planet 

 with scientific accuracy. It is not a subject to be touched upon 

 lightly, for few people are fully aware of its difficulties, and 

 of the extreme accuracy which is absolutely necessary in the 

 observations. Still it is to be done, and the western coast of 

 Smith Sound, between latitudes 78° and 82°, is the place to 

 do it.* 



The science of hydrography will be advanced, and some of 

 its chief problems connected with equatorial and polar currents 

 will be solved by a Polar expedition. The Polar region may be 

 covered with ice, or considerable seas may be produced by the 

 action of these currents during the summer. General Sabine 

 believes it to be far from improbable that the equatorial stream 

 may produce abnormal effects in the far north, and be the 



* On Spitzbergen, which only extends from 76° to 80 1 , the measurement of an 

 arc will not be so valuable ; but it is, however, about to be undertaken by a 

 Swedish scientific expedition. 



