North Polar Exploration. 343 



miles of pack in forty days, and reach open water beyond, 

 towards the end of August. If an attempt is made to take 

 the pack earlier in the year, it will of course he found to be 

 much wider and closer, and the detention will be proportion- 

 ally longer. Under fortunate circumstances, steamers may, 

 perhaps, get through the pack in August, so as to have about 

 a fortnight left for North Polar exploration in the supposed 

 open water to the northward, before the young ice begins 

 to form. It must be remembered that dense fogs prevail 

 in summer wherever there is a large surface of open water, 

 in the Arctic regions. If a navigable sea exists, however, 

 some interesting discoveries may be made in its hydro- 

 graphy and fauna, and a series of useful magnetic observa- 

 tions may be taken. But the generally admitted absence of 

 land* on that meridian precludes the idea of wintering in 

 safety, and destroys all chance of obtaining many of the 

 important scientific results which have been enumerated as 

 attainable from North Polar exploration, when undertaken in 

 the right direction. The objections to the Spitzbergen route 

 are that the chances are against a successful passage through 

 the Polar pack ; that, even should this obstacle be overcome, 

 there would be so little of the navigable season left that 

 scarcely anything would be done ; and that none of the objects 

 of North Polar exploration would be attained in the event of 

 failure, very few in the less probable event of success ; while, 

 if the vessels are prevented from returning before the winter 

 sets in, they will be in extreme peril.f 



We now come to the consideration of the Smith Sound 

 route. This route is recommended by a great weight of 

 authority — by Sir George Back, the Nestor of Arctic explora- 

 tion; by Admiral Wrangell, J the discoverer of the northern 

 shores of Siberia; by Admiral Collinson; by Sir Leopold 

 M'Clintock, the highest living Arctic authority ; by Sherard 

 Osborn, whose admirable paper first brought North Polar 



* Some of the advocates of the Spitzbergen route speculate on the existence 

 of land ; but the whole argument in favour of that route is based on its supposed 

 absence. This supposition is founded on the absence of icebergs and of any mud 

 or debris on the ice, of which the Polar pack is composed. The argument is 

 perfectly sound so far as it goes. 



t Open lanes and water-holes, no doubt, exist throughout the winter in the 

 Polar region, caused by currents, and the iee is thus kept in occasional motion by 

 gales of wind. It is this condition of the ice which would cause the extreme 

 danger of wintering in the Polar pack north of 80', at a distance from any laud. 

 The ships would be kept in motion, and perhaps dashed about amongst heaving 

 blocks of ice in a gale of wind, at a time of year when the incessant night and the 

 intense cold render navigation out of the question. The men would find it im- 

 possible to work aloft, and the running rigging would be frozen too hard to reeve 

 through the blocks. 



X See Royal Geographical Society's Journal, vol. xviii., p. 19 (1848). 



