1865.] Kett on the North Pole. 631 



THE NORTH POLE. 



By the Eev. C. W. Kett, M.A. 



It is not the province of Science to prophesy. It is perfectly 

 possible from certain data to arrive at conclusions from which there 

 is no escape in regard to many matters of exact science. Thus 

 Adams and Le Verrier could both calculate from certain noticed 

 observations of Uranus, that some attractive power in a particular 

 position was influencing the orbit of that planet, and well-directed 

 investigations towards this point afterwards discovered the planet 

 Neptune in the position assigned. So far Science, where • the 

 influences were few, could demonstrate what afterwards proved to 

 be a fact. But on this globe, though the laws of nature as we grow 

 better acquainted with them seem fewer and simpler, their modifica- 

 tions nevertheless are so numerous, and the manifestations of them 

 are so various, that the mind of man cannot as yet predicate with any 

 certainty, that of which it is unable to make trial by experiment, or 

 of which experience gives it no knowledge. It is not therefore with 

 any pretence of foretelling what will hereafter be determined to be 

 true or untrue, that the following lines are written, but with a view to 

 place before your readers the various arguments that may be adduced 

 in favour of there being either open sea, continuous ice, or snow- 

 covered land towards the North Pole. 



The prospect of an expedition in that direction naturally leads 

 men's minds to speculate on what the explorers will meet with, and 

 the necessity of preparation for any contingency compels those inter- 

 ested in these matters to compare the evidence that may be brought 

 to bear on a point of such importance. But supposing the evidence 

 either way were many times more conclusive than it is, we should 

 not be justified in being unprepared for the other contingency, or in 

 so far prejudicing our minds in favour of either hypothesis that we 

 should find a difficulty in receiving any direct evidence of known 

 credibility in the opposite direction. 



Undoubtedly the common opinion with regard to the North Pole, 

 is, that as in going northward from the equator to the arctic circle we 

 find the cold gradually increasing, or, to speak more precisely, the 

 heat decreasing, so if we go farther, a motion in the same direction 

 still continues, and that thus by a simple progression sum we 

 might calculate with somewhat of precision, the degree of cold 

 that would be reached in a particular latitude. And again, to argue 

 from the analogy of our nearest neighbour in the solar system, we 

 have been enabled of late years to see that the planet Mars possesses 

 climatic variations similar to those of the earth, and especially it 

 has poles like our own, covered with ice a^d snow, descending in the 

 winter nearer to the equator ; and again in the summer assuming 

 smaller proportions. Towards the extremity of the poles of Mars 

 nothing has as yet been perceived which would indicate any modifi- 

 cation of this constantly increasing cold ; no spot has been noticed 

 that would lead one to suppose that the snow was not continuous and 



