Makch 27, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



247 



Chapel Hill, and completed its first }'ear of 

 existence last autumn. In its first report it is 

 stated to have seven life-members, sevent3 T -five 

 regular members, and seventy-four associates. 

 Monthly meetings have been held in which the 

 interest taken was encouraging. The papers 

 published in the first numbers of the yearly 

 report of the society are of good character, 

 and receive much of their inspiration from the 

 chemical laboratory of the Universit}' of North 

 Carolina. A biographical sketch and portrait 

 of Mitchell are prefixed. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Mr. Melville's plan of reaching the north pole. 



Ix the issue of the New- York Evening post, Feb. 6, 

 I opposed Mr. Melville's plan of reaching the north 

 pole, 1 as I could not consider the theory on which it 

 is founded correct. In answer to my remarks, Mr. 

 Melville in the same paper, Feb. 17, maintains his posi- 

 tion, and denounces his critics for hindering his en- 

 deavors, instead of " sending him to prove his theories 

 he has so much faith in, and permitting him to bring 

 back the necessary facts that alone can carry convic- 

 tion to the unbeliever without a theory." He says, 

 " It would be more in the spirit of progress and the 

 advancement of science, if my critics would propound 

 new theories or other plans of progress, rather than 

 simply find fault or say, ' I don't believe? " We cannot 

 coincide with this opinion of Mr. Melville, and claim 

 the full right to criticise a plan of exploration before 

 it is set in motion. What is the cause of so many 

 failures of arctic expeditions and other undertakings ? 

 Is it the careless neglect of thorough deliberation 

 before entering into expeditions, or is it the hos- 

 tility of nature ? Have we nothing to learn by the 

 Jeannette and the Proteus ? If we should claim at 

 any time the right of criticism, we do it now, when 

 the blunders and misfortunes which effected the 

 failures of the last expeditions are deeply impressed 

 on public minds, and nearly extinguish the little in- 

 terest which is left for scientific work in the Arctic. 

 We consider it in the spirit of progress of science, 

 to prove the fallacy of a plan founded on theories 

 like those of Mr. Melville, which cannot be accepted 

 by scientific men, and must lead to disaster, or will at 

 least be unsuccessful. 



It is somewhat difficult to understand Mr. Melville's 

 theory; and I do not know that I am able to give an 

 explanation of it which will satisfy the author. Mr. 

 Melville supposes that the Arctic Ocean, north of 85° 

 north latitude, is covered by a solid ice-cap kept in a 

 state of equilibrium by the centrifugal force. He 

 intends to start from the northern limit of Franz Josef 

 Land on sledges, travelling over the smooth ice-cap 

 towards the north pole, — a supposed distance of five 

 degrees; i.e., three hundred miles out and three hun- 

 dred miles back. In returning he intends to use the 

 southern drift of the ice, which will carry him either 

 back to Franz Josef Land or to Spitzbergen, where 

 he would have depots erected for the use of the retir- 

 ing party. 



1 G. W. Melville, In the Lena delta. Boston, 1885. 



His view about the ice-cap will be seen from the fol- 

 lowing quotations (L c, p. 475): "After crossing the 

 eighty-fifth degree of latitude, the traveller will come 

 to that immovable ice-cap which will in all probability 

 prove to be a palaeocrystic sea of ice and snow. We 

 should have a clear, unbroken surface to travel upon, 

 subject, of course, to fissures and shrinkage cracks." 

 P. 476, he says, " The countless million square miles 

 of ice annually expelled from the Arctic Ocean alone 

 prove the fallacy of a ' palaeocrystic sea of ice; ' " p. 

 478, " Let the state of the ice be as it may, it certainly 

 can be no worse than the broken path over which 

 the Jeannette's crew marched." 



From these quotations, it would appear that Mr. 

 Melville is not very certain of the existence of the ice- 

 cap. The assertion, however (p. 479), that "the feat 

 of marching to the pole and back will be easily prac- 

 ticable," and the fact that his plan is founded on this 

 theory, prove Mr. Melville's confidence in it. If it 

 can be proved that Mr. Melville's reasons for the ex- 

 istence of an ice-cap cannot be maintained, if it can 

 be proved that an ice-cap cannot exist, his plan must 

 needs fall to pieces. Let us enter into his proofs 

 singly. 



First: " As the centrifugal influence is acting 

 equally in all directions, and tending to pull the ice- 

 cap towards the equator, it can only carry away those 

 detailed portions of ice broken near the outskirts 

 of the ice-cap " (p. 474). No doubt, the centrifugal 

 pull at a certain parallel will be equal on every merid- 

 ian; but, supposing this continuous ice-cap to exist, 

 an equal pull could only come to pass if it extended 

 to the same parallel all around the pole. Every mile 

 added to one side would increase the pull there, and 

 disturb the equilibrium which Mr. Melville requires 

 for his theory. Besides, we cannot imagine any kind 

 of ice strong enough to stand the immense tension 

 effected by the centrifugal force on a solid body of 

 three hundred miles in radius. An approximate com- 

 putation of the effects of the centrifugal force on a 

 body of ice of three metres' thickness, extending from 

 latitude 85° to 86°, gives a tension of nearly thirty 

 kilograms on one square centimetre. 



As soon as Mr. Melville will grant us the slightest 

 motion of his ice-cap in any direction, he has to give 

 up his theory, as the " nucleus of pointed island peaks, 

 which, if nothing more, will hold the ice fast at the 

 pole" (p. 474), will not any longer hold the cap, but 

 break it up into an immense pack. I suppose Mr. 

 Melville will concede that his arguments referring to 

 an equal pull by the centrifugal force cannot be main- 

 tained. 



The hydrographical and meteorological theories 

 which he brings forth in favor of his plan cannot be 

 supported from the present state of our knowledge 

 in these sciences. 



He supposes that there are two currents, — an equa- 

 torial, setting north; a polar, setting south, — and be- 

 tween both a neutral zone which he supposes at about 

 85° north latitude, where scarcely any current exists. 

 Considering the observations on currents in the polar 

 seas, we cannot understand how Mr. Melville can 

 propound such a theory. This is not the place to treat 

 of modern oceanography; and I can only refer to 

 Thomson's and Carpenter's works, and to Zop- 

 pritz's mathematical theory of currents, which give 

 a basis to this science not allowing us to form theories 

 like Mr. Melville's. We may only be permitted to 

 say a few words about the improbability of symmet- 

 rical currents such as Mr. Melville supposes. The 

 Arctic Ocean forms a large Mediterranean Sea, with 

 one wide outlet between Greenland and Norway. 

 The exchange of water between the Arctic and the 



