TJie Open Polar Sea. 



More than once open water has been found, up which navigators have 

 sailed to greater or less extent. And once notably Capt. Hall in the 

 Polaris might, it would appear from some accounts, have sailed right 

 on to the pole if the vessel, for some as yet unexplained reason, had 

 not been put on her return passage. 



The belief in the existence of an open circumpolar sea, then, is a 

 matter of logic only. No human eye has yet looked out over its ex- 

 panse, no vessel ever broken its solitude. It is a case of circumstantial 

 evidence, or, perhaps, rather of logical inference from isolated data 

 accumulated from different explorers. Its existence, however, though 

 itself never seen by mortal eye, may be demonstrated to the satisfac- 

 tion of any man who will give due weight to the operation of natural 

 causes, and not allow his preconceived opinions to override the evi- 

 dence presented in support of the theory. This evidence in brief is as 

 follows : 



1. Nearly all Arctic voyagers unite in their testimony to the fact 

 that with the coming of spring myriads of geese, ducks, plover and 

 gulls are seen in the zone of the floe ice, say from about seventy-two 

 to eighty-three degrees, migrating northwards for nesting and raising 

 broods. Their regular return southward at the close of the nesting 

 season has also been observed. This of itself proves the existence of 

 a warm region there, and there is no escape from this conclusion, as 

 these birds are as obedient to their natural instincts as the planets are 

 to the law of gravitation. Greenland almost covered with perpetual 

 glaciers could afford no land suitable for the breeding season of these 



2. The younger Symmes in support of his father's peculiar theory 

 cites the narratives of Arctic voyagers which not only tell of the nest- 

 ing of birds in these extreme northern regions, but assert that in the 

 fall of the year many of these water-fowl, as well as reindeer, foxes 

 and white bears, have been observed migrating to the north of Green- 

 land to find milder winter quarters. In support of these statements 

 it may be added that it is now the belief of science that the pole of 

 greatest cold in Asia is at or near Verkoyansk, in Siberia, in about 

 sixty-seven and one-half degrees latitude. The corresponding point of 

 cold on the western continent is believed to be north-west of Parry 

 islands in about seventy-eight degrees of latitude. 



3. Dr. Hayes save that in the last days of November, while frozen 

 up in his winter quarters at Port Foulke, he experienced a warm wind 

 from the north-east that occasioned a thaw. No warm wind from the 

 south could have passed over the northern portions of America or 

 Asia, at that season of the year, and much less through the upper 



