POLAR SEA. 
551 
From these alternating altitudes, continued throughout a meridian line of 
nearly eleven hundred geographical miles, I infer that this chain follows the 
nearly universal law of a gradual subsidence, and that Greenland is continued 
further to the north than any other known land. In the old continents the land 
slopes toward the Arctic Sea ; but although in the New World the descent of 
the land generally is to the east, the law of the gradual decline of meridional 
chains is universal. 
BeHeving, then, in such an extension of Greenland, and feeling that the search 
for Sir John Franklin is best promoted by a course which will lead directly to 
the open sea — feeling, too, that the approximation of the meridians would make 
access to the west as easy from Northern Greenland as from WeUington Chan- 
nel, and access to the east far more easy — feeling, too, that the highest protrud- 
ing headland will be most likely to afford some trace of the lost party, I am 
led to propose and attempt this line of search. 
Admitting such an extension of the land masses of Greenland to the north, 
we have the following inducements for exploration and research : 
1. Terra firma as the basis of our operations, obviating the capricious char- 
acter of ice travel'. 
2. A due northern line, which, throwing aside the influences of terrestrial 
radiation, would lead soonest to the open sea, should such exist. 
3. The benefit of the fan-like abutment of land, on the north face of Green- 
land, to check the ice in the course of its southern or equatorial drift, thus ob- 
viating the great drawback of Parry in his attempts to reach the pole by the 
Spitzbergen Sea. 
4. Animal life to sustain traveling parties. 
5. The co-operation of the Esquimaux, &c. ; settlements of these people 
having been found as high as Whale Sound, and probably extending still further 
along the coast. 
The point I would endeavor to attain would be the highest attainable seats 
of BafBn's Bay, from the sound known as Smith's Sound, and advocated by 
Baron Wrangell as the most eligible site for reaching the north pole. 
As a point of departure it is two hundred and twenty miles to the north of 
Beechy Island, the starting-point of Sir Edward Belcher, and seventy miles 
north of the utmost limits seen or recorded in Wellington Channel. 
The party should consist of some thirty men, with a couple of launches, 
sledges, dogs, and gutta percha boats. The provisions to be pemmican, a prep- 
aration of dried meat, packed in cases impregnable to the assauhs of the Polar 
bear. 
We shall leave the United States in time to reach the bay at the earliest 
season of navigation. The brig furnished by Mr. Grinnell for this purpose is 
admirably strengthened and fully equipped to meet the peculiar trials of the 
service. After reaching the settlement of Uppernavik, we take in a supply of 
Esquimaux dogs, and a few picked men to take charge of the sledges. 
We then enter the ice of MelviUe Bay, and, if successful in penetrating it, 
hasten to Smith's Sound, forcing our vessel to the utmost navigable point, and 
there securing her for the winter. The operations of search, however, are not 
to be suspended. Active exercise is the best safeguard against the scurvy ; 
and although the darkness of winter will not be in our favor, I am convinced 
that, with the exception, perhaps, of the solstitial period of maximum obscurity, 
