68 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
a place upon our maps, may not, perhaps, realize the expecta- 
tions of some of the more sanguine advocates of the Smith 
Sound route, but they are nevertheless of great importance. Not 
only have the officers of the expedition more carefully delineated 
some of the discoveries of their predecessors, but they have also 
laid down about 300 miles of coast which hitherto had not 
figured upon our maps. 
But of far greater importance is their determination of the 
nature of the Polar Ocean, such as it exists to the north of 
Smith Sound. The notion of a navigable sea in that portion of 
the Polar basin has been exploded, and the impracticability of 
reaching the North Pole by travelling with sledges over the ice 
has most conclusively been demonstrated. The sea of which 
Bobeson Channel is one of the most important outlets is evi- 
dently of vast extent, and there can be no doubt of its commu- 
nicating through Bering Strait with the Pacific Ocean. Dr. 
Bessels, the scientific member of Hall’s expedition, already as- 
certained that the Pacific tidal wave enters Bobeson Channel 
from the north, and meets the Atlantic tide in the vicinity of 
Cape Frazer, Sir Greorge Nares confirms this fact. Moreover, 
the driftwood collected by Hall in Polaris Bay has been deter- 
mined to be of American and Pacific origin, and evidently 
reached the locality where it was picked up by means of a 
current passing through Bering Strait, and along the eastern 
coast of Wrangel Land. This applies more particularly to a 
