INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
51 
oulty in reaching Smith Sound than in reaching Spitz- 
bergen; and when there they would not only be 
farther away from home, but would have far more 
difficulty in communicating with the mother country. 
No ship has ever harboured through the winter farther 
north than 78° 38 # N., and only one has reached 
beyond 80°. The most northerly point reached is 
*81° 35". There is a probability that land occurs 
farther north, and hence that the ice will present diffi¬ 
culties in consequence of being piled and accumulated 
against the northern coast. If the ships cannot gain 
the open water of Kennedy Channel, recourse must be 
had to foot and sledge travelling. There is no proof, 
that the land extends to the Pole, nor that the ice 
does so. If there is a discontinuity of ice and land 
the sledge parties will have a special difficulty in 
reaching the point they aim for. The absence or 
rarity of icebergs in Kennedy Channel may be due 
•either to a small development of land in the Polar sea, 
or, if there are lands, to the fact that they do not 
•develop glaciers, which can only be formed in regions 
of perennial ice. The Spitzbergen route certainly 
must be the best of all for the purpose mentioned; but, 
in addition to this, it has, like the Smith Sound route, 
special attractions to a scientific expedition. In 
favour of this route it may be said that it is the direct 
nnd nearest way to the Pole from England; that 
