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ACCESS TO AN OPEN POLAR SEA IX CONNECTION WITH TIIK SEAltOII AVTEU SIR J()1L\ FliANKLlX A^D HIS COMPANlOiNS, 8T E.K.KANE, M. D., PAST ASSISTANT SUBOEON IN TIIK U. 8. NAVT. JUi'- trngatfit^ READ UKKOUK TIIK AMKKICAN GEOOnAlMIICAI, AND STATISTICAL SOCIETY AT ITS UEGULAH MONTHLV MEETING, DEC. ! 4, 1852. [IloptlnUid (Vom th. Seconil Bullvtln of Ui* Society.] \ NEW YORK: BAKER, GODWIN A CO., PRINTERS, CORNER NASSAU AND SrRUCK STREETS. 1853. THE OPEN POLAR SEA. The north pole, the remote northern extremity of our earth's axis of rotation, is reganled, even hy geograr phers, with that mysterious awe which envelops the inaccessible and unknown. It is shut out from us by an investing zone of ice ; and this barrier is so permanent, that successive explorers have traced its outline, like that of an ordinary seacoast. The early settlements of Iceland, and their extension to Greenland, as far back as 000 A. D., indicated a pro- truding tongue of ice from the unknown north, along the coast of Greenland. I must express a doubt if the early voyages of Cabot and Frobisher and the Corte- reals did more than establish detached points of this line of ice. The voyages, however, of the Basque and Biscayan fishermen, about 157r), to Cape Breton, made us aware of a similar ice raft along the coasts of Labra- dor to the north ; and the commercial routes of the old Muscovy company aided by the Dutch and English whal- ers, extended this across to Spitzbergen, and thence to the regions north of Archangel in the Arctic seas. The English navigators of the days of Elizabeth, the " notable wortliys of the Nortlie Westo Paaango/' spoke of a sim- ilar iee-raft up Baffin's anil Hudson's Hays, and the llusso- Siberiansgave us vagut^ly a girding line of ice ; which pro- truded irregularly from the Asiatic and Eiiroi)ean coasts into the Polar Ocean. Ljustly, Cook proved that the same barrier continued across liehring's Straits as high as 70° 44' north. From all this it aj)peared that the approaches to the pole were barricaded with solid ice. We owe to the march of modern discovery, especially stimulated by the search after its great pioneer, Sir John Franklin, our ability accurately to define nearly all the; coasts of a great polar sea, if not to lay down the no less interesting coast of a grand continuous ice-border, that encircles it. I have j)repared for the inspecti. My'S'ticetus)^ be- tween the Atlantic and Pacific, jis shown by Maury, proves directly that the two oceans are united. Admitting the important fact of a moving, open sea, the recognized equalization of temperatures attending upon large water masses, follows of course. But, is the Arctic Sea, in fact, an unvaried expanse of water ? For, if it be not, the excessive radiation and other disturbing 10 f# -■ influences of land upon general temperature, are well known. It is, I think, an open sea. And an argument may be deduced for this belief from the icebergs. The iceberg is an offcast from the polar glacier, and needs land as an essential element in its production — as much so as a ship the dockyard on which she is built, and from which she is launched. From the excessive submergence of these great detached masses, they may be taken as re* liable indices of the deej>sea currents, while their size is such that they often reach the latitudes of the temper- ate zone before their dissolution. Now, it is a remark- able fact, that these huge ice-hulks are confined to the Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Baffin seas. Throughout the entire circuit of the Polar Ocean, almost seven thou- sand miles of circumscribing coast, we have but forty degrees which is ever seen to abound m them. A second argument, bearing upon this, is found in the fact, that a large area of open water exists, between the months of June and October, in the upper parts of Baffin's Bay. This mediterranean Polynya is called by the whalers, the North Water. After working through the clogging ice of the intermediate drift, you pass sud- denly into an open sea, washing the most northern known shores of our continent, and covering an area of 90,000 square miles. The iceless interval is evidently caused by the drift having traveled to the south without being reinforced by fresh supplies of ice; and the latest explorations from the upper waters of this V)ay speak of avenues thirty-six miles wide extending to the north and east, and free. The temperature of this water is sometimes 12* above the freezing point ; and the open bays or sinuosities, which often indent the Spitzbergen ice as high as 81" 11 jove ities, 81" N. lat. have been observed to give a sea-water temper- ature as high as 38" and 40", while the atmosphere indi- cates but IG" above zero. But besides these, we have arguments growing out of the received theories of the distribution of temperature upon tlie surface of the earth. The actual distribution of heat in this shut-out region can only be inferred. The system of Isothermals, projected by Humboldt upon j)o.sitive data, cetised at 32'» ; and the views of Sir John Leslie (based upon Mayer's theorem), that the north j)ole was the coldest point in the Arctic regions, have, {w the membei's are aware, since been disproved. Sir David Brewster, by a combination of the observa- tions of Scoresby, Gieseke, and Parry, determined the existence of two poles of cold, one for either hemisphere, and both holding a fixed relation to the magnetic poles. These two seats of maximum cold are situated respect- ively in Aisia and America, in longitudes lOO" west and OS" ea«t, and on the parallel of 80". They differ about five degrees in their mean annual temperature ; the Am- erican, which is the lower, giving three degrees and a half below zero. The Isothermals surround these two points, in a system of returning curves, yet to be con- firmed by observation ; but the inference which I pre- sent to you without comment or opinion, is, that to the north of 80", and at any points intermediate between these American and Siberian centers of intensity, the climate must be milder, or more properly speaking, the mean annual temperature must l)e more elevated. Petermann, taking as a basis the data of Professor Dove, deduces a movable pole of cold, which in January is found in a line from Melville Island to the River Lena, 12 and, gradually advancing with the season into the Atlantic Ocean, recedes with the full and winter to its former position. Such a movement is clearly referable to the summer land currents with their freight of polar ice. With the consolidation of winter, the ice recedes, and the Gulf Stream enters more perceptibly into the far north. The mean temperature of the northeast coast of Siberia is forty or fifty degrees colder than that of the western shores of Novaia Zemlia, while in July it is twenty degrees higher. But, if any point beteen 75" and 80" N. lat, a range sufficiently wide to include all the theories, be regarded as the seat of the greatest intensity of cold, we may per- haps infer the state of the Polar Sea from the known temperatures of other regions, equally distant with it from this supposed center ; though, as the lines of lati- tude do not correspond with those of temperature, this must be done with caution. I have been interested for some time in examining- this class of deflections ; and I find that they point to some interesting conclusions as to the fluidity of the region about the j)ole, and its attendant mildness of weather. Thus, for instance, at Cherie Island, surrounded by moving waters, but in a higher latitude than Melville Island, the seat of the greatest observed mean annual cold, the temperature was found so mild throughout the entire Arctic winter, that rain fell there upon Christmas day. Barentz, a most honest and reliable authority, speaks of the increasing warmth as he left the land to tne north of 77°. The whalers north of Spitzbergen, confirm the saying of the early Dutch that the " Fisher- man's Bight " is as pleasant a.s the sea of Amsterdam. u Egedesminde and Rittenback, two little Danish and Esquimaux settlements on the west coast of Green- land, in lat. 70", with a climate influenced hy adjacent land masses, l>iit, nevertheless, not completely ice-bound, have a mean annual temperature of , and are in the isothermal curve, (summer curve), of 50" ; giving us a vegetation of coarse grasses, and a few crucifers. In West Lai)lan(l, as high as 70", barley has been and I believe is still grown ; though here is its highest northern limit. If SO" be our center of maximum cold, the pole, at 90," is — at the same distance from it as this West Lapland limit of the growth of barley! But tliere are otlier arguments l)ased upon known facts, juid facts popularly recognized, bearing upon the theory of an open sea : TlIK MIOUATIONS OK ANIMAL LTFK. At the UtmOSt limits of northern travel attained by man, hordes of animals of various kinds have been observed to be trav- elinix still further. The Arctic zone, though not rich in species, is teem- ing with individual life, and is the home of some of the most numerous families known to the naturalist. Amoncr birds, the swimmei"s, drawing their subsistence from open water, arc predominant ; the great families of ducks, Airks\ and procellarine birds (^Afurtiniv^ Alcince^ and Prordhtrina')^ throng the seas and passages of the far North, and even incubate in regions of unknown northernuess. The eider duck has been traced to breed- ing grounds as high as 78" in Bafiin's Bay, and in con- junction with the brent goose, seen by us in Wellington Channel, and the loon and little awk, pass in great flights to th(^ northern watei*s beyond. The mammals of the sea — the huge cetacea, in the three great families, 14 BeliaidoE^ Delpliimilcp^ and Pliocidce^ represented by tlie whalei; the narwhal and the seal, as well as that strange marine pachyderm, the tusky walrus, all pass in schools towards the northern waters. I have seen the white whale {Delphinipterus Belaya)^ passing up Wel- lington Channel to the north for nearly four successive days, and that, too, while all around us w.os a sea of broken ice. So with the quadrupeds of this region. The equa- torial range of the polar bear ( IT. Maritiyiui-s), is mis- conceived by our geographical zoologists. It is further to the north than we have yet reached ; and this pow- erful beast informs us of the character of the accom- panying life, upon which he preys. The ruminating animals, who&e food must be a vegetation, obey the same impulse or instinct of far northern travel. The reindeer (^Cervns levandus)^ although jiroved by my friend Lieut. McClintock to "vinter sometimes in tlie Parry group, outside of the zone of woods, comes down from the north in herds as startling as those described by the Siberian travelers, a " moving forest of antlers." The whalers of North Baffin's Bay, as high as Tf)", shoot them in num))ers, and the Esquimaux of Whale Sound, 77°, are clothed with their furs. Five thousand skins are sent to Denmark from Egedesminde and IIols- teinberg alone. Before j)assing from this branch of my subject, I must mention also that the polar drift-ice comes fii*st from the nortli. The breaking up, the thaw of the ice-plain, does not commence in our so called warmer south, l)ut in regions to tlie nortli of those yet attained. Wrangell speaks of this on the Asiatic seas, Parry above Spitzber- 15 gen ; and my friend Capt. Penny, shrewd, bold, and adventurous, confirms it in his experience of Welling- ton Sound. In addition to all this, we have the observations of actual travel ; although this, confirmatory as it is, must, like the theoretical views, be received with caution. Barentz saw an opening water beyond the no' thernmost point of Europe ; Anjou the same beyond the Siberian Bear islands ; and Wrangell, in a sledge journey from the mouth of the Kob mti, speaks of a " vast illimitable ocean," illimitable to mortal vision. To penetrate this icy annulus, to make the " north- west passage " the northeast passage, to reach the pole, have l)een favored dreams since tlie early days of ocean navigation. Yet up to this moment, complete failure has attended every attempt. One voyager, William Scoresby, known to the scientific world for the range and exactness of his observation, passed l)eyond the lati- tude of 81° 30'. But after discarding the apochryphal voyages of the early Dutch, whose imperfect nautical ol)servation rendered entirely unreliable their assertions of latitudes, we have the names of })ut two wlio may be saiy interior glaciers, is in fact a peninsula, and follows in its formation the general laws which have been recognized since the days of Forster, as belonging to peninsulas with a southern trend. Its abrupt, trun- cated termination at Staaten-llook is a^^ marked as that which is found at the Capes (Jood Hope and Horn of the two urreat continents, the C'omorin of Peninsular India, Cape South East of Australia, or the (Jibraltar of southern Spain. Analogies of general cont(mr, which also liken it to' southern j)eninsulas, are even more striking. The island groups, for instance, seen to the east of these southern points, answering to the Falkland Ishuuls, IVbuhigascar, Ceylon, New Zealand, the l^ahamas of Florida, and the Balearics of the coast of Spain, are represented by Ice- land off the coast of (Jreenland. It has been observed that all great peninsulas, too, have an excavation or ])end inwards on their Western side, a "concave inflection" towards +he interior. Thus, South America between Lima and Valdavia, Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, India in Cambaye, and Australia in the Bay of Nuyts, are fol- lowed by Greenland in the great excavation of Disco. Analogies of the same sort may offer, when we consider those more important features of relief so popularly yet CO profoundly treated by Prof. Guyot. 19 tlie co- ed Greenland U lined l)y a couple of Literal ranges, metaniorpliic in .Nfnicture, and expanding in a douy)le axis to the N. N. ^\^ a/id X. N. E. Tli<'y ])reHent strik- incf feseinhlanc'tvs to tln^ (Jlmiits o\' India, iK-ing Lroken })y the same ^w,.^ injections of greenstone, and walling in a plateau region where glacial accuniulations corre- spond to those of the Ilindostan plains. The culmination of these j)eaks in series, indicates strongly their extension to a region far to the north. Thus tVoin the South Cape of (ireenland to Disco Bay, in hit. 70°, the peaks vary in height from 8U0 to 3,200 feet. Those of Proven, hit. 71°, are 2,;iOO, and those observed ]>v me in hit. 7«>° 10', ftM't, with interior summits at least one-tliird higlu'r. The same continued elevation is observed by the whalers as high as 77°, and Scoresby noted neiirly cor- responding elevations on the eastern coasts, in lat. 73°. Tile coast seen by Ingletield, to the north of 78°, was hiably extending still further along the coast. The point T would endeavor to attain would be the highest attainable seats of Baffin's Bay, fi-om the sound known as Smith's Sound, and advocated by Baron "Wrangell as the most eligil^le site for reacliing the north pole. As a point of departure it is two hundred and twenty miles to the north of Beechy Island, the starting i)()int of Sir Edward Belchei*, and seventy miles north of the utmost limits seen or recorded in Wellington Channel. 21 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 preparation of dried meat, packed in cases impregnable to the assaults of the polar bear. We shall leave the United States in time to reach the Bay at the earliest season of navigation. The brig fur- nished by Mr. (irinnoll for this purpose, is admirably strengthened and fully equipped to meet the peculiar trials of the service. After reaching the settlement of IJppernavik, 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 Melville Bay, and, if success- ful in ])enetrating it, hasten to Smith's Sound, forcing our vessel to the utmost navigable point, and there securing her for the winter. The o])erations of search, however, are not to be suspended. Active exercise is the best safeguard against the scurvy ; and although the dark- ness of winter will not be in our favor, I am convinced that, with the exce})tion, perhaps, of the solistitial period of maxinmm obscurity, we can push foiward our provi- sion dej)()ts, by sledge and launch, and thus prepare for the final efl'orts of our search. In this 1 am strengthened by the valuable opinion of my friend, Mr. ]Murdaugh, late the sailing master of the Advance. lie has advocated this very Sound as a basis of land o])erations. And the recent journey of Mr. William Kennedy, commanding Lady Franklin's last expedition, shows that the fall and winter should no longer be ri'garded as lost months. The sletlges, which constitute so important a feature of our expedition, and upon which not only our success but our safety will depend, are to be constructed with ex- treme care. Each sledge will carry the blanket, bags, and furs of six men, together with a measured allowance of pemmican ; a light tent of india-rubber cloth, of a new pattern, will be added ; but for our nightly halt the main dependence will be the snow house of the Es- quimaux. It is almost incredible, in the face of what obstacles, to what extent, a well organized sledge par- ty can advance. The relative importance of every ounce of weight can be calculated, and the system of advanced de|)ots of provisions organized admiral)ly. Alcohol or tallow is the only fuel ; and the entire cooking apparatus, which is more for thawing the snow for tea-water than for heating food, can be carried in a little bair. Lieut. Mc Clintock, of Commander Austin's expedition, traveled thus SCO miles — the collective journeys of the expedition ecpialed several thousand ; and Baron Wrangell made by dogs l,r).*l;5 miles in seven- ty-four days, and this over a fast fi'ozen oct*an. But the greatest sledge journey upon record is that of my friend, ]\rr. Kennedy, who accomj>lished nearly 1,400 miles, most of it in mid-winter, without returning U])on his track to avail himself of deposited j)rovisions. His only food — and we may here learn the practical lesson of the traveler, to avoid unnecessarv bafrL'aire — was pennnican, and his only shelter the .s'/i()>r /iou.S'e. It is my intention to cover each sle