GEOGRAPHICAL exploration has now made rapid progress, and most of the Earth's surface is already fairly well known. There are, however, two regions of our globe which have hitherto obstinately resisted all explorers these are the regions around the poles. As science has advanced, and the world has become more and more known, problems have arisen which can only be solved by observations in these regions; it is now hardly possible to study physical geography, geology, meteorology, and many other branches of science, without being stopped by important questions which can only be answered in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and in regard to which we can at present only offer highly uncertain hypotheses. It is therefore natural that the interest of the scientific world should more and more be turned towards the exploration of these regions, and I feel certain that all scientific geographers agree that they ought to be explored without delay; but as to the way in which this ought to be done, I am afraid there is much difference of opinion.

Each polar region is interesting in its own way, and we are not at all entitled to say that the exploration of the one would be of more importance than that of the other. It is certainly the North Pole which has hitherto attracted the greatest amount of attention, but the chief reason for this is probably the circumstance that it is situated in our own hemisphere. There is a striking difference between the two poles. The South Pole is surrounded, at a considerable distance, by a great ocean, while it is probably situated in a large continent covered by an immense ice-sheet, thicker and much more extensive than that of Greenland. The exploration of this ice-sheet would be a scientific event of the highest importance, and no one can doubt that one day it will be

* Read at the Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, November 14th, 1892. For map and diagrams see p. 96.

No. I. JANUARY, 1893.]

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carried out. The Arctic regions, on the other hand, are on all sides. surrounded by extensive land masses, while the neighbourhood of the Pole itself is covered by water. For this reason sailors have entertained the most fantastic ideas about an open Polar Sea, by which a short passage might even be found to the riches of China and India. They have tried to reach the Pole from all sides, but everywhere their hopes have been wrecked on the floe-ice, and the Polar Sea has been the grave of many a sailor's dreams of fame and wealth. I will here briefly mention the routes by which the principal attempts have been made.

Smith Sound was for some time thought to be the "high road" to the Pole, as some American explorers by this route had somewhat rashly professed to have seen the open Polar Sea stretching away to the north. All expeditions were, however, effectually stopped by floe-ice, carried down by a current from the north. Travelling over this ice was uncertain and difficult work, as may easily be concluded from the experiences of Markham, during his sledge journey towards the north on the Nares expedition. The most northerly points yet reached are, however, in this region, Markham having penetrated to lat. 83° 20′ N. (1876), and Lockwood, of the Greely expedition, to lat. 83° 24' N. (1882).

Along the east coast of Greenland, attempts toward the Pole have been made, especially by the so-called second German North Pole expedition (1869-70). They were soon stopped by floe-ice swept southward by the polar current, and did not reach very high latitudes (c. 77 N.).

North of Spitzbergen, Sir Edward Parry made a most energetic attempt in 1827. When his vessel was stopped he left it, and tried to advance over the floe-ice, dragging boats and sledges with him. He reached lat. 82° 45' N., where he was, however, obliged to return, as the ice was drifting so rapidly southward, that he could make no headway against it. In spite of the steamships of our time, nobody has reached Parry's latitude in this direction; but no serious attempt has been made since then.

In the direction of Franz Josef Land, attempts have also been made, but they have met with the same obstacle as elsewhere, viz. the polar ice. The ice was not here, however, carried southward, and this is a difference from what has been the case in the regions previously mentioned, which ought to be noticed. The Austrian Tegetthoff expedition was nipped off the coast of Novaya Zemlya, but was during one year and a half drifted in the ice north-east, north, and northwestward, till at last it was stopped by Franz Josef Land, which was thus discovered.

On the side of the Bering Strait only a few attempts have been made. The first was Cook's expedition in 1776, and the last that of the Jeannette

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in 1879-81. Here, also, the same difficulty, the floe-ice, was met with, and in lower latitudes than anywhere else. The Jeannette was caught in the ice near latitude 71° N., and south-east of Wrangel Island. Here, we have, however, again a peculiarity as to the direction in which the ice is drifted; she was not carried southward but north-westward and nearer to the Pole. In this respect the Tegetthoff expedition, and that of the Jeannette differ from all others.

Why, then, have all previous attempts failed? The reason is simple enough. The expeditions were everywhere, at a greater or less distance from the Pole, stopped by the drifting floe-ice which formed immense impenetrable masses, and in most cases was carried down against the ships by currents from the north. It was impossible to penetrate the ice, and to walk over it was almost equally impossible, since it is moved by constant currents from the north; there was no choice left but to return. If we could only discover a land stretching to the Pole, the chances would be favourable enough. The difficulties of reaching it would not then be much greater than that of crossing Greenland. But we know of no country which is likely to have such an extension to the North. Greenland seems to end not very far north of the latitude already reached, and Franz Josef Land is probably only a group of islands.

Many people think that the North Pole can be reached by balloons or balloon ships, and that it will be so reached one day. I do not deny the possibility of this; on the contrary, I regard it as very probable. But the only way at present would be to entrust oneself wholly to the wind, and this is an uncertain way so long as we have no knowledge of the wind-currents of these regions. To go in a submarine boat under the ice would be rather risky so long as submarine navigation is as little developed as it is at present.

But is there no other way to reach the North Pole? I believe that if we take careful notice of the forces which Nature herself places at our disposal, and endeavour to work with them, and not against them, we shall find, if not the shortest, at all events the most certain route. We have already seen that most polar expeditions have been stopped by irresistible currents from the unknown north, carrying immense masses of thick floe-ice. From this fact we seem entitled to draw a very simple conclusion, namely, that if currents run from these regions, currents must also somewhere run into them, and that if expeditions have been carried by the ice southward from the unknown regions, others may be floated northward into those regions if they can only strike the currents on the right side. Thus, then, we have the way already indicated; the problem is to find the right place.

If we consider the experience of whalers and sealers who have sailed for a long series of years in the Arctic seas on both sides of the Pole, one singular circumstance must strike us at once, namely, that ships