TO THE POLE VIA BEHRING STRAITS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1385, 24 July 1878, Page 3

TO THE POLE VIA BEHRING STRAITS.

["Alta California."] _ _ The proposed " Herald" expedition to the North Pole has awakened a discussion as to the likelihood of success being achieved by the Behrirg Straits route. This route is said to have the signal advantage of never having been thoroughly tried. A New York journal, in an excellent review of the subject, believes that this is the greatest point in its favour. That reasoning from experience, we may almost say we know that the Pole cannot be attained via Smith Sound, because the many advances made on that lino have all failed, although conducted with ample resources, the most complete knowledge of conditions, and boundless courage. "No thoroughfare" seems to bo written up in that quarter. The gdlant commander of the English column which last assailed the mystery from that direction showed clearly why the route was impassible (one does not like to write "impossible"). The brave Austro-llungarians came to the same conclusion about the Spitzbergen approach, which is the favourite European alternative of the older and more trodden one. The ill-fortune of all these experiments which have not been wholly futile, because they have pointed out paths to be avoided, and have contributed much precious lore to our scanty knowledge of the geography, ocean currents, and meteorology of high latitudes—teaches us to search for some opening not strewn with the (Debris of abandoned expeditions, and not chilling enthusiasm and taking the heart out of hope by its almost, innumerable precedents of disaster. Such is the Behring Straits route. It continues by saying that if Arctic voyages must continue to be made, we feel a certain satis faction in the selection of this route, because we have carefully inspected its claims, and for years have advised that it be tried. Captains Bent and Maury, and other high authorities in the Federal Navy and merchant marine, have furnished large masses of evidence in its behalf, which we long ago laid before our readers. Its one determining feature is the known existence of a great warm current, the Kuso Siwo, which sweeps from the coast of Japan, through tho Straits, and far beyond. Tho eminent hydrographers wo have quoted believe that this current, —as important to the Pacific as the Gulf Stream to the Atlantic —makes its way into the Arctic Ocean and to the Pole itself. They urge, with much force, that if a vessel strong enough to resist the pressure of the ice, and carrying sufficient provisions for every emergency, should be allowed to drift with this current, she would surely, at last, bo carried to or near the Pole. The desideratum is to keep in the current. Captain Bent recommends for this purpose a reliance on thermometrical soundings. These would tell, when all other means failed, whether the vessel was in tho Kuso Siwo or not. On this theory, a steamer such as the Jeannette would be far preferable to a sailing vessel. It could more easily be kept within the stream. It also has many other advantages over crafts dependent on winds and current alone. In fact, steam may now be said to be indispensable to the solution of the Arctic problem. If the Jeannette does not reach the Pole, she will yet find a rich harvest field of adventure and science short of that ultima thule. No Stanleys, Agaesizs or Carpenters have ever penetrated the region whose ice-bound waters her lieel will part.