PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION.—FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT.—APPEAL TO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.—AID SOLICITED.—PUBLIC LECTURES.—LIBERALITY OF VARIOUS SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALS.—VESSEL PURCHASED IN BOSTON.—INTEREST MANIFESTED IN THAT CITY.—DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING A PROPER CREW.—ORGANIZATION OF THE PARTY.—SCIENTIFIC OUTFIT.—ABUNDANT SUPPLIES.
I purpose to record in this Book the events of the Expedition which I conducted to the Arctic Seas.
PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION.
The plan of the enterprise first suggested itself to me while acting as Surgeon of the Expedition commanded by the late Dr. E. K. Kane, of the United States Navy. Although its execution did not appear feasible at the period of my return from that voyage in October, 1855, yet I did not at any time abandon the design. It comprehended an extensive scheme of discovery. The proposed route was that by Smith's Sound. My object was to complete the survey of the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land, and to make such explorations as I might find practicable in the direction of the North Pole.
My proposed base of operations was Grinnell Land, which I had discovered on my former voyage, and had personally traced beyond lat. 80°, far enough to satisfy me that it was available for my design.
Accepting the deductions of many learned physicists that the sea about the North Pole cannot be frozen, that an open area of varying extent must be found within the Ice-belt which is known to invest it, I desired to add to the proofs which had already been accumulated by the early Dutch and English voyagers, and, more recently, by the researches of Scoresby, Wrangel, and Parry, and still later by Dr. Kane's expedition.
It is well known that the great difficulty which has been encountered, in the various attempts that have been made to solve this important physical problem, has been the inability of the explorer to penetrate the Ice-belt with his ship, or to travel over it with sledges sufficiently far to obtain indisputable proof. My former experience led me to the conclusion that the chances of success were greater by Smith's Sound than by any other route, and my hopes of success were based upon the expectation which I entertained of being able to push a vessel into the Ice-belt, to about the 80th parallel of latitude, and thence to transport a boat over the ice to the open sea which I hoped to find beyond. Reaching this open sea, if such fortune awaited me, I proposed to launch my boat and to push off northward. For the ice-transportation I expected to rely, mainly, upon the dog of the Esquimaux.
How far I was able to execute my design these pages will show.
It will be remembered that the highest point reached by Dr. Kane with his vessels was Van Rensselaer Harbor, latitude 78° 37´, where he wintered. This was on the eastern side of Smith's Sound. It seemed to me that a more favorable position could be attained on the western side; and from personal observations made in 1854, while on a sledge journey from Van Rensselaer Harbor, it appeared to me probable that the degree of latitude already indicated might be secured for a winter station and a centre of observation.
ANTICIPATED RESULTS.