Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/91

Rh the importance of geographical exploration, it is the new material added to our stock of knowledge which enables us to make new comparisons and to reach a more thorough understanding of the world. If we intend to prove the necessity of new polar explorations, we do not need to dwell upon the many observations which are connected with Arctic research. If we should enter more closely into the meteorological and hydrographical or the magnetical problems which may be understood better by researches in regions near the pole; if we should try to demonstrate the immense importance of those questions for the meteorology of our own regions, and for the hydrography of the navigable ocean, or for the closer investigation of terrestrial magnetism which is necessary for the purposes of navigation, we should leave the stand-point we try to maintain here—the principle that we are not allowed to judge the value of scientific work by its immediate importance for science and life, but by its value for science itself.

The effort has often been made to prove the necessity of continued polar exploration after the failure of so many attempts and the loss of so many brave lives, but the reasons brought forth were always those referring to the probable utility of new undertakings. It is not the proper way to defend a scientific work to point out the direct advantages which may be gained by it. Science itself has the right to ask any devotion of man for its purposes. A dangerous enterprise made in behalf of science does not need any proof of its usefulness, if it is possible to show that the results will indeed be a gain to the stock of our knowledge.

If we agree that cosmography be equal in value to physics, or even if we only understand that progress in physics can not be made except by exploring the phenomena in the most minute and detailed way, we have to concede that new explorations in the Arctic regions are of value for science, and that, therefore, they are undoubtedly necessary and must be demanded.

At the same time let us ask, What is the object of polar expeditions? It is the thorough exploration of the Arctic region and of all its phenomena, a great task which will give scientists work for years to come. The problems will not be solved by pushing north and gaining the pole. There are many more objects of study left besides, and it is not necessary at all to work with all our might for the achievement of this single aim. The desires of humanity and the wants of science both direct us the same way. The phenomena of the highest latitudes are not of a kind which requires the promptest attention. Though the reaching of the pole may be desirable, it is not so urgent as to demand the sacrifice of noble lives in hazardous and adventurous enterprises which might be accomplished with relative safety at a later time. If the problems awaiting their solution in the Arctic were as pressing as those of ethnography, any attempt to reach the pole would be