Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/92

80. Physical phenomena, however, are not so subject to change as those of ethnography. Unknown tribes may be extinguished, or affected by the direct or indirect influence of civilization. The outlines of lands, the state of the weather and the sea, will not undergo alterations in the course of a few years.

Therefore we can not see any reason why polar expeditions should be sent out only in order to reach the pole. The history of former expeditions proves that the most successful results were obtained by making ample use of the experience gained in former voyages, and that most of the failures were due to ignorance of previous observations, or to the careless neglect of previous experiences. If new expeditions should be organized and they will be organized we shall always plead for a slow but sure progress toward the pole. From the experience gained hitherto, we are able to start at a point far north, and by studying the distribution of the land and the state of the ice yet farther north, we can conquer step by step the region hitherto unknown with comparative safety. The exploration of the pole is not a work for the bold and daring adventurer; it is the task of the careful scientist, who knows thoroughly what science will profit by every mile gained, by the study of all the phenomena of regions often passed by ships or never visited by man.

The results of a single expedition, however lucky it may be, will always be trifling as compared with the number of problems which have to be solved in the Arctic. It is quite possible that by favorable circumstances an expedition might succeed in getting far north, or discovering large areas of the unknown regions, as has happened in former years. However, the risk which the adventurers run can not be compared with the probable results. By deliberate perseverance, though the progress may be slower, the exploration of the Arctic will be accomplished in greater safety and with far greater results for science.

We wish to establish here the principle that, in the present state of affairs, daring and adventurous explorations have to be excluded from a plan of Arctic researches which is founded on scientific principles. This is not the place to determine the course which new expeditions have to take, as the discussion of this subject is not the affair of the public but of experts, who know thoroughly the phenomena of the Arctic seas and are conversant with the whole of Arctic literature. Whatever the new plans may be, the public and men of science must ask that the plan be not confined to a single expedition. The best results will be gained by considering the exploration of the polar regions as one continuous task, and fitting every new expedition into the far-seeing scheme of a thorough investigation of all the problems subject to Arctic researches. In this way we have the strong conviction that important results will be gained quicker than by spasmodic efforts now in Greenland, now in Behring Strait, now in Franz-Josef