Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/682

662 the average temperature 9° F. above that of the east coast, and rendering summer navigation certain. 5. According to Réclus, the January isothermal of Frog Lake, where I wintered in 1883, twists northward until it runs through upper Greenland, so that, although the winter might be longer, it would not be more rigorous. The same authority concludes, from various ascertained facts, that within the Arctic Circle the summer mean increases as you get nearer the pole, and favors the theory of an open polar sea. It is certain that the pole of greatest cold lies southwest from Greenland among the western islands of the polar archipelago. Lastly, Disco possesses coal, the most important item in steam navigation.

From a consideration of the foregoing points the situation resolves itself into a simple question of money. If the funds are provided, the men are here who are both willing and qualified to carry the work through, and this article has been written as an appeal to both governments and individuals to come forward and once for all settle the scientific questions involved in the location of the north pole. Canada will bear her share undoubtedly, and, what is more to the purpose, will find the men. One difficulty which will beset the organizers of the expedition will be the necessity of dealing with the hundreds of volunteers who, for sentimental reasons, will move heaven and earth to get themselves joined to it. Most of these men will possess absolutely no qualification for the work, and would prove nothing but so much useless lumber. They must all be met with the same unbending negation. Finding the north pole will be no summer picnic. The men to accomplish it must be experienced middle-aged men, whose muscles have been indurated and their minds fortified by a constant acquaintance with cold, hardship, and danger, and nowhere except among Canadian surveyors can you find men who combine these qualities with the necessary scientific attainments. Science knows no nationality, and in a matter of this kind there should be no international jealousy. Let Anglo-Saxons find the money, and those Anglo-Saxons best fitted for the work will undertake it and carry it through.

There is but one more point to be noted. The next five years will be particularly favorable for arctic exploration. We are now approaching a minimum sun-spot period, which experience proves is coincident with a period of mild winters. The last minimum was in 1888, a year of extreme heat and drought followed by a winter of unusual mildness. Going back eleven years, the winter of 1877-'78 was so mild that wild geese remained on the Georgian Bay throughout the winter, and the Collingwood steamers were plying the first week in April—a month earlier than usual. The winter of 1882-'83, which I spent with Mr.