Page:Proposed Expedition to Explore Ellesmere Land - 1894.djvu/11

12 year's voyage. While that plan has met with warm approval on the part of some Arctic authorities, doubts have been raised by others as to its feasibility. As the plan will be incidentally tested by next year's explorations, it is not necessary at present to form a definite judgment concerning its prospects. It may suffice to enumerate a few arguments for and against its practicability.

If next year's expedition meets with the marked success that is expected, it may be possible to make the station at the entrance of Jones Sound a permanent base of operations, kept constantly supplied by the whalers, and from it a fan of secondary stations, about 150 miles apart, may be pushed as far into the unknown area as practicable, continuing exploration so long as any unknown area remains within reach. Each secondary station is to be occupied by no more than five men, one engaged in scientific work, the others in hunting. The number at the base station is not to exceed 15. The entrance of Jones Sound seems best suited to serve as a base; but if experience reveals a better site, the base may be shifted. The two requisites for each secondary station will be safe communication with the base and sufficient animal life to furnish the bulk of the food supply. No new station is to be established until the preceding one has been proved to be perfectly reliable. The manifest advantages of such a system, if practicable, will be cheapness, due to the continuity of the system; safety, due to the proximity of the base and the avoidance of hurry ; and, above all, the instant utilization of experience and the skill arising from long-continued training.

That a permanent camp can be maintained at the entrance of Jones Sound with very little outlay, and that it would be of the utmost value for the whaling industry and for all future explorations, does not seem to admit of doubt. As regards the maintenance of the secondary stations, it is to be noted that many points in the Arctic show a surprising wealth of animal life. Peary, in 1893, secured in ten hours twenty tons of walrus meat—enough to feed five men five years. At the northern extremity of Greenland he could have secured enough musk oxen to support his party for a year. "Thousands of birds" are mentioned at Cape Hay in Lancaster Sound, on Franz Josef