Page:Proposed Expedition to Explore Ellesmere Land - 1894.djvu/4



In its article on "Polar Regions," vol. XIX, p. 327, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says : "In planning a new Polar expedition, it will be necessary to profit by the lessons of experience. This experience may be summed up in a few words. Any advanced ship or party must have a depot-ship to fall back upon which is within reach, and also in communication with the outer world. This makes disaster on a large scale, humanly speaking, impossible."

These words describe the essential principle of the present project: a secure base of operations. For greater security it will be placed not on a frail ship but on firm land, at the entrance of Jones Sound, where it will depend for communication not on the uncertain fortunes of a single ship but on a whole fleet—the whaling steamers which annually sight that point.

The two main objects of Polar exploration in the past have been the discovery of the northwest passage and the attainment of the Pole. In the search for the northwest passage the Parry archipelago was traced 730 miles to the west of Baffin Bay. In