Page:Proposed Expedition to Explore Ellesmere Land - 1894.djvu/6

7 exactly perpendicular to each other), a number of perfectly definite questions await solution. Does the coast from Aldrich's farthest trend in the direction of Prince Patrick Island, as supposed by Nares, or does it run almost straight southward, as assumed by Greely? Is Hayes Sound a bay, as intimated by Nares, or a strait, as believed by Greely and reported by the Eskimos? Is North Kent an island, as charted by Belcher, or a peninsula connected with Ellesmere Land, as outlined by Dr. Boas from the statements of the Cumberland Eskimos? Is Cardigan Strait really the westward continuation of Jones Sound, or separated from it by a barrier of land? Was the open water, found there by Belcher as early as May 20, the exception or the rule? What truth is there in the report of an abundance of musk oxen and reindeer in the western part of Ellesmere Land, and of walrus, seal, and polar bears, in the adjoining sea? Where is that tribe of Eskimos, said to be living on Ellesmere Land but never yet seen by white men? In short, no other Arctic area of equal extent contains so many interesting and perfectly definite problems.

At the same time there is probably no Arctic area whose problems are easier of solution. The gateway to this area, the northern entrance of Jones Sound, seems to present the most perfect base of operations in all the Arctic. As pointed out by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the base of operations must possess two qualities: it must be close to the area to be explored, and it must be in assured communication with the outer world. It will readily be admitted that, as regards communication, those points which lie in the path of the whalers possess so decided an advantage that the others need not be considered. Of the three lines of whalers, the American follows the northern shore of Alaska and British North America, which faces an open ocean, and is therefore unsuitable for a northward advance. The whaling grounds of the Norwegians indeed have masses of islands to the north of them which might serve as bases; but their vessels do not approach close to these islands, and moreover do not pursue a regular route, so that they can not be depended on. The Scotch whalers, on the contrary, at least on their outward voyage, pursue almost invariably the same route year after year, close to