BOOKS.
THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN REGION4 TuE practical object of Captain Markham's work is to direct. public attention to the arguments in favour of a new Arctic Expedi- tion under Government auspices, for which, on December 16, 1872, the Geographical Society pleaded to Mr. Lowe, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and to Mr. Goschen, as First Lord of the Admiralty, in vain. Into the history of the deputation, its results, and the motive assigned by Mr. Goschen and Mr. Lowe for their refusal to entertain the proposition—" that it would not be right to send out a second scientific expedition precisely at the moment when the public revenue has to bear the main burden of the expenses of the operations entrusted to the Challenger "—we entered at the time, and in reference to the practical purport of this book, we. have but to repeat our words :—" The old argument for Arctic. expeditions is still unanswerable, namely, that they are bloodless campaigns, which train naval officers in time of peace almost as well, or quite as well, as war would do. It is not to the debit of science, but of national defence, that an Arctic expedition
should be carried." 'We still think this the strongest argument for the concession of the Government on the point,—a concession for which Captain Markham professes to- look with confidence next year. There is no doubt a better chance with Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, but we do not share Captain -Markham's cheerful interpretation of the Downing-Street letter, which he takes to mean that the refusal it conveys was based on "the expense of the fitting-out of the Challenger, an expense which will not be incurred in 1874, so- that the sole reason for not sending out an Arctic expedition will cease with the year 1873. This is very satisfactory." It would. be, if " the expenses of the operations entrusted to the Challenger" were synonymous merely with her "fitting-out." That Captain Markham urges the importance to science of a resumption of Arctic exploration with the zeal of a specialist, that he treats the consideration of danger with the scorn of a true Briton, that he pleads the importance of opening up additional chances to "naval officers who are breaking their hearts from the impossibility of getting employment" with the eagerness of esprit de corps, and' that he dwells on the " disgrace " of our retirement as a nation from competitive Arctic enterprise with the petulance and exag- geration of a man with a grievance, are matters of course, which make the book all the more pleasant to read. The subject is attrac- tive and interesting under every aspect and in all its details, and not even Captain Markham's glowing description of the ease, comfort, plenty, and salubrity which are to attend the members of the expedi- tion which his prophetic eye beholds departing from these shores in the spring of 1874,—can rob it of the charm of danger and daring. Splendid steamers, of 70 horse-power, which are to do something on a great scale, like what Dr. Hayes' Panther did on a small, rearing themselves above the ice-edge, then crushing down upon it, and cutting their way through the beaten barrier, offer a wonderful picture to the imagination which has just been filled with the fate of Barents, and Behring, Hudson, Franklin, and Hall. Ships full of stores lying snug at anchor in sheltered coves, within easy distance of the land parties, who are to be provided with sledges brought to absolute perfection, and scientific instruments warranted, See Spectator of last week.
t The Threshold of the Unknown Region. By Clements B. Markham, C.B., F.R.S., Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society; formerly of II.M..'s Arctic ship. "Assistance." London : Sampson Low and Co.
to wring Nature's deepest secrets out of her dumbest recesses ; emulation, health, the good spirits, and the willing minds which our Arctic men have never lacked, ever-exciting, delightful chances of the magnificent unknown ; and the eager expectation of the educated world for its news of the two kingdoms of Creation in the world of ice,—such are the features of this fresh enterprise which a large number of experienced and influential men are urging upon the Government.
Captain Markham is entirely in favour of the Smith-Sound route, which is as strongly opposed by Captain Wells, in his recent work, the Gateway to the Polynia, or open water off the Siberian coast. Captain Wells upholds the Spitzbergen route. Captain Markham sums up his exposition of the comparative ,claims of the two routes thus :—
"In an unfavourable season by the Spitzbergen route nothing what- ever would be done. In an unfavourable season by Smith Sound, 1,600 miles of previously-unknown country would be discovered and thoroughly explored, and valuable observations and collections would be made in every department of science. In a favourable season, by the Spitzbergen route an ice-laden sea may be penetrated for some distance, and deep-sea soundings may be taken over a previously-unvisited area; • but there would be no other result whatever. In a favourable season, by the Smith- Sound route the North Pole would be reached ; the northern coast of Grinnell Land and Greenland would be explored ; their geology, flora, fauna, and ethnology would ho investigated ; and a vast addition would be made to the sum of human knowledge. By the Spitzbergen route there is the bare chance of doing little. By the Smith-Sound route there is the certainty of doing much. Moreover, all observations by the Spitzbergen route would be limited to a few weeks in the summer, whereas the Smith-Sound expedition would obtain lengthened, valuable, and complete series."
This passage, which concludes a lengthy argument, many of whose points are out of the sphere of the unprofessional reader or critic, comprises honourable mention of Mr. Leigh Smith, to whom the honours of the Spitsbergen route should, in the writer's opinion, be left. We shall look out anxiously for the details of that gentleman's recent voyage. It is interesting to con- trast the arguments of Captain Wells with those of Captain Markham. Says the latter :—" The Smith-Sound route, as compared with that by Spitzbergen, is open to the objections that apply to Behring's Straits. It would involve a greater ex- penditure of time and money. The ships would have more difficulty in reaching Smith Sound than in reaching Spitzbergen ; and when there, they would have more difficulty in communicating
with the mother-country If the ships cannot gain the open water of Kennedy Channel, recourse must be had to foot and sledge travelling. There is no proof that the land extends to the Pole, nor that the ice does so. If there is a discontinuity of ice and land, the sledge parties will have a special difficulty in reach- ing the point they aim for The Spitzbergen route certainly must be the best for all the purposes mentioned, but in addition to this, it has, like the Smith-Sound route, special attractions to a scientific expedition." Here we find the two latest writers on the subject of Arctic eoloration distinctly at issue, and can only hope that the pet schemes of both will be carried out, the one by the Government, and the other by private enterprise. The abundance of animal food up Smith Sound and the healthiness of the climate are points which recommend that route very strongly to the lay mind, which regards with unheroic wonder such a story as that told by Wrangell of the Jakuta, or "iron men of Siberia :"—" I have seen them frequently," he says, "in the severe cold of this country, and when the fire had been long extinguished and the light jacket had slipped off their shoulders, sleeping quietly, com- pletely exposed to the heavens, with hardly any clothing on, and their bodies covered with a thick coat of rime."
Captain Markham's speculations upon the results to anthropo- logical science of such an investigation as he urges, form a very tempting portion of his work, especially when we remember poor Captain Hall's most interesting, though ill-written, book about his life with the Esquimaux, or Innuit. But we think there is more reason in the supposition that remains of perished races may be found, than in the expectation of coming upon existing tribes in newly-discovered regions. That the Innuit were vanishing Captain Hall's five years' experience taught him, and it was im- possible to regard them as otherwise than a remnant when he first went among them. Captain Markham's argument that the twelve natives seen by Clavering in 1823 at Cape Borlase Warren, in 79° N., must have gone north, because Captain Koldewey found no trace of them in 1869, and the icebound coast between Scoresby's discoveries and the Danebrog Isles would prevent them from taking a southerly course, seems to us quite inconclusive. From what we remember of Captain Hall's description of the Innuit, their few children, and the difficulty of rearing them, it is much more reasonable to believe that in forty-six years no descendant of those twelve, natives remained alive. We do not think, then, that an opportunity will be afforded for "the study of all the characteristics of a people who have lived for generations in a state of complete isolation," but we admit that it would be a study of the highest scientific and human interest. We wish somebody would tell us about the numbers in which the Esquimaux dogs are now procured. Are they declining, as all the peculiarly characteristic animals associated with human races do decline, in proportion as the latter vanish ? We know of one animal, now extinct, which existed seventy years ago on Behring's Island, and was discovered by Steller, who sailed with Commodore Behring as naturalist to the expedition. It was a solitary species of manatee, and they called it Bytina Stelleres. The creature had a sort of bark, an inch thick, composed of fibres or tubes perpendicular on the skin, and so hard that steel penetrated it with difficulty. It lived on sea-weed.
The historical portion of Captain Markham's book is deeply, almost painfully, interesting. It is a catalogue of grand schemes, noble deeds, and forlorn hopes. Terror, want, loneliness, awful privation, suspense, and a fearful lagging of heavy-footed time, make themselves plain to us in all Arctic narratives, though the beauty and the grandeur be ever so apparent, and the spell ever so potent. Here we have a history, rather too succinct indeed, of Arctic exploration and its chiefs, from the days of Alfred the Great to the rescue of the crew of the Polaris and their arrival at St. John's, Newfoundland, in last April ; a de- scription, aided by clear and minute maps, of the whole line of frontier separating the known from the unknown region round the North Pole, and a record of all the efforts which have been made by gallant adventurers of various nationalities to cross that mysterious threshold.
The story of the third voyage of William Barents—thus Captain Markham simplifies his name—is one of the most interesting, and it is illustrated by a very quaint drawing of the winter quarters in which the seventeen stout-hearted Dutchmen who discovered Spitzbergen passed the terrible winter of 1596, at "Ice Haven," in "great colde, poverty, misery, and griefe." This was the first Arctic winter ever faced by Europeans, and the countrymen of Barents and his companions may well be proud of their memory. It is impossible to read the story of their sufferings, their disci- pline, endurance, courage, and subordination, unmoved. In June, 1597 (it is "96 "in the text, but that cannot be correct), they set sail from the scene of their sufferings in two open boats. Barents was too ill to stand, and was carried from the house, to die in the boat in five days, and find a grave in the midst of his discoveries, like La Peroutse and Franklin. How Hudson sailed from Gravesend in 1607, bound for the North Pole, in a craft about the size of one of the smallest of modern collier brigs, meaning to take herstraight to Japan, and the wonderful commercial results to all the world ; the poor fellow's murder ; the story of Captain Vitus Behring,—com- missioned by Peter the Great a few days before his death, in 1725, to explore by sea the whole northern coast of Siberia ;—the Com- modore's discoveries, and his miserable death in a pit on the side of a sand-hill on Behring's Island, where he prayed them not to remove the sand that was burying him while he yet lived,'because it kept him warm,—these are only a few of the points of interest in this recueil of Arctic adventure in past times. Of the explorers of the present century, Captain Markham writes with more detail, and with that warm, sympathetic heartiness which characterises his and their common profession.
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