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The North Pole and the Open Polar Sea

About This Item

  • Title: The North Pole and the Open Polar Sea
  • Date: 5 January 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01375
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 5 January 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Thara Michaelis Kaylen Michaelis Kevin McMullen Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The North Pole and the Open Polar Sea." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01375.xml (TEI)
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THE NORTH POLE AND THE OPEN POLAR SEA.—

A paper has been read before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, upon the Polar Discoveries of Dr. Kane, by Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, known to our readers as the Surgeon and Naturalist in the Second Grinnell Arctic Expedition. The grounds taken by Dr. Hayes are—Morton found open water at the southern mouth of Kennedy Channel, traced it north fifty-two miles, and from an elevation of from 300 to 500 feet, could see no ice beyond, although a strong wind blew from the northward. The point of greatest cold seems to be about the islands to the northward of America—among which the ice accumulates. The whale flock to the north in winter, and being air-breathing, warm-blooded animals, they must come to the surface, which they could not do if the sea was covered by ice. The whale are known to pass through the centre of the Arctic Ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, identified by the harpoons buried in their flesh. Whales struck in the Greenland sea have on several occasions been caught in the Sea of Tartary. If these animals exist within the Polar Sea, why may they not be reached and captured?

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