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Polar Regions

POLAR REGIONS, a general term for the regions about the North or South Pole, otherwise called the Arctic or Antarctic regions. The ancients had no actual knowledge of mst or y O f the Polar regions. They had probably heard rumours Arctic of the light summer nights and the dark winter Exploration. nights in the north, as is shown by Homer's description of the Laestrygons having the short nights and the Cimmerians living in perpetual darkness. By astronomical speculations the Greeks had come to the conclusion that north of the Arctic Circle there must be midnight Sun at midsummer and no Sun at midwinter. The general view was that the Polar regions, north and south, belonged to the uninhabitable frozen zones; while according to a less scientific notion there was a happy region north of the north wind (Boreas), where the Sun was always shining and the Hyperboreans led a peaceful life. The first traveller of history who probably approached the Arctic Circle and reached the land of the midnight Sun was the Greek Pytheas (?..), from Massalia (Marseilles), who about 325 B.C. made a voyage of discovery northwards along the west coast of Europe, which is one of the most remarkable in history. He visited England, Scotland, the Scottish isles, and probably also northern Norway, which he called Thule. He moved the limits of the known world from the south coast of England northward to the Arctic Circle. It seems probable that he made two or perhaps several voyages. He also discovered the northern coasts of Germany as far east as Jutland.

We hear of no other voyages towards the Arctic regions before the Irish monk Dicuil, writing about 825, mentions the discovery by Irish monks of a group of small islands (the Irish Faeroes), and a greater island (Iceland), which he Discovery calls Thule, where there was hardly any night at oficelind. midsummer. It is possible that Iceland and the Faeroes were inhabited by a small Celtic population before the Irish monks West 150 Longitude NORTH POLAR REGIONS Scale, 1:24,000,000 English Miles 50 100 150 zoo, 400 Wftclt of Jeannette'881 -..., Hennatt*l.":C.mma :raiw/-- % ^S^sA^t-L' W~~ r T ri ' o" 5aC ":* strait -tVi ^W ' ..-L O l ' r.

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came thither. The fact that Irish monks lived in Iceland before the Norsemen settled there in the end of the 9th century is verified by the Icelandic sagas.

In his translation of Orosius, King Alfred inserts the interesting story of the first known really Arctic voyage, told him by the Norwegian Ottar (Alfred calls him Ohthere), who about 870 rounded the North Cape, sailed eastwards along the Murman coast and discovered the White Sea, where he reached the south coast of the Kola Peninsula and the boundary of the land of the Biarmians (Beormas). Ottar told King Alfred that "he chiefly went thither, in addition to the seeing of the country, on account of the walruses."

After Ottar's time the king of Norway took possession of all land as far east as the White Sea and the land of the Biarmians, and the native " Finns " had to pay him tribute. Many voyages, mostly of hostile nature but also for trade purposes, were undertaken from Norway to the White Sea, and even kings went as far. It is told of King Eric, called Bloodyaxe, who died as king of York in England, that he made such a voyage, and fought with the Biarmians, about 920, and about 965 his son Harold Graafeld defeated the Biarmians and killed many people in a great battle near the river Dvina, where Archangel was built later.

After having settled in Iceland in the end of the 9th century, the Norsemen soon discovered Greenland and settled there. The first who is reported to have seen the coast of Greenland was a Norwegian, Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, who on his way to Iceland was storm-driven westwards. He came to some islands, afterwards called Gunnbjornskier, and saw a coast, but, without exploring the new land, he had evidently continued his way till he reached Iceland. The real discoverer and explorer of Greenland was the Norwegian, Eric the Red, who, with his father had settled in Iceland. As he and his men had there been declared outlaws for having killed several people they had to leave Iceland for three years, and he went westward to find the land which Gunnbjorn was reported to have seen. He explored the west coast of Greenland for three years, probably about 982-985. He then returned to Iceland, but founded the following year a colony in Greenland (?..). Many colonists followed, and two Norse settlements were formed, viz. the Eystrabygd (i.e. eastern settlement) on the south-eastern part of the Greenland west coast, between Cape Farewell and about 61 N. lat., where Eric the Red had his house, Brattalid, at the Eiriksfjord; and the Vestrabygd (i.e. western settlement) in the region of the present Godthaab district, between 63 and 66 N. lat. The Norse settlers carried on their seal and whalehunting still farther north along the west coast beyond the Arctic circle, and probably in the region of Disco Bay. A runic stone was found in a cairn on a small island in 72 55' N. lat. north of Upernivik, showing that Norsemen had been there. The stone probably dates from the 14th century. About 1267 an expedition was sent northwards along the west coast and may possibly have reached some distance north of Upernivik. The last known communication between the Norse settlements in Greenland and Norway was in 1410, when some Icelanders returned, who four years previously had been storm-driven to Greenland. After that time we possess no reliable information about the fate of these settlements. When Greenland was rediscovered in the 16th century no descendants of the Norse settlers were found. The probability is that having gradually been cut off from all communications with Europe, the remaining settlers who had not returned to the motherland were obliged to adopt the Eskimo mode of life, which in those surroundings was far superior to the European, and by intermarriage they would then soon be absorbed amongst the more numerous natives. There is evidence to show that an expedition was probably sent from Denmark or Norway to Greenland in the latter part of the 15th century (perhaps about ScoHls J 47 6 ) under Pining and Pothorst (by Purchas called "Punnus and Fothorse"); and perhaps with Johan Scolvus as pilot. It is probable that this expedition had intercourse with the natives of Greenland, and possibly even reached King Harold.

Labrador, but it is unknown whether any remains of the Norse settlements were found on the Greenland west coast.

It is reported by Adam of Bremen (about 1070) that the Norwegian king Harold Haardraade (in the 11th century) made an expedition into the Arctic Sea (probably northwards) in order to examine how far it extended, but we know nothing more about this voyage.

The Icelandic annals report that a land called Svolbardi was discovered in 1194. The name means the cold side or coast. The land was, according to the sagas, situated s {tsbe four days' sailing from north-eastern Iceland northwards in the Hafsbotn (i.e. the northern termination of the sea, which was supposed to end as a bay). There can be no doubt that this land was Spitsbergen. The Norsemen carried on seal, walrus and whale hunting, and it is believed on good ground that they extended their hunting expeditions eastwards as far as Novaya Zemlya and northwards to Spitsbergen.

On his way to Greenland from Norway in the year 1000 Leif Ericsson found America, probably Nova Scotia, which he called Wineland the Good. A few years later Thorfinn Karlsefni sailed from Greenland with three ships to make a settlement in the land discovered by Leif. They first came to Labrador, which they called Helluland, then to Newfoundland, which was called Markland (i.e. woodland), and then to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia (V inland; Wineland). After three years they had to give up the undertaking on account of hostilities with the natives, probably Red Indians, and they returned to Greenland about 1006. We know of no later expedition of the Norsemen that reached Greenland; it is stated that Eric Uppri, the first bishop of Greenland, went in 1121 to seek Vinland, but it is not related whether he ever reached it, and the probability is that he never returned.

The Icelandic annals state that in 1347 a small Greenland ship which had sailed to Markland (Newfoundland) was afterwards storm-driven to Iceland with seventeen men. This is the last known voyage made by the Norse- Newfound* men of Greenland which with certainty reached Iaad - America.

The discoveries of the old Norsemen extended over the northern seas from Novaya Zemlya in the east to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the west; they had visited all Arctic lands in these regions, and had explored the White Sea, the Barents Sea, the Spitsbergen and Greenland Sea, Davis Strait, and even some part of Baffin Bay. They were the first navigators in history who willingly left the coasts and sailed across the open ocean, and they crossed the Atlantic between Norway and America, thereby being the real discoverers of this ocean, as well as the pioneers in oceanic navigation. They were the teachers of the navigators of later centuries, and it is hardly an accident that the undertakings of England towards the west started from Bristol, where many Norwegians had settled, and which from the beginning of the 15th century had much trade with Iceland.

John Cabot, sent out by the merchants of Bristol, rediscovered the American continent in 1497. He came to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, probably the same land where Cabot Leif Ericsson had landed 500 years before. John Cabot started on a new expedition towards the west in 1498, but no more is known of this expedition, not even whether Cabot returned or not. There is no reliable evidence to prove that John Cabot or his son Sebastian ever discovered Labrador, as has been generally believed.

The Portuguese Caspar Corte-Real rediscovered Greenland in 1500. He sailed along its east coast without being able to land on account of the ice. Whether he visited the _ Corte-Real.

west coast is uncertain. In 1501 he made a new expedition when he also rediscovered Newfoundland. One of his ships returned home to Lisbon, but he himself and his ship disappeared. His brother went in search of him the following year, but was heard of no more.

Cabot's and Corte-Real's discoveries were followed by the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries, Sebastian Cabot.

and a whole fleet of English, Portuguese, Basque and Breton fishermen was soon met with in these waters, and they probably went along the Labrador coast northward as far as Hudson Strait, without having left any report of their discoveries.

It is believed, on good grounds, that expeditions (combined English-Portuguese) were sent out to the newly discovered regions from Bristol in 1501 and 1502. It is unknown what their discoveries were, but they may possibly have sailed along the coast of Labrador.

It is possible that John Cabot's son, Sebastian Cabot, made an Arctic expedition in 1508-1509, in search of a short passage to China towards the north-west, and later, in 1521, King Henry VIII. made an attempt to persuade the merchants of London to support him in sending out an expedition, under Sebastian Cabot, to the north-western countries. It is uncertain whether it ever started, but it is certain that it achieved nothing of importance.

John Rut sailed from Plymouth in 1527, in order to seek a passage to China through the Arctic seas towards the northwest, following the suggestion of Robert Thorne of Bristol. He met ice in 53 N. lat. and returned to Newfoundland. Several other expeditions were sent out from various countries towards the north-west and west during this period, but no discoveries of importance are known to have been made in the Arctic regions.

There are rumours that the Portuguese, as early as 1484, under King John II., had sent out an expedition towards Novaya ^ Zemlya in search of a north-east passage to India. The Genovese Paolo Centurione probably proposed to King Henry VIII. of England, in 1525, to make an expedition in search of such a passage to India north of Russia, and there is evidence to show that there had been much talk about an undertaking of this kind in England and at the English court during the following period, as it was hoped that a new market might be found for English merchandise, especially cloth. But it led to nothing until 1553, when Sebastian Cabot was one of the chief promoters. Three ships and 112 men under Sir Will hh Hugh Willoughby sailed from Ratcliffe on the loth ' y ' (20th) May 1553. Richard Chancelor commanded one of the ships, which was separated from the two others in a gale off northern Norway on the 3rd (i3th) August. Willoughby, after having sighted land in various places, probably Kolguev Island, where they landed, the coast near the Pechora river and Kanin Nos, came on the 14th (24th) September to a good harbour on the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula. His one ship being leaky, Willoughby resolved to winter there, but he and all his men perished. Chancelor, after his separation from the two other ships, rounded the North Cape, to which he or his sailing-master, Stephen Borough, gave this name. He reached Vardohus, and after having waited there in vain for Willoughby, he followed the route of the Norsemen to the White Sea and reached the bay of St Nicholas, with a monastery of this name, near the mouth of the Dvina river, where Archangel was built later. Chancelor undertook a journey to Moscow, made arrangements for commercial intercourse with Russia, and returned next year with his ship, which was, however, plundered by the Flemings, but he reached London safely with a letter from the tsar. In spite of the disaster of Willoughby and his men this expedition became of fundamental importance for the development of English trade. Chancelor's success and his so-called discovery of the passage to the White Sea, which was well known to the Norwegian traders in that region, proved to people in England the practical utility of polar voyages. It led to a charter being granted to the Association of Merchant Adventurers, also called the Muscovy or Russia Company, and gave a fresh impulse to Arctic discovery. Chancelor undertook a new expedition to the White Sea and Moscow in 1555; on his way home in the following year he was wrecked on the coast of Scotland and perished.

In 1556 Stephen Borough (Burrough), who had served with Chancelor, was sent out by the Muscovy Company in a small pinnace called the " Search-thrift, " in order to try to reach the river Ob, of which rumours had been heard. Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach Island, and the Kara Strait leading into the Kara Sea, were discovered. Borough kept a careful journal of his voyage. In 1580 the company fitted Boro< *- out two vessels under Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman, with orders to sail eastwards north of Russia and Asia to the lands of the emperor of Cathay (China). They penetrated through the Kara Strait into the Kara Sea; they Pe * possibly saw the west coast of Yalmal, but met with much ice and were compelled to return. The two ships were separated on the way home, Pet reached London on December 26th in safety; Jackman wintered with his ship in Norway and sailed thence in February, but was never heard of again.

About 1574 the Portuguese probably made an attempt to find the north-west passage under Vasqueanes Corte-Real. They reached "a great entrance," which may have been Hudson Strait, and they "passed above twentie leagues" into it, "without all impediment of ice," "but their victailes fayling them, . . . they returned backe agayne with ioy."

After the expeditions in search of the north-east passage achieved the success of opening up a profitable trade with Russia, via the White Sea, new life was inspired in the undertakings of England on the sea, at the same time the power of the Hanseatic merchants, called the Easterlings, was much reduced. It was therefore only natural that the plan of seeking a north-west passage to China and India should again come to the front in England, and it was much discussed. It was Sir Martin Frobisher who opened that long series of expeditions all of which during three hundred years were sent from England in search of the north-west passage until the last expedition, which actually accomplished it, sailed from Norway. " Being persuaded of a new and neerer passage to Cataya" (China) towards the north- west, Frobisher "determined and resolved wyth himselfe, to go make full proofe thereof . . . or else never to retourne againe, knowing this to be the onely thing of the worlde that was left yet undone, whereby a notable mind mighte be made famous and fortunate." After having attempted in vain for fifteen years to find support for his enterprise, he at last obtained assistance from Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, and through him the interest of Queen Elizabeth was also secured. The Muscovy Company was now obliged to give a licence for the voyage in 1574, and the necessary money was found by London merchants. Aided especially by Michael Lok, an influential merchant and diligent student of geography, Frobisher sailed, on the 7th (i7th) of June 1576, from Deptford with two small vessels of 20 and 25 tons, called the" Gabriel" and "Michael," and a small pinnace of 10 tons; the crews amounted to 35 men all told. On the 8th (i8th) of July they lost sight of the pinnace, which was seen no more. On the nth (2ist) of July they sighted a high, rugged land, but could not approach it for ice. This was the east coast of Greenland, but, misled by his charts, Frobisher assumed it to be the fictitious Frisland, which was the fabrication of a Venetian, Niccolo Zeno, who in 1558 published a spurious narrative and map (which he pretended to have found) as the work of an ancestor and his brother in the 14th century. The Zeno map was chiefly fabricated on the basis of a map by the Swede Olaus Magnus of 1537 and the map by the Dane Claudius Clavus of the 15th century. It was accepted at the time as a work of high authority, and its fictitious names and islands continued to appear on subsequent maps for at least a century, and have puzzled both geographers at home and explorers in the field. These islands had also been introduced on the charts of Mercator of 1569 and of Ortelius of 1570, which were probably used by Frobisher. Evidently frightened by the sight of the great quantities of ice off the Greenland coast, one ship, the " Michael," left him secretly, " and retourned home wyth greate reporte that he was cast awaye. " The gallant Frobisher continued his voyage towards the northwest in the " Gabriel " alone, although his mast was sprung, his topmast blown overboard, and his "mizen-mast" had had to be cut away in a gale. On the 29th of July (Aug. 8) he sighted high land which he called Queen Elizabeth's Foreland. This was the southern part of Baffin Land (Resolution Island) in about 62 N. lat. He was stopped by ice, but nearly two weeks later he reached the coast and entered an inlet which he considered to be the strait of the north-west passage, and he gave it his own name (it is now Frobisher Bay on Baffin Land). The land was called "Meta Incognita." Frobisher was not well prepared for going much farther, and after his boat with five men had disappeared he returned home, where, unfortunately, some "gold-finders" in London took it into their heads that a piece of dark heavy stone brought back contained gold ore. This caused great excitement; it was now considered much more important to collect this precious ore than to find the north-west passage, and much larger expeditions were sent out in the two following years. As many as fifteen vessels formed the third expedition of 1578, and it was the intention to form a colony with a hundred men in the gold land, but this scheme was given up. Frobisher came into Hudson Strait, which was at first thought to be Frobisher Strait and therefore called Mistaken Strait. There was an open sea without any land or ice towards the west, and Frobisher was certain that he could sail through to the " Mare del Sur" (Pacific Ocean) and " Kathaya," but his first goal was the " gold mines," and the vessels returned home with full loads of the ore. One of them, a buss (small ship) of Bridgwater, called the "Emmanuel," reported that on her voyage home she had first sighted Frisland on the 8th (i8th) of September, but four days later she had sighted another land in the Atlantic and sailed along it till the following day; they reckoned its southern end to be in about 57! N. lat. This land soon found its place on maps and charts south-west of Iceland under the name of Buss Island, and as it was never BUSS." seen a {? am it was after 1745 called "the sunken land of Buss." The explanation is that, misled by the maps, Frobisher assumed Greenland to be Frisland of the Zeno map and Baffin Land was afterwards assumed to be the east coast of Greenland. When the buss on her way home sighted Greenland in about 62 N., she therefore thought it to be Frisland, but when she four days later again sighted land near Cape Farewell and her dead reckoning probably had carried her about two degrees too far south, she naturally considered this to be a new land, which puzzled geographers and navigators for centuries. Owing to a similar mistake, not by Frobisher, but by later cartographers and especially by Davis, it was afterwards assumed that Frobisher Strait (and also Mistaken Strait) was not in Baffin Land but on the east coast of Greenland, where they remained on the maps till the 18th century.

John Davis, who made the next attempt to discover a northwest passage, was one of the most scientific seamen of that age.

He made three voyages in three successive years aided and fitted out by William Sanderson and other merchants. Sailing from Dartmouth on the 7th (i?th) of June 1 585, with two ships, he sighted on the 20th (aoth) of July " the most deformed, rocky and mountainous land, that ever we sawe." He named it the Land of Desolation, although he understood that he had rediscovered " the shore which in ancient time was called Greenland." It was its east coast. He visited the west coast, where Frobisher had also landed mistaking it for Frisland. Davis anchored in a place called Gilbert's Sound in 64 10' (near the present Danish settlement of Godthaab) and had much intercourse with the Eskimo. He then, crossing the strait which bears his name, traced a portion of its western shore southwards from about 66 40' N. lat. and came into Cumberland Sound, which he thought to be the strait of the north-west passage, but returned home on account of contrary winds. In the second voyage (with four ships) Davis traced the western shore of Davis Strait still farther southwards, and sailed along the coast of Labrador. In the third voyage (with three ships) in 1587 he advanced far up his own strait along the west coast of Greenland in a small leaky pinnace, the "Ellin," and reached a lofty granite island in 72 41' N. lat., which he named Hope Sanderson. He met with ice in the sea west of this place, but Davis.

reported that there was not " any yce towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blew, and of an unsearcheable depth." By contrary winds, however, he was prevented from sailing in that direction. He sailed into Cumberland Sound, but now found that there was no passage. He also passed on his way southwards the entrance to Frobisher Strait, which he named Lumley Inlet, and Hudson Strait, without understanding the importance of the latter. When Davis came to Labrador, where his two larger ships were to have waited for him, they had sailed to England. The little " Ellin " now struck a sunken rock and sprung a leak, which was repaired, and he crossed the Atlantic in this small leaky craft. He still believed in the existence of a passage through Davis Strait, but could find no support for another Arctic voyage. Davis was not the first to discover this strait; it was well-known to the Norsemen. Caspar Corte-Real had possibly also been there, and Frobisher had during his voyages crossed its southern part every year. The result of Davis's discoveries are shown on the Molyneux globe, which is now in the library of the Middle Temple; they are also shown on the " New Map " in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1598-1600). When Davis was trying to reconcile his discoveries with the previous ones, especially those of Frobisher, he made fatal mistakes as mentioned above.

As early as 1565, by the intervention of a certain Philip Winterkonig, an exile from Vardohus in Norway, Dutch merchants formed a settlement in Kola, and in 1578 , two Dutch ships anchored in the mouth of the river Dvina, and a Dutch settlement was established where Archangel was built a few years later. The leading man in these undertakings was Olivier Brunei, who is thus the founder of the White Sea trade of the Dutch; he was also their first Arctic navigator. He had travelled both overland and along the coast to Siberia and reached the river Ob; he had also visited Kostin Shar on Novaya Zemlya. He propounded plans for the discovery of the north-east passage to China, and in 1581 he went from Russia to Antwerp to prepare an expedition. He probably started with one ship in 1582, on the first Arctic expedition which left the Netherlands. Little is known of its fate except that it ended unsuccessfully with the wreck of the ship in the shallow Pechora Bay, possibly after a vain attempt to penetrate through the Yugor Strait into the Kara Sea. In 1583 we find Olivier Brunei in Bergen trying to organize a Norwegian undertaking, evidently towards the north-east, but it is uncertain whether it led to anything.

The Dutch, however, had begun to see the importance of a northern route to China and India, especially as the routes through the southern seas were jealously guarded by the Spaniards and Portuguese, and after 1584 all trade with Portugal, where the Dutch got Indian goods, was forbidden. By Brunei's efforts their attention had been directed towards the north-east passage, but it was not until 1594 that a new expedition was sent out, one of the promoters being Peter Plancius, the learned cpsmographer of Amsterdam. Four ships sailed from Huysdunen on the 5th (isth) of June 1594. Two of these ships from Amsterdam were under the command of Willem Barents, who sighted Novaya Zemlya, north of Baren<s Matochkin Shar, on the 4th (i4th) of July; and aa aNay. from that date until the ist (nth) of August Barents continued perseveringly to seek a way through the ice-floes, and discovered the whole western coast as far as the Great Ice Cape, the latitude of which he, with his admirable accuracy, determined to be 77 N. Having reached the Orange Islands at the north-west extremity, he decided to return. The two other ships under the command of Cornells Nay had discovered the Yugor Strait, through which they sailed into the Kara Sea on the 1st (nth) of August. They reached the west coast of Yalmal; being sure that they had passed the mouth of the river Ob, and finding the sea open, they thought they had found a free passage to Japan and China, and returned home on the nth (2ist) of August. A new expedition was made the following year, 1595, with seven ships under the command of Cornelis Nay, as admiral, and Willem Barents as chief pilot, but it merely made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the Kara Sea through the Yugor Strait. The third expedition was more important. Two vessels sailed from Amsterdam on the loth (zoth) of May 1596, under the command of Jacob van Heemskerck and Corneliszoon Rijp. Barents accompanied Heemskerck as pilot, and Gerrit de Veer, the historian of the voyage, was on board as mate. The masses of ice in the straits leading to the Sea of Kara, and the impenetrable nature of the pack near Novaya Zemlya, had suggested the advisability of avoiding the land and, by keeping a northerly course, of seeking a passage in the open sea. They sailed northwards, and on the pth (ipth) of June discovered Bear Island. Continuing on the same course they sighted a mountainous snow-covered land in about 80 N. lat., soon afterwards being stopped by the polar pack ice. This important discovery was named Spitsbergen, and was believed to be a part of Greenland. Arriving at Bear Island again on the 1st of July, Rijp parted company, while Heemskerck and Barents proceeded eastward, intending to pass round the northern extreme of Novaya Zemlya. On the 26th of August (Sept. 5) they reached Ice Haven, after roimding the northern extremity of the land. Here they wintered in a house built out of driftwood and planks from the 'tween decks and the deck-house of the vessel. In the spring they made their way in boats to the Lapland coast; but Barents died during the voyage. This was the first time that an arctic winter was successfully faced. The voyages of Barents stand in the first rank among the polar enterprises of the 16th century. They led to flourishing whale and seal fisheries which long enriched the Netherlands.

The English enterprises were continued by the Muscovy Company, and by associations of patriotic merchants of London; Wa mouth anc ^ even tne ^ ast India Company sent an expedition ' under Captain Way mouth in 1602 to seek for a passage by the opening seen by Davis, but it had no success.

The best servant of the Muscovy Company in the work of polar discovery was Henry Hudson. His first voyage was Hudson undertaken in 1607, when he discovered the most northern known point of the east coast of Greenland in 73 N. named "Hold with Hope," and examined the ice between Greenland and Spitsbergen, probably reaching Hakluyt's Headland in 79 50' N. On his way home he discovered the island now called Jan Mayen, which he named " Hudson's Tutches." In his second expedition, during the season of 1608, Hudson examined the edge of the ice between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya. In his third voyage he was employed by the Dutch East India Company; he again approached Novaya Zemlya, but was compelled to return westwards, and he explored the coasts of North America, discovering the Hudson river. In 1610 he entered Hudson Strait, and discovered the great bay which bears and immortalizes his name. He was obliged to winter there, undergoing no small hardships. On his way home his crew mutinied and set him, his little son and some sick men adrift in a boat, and the explorer perished in the seas he had opened up.

The voyages of Hudson led immediately to the Spitsbergen whale fishery. From 1609 to 1612 Jonas Poole made four Spitsbergen voyages for the prosecution of this lucrative business, Whale and he was followed by Fotherby, Baffin, Joseph, ery - and Edge. These bold seamen, while in the pursuit of whales, added considerably to the knowledge of the archipelago of islands known under the name of Spitsbergen, and in 1617 Captain Edge discovered an island to the eastward, which he named Wyche's Land.

About the same period the kings of Denmark began to send expeditions for the rediscovery of the lost Greenland Danish c lny. In 1605 Christian IV. sent out three ships, Voyages, under the Englishmen Cunningham and Hall and a Dane named Lindenov, which reached the western coast of Greenland and had much intercourse with the Eskimo. Other expeditions followed in 1606-1607.

Meanwhile, the merchant adventurers of London continued to push forward the western discovery. Sir Thomas Button, in command of two ships, the "Resolution" and "Discovery," sailed from England in May 1612. He entered Hudson Bay, crossed to its western shore, and wintered at the mouth of a river in 57 10' N. which was named Nelson river after the master of the ship, who died and was buried there. Next year Button explored the shore of Southampton Island as far as 65 N., and returned home in the autumn of 1613. An expedition under Captain Gibbons despatched in 1614 to Hudson Bay was a failure; but in 1615 Robert Bylot as master and William Baffin as pilot and navigator in the "Discovery" examined the coasts of Hudson Strait and to the north of Hudson Bay, and Baffin, who was the equal of Davis as a scientific seaman, made many valuable observa- Baffin tions. In 1616 Bylot and Baffin again set out in the "Discovery." Sailing up Davis Strait they passed that navigator's farthest point at Sanderson's Hope, and sailed round the great channel with smaller channels leading from it which has been known ever since as Baffin Bay. Baffin named the most northern opening Smith Sound, after the first governor of the East India Company, and the munificent promoter of the voyage, Sir Thomas Smith. Lancaster Sound and Jones Sound were named after other promoters and friends of the voyage. The fame of Baffin mainly rests upon the discovery of a great channel extending north from Davis Strait; but it was unjustly dimmed for many years, owing to the omission of Purchas to publish the navigator's tabulated journal and map in his great collection of voyages. It was two hundred years before a new expedition sailed north through Baffin Bay. It may be mentioned, as an illustration of the value of these early voyages to modern science, that Professor Hansteen of Christiania made use of Baffin's magnetic observations in the compilation of his series of magnetic maps. In 1619 Denmark sent out an expedition, under the command of Jens Munk, in search of the north-west passage, with two ships and 64 men. They reached the west coast of Hudson Bay, where they wintered near Churchill river, but all died with the exception of one man, a boy, and Munk himself, who managed to sail home in the smallest ship.

In 1631 two expeditions were despatched, one by the merchants of London, the other by those of Bristol. In the London ship "Charles" Luke Fox explored the western side of Hudson Bay as far as the place called " Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome." In August he encountered Captain James and the Bristol -ship "Maria" in the middle of Hudson Bay, and went north until he reached "North-west Fox his farthest," in 66 47' N. He then returned home and wrote an entertaining narrative. Captain James had to winter off Charlton Island, in James Bay, the southern extreme of Hudson Bay, and did not return until October 1632. Another English voyager, Captain Wood, attempted, without success, to discover a north-east passage in 1676 through the sea round the North Pole, but was wrecked on the coast of Novaya Zemlya.

The 16th and 17th centuries were periods of discovery and daring enterprise. Hudson Strait and Bay, Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, the icy seas from Greenland to Spitsbergen and from Spitsbergen to Novaya Zemlya had all been explored; but much more was not discovered than had been well known to the Norsemen five or six centuries earlier. The following century was rather a period of reaping the results of former efforts than of discovery. It saw the settlement of the Hudson Bay Territory and of Greenland, and the development of the whale and seal fisheries.

The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in 1670, and Prince Rupert sent out Zachariah Gillan, who wintered at Rupert river. At first very slow progress was made. A voyage undertaken by Mr Knight, nearly 80 years old, who had been appointed governor of the factory at Nelson river, was unfortunate, as his two ships were lost and the crews _ perished. This was in 1719. In 1722 John Scroggs was sent from Churchill river in search of the missing ships, but merely entered Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome and returned. His reports were believed to offer decisive proofs of the existence of a passage into the Pacific; and a naval expedition was despatched under the command of Captain Christopher Middleton, Middietoa consistm g of the " Discovery " pink and the " Furnace " bomb. Wintering in Churchill river, Middleton started in July 1 742 and discovered Wager river and Repulse Bay. In 1746 Captain W. Moor made another voyage in Moor. tnc same direction, and explored the Wager Inlet. Later in the century the Hudson's Bay Company's servants made some important land journeys to discover the shores of the American polar ocean. From 176910 1772 Samuel Hearne descended the Coppermine River to the polar sea; and in 1789 Alexander Mackenzie discovered the mouth of the Mackenzie river. (For the establishment of the modern Danish settlements in Greenland, see GREENLAND.)

The countrymen of Barents vied with the countrymen of Hudson in the perilous calling which annually brought fleets Dutch of ships to the Spitsbergen seas during the 17th and Whale 18th centuries. The Dutch had their large summer Fishery. station for boiling down blubber at Smeerenberg, near the northern extreme of the west coast of Spitsbergen. Captain Vlamingh, in 1664, advanced as far round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya as the winter quarters of Barents. In 1700 Captain Cornelis Roule is said by Witsen to have sailed north in the longitude of Novaya Zemlya and to have seen an extent of 40 m. of broken land, but Theunis Ys, one of the most experienced Dutch navigators, believed that no vessel had ever been north of the 82nd parallel. In 1671 Frederick Martens Martens, a German surgeon, visited Spitsbergen, and wrote the best account of its physical features and natural history that existed previous to the time of Scoresby. In 1707 Captain Cornelis Gilies went far to the eastward along the northern shores of Spitsbergen, and saw land to the east in 80 N., which has since been known as Gilies Land. The Dutch geographical knowledge of Spitsbergen was embodied in the famous chart of the Van Keulens (father and son), 1700- 1728. The Dutch whale fishery continued to flourish until the French Revolution, and formed a splendid nursery for training the seamen of the Netherlands. From 1700 to 1775 the whaling fleet numbered 100 ships and upwards. In 1719 the Dutch opened a whale fishery in Davis Strait, and continued to frequent the west coast of Greenland for upwards of sixty years from that time.

The most flourishing period of the British fishery in the Spitsbergen and Greenland seas was from 1752 to 1820. Bounties British of 403. per ton were granted by act of parliament; whale and in 1778 as many as 255 sail of whalers were Fishery. employed. In order to encourage discovery 5000 was offered in 1776 to the first ship that should sail beyond the 89 th parallel (16 Geo. III. c. 6). Among the numerous daring Stores* an( ^ a ^ e wna li n S captains, William Scoresby takes the first rank, alike as a successful whaler and a scientific observer. His admirable Account of the Arctic Regions is still a textbook for all students of the subject. In 1806 he succeeded in advancing his ship " Resolution " as far north as 81 12' 42". In 1822 he forced his way through the ice which encumbers the approach to land on the east coast of Greenland, and surveyed that coast from 75 down to 69 N., a distance of 400 m. Scoresby combined the closest attention to his business with much valuable scientific work and no insignificant amount of exploration.

The Russians, after the acquisition of Siberia, succeeded in gradually exploring the whole of the northern shores of that vast Russians re 8' on - ^ n l( M-S a Cossack named Simon Dezhneff is said to have equipped a boat expedition in the river Kolyma, passed through the strait since named after Bering, and reached the Gulf of Anadyr. In 1738 a voyage was made by two Russian officers from Archangel to the mouths of the Ob and the Yenisei. Efforts were then made to effect a passage from the Yenisei to the Lena. In 1735 Lieut. T. Chelyuskin Chelyuskin got as far as 77 25' N. near the cape which 'bears his name; and in 1743 he rounded that most northern point of Siberia in sledges, in 77 41' N. Captain Phipps.

Vitus Bering, a Dane, was appointed by Peter the Great to command an expedition in 1725. Two vessels were built at Okhotsk, and in July 1728 Bering ascertained the BeHa existence of a strait between Asia and America. In 1740 Bering was again employed. He sailed from Okhotsk in a vessel called the " St Paul," with G. W. Steller on board as naturalist. Their object was to discover the American side ot the strait, and they sighted the magnificent peak named by Bering Mt St Elias. The Aleutian Islands were also explored, but the ship was wrecked on an island named after the ill-fated discoverer, and scurvy broke out amongst his crew. Bering himself died there on the 8th of December 1741.

Thirty years after the death of Bering a Russian merchant named Liakhoff discovered the New Siberia or Liakhoff Islands, and in 1771 he obtained the exclusive right from the empress Catherine to dig there for fossil ivory. These islands were more fully explored by an officer named Hedenstrom in 1809, and seekers for fossil ivory annually resorted to them. A Russian expedition under Captain Chitschakoff, sent to Spitsbergen in 1 764, was only able to attain a latitude of 80 30' N.

From 1773 onwards to the end of the 19th century the objects of polar exploration were mainly the acquisition of knowledge in various branches of science. It was on these grounds that Daines Barrington and the Royal Society induced the British government to undertake arctic exploration once more. The result was that two vessels, the "Racehorse " and " Carcass " bombs, were commissioned, under the command of Captain J. C. Phipps. The expedition sailed from the Nore on the 2nd of June 1773, and was stopped by the ice to the north of Hakluyt Headland, the north-western point of Spitsbergen. Phipps reached the Seven Islands and discovered Walden Island; but beyond this point progress was impossible. When he attained their highest latitude in 80 48' N., north of the central part of the Spitsbergen group, the ice at the edge of the pack was 24 ft. thick. Captain Phipps returned to England in September 1773. Five years afterwards James Coot Cook received instructions to proceed northward from Kamchatka and search for a north-east or north-west passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In accordance with these orders Captain Cook, during his third voyage, reached Cape Prince of Wales, the western extremity of America, on the gth of August 1778. His ships, the " Resolution " and " Discovery," arrived at the edge of the ice, after passing Bering Strait, in 70 41' N. On the 17th of August the farthest point seen on the American side was named Icy Cape. On the Asiatic side Cook's survey extended to Cape North. In the following year Captain Clerke, who had succeeded to the command, made another voyage, but his ship was beset in the ice, and so much damaged that further attempts were abandoned.

The wars following the French Revolution put an end to voyages of discovery till, after the peace of 1815, north polar research found a powerful and indefatigable advocate in Sir John Barrow. Through his influence a measure for promoting polar discovery became law hr 1818 (58 Geo. III. c. 20), by which a reward of 20,000 was offered for making the north-west passage, and of 5000 for reaching 89 N., while the commissioners of longitude were empowered to award proportionate sums to those who might achieve certain portions of such discoveries. In 1817 the icy seas were reported by Captain Scoresby and others to be remarkably open, and this circumstance enabled Barrow to obtain sanction for the despatch of two expeditions, each consisting of two whalers one to attempt discoveries by way of Spitsbergen and the other by Baffin Bay. The vessels for the Spitsbergen route, the " Dorothea " and " Trent," were commanded by Captain David Buchan and Lieut. John Franklin, and sailed in April 1818. Driven into the pack by a heavy swell from the south, both vessels were severely nipped, and had to return to England. The other expedition, consisting of the " Isabella " and " Alexander," commanded by Captain John Ross and Lieut.

Edward Parry, followed in the wake of Baffin's voyage of 1616. Ross sailed from England in April 1818. The chief merit of his voyage was that it vindicated Baffin's accuracy as a discoverer. Its practical result was that the way was shown to a lucrative fishery in the " North Water " of Baffin Bay, which continued to be frequented by a fleet of whalers every year. Captain Ross thought that the inlets reported by Baffin were merely bays, while the opinion of his second in command was that a wide opening to the westward existed through the Lancaster Sound of Baffin.

Parry was selected to command a new expedition in the following year. His two vessels, the " Hecla " and " Griper, " Parry's passed through Lancaster Sound, the continuation First and of which was named Barrow Strait, and advanced Second westward, with an archipelago on the right, since Voyages. kn Own as the Parry Islands. He observed a wide opening to the north, which he named Wellington Channel, and sailed onwards for 300 m. to Melville Island. He was stopped by the impenetrable polar pack of vast thickness which surrounds the archipelago to the north of the American continent, and was obliged to winter in a harbour on the south coast of Melville Island. Parry's hygienic arrangements during the winter were judicious, and the scientific results of his expedition were valuable. The vessels returned in October 1820; and a fresh expedition in the " Fury " and " Hecla," again under the command of Captain Parry, sailed from the Nore on the 8th of May 1821, and passed their first winter on the coast of the newly discovered Melville Peninsula in 66 n' N. Still persevering, Parry passed his second winter among the Eskimo at Igloolik in 69 20' N., and discovered a channel leading westward from the head of Hudson Bay, which he named Fury and Hecla Strait. The expedition returned in the autumn of 1823. Meantime Parry's Franklin's friend Franklin had been employed in attempts to First reach by land the northern shores of America, Journey, hitherto only touched at two points by Hearne and Mackenzie. Franklin went out in 1819, with Dr John Richardson, George Back and Robert Hood. They landed at York factory, and proceeded to the Great Slave Lake. In August of the following year they started for the Coppermine river, and, embarking on it, reached its mouth on the 18th of July 1821. From that point 550 m. of coast-line were explored, the extreme point being called Cape Turnagain. Great sufferings, from starvation and cold, had to be endured during the return journey; but eventually Franklin, Richardson and Back arrived safely at Fort Chippewyan.

It was thought desirable that an attempt should be made to connect the Cape Turnagain of Franklin with the discoveries Parry's made by Parry during his second voyage; but the Third first effort, under Captain Lyon in the " Griper," was Voyage. unsuccessful. In 1824 three combined attempts were organized. While Parry again entered by Lancaster Sound and pushed down a great opening he had seen to the south named Prince Regent Inlet, Captain Beechey was to enter Bering Strait, and Franklin was to make a second journey by land to the shores of Arctic America. Parry was unfortunate, but Beechey entered Bering Strait in the " Blossom " in August 1826, and extended our knowledge as far as Point Barrow Franklin's in 71 23' 30" N. lat. Franklin, in 1825-1826, deSecond scended the Mackenzie river to its mouth, and exJoumey. pi ore{ j the coast for 374 m. to the westward; while Dr Richardson discovered the shore between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine, and sighted land to the northward, named by him Wollaston Land, the dividing channel being called Union and Dolphin Strait. They returned in the autumn of 1826.

Work was also being done in the Spitsbergen and Barents Seas. From 1821 to 1824 the Russian Captain Lutke was ^ surveying the west coast of Novaya Zemlya as far as Cape Nassau, and examining the ice of the adjacent sea. In May 1823 the " Griper " sailed, under the command Oaverin ^ Captain Clavering, to convey Captain Sabine to * the polar regions in order to make pendulum observations. Clavering pushed through the ice in 75 30' N., Oraan.

The Rosses.

and succeeded in reaching the east coast of Greenland, where observations were taken on Pendulum Island. He charted the coast-line from 76 to 72 N.

In Parry's attempt to reach the pole from the northern coast of Spitsbergen by means of sledge-boats (see PARRY), the highest latitude reached was 82 45' N., and the attempt was persevered in until it was found that the ice as a whole was drifting to the south more rapidly than it was possible to travel over it to the north.

In 1829 the Danes undertook an interesting piece of exploration on the east coast of Greenland. Captain Graah of the Danish navy rounded Cape Farewell in boats, with four Europeans and twelve Eskimo. He advanced as far as 65 18' N. on the east coast, where he was stopped by an insurmountable barrier of ice. He wintered in 63 22' N., and returned to the settlements on the. west side of Greenland in 1830.

In the year 1829 Captain John Ross, with his nephew James Clark Ross, having been furnished with funds by a wealthy distiller named Felix Booth, undertook a private expedition of discovery in a small vessel called the " Victory. " Ross proceeded down Prince Regent Inlet to the Gulf of Boothia, and wintered on the eastern side of a land named by him Boothia Felix. In the course of exploring excursions during the summer months James Ross crossed the land and discovered the position of the north magnetic pole on the western side of it, on the 1st of June 1831. He also discovered a land to the westward of Boothia which he named King William Land, and the northern shore of which he examined. The most northern point was called Cape Felix, and thence the coast trended southwest to Victory Point. The Rosses could not get their little vessel out of its winter quarters. They passed three winters there, and then fell back on the stores at Fury Beach, where they passed their fourth winter, 1832-1833. Eventually they were picked up by a whaler in Barrow Strait, and brought home. Great anxiety was naturally felt at their prolonged absence, and in 1833 Sir George Back, with Dr Richard King as a companion, set out by land in search of the missing explorers. Wintering at the Great Slave Lake, they left Fort Reliance on the 7th of June 1834, and descended the Great Fish river for 530 m. The mouth was reached in 67 n' N., and then the want of supplies obliged them to return. In 1836 Sir George Back was sent, at the suggestion of the Royal Geographical Society, to proceed to Repulse Bay in his ship, the " Terror, " and then to cross an assumed isthmus and examine the coastline thence to the mouth of the Great Fish river; but the ship was obliged to winter in the drifting pack, and was brought home in a sinking condition.

The tracing of the polar shores of America was completed by the Hudson's Bay Company's servants. In June 1837 Thomas Simpson and P. W. Dease left Chippewyan, reached the mouth of the Mackenzie, and connected that position with Point Barrow, which had been discovered by the " Blossom " in 1826. In 1839 Simpson passed Cape Turnagain of Franklin, tracing the coast eastward so as to connect with Back's work at the mouth of the Great Fish river. He landed at Montreal Island in the mouth of that river, and then advanced eastward as far as Castor and Pollux river, his farthest eastern point. On his return he travelled along the north side of the channel, the south shore of the King William Island discovered by James Ross. The southwestern point of this island was named Cape Herschel, and there Simpson built a cairn on the 26th of August 1839. Little remained to do in order to complete the delineation of the northern shores of the American continent, and this task was entrusted to Dr John Rae, a Hudson's Bay factor, in 1846. He went in boats to Repulse Bay, where he wintered in a stone hut nearly on the Arctic Circle; and there he and his six Orkney men maintained themselves on the deer they shot. During the spring of 1847 Dr Rae explored on foot the shores of a great gulf having 700 m. of coast-line. He thus connected the work of Parry, at the mouth of Fury and Hecla Back.

Rae.

Mitltlcndorf.

Strait, with the work of Ross on the coast of Boothia, proving that Boothia was part of the American continent.

While British explorers were thus working hard to solve some of the geographical problems relating to Arctic America, the Russians were similarly engaged in Siberia. In 1821 Lieut. P. F. Anjou made a complete survey of the New Siberia Islands, and came to the conclusion that it was not possible to advance far from them in a northerly direction, owing to the thinness of the ice and to open water existing within 20 or 30 m. Baron Wrangell prosecuted similar investigations from the mouth of the Kolyma between 1820 and 1823. He made four journeys with dog sledges, exploring the coast between Cape Chelagskoi and the Kolyma, and making attempts to extend his journeys to some distance from the land, but he was always stopped by thin ice. , In 1843 Middendorf was sent to explore the region 'which terminates in Cape Chelyuskin. He reached Taimyr Bay in the height of the short summer, whence he saw open water and no ice blink in any direction. The whole arctic shore of Siberia had now been explored and delineated, but no vessel had yet rounded the extreme northern point.

The success of Sir James Ross's Antarctic expedition and the completion of the northern coast-line of America by the Hudson's Bay Company's servants gave rise in 1845 to a fresh Ev"eeHMo/i attempt to make the passage from Lancaster Sound to Bering Strait. The story of the unhappy expedition of Sir John Franklin, in the " Erebus " and " Terror," is told under FRANKLIN; but some geographical details may be given here. The heavy polar ice flows south-east between Melville and Baring Islands, down M'Clintock Channel, and impinges on the north-west coast of King William Land. It was this branch from the " palaeocrystic " sea which finally stopped the progress of Franklin's expedition. On leaving the winter quarters at Beechey Island in 1846 Franklin found a channel leading south, along the western shore of the land of North Somerset discovered by Parry in 1819. If he could reach the channel on the American coast, he knew that he would be able to make his way along it to Bering Strait. This channel, now called Peel Sound, pointed directly to the south. He sailed down it towards King William Island, with land on both sides. But directly the southern point of the western land was passed and no longer shielded the channel, the great ice stream from Melville Island, pressing on King William Island, was encountered and found impassable. Progress might have been made by rounding the eastern side of King William Island, but its insularity was then unknown.

It was not until 1848 that anxiety began to be felt about the Franklin expedition. In the spring of that year Sir James Ross Scorch was sent w ith two ships, the " Enterprise " and Expedition; " Investigator, " by way of Lancaster Sound. He Ross. wintered at Leopold Harbour, near the north-east point of North Devon. In the spring he made a long sledge journey with Lieut. Leopold M'Clintock along the northern and western coasts of North Somerset, but found nothing.

On the return of the Ross expedition without any tidings, the country became thoroughly alarmed. An extensive plan of search was organized the " Enterprise " and " Investigator " under Collinson and M'Clure proceeding by Bering Strait, while the " Assistance " and " Resolute," with two steam tenders, the " Pioneer " and " Intrepid," sailed on the 3rd of May 1850 to renew the search by Barrow Strait, under Captain Horatio Austin. Two brigs, the " Lady Franklin " and " Sophia," under William Penny, an energetic and able whaling captain, were sent by the same route. He had with him Dr Sutherland, a naturalist, who did much valuable scientific work. Austin and Penny entered Barrow Strait, and Franklin's winter quarters of 1845-1846 were discovered at Beechey Island; but there was no record of any kind indicating the direction taken by the ships. Stopped by the ice, Austin's expedition wintered (1850-1851) in the pack off Griffith Island, and Penny found refuge in a harbour on the south coast of Cornwallis Island. Austin, who had been with Parry during his third voyage, was an admirable organizer. His arrangements for passing the winter were carefully thought out and answered perfectly. In concert with Penny he planned a thorough and extensive system of search by means of sledge-travelling in the spring, and Lieut. M'Clintock superintended every detail of this part of the work with unfailing forethought and skill. Penny undertook the search by Wellington Channel. M'Clintock advanced to Melville Island, marching over 770 m. in eighty-one days; Captain Ommanney and Sherard Osborn pressed southward and discovered Prince of Wales Island. Lieut. Brown examined the western shore of Peel Sound. The search was exhaustive; but, except the winter quarters at Beechey Island, no record was discovered. The absence of any record made Captain Austin doubt whether Franklin had ever gone beyond Beechey Island; so he also examined the entrance of Jones Sound, the next inlet from Baffin Bay north of Lancaster Sound, on his way home, and returned to England in the autumn of 1851. This was a thoroughly well conducted expedition, especially as regards the sledge-travelling, which M'Clintock brought to great perfection. So far as the search for Franklin was concerned, nothing remained to be done west or north of Barrow Strait.

In 1851 the " Prince Albert " schooner was sent out by Lady Franklin, under Captain Wm. Kennedy, with Lieut. Bellot of the French navy as second. They wintered on the east coast of North Somerset, and in the spring of 1852 the gallant Frenchman, in the course of a long sledging journey, discovered Bellot Strait, separating North Somerset from Boothia thus proving that the Boothia coast facing the strait was the northern extremity of the continent of America.

The " Enterprise " and " Investigator " sailed from England in January 1850, but accidentally parted company before they reached Bering Strait. On the 6th of May 1851 the " Enterprise " passed the strait, and rounded Point Barrow on the 25th. Collinson then made his way up the narrow Prince of Wales Strait, between Banks and Prince Albert Islands, and reached Princess Royal Islands, where M'Clure had been the previous year. Returning southwards, the " Enterprise " wintered in a sound in Prince Albert Island in 71 35' N. and 117 35' W. Three travelling parties were despatched in the spring of 1852 one to trace Prince Albert Land in a southerly direction, while the others explored Prince of Wales Strait, one of them reaching Melville Island. In September 1852 the ship was free, and Collinson pressed eastward along the coast of North America, reaching Cambridge Bay (Sept. 26), where the second winter was passed. In the spring he examined the shores of Victoria Land as far as 70 26' N. and 100 45' W. : here he was within a few miles of Point Victory, where the fate of Franklin would have been ascertained. The " Enterprise " again put to sea on the 5th of August 1853, and returned westward along the American coast, until she was stopped by ice and obliged to pass a third winter at Camden Bay, in 70 8' N. and 145 29' W. In 1854 this remarkable voyage was completed, and Captain Collinson brought the " Enterprise " back to England.

Meanwhile M'Clure in the " Investigator " had passed the winter of 1850-1851 at the Princess Royal Islands, only 30 m. from Barrow Strait. In October M'Clure ascended a hill whence he could see the frozen surface of Barrow Strait, which was navigated by Parry in 1819-1820. Thus, like the survivors of Franklin's crews when they reached Cape Herschel, M'Clure discovered a north-west passage. It was impossible to reach it, for the stream of heavily packed ice which stopped Franklin off King William Land lay athwart their northward course; so, as soon as he was free in 1851, M'Clure turned southwards, round the southern extreme of Banks Land, and commenced to force a passage to the northward between the western shore of that land and the enormous fields of ice which pressed upon it. The cliffs rose like walls on one side, while on the other the stupendous ice of the " palaeocrystic sea " rose from the water to a level with the " Investigator's " lower yards. After many hairbreadth escapes M'Clure took refuge in a bay on the northern shore of Banks Land, which he named the Bay of God's Mercy. Here the " Investigator " remained, never to move again. After the winter of 1851-1852 M'Clure had made a journey across the ice to Melville Island, and left a record at Parry's winter harbour. Abundant supplies of musk ox were fortunately obtained, but a third winter had to be faced. In the spring of 1853 M'Clure was preparing to abandon the ship with all hands, and attempt, like Franklin's crews, to reach the American coast; but succour arrived in time.

The Hudson's Bay Company continued the search for Franklin.

In 1848 Sir John Richardson and Dr Rae examined the American coast from the mouth of the Mackenzie to that of the Journeys Coppermine. In 1849 and 1850 Rae continued the search ; and by a long sledge journey in the spring of 1851, and a boat voyage in the summer, he examined the shores of Wollaston and Victoria Lands, which were afterwards explored by Captain Collinson in the " Enterprise. " In 1852 the British government resolved to despatch another expedition by Lancaster Sound. Austin's four vessels were recommissioned, and the " North Star " was sent out as a dep6t ship at Beechey Island. Sir Edward Belcher commanded the " Assistance, " with the " Pioneer " under Sherard Osborn as steam tender. He went up Wellington Channel to Northumberland Bay, where he wintered, passing a second winter lower down in Wellington Channel, and then abandoning his ships and coming home in 1854. But Sherard Osborn and Com. G. H. Richards did good work. They made sledge journeys to Melville Island, and thus discovered the northern side of the Parry group. Captain Kellett Kellett rece i vec i command of the " Resolute, " with M' Clintock in the steam tender " Intrepid." Among Kellett's officers were the best of Austin's sledge-travellers, M'Clintock, Mecham, and Vesey Hamilton, so that good work was sure to be done. George S. Nares, leader of the future expedition of 1874-1875, was also on board the " Resolute." Kellett pressed onwards to the westward and passed the winter of 1852-1853 at Melville Island. During the autumn Mecham discovered M'Clure's record, and the position of the " Investigator " was thus ascertained. Lieut. Pirn made his way to this point early in the following spring, and the officers and crew of the " Investigator, 1 ' led by M'Clure, arrived safely on board the " Resolute " on the 17th of June 1853. They reached England in the following year, having not only discovered but traversed a north-west passage, though not in the same ship and partly by travelling over ice. For this great feat M'Clure received the honour of knighthood, and a reward of 10,000 was granted to himself, the other officers, and the crew, by a vote of the House of Commons.

The travelling parties of Kellett's expedition, led by M' Clintock, Mecham and Vesey Hamilton, completed the discovery of the northern and western sides of Melville Island, and the whole outline of the large island of Prince Patrick, further west. M'Clintock was away from the ship with his sledge party for one hundred and five days, and travelled over 1328 m. Mecham was away ninety-four days, and travelled over 1163 m. Sherard Osborn, in 1853, was away ninety-seven days, and travelled over 935 m. The " Resolute" was obliged to winter in the pack in 1853-1854, and in the spring of 1854 Mecham made a remarkable journey in the hope of obtaining news of Captain Collinson at the Princess Royal Islands. Leaving the ship on the 3rd of April he was absent seventy days, out of which there were sixty-one and a half days of travelling. The distance gone over was 1336 statute miles. The average rate of the homeward journey was 23! m. a day, the average time of travelling each day nine hours twenty-five minutes.

Fearing detention for another winter, Sir Edward Belcher ordered all the ships to be abandoned in the ice, the officers and crews being taken home in the " North Star," and ' in the " Phoenix " and " Talbot," which had come out from England to communicate. They reached home in October 1854. In 1852 Captain Edward A. Inglefield, R.N., had made a voyage up Baffin Bay in the " Isabel " as far as the entrance of Smith Sound. In 1853 and 1854 he came out in the " Phoenix " to communicate with the "North Star" at Beechey Island.

The drift of the " Resolute " was a remarkable proof of the direction of the current out of Barrow Strait. She was abandoned in 74 41' N. and 101 n' W. on the 14th of May 1854. r On the loth of September 1855 an American wl sighted the " Resolute " in 67 N. lat. about twenty miles from Cape Mercy, in Davis Strait. She had drifted nearly a thousand miles, and having been brought into an American port, was purchased by the United States and presented to the British government.

In 1853 Dr Rae was employed to connect a few points which would quite complete the examination of the coast of America, and establish the insularity of King Willian Land. He went up Chesterfield Inlet and the river Quoich, Discovery. wintering with eight men at Repulse Bay, where venison and fish were abundant. In 1854 he set out on a journey which occupied fifty-six days in April and May. He succeeded in connecting the discoveries of Simpson with those of James Ross, and thus established the fact that King William Land was an island. Rae also brought home the first tidings and relics of Franklin's expedition gathered from the Eskimo, which decided the Admiralty to award him the 10,000 offered for definite news of Franklin's fate. Lady Franklin, however, sent out the " Fox " under the command of M'Clintock (see FRANKLIN). M'Clintock prosecuted an exhaustive search over part of the west coast of Boothia, the whole of the shores of King William Island, the mouth of the Grjat Fish river and Montreal Island, and Allen Young completed the discovery of the southern side of Prince of Wales Island.

The catastrophe of Sir John Franklin's expedition led to 7000 m. of coast-line being discovered, and to a vast extent of unknown country being explored, securing very considerable additions to geographical knowledge.

The American nation was first led to take an interest in Polar research through a noble and generous sympathy for Franklin and his companions. Mr Grinnell of New York gave practical expression to this feeling. In 1850 equipped two vessels, the " Advance " and " Rescue," " to aid in the search, commanded by Lieuts. de Haven and Griffith, and accompanied by Dr E. K. Kane. They reached Beechey Island on the 27th of August 1850, and assisted in the examination of Franklin's winter quarters, but returned without wintering. In 1853 Dr Kane, in the little brig "Advance," of 120 tons, undertook to lead an American expedition up Smith Sound, the most northern outlet from Baffin Bay. The " Advance " reached Smith Sound on the 7th of August 1853, but was stopped by ice in 78 45' N. only 17 m. from the entrance. Kane described the coast as consisting of precipitous cliffs 800 to 1200 ft. high, and at their base there was a belt of ice about 18 ft. thick, resting on the beach. Dr Kane adopted the Danish name of "ice-foot " (is fod) for this permanent frozen ledge. He named the place of his winter quarters Van Rensselaer Harbour. In the spring some interesting work was done. A great glacier was discovered with a sea face 45 m. long and named the Humboldt glacier. Dr Kane's steward, Morton, crossed the foot of this glacier with a team of dogs, and reached a point of land beyond named Cape Constitution. But sickness and want of means prevented much from being done by travelling parties. Scurvy attacked the whole party during the second winter, although the Eskimo supplied them with fresh meat and were true friends in need. On the 17th of May 1855 Dr Kane abandoned the brig, and reached the Danish settlement of Upernivik on the 5th of August. Lieut. Hartstene, who was sent out to search for Kane, reached the Van Rensselaer Harbour after he had gone, but took the retreating crew on board on his return voyage.

On the loth of July 1860 Dr 1. 1. Hayes, who had served with Kane, sailed from Boston for Smith Sound, in the schooner " United States, " of 130 tons and a crew of fifteen men. His object was to follow up the line of research opened by Dr Kane. He wintered at Port Foulke, in 78 17' N., but achieved nothing of importance, and his narrative is not to be depended on.

Hayes.

Hall.

Charles Hall (?..), in his first journey (1860-1862), discovered remains of a stone house which Sir Martin Frobisher built on the Countess of Warwick Island in 1578. In his second expedition (1864-1869) Hall reached the line of the retreat of the Franklin survivors, at Todd's Island and Peffer River, on the south coast of King William Island. He heard the story of the retreat and of the wreck of one of the ships from the Eskimo; he was told that seven bodies were buried at Todd Island; and he brought home some bones which are believed to be those of Lieut. Le Vescomte of the " Erebus." Finally, in 1871 he took the " Polaris " for 250 m. up the channel which leads northwards from Smith Sound. The various parts of this long channel are called Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel and Robeson Channel. The " Polaris " was beset in 82 n' N. on the sothof August; her winter quarters were in Thank God Harbour, 81 38' N., and here Hall died.

The Spitsbergen seas were explored during last century by Norwegian fishermen as well as by Swedish and German expeditions and by British yachtsmen. In 1827 the NorBxpiorers We 8' an geologist Keilhau made an expedition to Bear Island and Spitsbergen which was the first purely scientific Arctic expedition. The Norwegian Spitsbergen fishery dates from 1820, but it was only in the latter part of the century that Professor Mohn of Christiania carefully collected information from the captains who had taken part in the work when at its height. In 1863 Captain Carlsen circumnavigated the Spitsbergen group for the first time in a brig called the " Jan Mayen." In 1864 Captain Tobiesen sailed round North-East Land. In 1872 Captains Altmann and Nils Johnsen visited Wiche's Land, which was discovered by Captain Edge in 1617. In that year there were twenty-three sailing vessels from Tromso, twenty-four from Hammerfest, and one from Vardo engaged in the Arctic sealing trade, averaging from 35 to 40 tons, and carrying a dozen men. Exploration went on slowly, in the course of the sealing and fishing voyages, the records of which are not very full. In 1869 Carlsen crossed the Kara Sea and reached the mouth of the Ob. In 1870 there were about sixty Norwegian vessels in the Barents Sea, and Captain Johannesen circumnavigated Novaya Zemlya. In 1873 Captain Tobiesen was unfortunately obliged to winter, on the Novaya Zemlya coast, owing to the loss of his schooner, and both he and his young son died in the spring. Two years previously Captain Carlsen had succeeded in reaching the winter quarters of Barents, the first visitor since 1597, an interval of two hundred and seventy-four years. He landed on the 9th of September 1871, and found the house still standing and full of interesting relics, which are now in the naval museum at the Hague.

Between 1858 and 1872 the Swedes sent seven expeditions to Spitsbergen and two to Greenland, marking a new scientific Swedish era * n Arctic exploration, of which Keilhau had been Expeditions, the pioneer. All returned with valuable scientific results. That of 1864 under A. E. Nordenskiold and Duner made observations at 80 different places on the Spitsbergen shores, and fixed the heights of numerous mountains. In 1868, in an iron steamer, the " Sophia," the Swedes attained a latitude of 81 42' N. on the meridian of 18 E., during the month of September. In 1872 an expedition, consisting of the " Polhem " steamer and brig " Gladen," commanded by Professor Nordenskiold and Lieut. Palander, wintered in Mossel Bay on the northern shore of Spitsbergen. In the spring an important sledging journey of sixty days' duration was made over NorthEast Land. The expedition was in some distress as regards supplies owing to two vessels, which were to have returned, having been forced to winter. But in the summer of 1873 they were visited by Mr Leigh Smith, in his yacht " Diana," who supplied them with fresh provisions.

Dr A. Petermann of Gotha urged his countrymen to take their share in the work of polar discovery, and at his own risk he fitted out a small vessel called the " Germania," wey ' which sailed from Bergen in May 1868, under the command of Captain Koldewey. His cruise extended to Hin- lopen Strait in Spitsbergen, but was merely tentative; and in 1870 Baron von Heuglin with Count Zeil explored the Stor Fjord in a Norwegian schooner, and also examined Walter Thymen Strait. After the return of the " Germania " in 1868 a regular expedition was organized under the command of Captain Koldewey, provisioned for two years. It consisted of the " Germania," a screw steamer of 140 tons, and the brig " Hansa," commanded by Captain Hegemann. Lieut. Julius Payer, the future explorer of Franz Josef Land, gained his first Arctic experience on board the " Germania." The expedition sailed from Bremen on the 15th of June 1869, its destination being the east coast of Greenland. But in latitude 70 46' N. the " Hansa " got separated from her consort and crushed in the ice. The crew built a house of patent fuel on the floe, and in this strange abode they passed their Christmas. In two months the current carried them 400 m. to the south. By May they had drifted noo m. on their ice-raft, and finally, on the 14th of June 1870, they arrived safely at the Moravian mission station of Friedriksthal, to the west of Cape Farewell. Fairer fortune attended the " Germania." She sailed up the east coast of Greenland as far as 75 30' N., and eventually wintered at the Pendulum Islands of Clavering in 74 30' N. In March 1870 a travelling party set out under Koldewey and Payer, and reached a distance of too m. from the ship to the northward, when want of provisions compelled them to return. A grim cape, named after Prince Bismarck, marked the northern limit of their discoveries. As soon as the vessel was free, a deep branching fjord, named Franz Josef Fjord, was discovered in 73 15' N. stretching for a long distance into the interior of Greenland. The expedition returned to Bremen on the nth of September 1870.

Lieut. Payer was resolved to continue in the path of polar discovery. He and the naval officer Weyprecht chartered a Norwegian schooner called the " Isbjorn," and examined the edge of the ice between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, in the summer of 1871. Their observations led them to select the route by the north end of Novaya Zemlya with a view to making the north-east passage. It was to be an Austro-Hungarian expedition, and the idea was seized with enthusiasm by the whole monarchy. Weyprecht was to command the ship, while Julius Payer conducted the sledge parties. The steamer " Tegethoff," of 300 tons, was fitted out in the Elbe, and left Tromso on the 14th of July 1872. The season was severe, and the vessel was closely beset near Cape Nassau, at the northern end of Novaya Zemlya, in the end of August. The summer of 1873 found her still a close prisoner drifting, not with a current, but chiefly in the direction of the prevailing wind. At length, on the 31st of August, a mountainous country was sighted about 14 m. to the north. In October the vessel was drifted within 3 rn. of an island lying off the main mass of land. Payer landed on it, and found the latitude to be 79 54' N. It was named after Count Wilczek, one of the warmest friends of the expedition. Here the second winter was passed. Bears were numerous and sixty-seven were killed, their meat proving to be an efficient preventive of scurvy. In March 1874 Payer made a preliminary sledge journey in intense cold (thermometer at -58 F.). On the 24th of March he started for a more prolonged journey of thirty days. Payer believed that the newly discovered country equalled Spitsbergen in extent, and described it as consisting of two or more large masses Wilczek Land to the east, Zichy Land to the west, intersected by numerous fjords and skirted by a large number of islands. A wide channel, named Austria Sound, was supposed to separate the two main masses of land, and extend to 82 N. The whole country was named Franz Josef Land. Payer's large land-masses have by later discoveries been broken up into groups of islands and much of the land he thought he saw towards the east was found by Nansen not to exist. Payer returned to the " Tegethoff " on the 24th of April; and a third journey was undertaken to explore a large island named after M'Clintock. It then became necessary to abandon the ship and attempt a retreat in boats. This perilous voyage was commenced on the 20th of May. Three boats stored with provisions were placed on sledges. It wa.s not until the 14th of August that they reached the edge of the pack in 77 40' N., and launched the boats. Eventually they were picked up by a Russian schooner and arrived at Vardo on the 3rd of September 1874.

One of the most interesting problems connected with the physical geography of the polar regions is the actual condition of the vast elevated interior of Greenland, which is one enormous glacier. In 1867 Mr Edward Whymper planned an expedition to solve the question, and went to Greenland, accompanied by Dr Robert Brown; but their progress was stopped, after going a short distance over the ice, by the breaking down of the dog-sledges. The expedition brought home geological and natural history collections of value. Dr H. Rink, for many years royal inspector of South Greenland and the most distinguished authority on all Greenlandic questions, also visited the inland ice. An important inland journey was undertaken by Norden- Professor A. E. Nordenskiold in 1870, accompanied skitiidia by Dr Berggren, professor of botany at Lund. The Greenland, difficulty of traversing the inland ice of Greenland is caused by the vast ice-cap being in constant motion, advancing slowly towards the sea. This movement gives rise to huge crevasses which bar the traveller's way. The chasms occur chiefly where the movement of the ice is most rapid, near the ice streams which reach the sea and discharge icebergs. Nordenskiold therefore chose for a starting-point the northern arm of a deep inlet called Auleitsivikfjord, which is 60 m. south of the discharging glacier at Jakobshavn and 240 north of that at Godthaab. He commenced his inland journey on the i gth of July. The party consisted of himself, Dr Berggren, and two Greenlanders; and they advanced 30 m. over the glaciers to a height of 2200 ft. above the sea.

The gallant enterprises of other countries rekindled the zeal of Great Britain for Arctic discovery; and in 1874 the prime British minister announced that an expedition would be Expedition despatched in the following year. Two powerful o//A75. steamers, the " Alert " and " Discovery," were selected for the service, and Captain George S. Nares was recalled from the " Challenger " expedition to act as leader. Commander Albert H. Markham, who had made a cruise up Baffin Bay and Barrow Strait in a whaler during the previous year, Lieut. Pelham Aldrich, an accomplished surveyor, and Captain Hanry Wemyss Feilden, R.A., as naturalist, were also in the " Alert." The " Discovery " was commanded by Captain Henry F. Stephenson, with Lieut. Lewis A. Beaumont as first lieutenant. The expedition left Portsmouth on the 29th of May 1875, and entered Smith Sound in the last days of July. After much difficulty with drifting ice Lady Franklin Bay was reached in 81 44' N., where the " Discovery " was established in winter quarters. The " Alert " pressed onwards, and reached the edge of the heavy ice named by Nares the palaeocrystic sea, the ice-floes being from 80 to 100 ft. in thickness. Leaving Robeson Channel, the vessel made progress between the land and the grounded floe pieces, and passed the winter off the open coast and facing the great polar pack, in 82 27' N. Autumn travelling parties were despatched in September and October to lay out dep&ts; and during the winter a complete scheme was matured for the examination of as much of the unknown area as possible, by the combined efforts of sledging parties from the two ships, in the ensuing spring. The parties started on the 3rd of April 1876. Captain Markham with Lieut. Parr advanced, in the face of great difficulties, over the polar pack to the latitude of 83 20' N. Lieut. Aldrich explored the coast-line to the westward, facing the frozen polar ocean, for a distance of 220 m. Lieut. Beaumont made discoveries of great interest along the northern coast of Greenland. The parties were attacked by scurvy, which increased the difficulty and hardships of the work a hundredfold. The expedition returned to England in October 1876. The " Alert " reached a higher latitude and wintered farther north than any ship had ever done before. The results of the expedition were the discovery of 300 m. of new coast line, the examination of part of the frozen polar ocean, a series of meteorological, magnetic and tidal observations at two points farther north than any such Dutch Expeditions.

observations had ever been taken before, and large geological and natural history collections.

In the same year 1875 Sir Allen Young undertook a voyage in his steam yacht the " Pandora " to attempt to force his way down Peel Sound to the magnetic pole, and if possible Voyages to make the north-west passage by rounding the of the eastern shore of King William Island. The ' ' Pandora " "Pandora. " entered Peel Sound on the 29th of August 1875, and proceeded down it much farther than any vessel had gone since it was passed by Franklin's two ships in 1846. Sir Allen reached a latitude of 72 14' N., and sighted Cape Bird, at the northern side of the western entrance of Bellot Strait. But here ice barred his progress, and he was obliged to retrace his track, returning to England on the 16th of October 1875. In the following year Sir Allen Young made another voyage in the " Pandora " to the entrance of Smith Sound.

Lieut. Koolemans Beynen, a young Dutch officer, who had shared Young's two polar voyages, on his return successfully endeavoured to interest his countrymen in polar discovery. It was wisely determined that the first expeditions of Holland should be summer reconnaissances on a small 'scale. A sailing schooner of 79 tons was built at Amsterdam, and named the " Willem Barents." In her first cruise she was commanded by Lieut. A. de Bruyne, with Koolemans Beynen as second, and she sailed from Holland on the 6th of May 1878. Her instructions were to examine the ice in the Barents and Spitsbergen seas, take deep-sea soundings, and make natural history collections. She was also to erect memorials to early Dutch polar worthies at certain designated points. These instructions were ably and zealously carried out. Beynen died in the following year, but the work he initiated was carried on, the " Willem Barents " continuing to make annual polar cruises for many years.

In 1879 Sir Henry Gore-Booth and Captain A. H. Markham, R.N., in the Norwegian schooner " Isbjorn " sailed along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya to its most northern Gore-Booth point, passed through the Matochkin Shar to the east '"d Markcoast, and examined the ice in the direction of Franz ***" Josef Land as far as 78 24' N., bringing home collections in various branches of natural history, and making useful observations on the drift and nature of the ice in the Barents and Kara Seas.

In 1880 Mr B. Leigh Smith, who had previously made three voyages to Spitsbergen, reached Franz Josef Land in the polar steam yacht " Eira." It was observed that, while the Greenland icebergs are generally angular and peaked, those of Franz Josef Land are flat on the top, like the Antarctic bergs. The " Eira " sailed along the south side of Franz Josef Land to the westward and discovered no m. of coast-line of a new island named Alexandra Land, until the coast trended north-west. A landing was effected at several points, and valuable collections were made in natural history. In the following year the same explorer left Peterhead on the 14th of July; Franz Josef Land was sighted on the 23rd of July, and the " Eira " reached a point farther west than had been possible in her previous voyage. But in August the ship was caught in the ice, was nipped, and sank. A hut was built on shore in which Mr Leigh Smith and his crew passed the winter of 1881-1882, their health being well maintained, thanks to the exertions of Dr W. H. Neale. On the 21st of June 1882 they started in four boats to reach some vessels on the Novaya Zemlya coast. It was a most laborious and perilous voyage. They were first seen and welcomed by the " Willem Barents " on the 2nd of August, and soon afterwards were taken on board the "Hope," a whaler which had come out to search for them under the command of Sir Allen Young.

Professor A. E. Nordenskiold, when he projected the achievement of the north-east passage, was a veteran polar explorer, for he had been in six previous expeditions to Greenland and Spitsbergen. In 1875 he turned his attention to the possibility of navigating the seas along the northern coast of Siberia. Captain Joseph Wiggins of Sunderland was a pioneer of this route, Leigh Smith.

and his voyages in 1874, 1875 and 1876 led the way for a trade between the ports of Europe and the mouth of the Yenisei River. Nordea- In J une l8 75 Professor Nordenskiold sailed from skiaid and Tromso in the Norwegian vessel, the " Proven," reached the Yenisei by way of the Kara Sea, and dis"*** covered an excellent harbour on the eastern side of its mouth, which was named Port Dickson, in honour of Baron Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, the munificent supporter of the Swedish expeditions. It having been suggested that the success of this voyage was due to the unusual state of the ice in 1875, Nordenskiold undertook a voyage in the following year in the " Ymer," which was equally successful. By a minute study of the history of former attempts, and a careful consideration of all the circumstances, Professor Nordenskiold convinced himself that the achievement of the north-east passage was feasible. The king of Sweden, Baron Oscar Dickson, and M. Sibiriakoff, a wealthy Siberian proprietor, supplied the funds, and the steamer " Vega " was purchased. Nordenskiold was leader of the expedition, Lieut. Palander was appointed commander of the ship, and there was an efficient staff of officers and naturalists, including Lieut. Hovgaard of the Danish and Lieut. Bove of the Italian navy. A small steamer called the " Lena " was to keep company with the " Vega " as far as the mouth of the Lena, and they sailed from Gothenburg on the 4th of July 1878. On the morning of the loth of August they left Port Dickson, and on the i pth they reached the most northern point of Siberia, Cape Chelyuskin, in 77 41' N. On leaving the extreme northern point of Asia a south-easterly course was steered, the sea being free from ice and very shallow. This absence of ice is to some extent due to the mass of warm water discharged by the great Siberian rivers during the summer. On the 27th of August the mouth of the river Lena was passed, and the " Vega " parted company with the little " Lena," continuing her course eastward. Professor Nordenskiold very nearly made the north-east passage in one season; but towards the end of September the " Vega " was frozen in off the shore of a low plain in 67 7' N. and 173 20' W. near the settlements of the Chukchis. During the voyage very large and important natural history collections were made, and the interesting aboriginal tribe among whom the winter was passed was studied with great care. The interior was also explored for some distance. On the 18th of July 1879, after having been imprisoned by the ice for 294 days, the " Vega " again proceeded on her voyage and passed Bering Strait on the 20th. Sir Hugh Willoughby made his disastrous attempt in 1553. After a lapse of 326 years of intermittent effort, the north-east passage had at length been accomplished without the loss of a single life and without damage to the vessel. The " Vega " arrived at Yokohama on the 2nd of September 1879.

In 1879 an enterprise was undertaken in the United States, with the object of throwing further light on the sad history of the retreat of the officers and men of Sir John Franklin's expedition, by examining the west coast of King William Island in the summer, when the snow is off the ground. The party consisted of Lieut. Schwatka of the United States army and three others. Wintering near the entrance of Chesterfield Inlet in Hudson Bay, they set out overland for the estuary of the Great Fish river, assisted by Eskimo and dogs, on the 1st of April 1879. They took only one month's provisions, their main reliance being upon the game afforded by the region to be traversed. The party obtained, during the journeys out and home, no less than 522 reindeer. After collecting various stories from the Eskimo at Montreal Island and at an inlet west of Cape Richardson, Schwatka crossed over to Cape Herschel on King William Land in June. He examined the western shore of the island with the greatest care for relics of Sir John Franklin's parties, as far as Cape Felix, the northern extremity. The return journey was commenced in November by ascending the Great Fish river for some distance and then marching over the intervening region to Hudson Bay. The cold of the winter months in that country is intense, the thermometer falling as low as 70 F., so that the return journey was most Schwatka.

remarkable, and reflects the highest credit on Lieut. Schwatka and his companions. As regards the search little was left to be done after M'Clintock, but some graves were found, as well as a medal belonging to Lieut. Irving of H.M.S. " Terror," and some bones believed to be his, which were brought home and interred at Edinburgh.

Mr Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald, having resolved to despatch an expedition of discovery at his own expense by way of Bering Strait, the " Pandora " was purchased from Sir Allen Young, and rechristened the " Jeannette." Lieut, de Long of the United States navy was appointed to command, and it was made a national undertaking by special act of Congress, the vessel being placed under martial law and officered from the navy. The " Jeannette " sailed from San Francisco on the 8th of July 1879, and was last seen steaming towards Wrangell Land on the 3rd of September. This land had been seen by Captain Kellett, in H.M.S. " Herald " on the 17th of August 1879, but no one had landed on it, and it was shown on the charts by a long dotted line. The " Jeannette " was provisioned for three years, but as no tidings had been received of her by 1881, two steamers were sent up Bering Strait in search. One of these, the " Rodgers," under Lieut. Berry, anchored in a good harbour on the south coast of Wrangell Land, in 70 57' N., on the 26th of August 1881. The land was explored by the officers of the " Rodgers " and found to be an island about 70 m. long by 28, with a ridge of hills traversing it east and west, the 71st parallel running along its southern shore. Lieut. Berry then proceeded to examine the ice to the northward, and attained a higher latitude by 21 m. than had ever been reached before on the Bering Strait meridian namely, 73 44' N. No news was obtained of the " Jeannette," but soon afterwards melancholy tidings arrived from Siberia. After having been beset in heavy pack ice for twenty-two months, the " Jeannette " was crushed and sunk on the 13th of June 1881, in 77 15' N. lat., and 155 E. long. The officers and men dragged their boats over the ice to an island which was named Bennett Island, where they landed on the 29th of July. They reached one of the New Siberia Islands on the 1cth of September, and on the 12th they set out for the mouth of the Lena. But in the same evening the three boats were separated in a gale of wind. A boat's crew with Mr Melville, the engineer, reached the Lena delta and searching for the other parties found the ship's books on the 14th of November, and resuming the search at the earliest possible moment in spring, Melville discovered the dead bodies of De Long and two of his crew on the 23rd of March 1882. They had perished from exhaustion and want of food. Three survivors of De Long's party had succeeded in making their way to a Siberian village; but the third boat's crew was lost. The " Rodgers " was burnt in its winter quarters, and one of the officers, W. H. Gilder (1838-1900), made a hazardous journey homewards through north-east Siberia.

The Norwegian geologist Professor Amund Helland made an expedition to Greenland in 1875 and discovered the marvellously rapid movements of the Greenland glaciers.

The Danes have been very active in prosecuting discoveries and scientific investigations in Greenland, since the journey of Nordenskiold in 1870. Lieut. Jensen made a gallant attempt to penetrate the inland ice in 1878, Greenland, collecting important observations, and Dr Steenstrup, with Lieut. Hammar, closely investigated the formation of ice masses at Omenak and Jacobshavn. In 1883 an expedition under Lieuts. Holm and Garde began to explore the east coast of Greenland. In the summer of 1879 Captain Mourier, of the Danish man-of-war " Ingolf," sighted the coast from the 6th to the loth of July, and was enabled to observe and delineate it from 68 10' N. to 65 55' N., this being the gap left between the discoveries of Scoresby in 1822 and those of Graah in 1829. Nansen sighted part of the same coast in 1882. Lieut. Hovgaard of the Danish navy, who accompanied Nordenskiold in his discovery of the north-east passage, planned an expedition to ascertain if land existed to the north of Cape Chelyuskin. He fitted out a small steamer called the " Dymphna " and sailed from Copenhagen in July 1882, but was unfortunately beset and obliged to winter in the Kara Sea. In 1883 Baron A. E. Nordenskiold undertook another journey over the inland ice of Greenland. Starting from Auleitsivikf jord on the 4th of July, his party penetrated 84 m. eastward, and to an altitude of 5000 ft. The Laplanders who were of the party were sent farther on snow-shoes, travelling over a desert of snow to a height of 7000 ft. Useful results in physical geography and biology were obtained.

On the 18th of September 1875 Lieut. Weyprecht, one of the discoverers of Franz Josef Land, read a paper before a large meeting of German naturalists at Graz on the scientific stations" *'' resu l ts to be obtained from polar research and the best means of securing them. He urged the importance of establishing a number of stations within or near the Arctic Circle, and also a ring of stations as near as possible to the Antarctic Circle, in order to record complete series of synchronous meteorological and magnetic observations. Lieut. Weyprecht did not live to see his suggestions carried into execution, but they bore fruit in due time. The various nations of Europe were represented at an international polar conference held at Hamburg in 1879 under the presidency of Dr Georg Neumayer, and at another at Berne in 1880; and it was decided that each nation should establish one or more stations where synchronous observations should be taken for a year from August 1882. This fine project was matured and successfully carried into execution. The stations arranged for in the North Polar region were at the following localities:

Norwegians: Bossekop, Alten Fjord, Norway (M. Aksel S. Steen). Swedes: Ice Fjord, Spitsbergen (Professor N. Ekholm). Dutch: Port Dickson, mouth of Yenisei, Siberia (Dr M. Snellen). D J Sagastyr Island, mouth of Lena, Siberia (Lieut. Jurgens).

s - \ Novaya Zemlya, 72 23' N. (Lieut. C. Andreief). Finns: Sodankyla, Finland (Professor S. Lemstrom). A . ( Point Barrow, North America (Lieut. P. H. Ray.U.S.A.).

ncans - { 7xi<i;yFrawinBa;y,8i44'N.(Lieut.A.W.Greely,U.S.A). British : Great Slave Lake, Dominion of Canada (Lieut. H. P. Dawson). Germans: Cumberland Bay, west side of Davis Strait (Dr W. Giese). Danes: Godthaab, Greenland (Dr A. Paulsen). Austrians: Jan Mayen, North Atlantic, 71 N. (Lieut. Wohlgemuth).

The whole scheme was successfully accomplished with the exception of the part assigned to the Dutch at Port Dickson. They started in the " Varna " but were beset in the Kara Sea and obliged to winter there. The " Varna " was lost, and the crew took refuge on board Lieut. Hovgaard's vessel, which was also forced to winter in the pack during 1882-1883. The scientific observations were kept up on both vessels during the time they were drifting with the ice.

The American stations commenced work in 1882 and one of these furnished a rare example of heroic devotion to duty in face of difficulties due to the fault of those who should have brought relief at the appointed time. Lieut. A. W. Greely's party consisted of two other lieutenants, twenty sergeants and privates of the United States army, and Dr Pavy, an enthusiastic explorer who had been educated in France and had passed the previous winter among the Eskimo of Greenland. On the nth of August 1881 the steamer " Proteus " conveyed Lieut. Greely and his party to Lady Franklin Bay during an exceptionally favourable season; a house was built at the " Discovery's" winter quarters, and they were left with two years' provisions. The regular series of observations was at once commenced, and two winters were passed without accident. Travelling parties were also sent out in the summer, dogs having been obtained at Disco. Lieut. Lockwood with twelve men and eleven sledges made a journey along the north coast of Greenland and reached Lockwood Island in 83 24' N. and 42 45' W., the highest latitude reached up to that time. From this island at a height of 2600 ft. on a clear day an unbroken expanse of ice was seen stretching to the northward, the view extending far beyond the 84th parallel. A promontory of the north coast of Greenland seen to the north-east in 83 35' N. was named Cape Washington. Vegetation was found at the extreme position and animal life was represented by foxes, hares, lemmings and ptarmigan. The party returned to Fort Conger on the 1st of June 1882 after an absence of 59 days. Greely made two journeys westward into the interior of Grinnell Land following up the northern branch of Chandler Fjord to a great sheet of frozen fresh water, Hazen Lake, with an area of about 500 sq. m. Beyond this, 175 m. from Fort Conger, he climbed Mt Arthur, 4500 ft., the highest summit of Grinnell Land, and saw distant mountains beyond a fjord to the southwest. In the spring of 1883 Lockwood made still, more extensive journeys, crossing Grinnell Land to Greely Fjord, which entered the western sea. The central depression of Grinnell Land abounded in musk oxen and was free from ice, though the higher land to north and south lay under permanent ice-caps. Important as these geographical discoveries were, the main object of the expedition was the series of scientific observations at the headquarters, and these were carried out during the whole period with the most scrupulous exactness. As neither the relief ship which was to have been despatched in 1882, nor that in 1883, sent the expected relief to the station at Fort Conger, Lieut. Greely started from Lady Franklin Bay with his men in a steam launch and three boats on the 9th of August, expecting to find a vessel in Smith Sound. The boats were beset and had to be abandoned, the party reaching the shore across the ice with great difficulty, carrying their supplies of food, now rapidly diminishing. On the 21st of October 1883 they were obliged to encamp at Cape Sabine, on the western shore of Smith Sound, and build a hut for wintering. A few dep6ts were found, which had been left by Sir George Nares and Lieut. Beebe, but all supplies were exhausted before the spring. Then came a time of indescribable misery and acute suffering. The party proved insubordinate and the sternest measures were required to maintain military discipline. When the Sun returned in 1884 the poor fellows began to die of actual starvation; but it was not until the 22nd of June 1884 that the relieving steamers " Thetis " and " Bear " reached Cape Sabine. Lieut. Greely and six suffering companions were found just alive, but with all their scientific records, their instruments in order and the great collections of specimens intact. The failure of the relief expeditions to overcome difficulties which were child's play to what Greely and his companions had come through only enhances the splendid courage and determination of the heroic survivors.

Danish expeditions under Lieut. G. Holm explored the east coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell northwards in Eskimo boats between 1883 and 1885, and at Angmagssalik they encountered a tribe of Eskimo who had never seen white men before. Lieut. Ryder and Lieut. T. V. Garde continued the exploration of East Greenland, and Ryder explored the great Scoresby Fjord. Captain Holm established a missionary and meteorological station at Angmagssalik Fjord in 1894, from which the Danish government take charge of the Eskimo of that region. In 1892-1893 an expedition sent out by the Berlin Geographical Society under Dr Erich von Drygalski studied the ice formations on the west of Greenland.

In July 1886 Lieut. Robert E. Peary, civil engineer, U.S. Navy, accompanied by the Dane Christian Maigaard, made a journey on the inland ice of Greenland eastward from Disco Bay in about 69 30' N. They reached a height of Peary ana 7500 ft., when according to Peary's observations Neaseaia they were 100 m. from the coast, and then re- Oneoitad. turned. Dr Fridtjof Nansen with Otto Sverdrup and five other companions, after overcoming great difficulties in penetrating the ice-floes, succeeded in landing on the east coast of Greenland in August 1888 in 64 23' N. and reached a height of 8920 ft. on the inland ice, which was crossed on ski to the west coast. The interior was found to be a nearly flat plateau of snow resembling a frozen ocean, and at the high altitude of more than 8000 ft. the cold was intense. The crossing occupied more than two weeks, and the party not having dogs had themselves to haul all their gear on sledges. As they approached the western edge of the ice their progress was checked by dangerous crevasses; but on the 26th of September they succeeded in reaching the west coast at the head of the Ameralik Fjord in 64 12' N., having traversed 260 m. of glacier. Nansen discovered that in that latitude the inland ice of Greenland has the form of a huge shield rising rather rapidly but regularly from the east coast to nearly 9000 ft., flat and even in the middle and falling again regularly toward the western side, completely enveloping the land. An important principle acted on for the first time in Arctic travel on this journey was that of starting from the less accessible side and pushing straight through with no possibility of turning back, and thus with no necessity for forming a base or traversing the same route twice over.

Peary spent the winter of 1891-1892 at Inglefield Gulf on the north-west coast of Greenland, Mrs Peary, Dr F. A. Cook, Eivind Astrup and a coloured servant Matthew Henson being in his party, and a large number of the Etah Eskimo in the vicinity. In April 1892 he set out for a journey across the inland ice to the north-eastward in the hope of reaching the east coast and also the northern extremity of the land. After getting well up on the ice-covered plateau a supporting party returned to winter quarters, while Peary and Astrup, with two companions and sixteen dogs, entered on the serious part of their work. The highest part of the inland ice was found to be about 5700 ft., and as usual after the first part of the descent, towards the northeast in this case, the surface was broken by numerous dangerous crevasses, progress amongst which was very slow. Great hardships were experienced from cold, insufficiency of food and the wearing out of sledges and clothes, but on the 4th of July, having left the ice and got on bare land in 81 37' N., where musk oxen and other game were found and flowers were growing, Peary was rewarded by a glimpse of the sea to the north-eastward, and named it from the date Independence Bay. He also traced a channel to the north beyond which lay a new land largely free from snow, no doubt the southern part of the island along the north of which Markham and Lockwood had travelled to their farthest north. The return journey to Inglefield Gulf was a wonderful feat of endurance, which was completed on the 4th of August ; the total distance marched on the whole journey out and home was 1300 m. Peary returned to northern Greenland in 1893, having spent the whole time between the two expeditions in writing and lecturing in order to raise funds, for he travelled at his own charges. He landed on the shore of Inglefield Gulf on the 3rd of August and wintered there with a party of thirteen, including Mrs Peary, and there their daughter was born. Astrup was taken ill after starting on the great journey in March 1894, which was to have extended the explorations of the previous year, and had to return; others were severely frost-bitten, disease broke out amongst the dogs, and a month after the start Peary was only 130 m. from his base and had to return. Peary with two of his party, Hugh J. Lee and Matthew Henson, remained at Inglefield Gulf for another winter, and on the 1st of April 1895, with deer and walrus meat in place of pemmican, the supply of which had been lost, set out for Independence Bay. They reached the ice-free land when their food was exhausted and fortunately fell in with a herd of musk oxen, the meat from which made it possible to get back to Inglefield Gulf, though without adding anything material to the results of 1892. The experience of ice-travel and of Eskimo nature gained in the four years' almost continuous residence in northern Greenland were however destined to bear rich fruit.

Dr Nansen, after making an exhaustive study of the winds and currents of the Arctic Sea, and influenced largely by the Nansen; occurrence of driftwood on the shores past which the Drift ol the ice-laden waters flowed southward between Green" /*." land and Spitsbergen, satisfied himself that there was a general drift across the polar basin and perhaps across the Pole. He planned an expedition to take advantage of this drift on the principle which guided his crossing of Greenland, that of entering at the least accessible point and not turning back, thus having no line of retreat and making a relief expedition impossible. He planned a ship, the " Fram," which was immensely strong, to resist crushing, and of such a section that if nipped in the ice the opposing ice-masses would pass under her and lift her on to the surface. The plan of the expedition was based on scientific reasoning, but the methods were totally at variance with those of previous explorers. Otto Sverdrup, who had been one of Nansen's party in crossing Greenland, was captain of the " Fram," and the party included eleven others, the whole ship's company of thirteen living together on terms of social equality. Nansen paid the greatest possible attention to the provisions, and all the arrangements for the health and happiness of those on board were carefully thought out. The clothing of the expedition was as original in design as the ship; instead of having furs, thick woollen underclothing was adopted, with a light wind-proof material for the outer dress. The " Fram " left Christiania in the summer of 1893 and made her way through the Kara Sea and along the north coast of Asia until on the zoth of September she was run into the ice in 77 30' N., off the New Siberia Islands, and the great drift commenced. As anticipated, she rose to the pressure of the ice and was borne on an even keel high above the water for the whole duration of the drift. The movement of the ice was irregular, and on the 7th of November the " Fram " was back at her starting-point, but on the whole the movement was north-westward until the 15th of November 1895, when the highest latitude of the ship was attained, 85 55' N. in 66 31' E., the meridian of the east of Novaya Zemlya; then it was westward and finally southward until the ice was broken by blasting round the ship in June in 83 N. lat.; and after being afloat, though unable to make much progress until the middle of July, the " Fram " broke out of the ice off the north coast of Spitsbergen on the 13th of August 1896. No ship before or since has reached so high a latitude. In all her drift the " Fram " came in sight of no new land, but the soundings made through the ice proved that the Arctic Sea was of great depth, increasing towards the Pole, the greatest depth exceeding 2000 fathoms. The great mass of water filling the polar basin was comparatively warm, indicating free circulation with the Atlantic. It was established that the ice formed off the coast of Asia drifted across the polar basin in a period of from three to five years, and the hypothesis on the truth of which Nansen risked his success was abundantly verified by facts. The ship's company all returned in perfect health. After the second winter on the " Fram " at a time when the northward movement of the drift seemed to be checked, Nansen, accompanied by Lieut. Hjalmar Johansen, left the ship in order to explore the regions towards the Pole by travelling on ski with dog sledges carrying kayaks. It was obviously hopeless to attempt to find the drifting ship on their return, and Nansen intended to make for Spitsbergen in the hope of meeting one of the tourist steamers there. A more daring plan was never formed, and it was justified by success. Leaving the ship on the 14th of March 1895 in 84 N. 102 E., they made a fairly rapid march northward, reaching a latitude of 86 5' N. on the 8th of April, the nearest approach to the Pole so far achieved. Turning south-westwards they travelled with much difficulty, sometimes on the ice, sometimes in kayaks in the open lanes of water, incurring great danger from the attacks of bears and walrus, but at length reaching a group of new islands east of Franz Josef Land. They travelled westward through this archipelago until the 28th of August, when they built a small stone hut roofed with their light silk tent, in which they passed the winter on a land since called Frederick Jackson Island. There they lived like Eskimo on bear and walrus meat cooked over a blubber lamp. The journey southward was resumed in the spring of 1896, and on the isth of June they met Mr F. G. Jackson, in whose relief ship, the " Windward," they returned to Norway. Nansen and Johansen reached Vardo on the 13th of August 1896 full of anxiety for the fate of their old comrades, when by a coincidence unparalleled in the history of exploration, the " Fram " was on that very day breaking out of the ice off Spitsbergen and the original party of thirteen was reunited at Tromso the following week and returned together to Christiania. On this remarkable expedition no life was lost and the ship came back undamaged under the skilled guidance of Sverdrup with a great harvest of scientific results.

Mr Frederick George Jackson planned an exploring expedition to attain a high latitude by the Franz Josef Land route and was supported financially by Mr A. C. Harmsworth (Lord Northjackson- cliffe). He was accompanied by Lieut. Albert Harmsworth Armitage, R.N.R., as second in command and six Expedition, scientific men, including Dr Reginald Koettlitz; Dr W. S. Bruce also was one of the number in the second year. The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition sailed in 1894, and was landed at Cape Flora, where log houses were built. In the spring of 1895 Jackson made a journey northward to 81 19' N., the highest latitude reached, and added considerably to our knowledge of the archipelago by discovering a channel between groups of islands west of the Austria Sound of Payer. He made numerous other journeys by land and in boats, and surveyed a considerable portion of the islands on which he landed, the most interesting being that of 1897, to the western portion of the group. The geological collections were of some value and the specimens secured indicated that Franz Josef Land and Spitsbergen were parts of an extensive land existing in Tertiary times. The expedition returned in 1897.

In 1897 and subsequent years a party led by Sir Martin Conway explored the interior of Spitsbergen. Dr A. G. Nathorst, the Swedish geologist, explored the eastern coast and off-lying islands, and made important observations on North-East Land, circumnavigating the Spitsbergen archipelago in 1898. In 1899 Nathorst visited the north-east coast of Greenland in search of Andr6e's balloon expedition, and here he mapped Franz Josef Fjord and discovered the great King Oscar Fjord in waters that had never been navigated before.

In subsequent years valuable surveys and scientific observations were made by the Prince of Monaco in his yacht "Princesse Alice," by Dr W. S. Bruce, notably on Prince Charles Foreland, and by others. Franz Josef Land was visited by the American explorer W. Wellman in 1898 and 1900, and his companion E. Baldwin in the former year made the discovery of several islands in the east of the archipelago. A wealthy American, W. Zeigler, also sent out expeditions to Franz Josef Land in 1901 and between 1903 and 1905, in the course of which A. Fiala reached the high latitude of 82 4' N. in the " America," but the ship was afterwards lost in Teplitz Bay. These expeditions added little to our knowledge of polar geography, but some useful meteorological, magnetic and tidal observations were made.

The Italian expedition under the command of H.R.H. Prince Luigi, duke of the Abruzzi, was the most successful of all those which have attempted to reach high latitudes by wav of Franz J sef Land - Embarking in the summer of 1899 on the " Stella Polare " (formerly the Norwegian whaler " Jason " which had landed Nansen on the east coast of Greenland in 1888) the expedition put into Teplitz Bay in Rudolf Land, where they wintered and there the ship was seriously damaged by the ice. In the spring of 1900 a determined effort was made to reach the North Pole by sledging over the sea-ice. The duke of the Abruzzi having been disabled by frost-bite, the leadership of the northern party devolved upon Captain Umberto Cagni of the Italian navy, who started on the nth of March 1900 with ten men (Alpine guides and Italian sailors) and nearly a hundred dogs. His plan was to sledge northward over the sea-ice, sending back two parties as the diminishing stores allowed the advance party to take on the whole of the supplies destined to support them on their way to the Pole and back. Before losing sight of Rudolf Island three men forming the first party started to return, but they never reached winter quarters and all must have perished. The second party went back from latitude 83 10' N., and reached their base in safety. Cagni pushed on with three companions, determined if he could not reach the Pole at least to outdistance his predecessor Nansen, and on the 25th of April 1900 he succeeded in reaching 86 34' N. in 65 20' E. Diminishing food supplies made it necessary to turn at this point, and although he had reached it in 45 days it took Cagni 60 days to return.. The advance of summer loosened the ice-floes, and the westward component of the drift of the pack became a more and more serious danger, threatening to carry the party past Franz Josef Land without sighting it. Fortunately Cape Mill, a headland of characteristic outline, was sighted just in time, and with this as a guide the party succeeded in reaching Teplitz Bay, having eaten the last of their dogs and been reduced to great extremities. At the farthest north no land was visible, the rough sea-ice extending to the horizon on every side.

As early as 1895 a scheme for an exploring expedition in a balloon was put forward seriously, and in 1897 the Swedish aeronaut S. A. Andree carried it out. He had brought a balloon to Danes Island, in the north of Spitsbergen, the previous year, but the weather was unpropitious and the ascent had to be postponed. On the nth of July 1897 he started in a new and larger balloon with about five tons of supplies and two companions. It was hoped that the balloon could be steered to some extent by the use of heavy guide ropes dragging over the ice, and Andree had already made successful flights in this way. Rising at 2.30 p.m. the balloon was out of sight of Danes Island in an hour. At 10 p.m. Andree threw out a buoy containing a message which was recovered, and this stated that the balloon was in 82 N. 25 E., moving towards the north-east at an altitude of 800 ft. above a rugged ice-field. This was the last news received, and although scarcely a year has passed without some rumour of the balloon having been found in Siberia or North America, nothing further has ever been ascertained.

In 1899 Admiral Makaroff of the Russian navy arranged for the trial trip of the great ice-breaker " Yermak," which he designed, to take the form of an expedition into the sea-ice off Spitsbergen. Though no high latitude was attained on this occasion he formed the opinion that a vessel of sufficient size and power could force a passage even to the Pole. The Russian- Japanese War put an end to the polar projects of this gifted man of science.

Captain Otto Sverdrup, who had been Nansen's companion on his two polar expeditions, planned an Arctic voyage for the circumnavigation of Greenland, and the " Fram " _ was altered and refitted to suit her for the work. Starting in 1899, he was obliged to abandon the attempt to get northward through Smith Sound, and making his way westward into Jones Sound he spent three years in exploring and mapping the portion of the Arctic archipelago which lay to the north of the field of labour of the Franklin search expeditions. Ellesmere and Grinnell Lands were shown to be part of one large land mass called King Oscar Land, which is separated by a narrow channel, Eureka Sound, from an extensive island named Axel Heiberg Land. Two of his party (Isachsen and Hassel) discovered and explored two islands west of Heiberg Land, and Dr Schei made most valuable observations on the geology of the whole of the district examined. Sverdrup's journeys cleared up a great deal of uncertainty regarding the geography of the least known portion of the Arctic archipelago, and leave little more to be done in that quarter. He brought the " Fram " safely back to Norway in 1903.

Many American whalers working in the sea reached through Bering Strait believe that land of considerable extent lies farther west than the Arctic archipelago, north of the mouth of the Mackenzie River, but neither the English traveller A. H. Harrison in 1905, nor the Dane Einar Mikkelsen in 1907, was able to find any trace of it, though the latter sledged over the sea ice as far as 72 N., where in 150 W. he got a sounding of 339 fathoms with no bottom. This depth makes it somewhat improbable that land exists in that quarter.

Russian surveyors and explorers continued to map portions of the Siberian coast, and in 1886 Dr Bunge and Baron Toll visited the New Siberia Islands and made known _^ _. the remarkable remains of mammoths which exist there in great numbers. In 1893 Baron Toll made an important geological expedition to the islands, discovering many well-preserved remains of mammoths and other extinct mammals and finding evidence that in the mammoth period trees grew at least as far as 74 N. Indefatigable in the pursuit of his studies, Toll set out once more in 1901 on board the " Zarya," hoping to reach Sannikoff Island, the most northern and still unvisited portion of the New Siberia group. In August 1902 he reached Bennet Island with the astronomer Seeberg and two men; he found the island to be a plateau about 1 500 ft. in elevation, and remained there until November studying the geological features. Nothing more was heard of the expedition, and a relief expedition in 1904, under Lieuts. Brusneff and Kolchak, failed to find any trace of the explorers beyond a record left on Bennet Island, which gave a summary of their movements up to the time of leaving the island.

In 1901 Captain Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, who had been mate on the " Belgica " in her Antarctic voyage, planned an expedition to the area of the north magnetic ' pole visited by Sir James Ross in 1831, in order to re-locate it, and as a secondary object he. had in view the accomplishment of the North- West Passage by water for the first time, M'Clure not having carried his ship through from sea to sea. A small Norwegian sealing sloop, the " Gjoa," the cabin of which measured only 9 ft. by 6, was fitted with a petroleum motor engine of 39 h.p. for use in calm weather and strengthened to withstand ice-pressure. She left Christiania on the lyth of June 1903 with a total company of six men, second in command being Lieut. Godfred Hansen of the Danish navy. She passed through Lancaster Sound and worked her way down the west side of Boothia Felix in August, and took up winter quarters in Gjoa Harbour at the head of Petersen Bay in King William Land. Here the little vessel remained for two years while magnetic and meteorological observations were carried out, and sledging excursions were made to the magnetic pole and along the coasts of Victoria Land, which was charted up to 72 N. In August 1905 the " Gjoa " proceeded westward along the American coast but was frozen in off King Point for a third winter. On the nth of July 1906 she got free, and after much difficulty with the ice reached Bering Strait on the 3oth of August and entered the Pacific, the first ship to pass from ocean to ocean north of Patagonia.

Danish explorers have continued to concentrate their attention on the problems of Greenland, and especially the geography of the east coast. Lieut. G. D. Amdrup, in a series of expeditions between 1898 and 1900, charted the coast-line as far north as 70 15' N., and made important scientific observations and collections. From time to time whalers reached the east Greenland coast at points in high latitudes. The duke of Orleans in the " Belgica," under the command of Captain Gerlache, made an important voyage in 1905, in the course of which he cruised along the coast of Germania Land between 76 and 78 N., and fixed the general outline of the land up to that latitude. This expedition did a large amount of scientific work, especially in oceanography. The stream of sea-ice which presses outwards from the polar basin every summer bears close against the east coast of Greenland, and exploration by sea has always proved exceedingly difficult and precarious, success depending very much on the occurrence of chance leads amongst the ice. Taking advantage of all previous experience, the most important of the Danish expeditions was planned by L. Mylius-Erichsen in 1905, the expenses being partly raised by private subscriptions and partly provided by the Danish government. He sailed in the " Danmark " in June 1906 and found winter quarters in Danmarkhaven, 75 43' N., where the ship remained for two years, while systematic magnetic and meteorological observations were kept up at the base and the main work of exploring to the northward was carried on by sledge. From existing maps it was believed that about 620 m. of coast separated the winter quarters from the northern point of Greenland, but when the sledge expedition went out in 1907 the coast was found to curve much farther to the eastward than had been anticipated, and the outward journey extended to 800 m. Having left the winter quarters on the 28th of March 1007, Mylius-Erichsen, with Captain Koch, Hagen, an educated Eskimo, Bronlund and two others, reached North-East Foreland, the eastern extremity of Greenland (81 20' N., 11 15' W.). Here they divided; Koch with Berthelsen and the Eskimo MyllusEricbsen.

Tobias went north-westward to explore the east coast of Peary Land, and succeeded in reaching the northernmost extremity of the land beyond Cape Bridgman in 83 30' N. From this great journey he returned in safety to winter quarters, arriving on the 24th of June. Meanwhile Mylius-Erichsen, with Hagen and the Eskimo Bronlund, followed the coast westward into what was believed to be the Independence Bay seen from a distance by Peary; this turned out to be a deep inlet now named Danmark Fjord. Keeping to the coast, they entered the great channel separating the mainland of Greenland from Peary Land, and surveyed Hagen Fjord on the southern shore and Bronlund Fjord on the northern shore of the strait. They had pushed on to Cape Glacier in 82 N. and 35 W. by the 14th of June 1907, within sight of Navy Cliff, which had been Peary's farthest coming from the west side, and here the softness of the snow kept them all summer. When they could travel, more than a fortnight was wasted adrift on a floe in the effort to cross Danmark Fjord. Here the Sun left them, while they were without food, almost worn out and more than 500 m. from the ship. It was impossible to attempt the long journey round the coast, and the only chance of safety, and that a very slender one, was to make a way southward over the inland ice and so cut off the eastern horn of Greenland which the expedition had discovered. Under the most terrible difficulties, with only four starved dogs, and their equipment going to pieces, they accomplished the feat of marching 160 m. in 26 days, and reached the east coast again in 79 N. Hagen died on the way; Mylius-Erichsen himself struggled on until he nearly reached the provisions left on Lambert Island on the northern journey; but he too perished, and only Bronlund reached the supplies. He was frost-bitten and unable to proceed further, and after recording the tragedy of the return journey in his diary, he died also alone in the Arctic night. His body and the records of the great journey were discovered in the following year by Koch, who started on a relief expedition as soon as travelling became possible. The results of this expedition are a splendid monument to the courage and devotion of the leader and his followers. The channel between Spitsbergen and Greenland was shown by their efforts to be far narrower than had previously been supposed, and the outline of Greenland itself was fixed for the first time, and that by an extremely accurate survey.

There only remains one further episode to bring the history of polar exploration up to 1910, but that is the crowning event of four hundred years of unceasing effort, the attainment of the Pole itself; and it was accomplished by the undaunted perseverance of one man who would never accept defeat. After the return of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, Lord Northcliffe presented the " Windward " to Lieut. Peary, who resumed in 1898 his systematic explorations of the Smith Sound region in the hope of finding a way to the Pole. He was not restrained by the precedents of earlier travellers and made some long sledge journeys in the winter of 1898-1899, having his feet badly frost-bitten and losing eight toes. Even this crippling did not stop his work. He wintered amongst the Etah Eskimo in 1899-1900 and next spring made a successful journey to the most northerly land north of- Greenland in 83 35' where the land had an abundant flora and fauna, and he pushed north over the sea-ice for twenty miles farther, reaching 83 54' N. Peary wintered again at Fort Conger in 1900-1901, and for the fourth year in succession he went through the Arctic winter, 1901-1902, at Payer Harbour. In the spring of 1902 he made a great journey to Cape Hecla in the north of. Grant Land and thence northward over the frozen sea to 84 if N. in 70 W. Frequent open leads of water and the moving of the ice-floes made further advance impossible, and after an unparalleled sojourn in the farthest north, Peary returned to the United States. The Peary Arctic Club of New York, formed to support this indomitable explorer, provided funds for a new expedition and a ship differing in some respects from those hitherto employed and named the " Roosevelt." In her he proceeded in the summer of 1905 through Smith Sound and the northern channels to Cape Sheridan on the north coast of Grant Land, Captain Robert Bartlett being in command of the ship. From this point he advanced by sledge to Cape Hecla, whence he made a most strenuous attempt to reach the North Pole. Organizing his large following of trained Eskimo, whose confidence in him had been won by many years of friendship, and his few white companions in separate parties, each complete in itself and well furnished with dogs and food, he set off at the end of February 1906. A very broad lead of open water was encountered in 84 38' N., and as the party did not carry kayaks much time was lost in getting across. The floes had a marked eastward drift and it was difficult to make progress northward; however, Peary struggled on by forced marches to 87 6' N., which he reached on the zist of April 1906, the most northerly point so far attained. His return journey was the most dangerous in his experience; many leads had to be crossed, sometimes on ice so thin that it bent beneath the weight of the explorers, provisions, were exhausted and the men were reduced to eating their dogs before they made land at Cape Neumayer in the north of Greenland, where game was found, and whence the return to the ship was comparatively easy.

Returning to America, Peary prepared for a last attempt. The " Roosevelt " was overhauled and various defects made Peary's good, but not in time for the summer of 1907. Journey to Leaving New York hi July 1908 the " Roosevelt," the North a g aul under the command of R. Bartlett, brought the party, with the Eskimo who were picked up on the way, to Cape Sheridan by the sth of September. During the winter all supplies were transported to Cape Columbia, farther west on the coast of Grant Land. Here there were ready to start in the first light of the Arctic day seven explorers, 17 picked Eskimo and 133 of the best dogs in Greenland with 19 sledges. As the outcome of all Peary's experience the expedition was arranged to consist of a lightly equipped advance party to select the route and make the trail by clearing a way through rough ice, and a main party composed of units of four men each with sledges containing all their requirements marching one day behind the pioneer party. From this unit parties were to return southward at intervals with the empty sledges, leaving the diminished main party to push on fully provisioned. The " big lead " which marks the edge of the continental shelf in 84 N. was crossed after some delay and here the sun appeared for the first time on the sth of March 1009. Dr MacMillan with three Eskimo and three sledges returned along the outward trail after the 7th of March from 84 29' N. A sounding at this point showed the depth of the sea to be 825 fathoms. After five more marches G. Borup turned back in 85 23' with three Eskimo and three sledges, the best Eskimo and dogs remaining with the main party. From this point the advance was regular; the pioneer party started from the snow-houses they had built and slept in when the main party arrived, and while the latter slept the pioneers marched, selected a camp, built new snowhouses, and slept till the main party came up. At 86 38' N. Prof. R. G. Marvin turned back, as usual with the three worst Eskimo and the worst dogs. His party reached the ship, but he himself was drowned in recrossing the " big lead," the only casualty of the expedition. At 88 N. Bartlett turned back on the 1st of April in accordance with the system with two Eskimo, one sledge and 18 dogs. Up to this point Peary had saved himself as much as possible, leaving the path-finding and the observations to his very competent colleagues; but now he put forth all his strength for the arduous 140 m. which separated him from the Pole. He was accompanied by Henson and four Eskimo. The ice improved as he went on and it was possible to do 25 m. in a daily march of 10 hours, and on one occasion 30 m. in 12 hours. On the 6th of April an observation gave 89 57' N., and here a camp was made and observations taken throughout 24 hours to fix the position, as well as excursions a few miles farther on and a few miles to right and left so as to be sure of actually reaching the Pole. No land was to be seen, and a sounding through the ice gave a depth of 1500 fathoms with no bottom. The American flag was hoisted; the goal of all the ages of exploration had been reached.

The return journey was quick and easy. The tracks kept open by the passage of the various return parties were distinct enough to follow, the snow-houses stood ready for sheltering at the end of each march, and a northerly gale kept the ice pressed well together and the leads closed. On the 23rd of April Cape Columbia was reached and soon after the party was safe on board the " Roosevelt." Success was due to the accumulated experience of twenty-three years' constant Arctic work, and to the thorough acquaintance with the Eskimo and their dogs, which enabled the best work to be got out of them.

Dr F. A. Cook spent two years in the Arctic regions, 1907-1909, and claimed to have reached the Pole by sledging alone with two Eskimo a year before Peary. He submitted the evi- p , _ dence for this achievement to the university of Copen- ' hagen, which failed to find it satisfactory, and Dr Cook did not appear to challenge this decision.

Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)

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