IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

1.0 £■» lii

«« lU 172

Sf Hi ^"

£ la 120

I.I

FhotogFEifdiJk]

Sciences

CarpoFation

as WHT MAIN STRUT

WRRSTRR,N.Y. USM

(7U)t7R^I01

'^"^\' ^
^^<^
^

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHIVI/ICIViH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Inatituta for Hiatorical Microraproductiona / Inatitut Canadian da microraproductiona liiatoriquaa

Technical and Bibliographic Not«s/l\lot«s techniques et bibiiographiquee

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
or^iinal copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographically unique,
which may alter any of the images in the
reproduction, or which may significantly change
the usual method of filming, are checked below.

D
D

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

r~n Covers damaged/

Couverture endommagAe

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurAe et/ou pelliculAe

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

Coloured maps/

Cartes gAographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

I I Coloured plates end/or illustrations/

Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
RellA avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La re liure serrie peut causer de i'ombrc ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intArieure

Blank leeves added during restorstion may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches aJoutAes
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte.
mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas «t« filmtes.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires supplAmentaires:

L'Institut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a At* possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exempleire qui sent peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la mAthode normale de filmage
sont indiquis ci-dessous.

D
D
D
El
D
H
D
D
D
D

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommagAes

Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restaurAes et/ou pelliculAes

Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages dicolories, tachetAes ou piqutes

Pages detached/
Pages dAtachtes

Showthrough/
Transparence

Quality of print varies/
QuaiitA inigale de I'impression

Includes supplementary material/
Comprend du matAriei suppl^mentaire

Only edition available/
Seuie Mition disponible

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been ref timed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont M fllmtes A nouveau de fa^on A
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

The co|
to the I

The imi
possibh
of the <
filming

Origine
beginni
the lesi
sion. 01
other o
first pei
sion. ar
or illusi

The las
shall CO
TINUEC
whiche

Maps. I
differer
entirely
beginni
right ar
requires
method

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est film* au taux de rMuotion indiqu* oi-dessous

10X 14X 18X 22X

26X

30X

12X

itx

20X

24X

28X

32X

The copy fllm«d h«r« has b««n r«produc«d thank*
to tha o*naroaity of:

Library Diviiioft

Provincial Archives of British Columbia

L'aKamplaira film4 fut raproduit grlca i la
OAnArositA da:

Library Division

Provincial Archives of British Coluntbia

Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha bast quality
possibia considaring tha condition and lagibility
of tha original copy and in Itaaping with tha
filming contract spacif ications.

Las imagas suhrantaa ont 4t* raproduitas avac la
plus grand soin, compta tanu da la condition at
da la nattat* da raxamplaira f ilmA. at mn
conformity avac las conditions du contrat da
filmaga.

Original copias in printad papar covars ara filmad
baginning with tha front covar and anding on
tha last paga with a printad or illustratad impras-
sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All
othar original copias ara filmad baginning on tha
first paga with a printad or illustratad impras-
sion. and anding on tha last paga with a printad
or illustratad imprassion.

Las axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura an
papiar ast imprimia sont filmis an commandant
par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la
darnlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'imprassion ou d'illustration. soit par la sacond
plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas
originaux sont filmAs wt commandant par la
pramiAra paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'imprassion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par
la darniAra paga qui comporta una talla
amprainta.

Tha last racordad frama on aach microficha
shall contain tha symbol — ^> (moaning "CON-
TINUED"), or tha symbol Y (moaning "END"),
whichavar applias.

Un das symbolas suivants apparaitra sur la
darniira imaga da chaqua microficha. salon la
cas: la symbols '-^ signifia "A SUIVRE ". la
symbols V signifia "FIN".

Maps, platas. charts, ate, may ba filmad at
diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too larga to ba
antiraly includad in ona axposura ara filmad
baginning in tha uppar laft hand cornar. laft to
right and top to bottom, as many framas as
raquirad. Tha following diagrams illustrata tha
mathod:

Las cartas, planchas. tablaaux. ate. pauvant Atra
filmte A das taux da reduction diffirants.
Lorsqua la documant ast trap grand pour Atra
raproduit an un saul clichA. il ast filmA A partir
da I'angla supAriaur gaucha, da gaucha A droita.
at da haut an bas. an pranant la nombra
d'imagas nAcassaira. Las diagrammas suivants
illustrant la mAthoda.

32X

.\..f?.<

¥'

ON THE

EXPLORATION

OV TUB

NORTH POLAR REGION.

THE PBOOEBDINOB OF THB ROYAL OBUOBAPHIOAL SOOI£TY,

AT THBm EVENINO MEETING, IK BUBLmGlON HOUSE»

ON THB 28n> JANUARY, 1865,

WBKM A PAPER WAS BBAD OK TBM ABOVB Bl^HnDOT,

By captain SHERARD OSBOBN, R.N., CB.

STB RODBRIOK I. MUROHISON, K.C.B., G.G.S^^S., D.OX.*

Ui.D., P.B.8., PBRSIDIirr R.«.8.,

Im thr Ciuib.

^'""'^V^OP^ffi-LSi. J

%0
i 07- 1 o

I.OMIilXI rHINTKI* IIV M-. C!IA)WKR AM» 80NII, .STAMFORU FTIIKKT,
ANP ('HAKIN<i ClinW.

ON THE

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR

REGION.

Thk ordinary livening Meeting (the fifth of the present Session) of
the Royal Geographical Society, held on the 23rd of January, 1865,
was attended by a largo concourse of members and their friends ;
the Paper of the evening being ' On the Exploration of the North
Polar Region,' b}' Capt. Sherard Osbom, r.x.

Amongst the audience wore M. lo (V)mte do Paris, Count
Strzelecki, the Earl of Donoughmore, the Earl of Sheffield, Lord
Duflferin, Lord Colchester, Capt. Sir John Dalrymple Hay, Bart.,
R.N., M.P., Admiral C R. Drinkwater Bethune, c.n.. Sir Henry
Rawlinson, k.c.b., Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., Admiral Fanshawe,
Capt. Sir F. W. Nicolson, Bart., r.n., Capt. the Hon. A. Cochrane,
R.N., CD., Capt. G. A. Bedford, r.n., Capt. E. A. I'orchor, r.n.,
John Ban-ow, Esq., f.r.s., John Lubbock, Esq., f.r.s. (President of
the Ethnological Society), John Crawfurd, Esq., F. Galton, Esq.,
F.R.S., W. Spottiswoode, Esq., f.r.s., &o. Ac, and the following
gentlemen who have served in the Arctic Regions : — General
Sabine (President of the Royal Society), Admiral Sir Edward
Belcher, c.b., Admiral R. Collinson, c.u., (Japt. G. H. Richards, r.n.
(Hydrographor to the Admiralty), Capt. Inglefield, r.n., Capt.
R. V. Hamilton, r.n., Capt. W. W. May, r.n., Capt. Aldrich, r.n.,
Staff Commander .1. E. Davis, r.n., Capt. Allen Young, r.n.r., Dr.
Rae, Dr. Domville, r.n., Dr. Donnet, r.n., Clements R. Markham,
Esq., Mr. Dean, r.n., <fec.

The ordinary routine business having been gone through, Capt.
SiiKRARD OsnoRN read as follows : —

Arctic discover)', however imperfectly treated, must always, I feel
sure, claim the attention of all true lovers of geography and
physical science, especially that of a Society which, in its present
prosperitj', represents the deep interest recently exhibited by all
grades of the public in the solution of the problem of a communica-
tion between the Pacific and Atlantic, and of the world-wide

n L'

pfTOQj

4 EXI'I,0!5AT10N OF THK NOUTII I'OI.AK REniON.

sympathy in the nohlo devotion by which that mystery was
solved.

I need not, therefore, offer an apology to the merabors of the
Royal Geographical Society for any cfl'ort npon my part to show the
perfect praclicabilit}' of an exploration of the blank space aronnd
our Northern I'olo, and to place beft»rc yt)U opinions entertained by
myself, and those of my brother Arctic explorers who do 7int
belong to the new school of "rest and be thankful" men, either in
science or naval achievement, and who arc no more j)repared to
turn their backs npon the Arctic Ifegions because Franklin died off
King William's Tiand, than you woidd wish them to do so to an
enemy's fleet, because Nelson fell at Trafalgar.

In the year 1818, I)affin's discoveries upon the one hand, and
those of Ik'hring upon the olher, with dots for the mouths of the
Mackenzie and ] I earn L'ivers, was all we knew of the strange
labyrinth of lands and waters now accurately delineated upon our
charts of the Artie Zone. Sailors and travellers, in thirty-six years,
have accomplished all this : not always, be it remembered, in well-
stored ships, sailing rapidly from point to point, but for the most
l)art by patiently toiling on foot, or coasting in open boats round
every bay and fiord. Sir Leopold j\Ic(.'lintock tells the Ifoyal
Dublin Society that ho estimates the foot explorations accomplished
in the search for Franklin alone at about 40,000 miles. Yet during
those thirty-six years of glorious enterprise by ship, by boat, and
by sledge, England only fairly lost one expedition, and 128 souls,
out of forty-two successive expeditions, and has never lost a sledge-
party out of about one hundred that have toiled within the Arctic
Circle. Show me upon the globe's surface an equal amount of geo-
graphical discovery, or in history as arduous an achievement, with
a smaller amount of human sacrifice, and then 1 will concede that
Arctic explomtion has entailed more than its due proportion of
suffering.

They who assert that our labours and researches have merely
added so many miles of unprofitable coast-line to our charts,
had better compare our knowledge of Arctic phenomena to-day
with the theories enunciated by men of learning and repute a
century ago. They should confront our knowledge of 18G4 with
that of 1800 upon the natural history, meteorology, climate, and
winds of the Arctic Regions. I'hey must remember that it was
there we obtained the clue, still unravelled, of the laws of those
mysterious currents which flow through the wastes of the ocean
like two mighty rivers — the Gulf Stream, and the Ice Stream ; they
must remember that it was there — in Boothia — that the two Rosses

KXPLORATIOX OF THB NOUTH POLAIl kKCJION.

y was

of tho
low the
around
nod by

do not
tlicr in
ftied to
iicd oir

to an

nd, and
3 of the
strange
pon owr
X years,
in well-
he most
s round
3 IJoyal
iplishcd
t during
oat, and
!8 souls,

1 sledge-
Arctic

t of geo-
nt, with
ede that
»rtion of

merely
chiirts,
a to-day
repute a
iG4 with
ate, and
,t it was
of those
hu ocean
,m ; they
ro Rosses

first reached the Magnetic Pole, that mysterious point round whi<;h
revolves tho mariner's compass over one half of the Nt)rtliem
hemisphere ; and let the world say whether the mass of ohservntions
collected by our (explorers on all sides of that Magnetic Pole huvo
added nothing to tho knowledge of the laws of magnetic declination
and dip. They should remember how, a few years ago, it was
gravely debated whether man could exist through tho rigours and
darkness of a Polar winter, and how wo have only recently dis-
covored that Providence has peopled that region to tho extreme
latitude yet reached, and that the animals upon which they subsist
are there likewise, in winter as well as in summer. All this, and
much more, should bo borne in mind by those cynics who would
have 3'ou believe wo have toiled in vain ; and I hold, with tho late
Admiral IJeechey, " that every voyage to the Noi-th has tended
to remove that veil of obscurity which previously hung over the
geography and all tho phenomena of the Arclic Kegions. liefore
th()«e voyages all was darkness and terror, all beyond the North
Cape a blank ; but, since then, each successive voyage has swept
away some glooniy superstition, has brought to light some new
phenomenon, and tended to the advancement of human know-
ledge."

I will not dwell upon the personal hardships or risks incurred —
they can be easily discounted at any Insurance Company in tho
City of London, and the privations are best appreciated by those
who have been sledging over the barren grounds of 7(>' x., and are
not scaretl by the recollection of cold fingers an«l banian days.
Men do not volunteer for certain death or starvation, and I can
only say that so popular is >\rctic service with our sailors, that I
am frequently asked by oK* "bipmates, " Are we g«»ing up that
way again, sir? Please don't a)rget I am a volunteer ! " Tho fact
is, more sailors have been thrown to the sliiuks from the diseases
incident to service in China and tho coast of Africa, within tho last
four years, than ever fell in thirty years of Arctic service, and our
seamen and officoi's know it. And, after all, the dangers of exploration
in the north are those common to like undertakings in all unknown
regions — Spoke and Grant seeking for the sources of tho Nile,
Burton at Ilarar, Freemont in the Siena Nevada, Livingstone on
the Zambesi, or 13urko and Wills in tho hungry wilds of Central
Australia, have all moments of as great peril as Kane ever endured
in Smith Soimd, or McClure passed through in Banks's Tiand.

I will, therefore, without farther preamble, deal with the points
which are the most important for our consideration.

EXPLORATION OF THE NOKTH I-OLAR REGION.

! I

First. The direction from which a Polar exploration Blionld be
undertaken with the least risk and greatest probability of success.

Second. The mode in which such an expluruiiou should bo exe-
cuted, and the scientific results likely to accrue.

We have before us a circumpolar chart. Mark the nearest known
points to the Pole — the extremes of Spitzbergon and North
Greenland. Let us first deal with Spitzbergen. Hakluyt Head is
about GOO miles from the I'ole : in the last century the whale fishery
was situated oflF that Cape, and wo have the concurrent testimony
of all those ancient fishermen to prove that the sea was often found
clear of ice for another hundred miles further north. 1 say,
therefore, that sailing-ships have been in that direction within 500
miles of the Pole. For the information of those more sanguine than
myself of the existence of open water at the Pole through the action
the Gulf Stream, I annex a table collated, by my kind friend Mr.
Markham,* from the data furnished to tho Koyal Society by the
Hon. Daines Bamngton, Colonel Beaufoy and others. You will
there find that stout old Dutch and English skippers vowed they
had been as far north as the 88"^, some to 83'^ n., and many into the
82^^ pai*allel: indeed one old sailor declared to Master Moxon,
hydrographer to Charles II. of glorious memory, that " he had
sailed two degrees beyond the Pole ! " but it is only fair to add that
this was said in dreamy Amsterdam, over strong Dutch beer.

I am content, however, to point to the position reached by tho
late Sir Edward Parry, in his boat expedition from Spitzbergen in
1827. There, at any rate, ho stood upon a floating sea of ice on the
night of July 22, 1827, being then in lat. 82^ 45' n., exactly 435
geographical miles from the I'ole. He was constrained to give up
the attempt simply because the ice was being swept faster to the
south than his men could drag their boats to the north. It was the
height of the Arctic summer, and all the ice-fields were in motion.
The experience of the last twenty years tells us that instead of
starting on such a journey in June, Parry ought to have wintered
in Spitzbergen, and started for the North in February ; and such is
tho perfection to which Arctic sledge-equipment is now brought,
that the weights would be infinitely less for the men to drag, whilst
the provisions would last months instead of weeks.

But there are great objections to any effort to reach the Polar
area by sledges from Spitzbergen. You will observe as yet no
known lands exist upon its meridian and to the north of the island ;

lS<.'i.' p 27.

i:XPLOKATION UK THE NORTH I'OLAR KKdlOX.

cnnsequently no fixed points for depots of proviNions: whereas, in
Smith Sound, we havo a starting-point 120 miles nearer to the
I'olc, and there is good ground for believing (as 1 will show) in
a further extension of continents or islands upon the meridian of
the^Auieriean and Greenland continents, which is not the case in
Spilzbergcn. For instance, the floes which drift down upon Spitz-
bergen from the north contain in their embrace no icebeigs prf»]>er.
This tells us that no extensive lands lie upon that meridian ;
fur the iceberg is a creation of the land, bom of a glacier, and not
of the sea : whereas these icebergs abound in Smith Sound ; and
the glaciers, as Kane advanced northward, appeared to increase
rather than diminish in extent, which would not be the case if the
land ended abruptly near the Humboldt Glacier, in 80° n. latitude.

Those vast accumulations of snow and fresh-water ice, and their
beautiful creations the iceberg, tell us of great lands with lofty
mountains and deep valleys retaining the moisture and snow-drift
of ages, and promise that continuity of coast-line, and that frozen
seaboard, which is only needed to enable our explorers to reach the
Pole in safety. Greenland, therefore, and not Spitzbergen, is the
direction I advocate. At the same time, do not jimip to the con-
clusion that there is nothing to reward the explorer in the direction
of Spitzbergen or Kova Zembla, for there is much yet to be seen
and done there in scientific research. The bugbear of Arctic navi-
gation is being gradually dispelled. ♦ A Cruise in High Latitudes,'
and * A Sejison among the Walruses,' encoui-age us to hope, that
where yachtsmen havo not hesitated to go for pleasure, and where
poor Norwegian fishermen yearly sail in almost open boats for
hides, ivory, and the more precious livers of Arctic sharks, which
produce, as you know, *' pure cod-liver oil ! " it is possible others
will yet wend their way for love of science, and add to our know-
ledge of the laws of electricity, light, magnetism, temperature, and
winds.

From Spitzbergen let us turn to Greenland. In the year ]85.'{
my lamented friend Dr. Kane entered Smith Sound, at the head
of Baffin liay, with his little brig, the Admnce. At that time I was
serving with Capt. liichards, the present Ilydrographer of the Navy,
in an expedition in Wellington Channel, under Sir Edward Belcher ;
Kellett and McClintock wore in Harrow's Straits, McClure had
just reached the waters of the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean,
CoUint^on and Ifae were in Victoria Land and Poothia, and Ingle-
field had just made one of his summer trips to Peechey Island.
There could not have been loss than four hundred Pritish subjects
within the Arctic seas. All our ships had been admirably found,

KXI'LOKATION OF THK NORTH I'OLAR REGION.

and our crews liveil in comparative comfort, for the resources of a
nation and a great navy had been placed at our disposal. Dr.
Kane's expedition was rather the result of private munificence, and
a generous impulse of individuals ; and it is only fair to Dr. Kane
to say, that never in our times has a navigator entered the ice so
indiflerently prepared for a Polar winter. With only seventeen
followers, two of them mutineers, without a steam-power for his
solitary vessel, without proper sledge-equipment, without any pre-
served fresh meat, and a great insufficiency of preserved vegetables,
and with only coals enough to serve for twelve months' fuel, the
only raarA'cl to mo is, that he ever returned to relate his sufferings.
They are only to be equalled by those of the navigator " James,"
in Hudson's Bay, two centuries earlier. God forbid that I should
bo thought to cast one reflection upon those warm-hearted Ame-
ricans who came nobly forward, and said, •' Wo too will aid in
Arctic enterprise;" but the fact is, that enthusiasm and high
courage without proper knowledge and equipment must, on such
service, infallibly lead to the suffering which Dr. Kane's followers
endured ; and it is tlutt which best explains how it was, that whilst
our sailoi-s, far beyond the present haunts of Esquimaux, waxed
fat and fastidious, Kane's poor followers had to eat the raw flesh of
animals to avert the ravages of scurvy brought on by a poisonous
dietary of salt-meat. ITiis much to meet the objections of those
who point to Dr. Kane's thrilling narrative with a view to frighten
us fiom Arctic exploration ; and I may add, that I know well that
chivalrous man never penned those touching episodes to frighten
men from high enterprise, but rather to caution us to avoid his
mistakes, and to show us how nobly the worst evils may be borne
when the cause is a good one.

The brig Advance entered Smith Sound, but departed from an
Arctic canon by keeping upon the eastern or lee-shore instead of
the western or weather-shore : she was quickly beset, and fell into a
bay sixty miles further on, out of which she never again sailed.

In the spring of 1854 a further exploration was accomplished, of
about 1 GO miles of the Greenland coast, and the western land was
observed for a still greater distance. The extreme of Greenland visited
was a point beyond a stupendous tongue of the great glacier, and
named Cape Constitution by the only man (Mr. Morton) who reached
it. This sailor could not get round the Capo because of water existing
at the base of the cliffs ; he could not scale the cliff, because it was
too steep ; what more there is, therefore, beyond Cape Constitution,
none of us know. Kane thought it the termination of Greenland.
I entirely dissent from so hasty a conclusion, because I cannot

EXPLOUATION OF THE NORTH POLAR RKOION.

'ces of a
Dr.
lee, and
>r. Kane

ice so
venteen

for his
iny pro-
;etableH,
uel, the
fferings,
James,"

1 shotild
d Amc-

I aid in
id hi^h
on such
^llowers
it whilst
, waxed

flesh of
oisonouH
of those
frigliten
veil that
frighten
void his
30 borne

from an
ibtead of

II into a
iled.

ished, of
and was
1 visited
ier, and
reached
existing
le it was
titution,
jenland.

cannot

believe that such a glacier as that of Humboldt, ever bearing the
hundreds of icebergs, which Kane tells us of, into the waters of
8inith Sound, was fed otherwise than by some extensive parent
glacier »<pread over a very great area ; and this proclaims, in my
opinion, a continuity of the Greenland shore, as there was, un-
doubtedly, land on the opposite side as far as Morton could see.

Scrambling up the face of Cape Constitution, to the height of
either 300 or 500 feet, Mr. Morton could see no ice to the westward ;
to which I attach small importance, never having mywelf seen floe-
ice from any altitude at a greater distance than 12 miles; but he
did see land rolling away to the northward, a bold but indented
coast, he thinks, with a fine range of mountains looming in the
interior. This land is appropriately named Grinnell Land.

English and American hydrographers are at variance as to the
assigned latitudes of Cape Constitution and C'ape Parry, the two
extremes discovered by Kane. I sincerely trust the American
computation will prove cori-ect. Cape Constitution will then bo in
81° 22' N., and the point seen on the west land would be in about
82° 30' N., or just 4.50 miles fi-om our Pole, a distance equal to thai
of the Land's Knd from Balmoral.

But in order that we may deal with the subject from its worst
point of view, I am prepared to accept the more southern positions
assigned to the extremes by Admiral Collinson, Captain George,
and Mr. Arrowsmith. They, as you will observe, place Cape Con-
stitution in lat. 80" 56' n., and credit Morton's vision with a range
of 60 miles ; fixing Cape Parry in lat. 81° 60' only, or a distance of
484 miles from the Pole. I accept this as the distance we have to
deal with, and declare that Cape and Grinnell Land as my assur-
ance of the perfect possibility of reaching the Pole.

Cape Parry is, as you see, a fixed point, more than a degree and
a half nearer to the Pole than Hakluyt Head, in Spitzbergen, and
therefore the best point of departure for the exploration of the great
unknown space before us.

The distance of Cape Parry to the Pole and back is just 968
miles ; a distance which has been repeatedly exceeded by our Arctic
sledge and boat parties since the year 1850, and far short of what
we subsequently accomplished, as I will presently show.

But, apart from mere proximity to the Pole, there are other con-
ditions which recommend this route to our consideration. It will
be remembered that at Cape Constitution a considerable extent of
water was found to exist in the early summer. Recent Arctic ex-
plorations have taught us that this is no great novelty. Dr. Kane,
however, believes it to be very extensive; but. as I have good

B 3

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

1 f'

reasons for being sceptical npon this point, and as the Pole is within
our reach whether Kane's Polynia he great or small, I shall not
nrge the facilities which open water offers to a boat-navigation.
The future explorer might hail open water if it were found to exist
along the shores of Grinnell Land ; but, if not, he would be well
satisfied with plenty of ice, and merely pray that the mainland or
off-lying islands should be found to exist as far as the 87th parallel.
And there is, I hold, more chance — far more <^hanco — of that
being the case, than of any open sea round our Arctic Polo.

But Kane's Polynia evidently exists where there is a far greater
abundance of animal and vegetable life than we have found to exist
round the water-holes of Regent's Inlet, Wellington Channel, or Lan-
caster Sound. The possibility, therefore, of future explorers of
Smith Sound being able to vary their dietary with the flesh of
deer, bear, seal, or wild-fowl, is an important recommendation to the
route in question.

In this meridian, too, we find human life extending to a higher
latitude than in any other known direction. A fine tribe of Arctic
savages was first discovered by Sir John Ross in lat. 75° 35' n.,
long. 65" 32' w., in his voyage of 1818. Ross christened this iso-
lated section of the gieat Esquimaux race, '* Arctic Highlanders."
Through his interpreter, Sackense, ho learnt that their tribe
dwelt to the northward of the great glacier of Melville Kay ; by it
they were entirely cut off from all knowledgo of anything in that
direction, and when Ross told them that his ship had come from the
south, they replied — " It was not true ; there was nothing but ice
there ! " Subsequent Arctic expeditions, as well as whale-ships,
have had intercourse with these people and so far conciliated them,
that instead of offering to kill Europeans, as they threatened in
1818, we find them in 1854 positively saving Kane and his followers
from starvation, and cheerfully sharing food and lodgement with
the poor sailors. Of this isolated group of the human family Dr.
Kane gives us a very interesting account. Having no boats, nor a
knowledge of how to construct them out of bones and seal-skins, as
other Esquimaux do, afraid to cross the two great ice-streams of
Melville and of Humboldt, these poor creatures inhabit a region,
between the prongs of the Greenland Glacier, which embraces
about GOO miles of coast-line, and they cannot penetrate far into the
interior, for there they said was the " Sernik Soak," or Great Ice
Wall I

Without any drift-wood, except a fragment of wreck at rare
intervals, the Arctic Highlander is compelled to use bones alone in
the construction of his sledge and weapons. The latter consist

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

s withiu
shall not
vigation*
I to exist

be well
nland or

parallel,
-of that

r greater
I to exist
, or Lan-
lorers of
flesh of
ion to the

a higher
of Arctic
5° 35' N.,
this iso-
tlanders."
eir tribe
ly ; by it
ig in that
from the
ig but ice
ale-ships,
lied them,
atencd in
followers
aent with
iimily Dr.
ats, nor a
L-skins, as
streams of
a region,
embraces
,r into the
Great Ice

k at rare
)s alone in
er consist

simply of knife, harpoon, and lance, bones lashed together with an
iron point or edge ingeniously fitted from fragments of meteoric
iron found in the country, or from scraps of iron hoops which reach
the coast upon the casks of wrecked whalers. Without a bow or
ari'ow, they are unable to kill reindeer or musk-oxen ; tLe former
range unmolested over the barren uplands at the base of the
glaciers ; and the art of fishing is likewise unknown, for Kane saw
lakes full of salmon trout which the Arctic Highlander could not
catch. With his spear and hai-poon, however, he slays the bear,
seal, and powerful walrus ; and in summer time nets vast quan-
tities of the little auk, a delicious morsel well appreciated by all of
us who have visited those Crimson Cliflfs of Beverley, as Eoss poeti-
cally named their haunts. These people are thus dependent for sub-
sistence upon the flesh of marine creatures, and consequently upon
the existence of broken ice, or open water near the coast, through-
out every season of the year. Without it they would all perish
in a single winter. But a Beneficent Providence has so arranged
it that from the action of oceanic currents, and the destruction
of the ice-fields by the large icebergs thrown off" from the glaciers
constantly sailing through them, there is always, even in the depth
of a Polar winter, some " North Water " to be found, and in it walrus
and bear. The land, as I have said, yields these Arctic fishermen
no animal food, neither can I discover an instance of their ever
having been seen to partake of a single herb, grass, or berry grown
upon the shore ; of vegetables or cereals they have, of course, no
conception, and I know of no other people on the earth's surface
who are thus entirely carnivorous. Kane says they must be an ex-
piring race. I can find no proof of it, though no doubt, like all
savage races, they are doomed to pass away or merge into those of a
superior organisation. Where Ross found the Arctic Highlanders in
1818, they exist in 1864, and from occasional contact with Euro-
peans have rather improved than deteriorated. All who have seen
them, and I am one, describe the men as square-built, hearty fellows,
deep chested, bass-voiced, and merry-hearted. Ready to fasten on
with their hai-poon to a fierce walrus, and, line in hand, struggle
for life with it upon the weak ice ; or, aided by their dogs, bring the
Polar bear to bay, and close in upon it with lance and knife ; yet these
poor savages showed in their kindness to the starving and not always
rational crew of the Advance^ that they were not deficient in the
nobler attributes of our common nature. Their women, good souls,
were tender and sympathetic in their quaint way, for it is not every
European mother who would lend a nice warm babe to make a soft
pillow for a weary traveller, as the ladies of Etah did ; and the

B 4

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

spinsters of Smith Sound were fair enough to win the hearts of
some on boai-d the Advance. Indeed more than one little scandal
related leads me to believe that, in spite of the stniggle for exist-
ence in 80° N., the unwashed, sealskin-clad beauties of Murchi-
son Sound have their little flirtations, as well as their sisters of
ampler robes in more southern climes. *' One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin ; " and I know nothing more strange in all
Arctic adventure than when Kane was escaping southward, to find
his faithful hunter, Hans, voluntarily abandoning'^him and;^turning
Arctic Highlander all for the love of Shanghu's pretty daughter — she
had gently tended him when injured in a walrus-hunt. The elope-
ment of the fond pair upon a bone-sledge, drawn by wild dogs, is
perfect as an Arctic love-scene ; but, unfortunately, Hans was
already a married man. *' Alas for Hans ! " Dr. Kane pathetically
observes. I say, " Alas for Miss Shanghu ! "

It has not been without a purpose that I have thus touched
upon the habits of the Arctic Highlanders. I have endeavoured
to show you that, though carnivorous creatures, they are, after all,
much as we are in other respects : it tells you that there, in Smith
Sound, inhabitants exist who have helped the European and can
do so again; and, above all, their existence is an incontestable
proof of an amount of animal life being found in that latitude
throughout the year and in all seasons.

Kane says that his Arctic friends would not carry him beyond the
Humboldt Glacier, and seemed to have no knowledge of lands to
the north. Yet Morton found a fragment of an Esquimaux sledge
on shore between that glacier and Cape Constitution. May it not
be that other Esquimaux exist there? and does not the question
occur to you. How far does human life extend in Smith Sound?
May it not reach much nearer to the Pole than even where Kane
found it in 80" n. ? So far as we know, the Arctic Highlanders
are confined to the Greenland shore ; and for our purposes of explo-
ration it would be well it were so. They would then be near
enough to aid as hunters and sledge-drivers, and not so close as to
endanger good order and discipline amongst a orew in hours of
trial or suflfering.

There is one more reason for preferring this route to any other,
viz., that the Danish settlements extend along the coast of Greenland
as high as 72° n. Kane in open boats carried off his men in safety
to Upei-navik, when it became imperative to do so ; other navigators
could do likewise, if any accident occurred to their ships in Smith
Sound. Trusting I have shown the right direction in which the
proposed exploration should be attempted, I will now sketch out

wise

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

the mode in which it should be carried out ; for the details would
be too technical and voluminous to interest all geographers.

An exploration of the Polar area should alwa3'8 be sent under
naval auspices and naval discipline. I have no faith in purely
private expeditions on such a service as this I advocate. We need
all the resources of a naval dockyard, all the especial knowledge
collected in various departments — whether in the preparation of
vessels, food, raiment, sledges, or equipment — to insure the work
being well and safely done. Wooden ships-of-war are now rotting
and sinking at their anchors in our arsenals; all the old ladies
round our seaports are cooking their tea with heart-of-oak from
poor chopped up gunboats. W^e don't want three-deckers, but you
might have them for the asking; you can be more modest, and
ask for something much smaller than wooden line-of-battle-ships.
Of course you will not expect the Admiralty to take the initiative
in such matters. Columbus would never have reached the new
continent ; the immortal Cook would never have made his voyages
round the world ; the illustrious names of Franklin, Ross, and
Parry would not have been added to the rolls of fame ; if you had
waited for past Admiralties to originate scientific research and
geographical exploration.

But 1 have no doubt men of science — men who think the Navy
and its officers and sailors exist for nobler purposes than to slay or be
slain — will find His Grace the Duke of Somerset just as amenable to
reason and healthy pressure aa former First Lords have been. The
Board, like other Boards, will, as good servants of the public, do
whatever the public calls upon them to do ; and it is by the action
of public opinion, directed by the men of science in this country,
that I hope to see a Polar expedition sent forth in this generation
under naval auspices. The Navy needs some action to wake it up
from the sloth of routine, and save it from the canker of prolonged
peace. Arctic exploration is more wholesome for it, in a moral as
well as a sanitary point of view, than any more Ashantee or
Japanese wars.

You are not going to educate us, work us up to the point of
nautical perfection, awaken hopes and ambition, and then give us
oakum to pick, or run us over the mast-head after top-gallant yards,
to keep down the spirit which intellectual progress has evoked.
The navy of England cries not for mere war to gratify its desire for
honourable employment or fame. There are other achievements, it
knows well, as glorious as victorious battle ; and a wise ruler and a
wise people will, I hold, be careful to satisfy a craving which is

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

the life-blood of a profession— indeed, 1 hold that it ought to be
fostered and encouraged.

Upon these grounds, as well as those of scientific results, would it
be too much to ask for a fmction of the vast sum yearly sunk in
naval expenditure, for two small screw-vessels and 120 oflBcers and
men, out of the 50,000 men annually placed at the disposal of the
Admiralty ?

Let us suppose it granted, and two vessels like the Pioneer and
Intrepid ready by the spring of 1 806. They would sail for Baffin
Bay, reach Cape York in August, and one vessel would be secured
in or about Cape Isabella, leaving only twenty-five persons in
charge of her; the other ves'feel, witli ninety-five souls, would be
pressed up the Western shore, either as far as Cape Parry or in
that direction, taking care not to exceed a distance of 300 miles
from her consort. That autumn the southern ship would connect
herself by depots with the northern vessel, and the northern vessel
would place out depots towards the Pole ready for spring operations.

In 1807 and 1868 sledge and boat operations should be directed
towards the Pole and over the unknown area, and in 1869, either
in ships or by boat to Upcrnavik, our expedition would retire from
Smith Sound. They would thus only have two winters and three
summers to encounter ; a period which experience has taught us
healthy men, with proper care, can well spend at a time in those
regions.

With respect to the distance to be traversed by sledge, we have
ample data to show that it has been exceeded by our sailors and
marines in the most sterile land yet visited within the Frigid Zone.
For instance, in 1853, Commander McClintock's party did 1220
geographical miles in 105 days; Lieutenant Mecham did 1203
miles; and Captain Hichards and I did 1003 miles. Mark, that all
these distances are in excess of the 008 miles between Cape I*arry
and the Pole. Lieutenant Hamilton did 1150 miles with a dog-
sledge and one man. Yet, in subsequent expeditions to those of
1853, still longer marches have been accomplished, and the men
suffered still less. In 1854 Mecham marched 1157 miles in only
seventy days, a gain of a month in time, equal to a distance of 300
miles more had it been necessary ; and in 1859 Captain McClintock
actually accomplished !.joO miles and Young 1150, and that dis-
tinguished officer. Sir Leopold McClintock, agrees with me in
thinking that it is quite possible with proper management to extend
a journey over a distance of 1500 miles, or just 500 miles more
than are required to take a sledge from Cape Parry to the Pole and

EXPLORATION OF THE KORTH POLAR REGION.

back. Thanks to hard-earned experience, we have learnt in ten
years to double the period a sledge-party may support itself away
from the ship, and trebled the length of the journies to be accom-
plished ; yet at the same time reduced the labour of the seamen and
the personal risk to its minimum.

I am not vain enough to suppose my unsupported opinion of the
practicability and safety of a sledgc-exploratiun of the Polar area
would suffice to convince you all ; but I can confidently appeal to an
officer of far gieater experience, Captain Sir Leopold McClintock.
He, writing to me in December last, says: "I am glad you are
poking up the embers of Arctic discovery. I wish I were now pre-
paring for a trip to the North Pole. I regard it as being within the
reach of this generation ; for knowledge, as you know, is power in
sledge-travelling." Can you doubt the practicability of such an
exploration, I say, after such a declaration from an officer who
has spent seven winters and ten summers in these seas ? I am sure
you will not ; and that you will say with me, that of all men he is
the best fitted to head such an expedition.

8rd I'oint. We have now to consider the final portion of my
argument : — The advantages to bo derived from an exploration
of the Polar area.

In the first place, you as a scientific body have before you an un-
known area of 1,131,000 square miles of the globe's surface a sheer
blank. Within that area you are profoundly ignorant whether
there be lands or waters ; whether, as some say, it is a silent frozen
solitude,, or an open sea teeming with animul life. So far as you
as yet have explored in that direction, you have found the land
capable of supporting not only animal, but human life.

Moreover, as connected with physical geography, you have in
80" of North latitude reached the only known spot whore Nature
yields to man no plant, herb, or grass, which ho uses for food
or nutriment. Yet, imperfect as the botanical exploration of that
Hpot has been, wo learn from the report of the able American
botanist, Mr. Durand, that although Dr. Kane lost the major portion
of his collection, the remainder "was yet the richest and most
interesting ever brought by Arctic or I'olar explorer;" and Kane
added no less than twenty-seven species of plants to the list recently
published by that eminent Arctic naturalist. Sir John liichardson,
as existing to the north of 73" of latitude. Proving that, at any
rate, tliore was an error of 50 per cent, in the botanical geography
of the region under consideration.

. To botanists, therefore, as well as geographers, there is eveiything
to be discovered within the Polar area; and not only the botany of

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

I'l ,

ij ;

\ I

the land, hut that of the sea, and of the fresh-water lakes and rivers
flowing from the glaciers of that ice -hound region. Immediately in
connection, too, with the distribution of the animal and vegetable
kingdoms of the Polar Basin, we have to solve more than one strange
anomaly in the climate that has been noticed upon its margin.

The lowest known winter mean temperature has been recorded
by Dr. Kane, in the very region which is so rich in Arctic flora,
where the natives can support themselves alone upon the chase of
marine creatures, and where the reindeer are so abundant that
a traveller subsequent to Kane shot 600 head, and supported his
party upon fresh food throughout a long winter.* There, in Rens-
selaer Harbour, with open water not far to the south, with open
water, as he believed, not far to the north, Kane records a winter
mean temperature lower than we have found at Melville Island,
where at that season we feel sure that there was no open sea
nearer than the Mackenzie River, or the entrance of Lancaster
Sound. Mr. Schott, the able American meteorologist, puzzled with
the anomaly of so low a temperature near the reported open Polar
Sea, says that "it points conclusively to either a considerable
northern extension of Grinnell Land on the one side and an eastern
extent of Washington Land on the other, or to a considerable eleva-
tion of the interior on both sides of the channel above its level,"
and acknowledges that his conclusions are at variance with the
supposed existence of an ocean around the Pole free for navigation.

The fact is, that meteorology is quite as much at fault there
as elsewhere when it proceeds to theorise upon insufficient data.
And, in a scientific point of view, I maintain that nothing could bo
more deeply interesting than a careful series of meteorological
observations within the Polar area. Its climate is, as I have
shown, a mystery; and Kane's rough observations require to be
verified, as well as those of our searching-expeditions, by sending out
a scientific expedition, with people well versed and earnest in that
science alone.

In geology, and especially in the phenomena of those stupendous
glaciers, as well as the great ice-streams of Humboldt and of Mel-
ville, there is much to repay the future explorer of Smith Sound.
In the presence of men so eminently qualified to point out what is
most deserving of scientific investigation under these heads, it
would ill become me to do more than advert to the subject.
Indeed, I feel I owe an apology to all men of science for even
daring to touch upon subjects of which I as a sailor can have

" Mr. Cornelius Grinnel! informs mc of this interesting fact cpnnectcd with
Dr. Hayes* second visit to Smith Sound.

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

only the most fragmentary knowledge. But I am also addressing
myself to those who know little of such subjects, and who may
be carried away by the cuckoo cry of '* Cui bono ? " in discussing
further geographical exploration. The learned Council of this
Society are not likely to say so, I know well, or to ask me to
demonstrate the necessity for further scientific research based upon
an argument touching whale-oil, whalebone, walrus-hides, seal-
blubber, narwhal-ivory, deer-skins, peltry, or Upeinavik graphite.
I should as soon think of urging the exploration of New Guinea
upon the speculation of profits arising from the tails of birds-of-
paradise or edible birds'-nests.

No ! I put the question before you upon purely scientific grounds ;
and I ask you — the Geographical Society — if you are not satisfied
with the geographical harvest that awaits 3'ou there, to turn to the
Royal Society and ask the learned Council whether there is any-
thing likely to repay the explorer of the Pole for his labours ? I
can confidently appeal to its l*resident. General Sabine. He is
to-day the senior living officer of those who accompanied Ross and
Parry in their early explorations of the Arctic Zone. In Spitz-
bergen, Melville Island, and East Greenland he collected those
valuable data in terrestrial magnetism which have subsequently
led to the construction of those beautiful chaiis exhibiting the
declination, inclination, and intensity of the magnetic force over
the globe's surface — a wonderful reduction of scientific data to good,
useful purposes, which every sailor can appreciate and be grateful
for. And does he tell us that there is nothing more to be done in the
Arctic Zone ? On the contrary, in General Sabine's Address to the
Royal Society, on Nov. 30th, 1863, he dwells especially on the
pleasure with which he learns that the Swedish Government are
about to carry out in Spitzbergen that measurement of an arc of
the meridian, the value and importance of which the learned
General had urged forty years ago upon the attention of the British
public, and which, he says, '* I had planned the means of exe-
cuting, and which I ardently desired to be permitted to carry out
personally."

General Sabine's original interesting paper upon the measure-
ment of this arc was addressed to Mr. Gilbert, M.P., Vice-President of
the Royal Society in 1826. In it he pointed out the facility offered
by Spitzbergen for a measurement of an are of the meridian extend-
ing over nearly 4^ degrees of latitude, stating that the value of this
measurement, in the latitude of Spitzbergen, towards deducing the
proportion of the polar and equatorial diameters by its combination
with an are near the equator, ** was most important ;*' and adding

EXPLOILMION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

that its value would be " equivalent to an arc in Lapland of dix
times the extent of the arc measured by the French Academicians."

Now the hope of the Royal Society of this measurement being at
last obtained depends upon the scientific energy of the Swedish
Government ; but it so happens that in the expedition I urge upon
your attention there might be every arrangement made for a mea-
surement of four degrees of the meridian upon the shores of Smith
Sound. I have told you that one of the ships should be left about
Cape Isabella, and the other pushed on to Cape Tarry, or that tl at
point is to be considered our main station for a Polar expedition. The
intervening space is rather more than four degrees ; and during the
summer season, whilst the Northern Expedition was absent, there
could be no more profitable way of occupying those left in the
charge of the ships than in doing such a work as measuring an arc ;
the ice of the strait, I would submit, aftbrding considerable facilities
for such an undertaking ; and especial provision in the expedition
might be made for such persons as were well qualified to exe-
cute it.

As late, too, as November, 1864, we find General Sabine, in his
Address to the Royal Society, calling the attention of that scientific
body to some recent discoveries which attest the continuation of the
tropical Gulf Stream to the shores of Nova Zembla, and to a com-
munication from Professor Forchhammer, of Copenhagen, "a
valuable contribution to a great subject — the History of the Sea " — in
which, by careful analysis, it is shown that, in the Atlantic Ocean,
the saline ingredients in the sea-water decrease with increasing
depth. This is found to hold good even to extreme depths; and
the existence of a Polar current in the depths of the Atlantic is
hence inferred, since it is a well-established fact that the Equatorial
seas are richer, and the Polar seas poorer in saline ingredients.
Again, by analj'sis it has been proved that the current flowing
down the east coast of Greenland has an Equatorial and not a
Polar origin — a mere recurring of the Gulf Stream after rounding
Spitzbergen ; and the learned President fairly argued — " May it not
be possible that the iceless sea teeming with animal life, described
by Kane as viewed from the northern limit of his research, is, as
he himself surmised, but an extension of the same Equatorial
stream which produces corresponding abnormal efiects at every
point to which its course has been traced?" and adds, "when
physical researches shall be resumed within the circle which sur-
rounds the Pole, this, perhaps, will be one of the earliest problems
to receive solution." In a recent letter to me he eloquently and
justly adds, '* to reach the Pole is the greatest geographical achieve-

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

mont w-Iiich can be attempted, and I own I should grieve if it
Hboiild be first accomplished by any other than an Englishman ; it
will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic researches in which
our country has hitherto had the pre-eminence."

I will not add one word to such testimony ; but place this Paper
in your hands, Sir Roderick Murchison, confident that you will
give the cause I have feebly advocated the same enlightened
support that geogi-aphical exploi-ation has ever found at your hands.
To you, Sir, since the death of Sir John Ban*ow, Arctic discovery
owes everything, especially from the time that the search for your
lamented friend, Sir John Franklin, was undertaken ; but for your
aid and counsel his resolute widow would never have brought to
light the glorious achievement of her husband ; but for you. Sir,
and the judicious pressure brought to bear by men of influence
in this country upon official inei-tness, Sir Robert McClure would
have perished in Banks's Land, and the honour of the North- West
Passage have been left to another generation ; but for you, and the
Royal Geographical Society, that Chart to-day would have been
left the blank it was in 1820, and that page of naval glory would never
have been written, of which Great Britain has such just reason to
be proud. Let me, as a sailor, thank you for those services to my
profession, and urge you to persevere to the end, in order that your
long services to science may be crowned with the addition of Polar
discovery to the domain of human knowledge.

After the conclusioa of the paper, the President spoke as follows : — The
subject brought under our consideration this evening, by our distinguished
Associate, Captain Osborn, is one deeply interesting to all cultivators of science,
and to geographers in particular ; whilst it gratifies me to know that tlie senti-
ments of this gallant officer are warmly esix)used by that enlightened class
of our Society, to whoso labours we owe so much — the Naval Surveyors of
Britain. As one of them. Captain Osborn has satisfied us of the small amount
of exploration, comparatively sjicaking, which remains to be accomplished to
solve the desired problem. He has shown us, not by guess or theory, but by
an actual appeal to facts, tliat in the Arctic Circle his associates and himself
have travelled, by sledges and on foot Ufwu the ice, far longer distances than
tliuse which are required to reach the North Pole from stations which have
been already reached. Ue has even pointed out the well-known Arctic officers,
lieaded by M'Clintock, who arc ready to serve in this proi)osed ex|x;dition.
From his own experience, and by a reference to the statistics of former
exjKKlitions, he removes an erroneous opinion which many of our countrymen
have laboured under, that there is mucli danger in such enterprises, whilst he
convinces us, that there is in them just that amount of adventurous risk which
is the heart and soul of a British sailor's life. He further assures us, that
among our best seamen many volunteers will be found who much prefer an
Arctic voyage to service in many other seas, and ho cites the testimony
of naval medical men as to the healthiness of the far northern climate.
Now, if (as I expect) the fate of my illustrious friend Franklin be thrown
in our teeth wlien we advocate this project, let our opponents remember that

EXPLORATION OF THE NOKTH POLAR REGION.

i; i

that great navigator sailed for the express purpose of finding a North-West
passage by unknown seas, and that, in forcing through his ships by water, he
perished in gloriously realising his object. In the proposed expedition no such
calamity can he dreaded, for it has no analogy to tlie case of Franklin.
Acconlin? to the plan of Captain Osborn, the two ships he asks for would be
so stationed, at jx)ints beyond Haffin Bay whence other ships have returned, as
to ensure their safety ; and, as to the djinger of sledge-surveys, not one life, he
tells us, has been lost in them during the many years of active Arctic service.
Captain Osborn has dwelt so etfectively upon the im|iortance of the various
scientific results to be derived from this enterprise that I need not revert to
all of them, though it is my duty, as your President, to express my own
sense of the great desirableness of moasurinij, for the first time, an arc of the
meridian in so high a latitude ; and the President of the Koyal Society, General
Sabine, himself an Arctic explorer and the companion of Parry, is here to
testify his approbation of the project, particularly in reference to those phe-
nomena of terrestrial magnetism which he has done so much to illustrate.
Itejoicing that other men of science, including the President of the Ethno-
logical Society, are also favourable to the scheme, I say that it is on these
broad groimds of scientific research that we have to thank Captain Osborn cor-
dially for bringing forward the i)roi)osal in so hearty and f)erspicuous a manner.
On our part, let us not weaken the di^rnity of our calling by any endeavour to
show the cut bono of such a survey by the ho|)e of obtaining profitable com-
mercial results, since it is quite enough for us to be assured that the scientific
objects to be attained are well worthy of the efibrt. I trust therefore, that, as
British geographers, you will feel with me that it specially pertains to our
nation, which, by the conduct of its bold and skilful voyagers, has delineated
on the Map of the World the outlines of land and water over so large an
area of the Arctic regions, to complete this grand survey, by an endeavour
to hoist the Union Jack at the North Pole itself.

The President concluded his remarks by reading the following extract from
the writings of Sir John Barrow, so many years Secretary of the Admiralty,
and a mainspring of all Arctic enter^iriscs : —

" The physical power of the navy of England has long been duly appreciated
at home ; also by most foreign nations, and is matter of public record ; its
moral influence, though less the object of publicity, requires only to be more
extensively known to he equally felt and esteemed ; and nothing can be more
conducive to this end than the results to be derived from voyages of discovery,
whose great aim has been the acquisition of knowledge, not for England alone,
but for the general benefit of mankind.

" But it may be asked, ' Cui bono are these northern voyages undertaken ?'
If they were merely to be prosecuted for the sake of making a passage from
England to China, and for no other purpose, their utility might fairly be ques-
tioned. But when the acquisition of knowledge is the groundwork of all the
instructions under which they are sent forth, when the commanding officer is
directed to cause constant observations to be made for the advancement of
every branch of science, — astronomy, navigation, hydrography, meteorology,
including electricity and magnetism, and to make collections of subjects of
natural history,— in short, to lose no opportunity of acquiring new and im-
portant information and discovery ; and when it is considered that these
voyages give employment to officers and men in time of peace, and produce
officers and men not to be surpassed, perhaps not equalled in any other branch
of the 8ervice,[the question * Cui bono f ' is readily answered in the words of the
Minister of Queen Elizabeth, * Knoxcledge is power.* "

General Sabine, President of the Royal Society, said it was almost un-
necessary to say that he most heartily concuiTcd in the project so ably

EXPLORATION OK THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

s of
im-
lese
luce
inch
the

un-
iblv

proposed by Captain Sherard Osborn. He was ])articularly itnprcsfled by what
that gallant officer had said with regard to ailbrding to the officers of the navy
an opportunity of enterprise and distinction in a time of peace, and he knew
no better field for their exertions than explorations in the Arctic rejsjions.
Many of our most distinguished officers in the navy had been trained in that
school, among them Captain Osl>orn himself, Sir Leopold McClintock, Captain
Kochfort Maguire, and many gentlemen in that room whom he might name if
they were not present. It was not to be supposed th;^t in the present day,
when the interest in geographical and in all the physical sciences has so much
increased, that so large a portion of the globe, lying almost at our hands,
should remain uncxi)lored. And could this task be achieved at a more suitable
time than this, when we have amongst us so many men trained in that school
comixjtent and willing to undertake it? He held it to be a great honour to Sir
Leopold McClintock, and an honour to his profession, that he was willing to
give up the command of one of the finest frigates in the service in order to
conduct the expedition. On the j>art of the Royal Society, he might say that
there were many subjects of the highest importance which they could suggest as
requiring investigation by such an exiiedition ; and they would be ready to
co-operate in the recommendation by furnishing, at a suitable time, a state-
ment of the objects in physical science which could be prosecuted without
imjwding the main or geographical pur|X)Sc.

Admiral Sir Edward Bei.cher was happy indeed to find this subject taken
up by Captain Osborn, and should be glad to see it carried out. The only
difficulty he apprehended was the probability that the floe to the north would
be found in a moving condition, the same as Parry found it to the north of
Spitzbergen, and by which he was compelled to return. Beyond this, he saw
no risk in any part of Captain Osborn's plan. It was a curious fact that a dif-
ferent temperature prevailed on the two sides of Baffin Straits. On the
Greenland side the land is warmer. When the expedition under his command
arrived at Disco, wherever the sun bore upon the sides of the hills, which were
of a coal or shaly formation, the snow melted instantly. This took place
early in July ; and from it he concluded that on the eastern side of the straits
and the eastern side of Smith Sound, there would be more vegetation, owing to
the gic'ater warmth of the earth caused by the thaw mixing with the iron
pyrites in the shale. On the western side, so far as he explored it to the
north, he found on the 20th of May the whole of the sea in that direc*
tion in motion, quite open to navigation by a boat. If it had been possible
to get his boat over the obstacles which beset it — pinnacles of ice about twenty
feet high, mixed up together like teeth — he should have preferred that mode
of travelling. In latitude 78° 10" he found on the islets quantities of deer-
tracks, horns of deer, and during the summer geese found their way to the
open water. The cliffs at the same date (the 20th of May) were washed by
the sea. Therefore, he had no hesitation in saying that the northern part of
Smith Sound, which was found washed by the sea, must agree with the line of
cmreut that i>assed to the northward of his expeditionary party of 1852. On
that occasion, going up Wellington Inlet, the ice suddenly came in and drove
them into Northampton Sound ; but afterwards, on their sledge- journey, he
got on to the summit of Exraouth Island, and saw the whole of the floe
beneath him crumble into small pieces and move ofl" to the west, and he
returned a distance of about eighteen miles in a boat, which he had previously
traversed in a sledge over the floe. Therefore, he inferred that to the north-
ward the ice is in motion much earlier than it is to the southward, for Barrow
Strait is not open or navigable till late in August, and this was in May. Ob-
servations had been made with regard to the food that people at the North
prefer. It happened that during the winter, when he was certainly in a
delicate state of health, although ptarmigan and hares could be found, he strongly

I 1

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

lit •*

I»referml bear and walrus, and ho bt'lleve<l that the use of bear-flesh had con-
ducwl to his recovery. There was something curious with regard to the tein-
l«rature of this n^gion. Ue did not know what was Kane's mean temperature
for the 176 days.

Captain Ohhobn said it was not jriven. His lowest temperature was four
dejirets lower than any other on record.

Sir K. Bkuher thonijhtit was a curious fact that in the Arctic regions, over
the whole jK-riod txaniiiinl by navipitors, the moan wld for 176 days, from the
southern |K)int where Hoss travelled up to the northern jioint where McClintock
was, never varitnl more than a decimal jtoiut between 9^ and 10*^ below zero.
The currents that had been observed to the northward invariably seemed to
take to the westward ; and in the moving floe that he noticed from the summit
of Mount Britaimia he was unable to see a single iceberg. Consequently he
))elieved all the ice to the north would be found to be floe-ice, perfectly free
from iwbergs ; and that the iceKrgs shot ofl" from (.Ireenlaud all went south to
the banks of Newfoundland. He might ol)serve that if the cunents in the
Arctic regions were difierent at the surface from what they were at greater
depths, the icebergs, which are eleven i>arts un«ler water, would be constantly
moving up the floe instead of travelling with it. He thought this great
problem of the Polar region should Ije solved by England ; not agitated here,
and the Americans allowetl to take the lead as they did in Japan. Among the
names of eminent Arctic explorers, he was sorry that 8ir Francis Beaufort had
not been mentioned. With regard to the health of the men, if the men were
well examined before they started, he believed they would be in much finer
condition at the end of the three years than when they set out.

Mr. John Lubbock, President of the Ethnological Society, said Captain Osbom
had hit ofl* in a few words the main ethnological interest of the exjjedition.
There was no doubt the manners and customs of savage life, the simple yet
complicated contrivances by which they carry on the struggle for existence,
always had great interest for those who live in more civilised countries. But
of late years the remarkable discoveries that had taken place with reference to
the antiquity of man, the various questions which hsid been opened up by
the researches of M. Lartet, had certainly thrown upon these questions an
entirely new interest. As had been truly observed, man, in the earlier times
of which we have any relics, apjtears to have been not only a savage, but a
savage living under Arctic conditions. Therefore, the native tribes who might
be observed in the projected exi)edition wore precisely those who would have the
greatest interest for us at the i)resent moment. In the earliest voyages under-
taken in the Arctic seas most interesting and valuable accounts had been given of
the manners and customs of the Esquimaux, and even of the Arctic Highlanders
who had been alluded to this evening. Still, there were many questions which
we should like to have answered, and which, a few years ago, would not have
occurred to anybody to ask. Most of those who had travelled among savages
had brought back with them the more reniarkable specimens of their skill
and ingenuity ; whereas, if we examined tlie remains which are found either
in drift, or in the pile-villages of Switzerland, or in the shell-mounds of Den-
mark, it is not the best weapons, those which have been made with the greatest
amount of labour and skill, but the woret, those which were most commonly in
use, and which could he most easily made, which are the most often discovered.
It is therefore precisely those with which the ethnologist and archanjlc^st have
principally to deal, which have met with the least amount of attention from tra-
vellers who have had the opjiortunity of studying the manners and customs of
modern savages. He happened to have in his jXHjket a very simple little flint
implement, which is extremely abundiuit in all the places in which the remains
of ancient man have been discovered within the last few years. This instru-
ment is flat on one side, convex on the other, roimded off at one end, and

EXPLOnATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

pointed at the extremity. It belongs to a type which is well known to
archaH)logi8t8, and was det«cribed by ouo of our most eminent men in this
dc|>artmcnt of science, as having probably had the round end tixed into a
handle, s< ■ that the sharp edges might Ik; used as a knite. The general opinion
had formerly l)een tliat the narrow end was put into a handle, and the broad
end used as ascmpT ' >r the prei«iration of skins. This might have been a
point for diw.uKsion lor <i long time had it not iiapiHjned that an instrument
like this hail Ik.-('I) found in use amongst the Ks(piimanx, and \vc> now knew
how it -IS used by tlieni. Thus one of the questions relating to the habits of
the early history of man was satisfactorily solved. It might appear a very small
jMjiut to know how a little bit of flint like this was used; but it is by these
small ix>iDt8, by meat)s of these little glimmers of light, that we can alone ho]X)
to obtain some information as to the mode of life of our ancestors in ihc earliest
times of which we have any record. He trusted, therefore, if this exix,'dition
should be carried out, that the attention of the explorers would be particularly
directed to the simpler and ruder implements which they might find in use
among the tribes they might visit. There was one little jKtint in the jtajier u|ion
which he should like to have fiu-ther information. Captain Osborn said
these fieople living so far north must evidently have had supplies of food all
the year round. Now, he did not venture to question this, in a people living
so far north ; but he thought it jjrobablc that supplies of meat were stored for
future consumption. In these northern regions it is very easy to preserve meat ;
it does not require to be hermetically sealed, or to undergo any diflieult pre-
paration. Sir Edward Belcher had already described, in the Transactions of
the Ethnological Society, some large stores of meat which he found under
some Esquimaux habitations. This was an interesting point with reference
to the remains of ancient man of which we have heard so much lately, because
we must all be struck with the question, how it was that so large a number
of bones should have been originally collected in these French caves ; and here
we get a glimpse of exjilanation in the analogous state of things described by
Sir Edward Belcher as existing in the habitations of the Esquimaux. Thus
we see that in one year these jjeople could collect a sufficient quantity of food
to last for a considerable time, and it might not be that game was plentiful
in all seasons.

Captain Hamilton stated that in 1853 he crossed over from Davy Island,
where he had been wintering under Admiral Kellett, to Sabine Bay. He
ascended the land to the northward, and after meeting Captain Richards and
Captain Oslwru, crossed by Morton Channel. The ice all the way was evi-
dently the formation of that year. I'his was in May and June. There were
no tides or currents, nothing to show any undue pressure of ice on that shore.
Sir Leotx)ld McClintock, who travelled to the westward, met with the same
sort of ice ; and to the northward there was nothing to indicate any undue pres-
sure of ice on that shore. From that it was to be inferred that there must be
land to the northward. To the west of Paget Land the ice was of the heaviest
character — indeed the heaviest ever found by an Arctic navigator. On
McClure Island the ice was found eight or ten feet high.

Mr. Clements R. Mark ham was glad, as the humblest of those who had
ever served in Arctic expeditions, to have this opportunity of expressing his
intense satisfaction in listening to Captain Osbom's paper. An exploraDou of
the North Polar regions is now one of the greatest problems that remain for
geographers to solve. What old Martin Frobisher said of the North- West
Passage 300 years ago may now be as aptly said of the North Polar regions : —
" It is the only thing in the world that is left undone, whereby a notable
mind might be made famous and fortunate.'* Among the numerous ^loints of
scientific interest connected with the Polar regions, he would allude to the
ethnological point — the migration of races — and to the question how far north

I" 11.

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

-!i

J' i'
■ ji

man had fixed his permanent habitation. When the Normans first discovered
Greenland in tlie eleventh century, they found it uninhabited — a silent land.
They dwelt there a century and a half or two centuries ; and then they appear
to have been exterminated by a race of Skraelings or dwarfs, who were the
Esquiniaux. Observations had thrown some light upon the direction whence
these people came. Along the whole length of the Parry Islands, east and
west, we found the remains of Esquimaux. It hapix;ned that just at the
period that the Skraelings appear to have exterminated the Normans, Zenghis
Khan arose in Central Asia and poured forth his hordes west and north over
Tartary and Siberia. It is jiossible that the invaders may have caused a
])ressure on the i)eopIe of the north coast of Siberia, who wandered thence along
the shores of Parry Islands, and, finding them uninhabitable, wandered on and
on, unable to find a fixed habitation, until they arrived on the coast of Green-
land. There they found a very difl'erent country, and one in which they could
live ; and meeting there only a smatl body of Norman colonists, they exter-
minated them, spreading afterwards to the south as far as Cape Farewell,
and away to the north as far as Kane went. No importance was to be
attached to an Esquimaux saying he believed there was no one furtlier
north or further south ; because the Arctic Highlanders have no canoes, and
therefore have no knowledge of inhabitants north or south of them. It is not
at all impossible, therefore, that they may be found in small communities as
far north as the Pole itself. This ethnological question is only one of the
numerous interesting points which this pajier raises, and which the proposed
expedition will throw light upon.

Lor*^ DuFFEBiN said he had listened with the greatest pleasure, interest, and
admiration, to everything that had been said, and, as far as his opinion was
concerned, it seemed to him that the projected expedition was a proper object
of national ambition. No difficulties of an insurmountable character appeared
to present themselves, and if it were not that he had recently encumbered
himself with trammels of a domestic character, he should humbly ask to be
allowed to enrol himself a volunteer.

Dr. DoNNET wished to add a few words with regard to the health of the ex-
pedition which he had had the honour to lielong to. He served under Admiral
Austin in 1850 and 1851. They had a crew of 180 men, and the expedition
was away altogether about twenty months. Tliey lost but one man, and that
poor fellow died frost-bitten. With resi)ect to the salubrity of the Arctic
regions, he thought there was not the slightest objection to the proposed
exploration on this score. The expedition to which he belonged had for food
chiefly the salt and preseiTcd provisions which were supplied to the ships.

Mr. John Cuawi^jbd had not one word to say except in the way of
thorough approbation. Captain Osborn had given a most complete and satis-
factory account of the projected exixjdition. He came into the room not per-
fectly satisfied with his pioject ; but now he had heard the statements, he was
thoroughly convinced and was prepared to advocate it wherever he went.
With respect to the Esquimaux, they were certainly a remarkable p<?ople. He
had lately been inquiring into the question of cannibalism, and he found that
at one time or another all our forefathers of every race of man were cannibals,
with the exception of one race, and that was the Esquimaux ; he had not been
able to discover a single instance of cannibalism among them. He appealed to
Captain Osborn, if lie had ever heard of a case.

Captain Osborn said, as far as his information went, he had never heard of
an instance.

Captain 1 nolefield thought there could he bu t one opinion among geographers
as to the paper of Captain Osborn. The subject divided itself under two heads :
first, as to the objects of such an exjiedition ; and secondly, as to the possibility of
carrying out the enterprise. He thought we had been well assured that the

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

object of the expedition was a very important one in a scientific point of view ;
and as to the possibility of carrying it out with comparative safety, he fully
concurred in all that had been said. He had been into Smith Sound, and had
seen ojien water there as far as the eye could reach, and he beUeved it was
quite practicable to reach the Pole through that opening in the northern seas.
He congratulated Captain Osborn upon the jiaper he had read, as being clear in
its details, and proving satisfactorily to those who may style themselves
Arctic navigators that the voyage is ])racticable, and that the adventure is one
that quite recommends itself to Englishmen and geographers.

The President said Sir Edward Belcher had made allusion to that admir-
able man, who was beloved by all geographers, and who liad done more for
Arctic discovery than any other man he knew — Sir Francis Beaufort. It
would ill become him not to mention the name of that eminent man to whom
both he and the Society owed so much. As Hydrograjiher to the Admiralty,
Sir Francis Beaufort had been succeeded by Admiral Washington, and he in
his turn had been succeeded by Captain Richards, the present Hydrographer to
the Admiralty, who had also distinguished himself in Arctic expeditions. He
thought it would worthily conclude the discussion to call upon Captain
Richards to express his opinion of the project.

Captain Richards believed it was known to every one ci the platlbrm that
he was in op])Osition. However it was only due to his friend Captain Osborii
to give him credit for the powerful arguments he had used in support of his
project. Captain Osborn had shown that it was an easy thing to reach the
North I'ole ; and for his ^mrt he looked upon it as a piece of child's play in
comparison with what had already been achieved. With regard to the scicu-
tific objects of the expedition, he could readily imderstand that General Saliine
would be delighted to get an arc of the meridian measured in the Polar regions ;
that the field of meteorological inquiry which would be opened to Mr. Olaisher
would be highly appreciated by him ; that Professor Huxley would add another
laurel to those he had already gathered in his own particular branch of
science ; and that Sir Roderick Murchison himself even might find some new
light thrown on the science of geology from a visit to the Pole. And, after
all, he did not know why the British nation should not have the honour of
completing the discovery. With regard to the difficulties and risks, it had
been his fortune to be associated with his friend Captain Osborn in one of
these long Arctic expeditions, and during that time he could not recall that
they went through any great amount of suffering ; at all events, nothing
that would deter them from offering to go agjvin. Before he commenced liia
opposition, he might say that he was almost deterred from doing anything of
the kind by a remark that fell from General Sabine, that with a great area
like the Polar regions at our very threshhold, we ought to find out all about
it. That was the most convincing argument he had heard in the course of
the evening. He saw plainly that at this late period of the proceedings ho
was not likely to make any impression on the minds of the audience, who
would at any rate acknowledge that he stood uj) against great disadvantages,
and ho would therefore, with their permission, defer his opposition until a more
convenient occasion.

Captain Osborn, in reply, said if anything could add to the pleasure of the
evening, it was to find that the ofticial opposition was to lie of so good-natured
a character ; and he hoped their Lordships would take their tone from their
Hydrographer. The question which Mr. Lubbock put was one which had
attracted his attention before he inserted it in the paper. Kane always found,
as other explorers had found, that in the height of the season when, the Esqui-
maux were killing rapidly, that the flesh they could not eat was collected in a
heap on the shores, stones piled loosely over it, and they then went away to

kill more. That formed a cdchc. Like all

savages.

they VKie singularly

EXPLORATION OF THE NOUTH FOLAll REGION.

improvident. His brother found the Esquimaux of Lancaster Sound, who had
killed a quantity of food during the time the ice was there, feeding on putrid
walrus-flesh in the summer time; they had killed it in the early season, and
had not the wit to bury it in an adjacent glacier to preserve the meat. Kane
testified to the improvidence of "these people : they were constantly starving
when during nea}j-tides in mid-winter the sea froze over. In the winter of
1854-5 they ate their dogs, but to their credit no case of caimibalism was
recorded though several are supposed to have died of starvation. A calm
winter was the worst difficulty they had to contend with. As long as the
gales were blowing, and the icebergs were in motion, the walrus could break
through the thin ice near the shore ; but during the neap-tides the icebergs
grounded, and the sea froze over, and the walrus was obliged to seek water
in the offing. He wishal some naturalist had spoken of the peculiarities of
animal life in that region. Here was the walrus, as big as two oxen, feeding
through the long cold nights of an Arctic winter in 80^^ N., yet it was doubt-
ful whether it could be called a carnivorous animal. He liad often fount" in
its stomach a great many stones, as if they were required to assist in the
digestion of some hard substance, which he thought ;uust be the root of a
seaweed. This creature was always there breaking its way through the ice.
On one occasion he and Captain Kichards found a waliiis in the depth of the
)yinter in 77° N. , with its young lying beside it. Then again we have the
seal, and it feais on fish ; and he must particularly call attention to the vast
quantities of seal which existed all about these regions, thus indicating that
there must be an immense quantity of fish existing there. And all this in
regions where Kane tells us he found the thermometer ranging from G(P to
75*^ below zero during three months of the year. It was most astonishing, and
it was necessary, in the interests of science, that the statement should be verified.
He was really grateful to Sir Edward Belcher for having mentioned the name of
one who was the first to take him by the hand, and pass him from the routine
of Her Majesty's service, and show him that there was a better field for a
naval officer in a time of peace than washing decks and cleaning brass-work.
There never was one who held an official position who carried to his grave
a greener heart. Had it remanied with Sir Francis Beaufort to explore the
globe in time of jieace, there would be few naval officers idle. Often, when
downhearted respecting the search after Franklin, Sir Francis Beaufort said
to him, " Young man, don't despond. Go and induce others, men like Sir
Roderick Murchison and General Sabine, who stood around that heroic woman,
Lady Franklin, to move the public, and the Admiralty will follow suit."
The name of Sir Francis Beaufort was too deeply engraven on his heart to lie
ever ready at the tip of his tongue.
The meeting then separated.

.-."

-3

/•■rf

1— H

i—t

.«

■<

■«!

t»

S'.

•<

I ^

(-^

*M •**

9 ^

• ri

S CQ

a ^

'^ MlB^

' ■ i

N '

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

'Ji

»_J

h— (

r— I

l-r

CZ2

■<

k^H

:»

c«

Si'.

I-)

s
a

•s

•/I

©'S .2 1 S

— a ^ -s

jntury
inatioi
ardar

t
er sol

01 o

■" CO

^ g

^.s a

*± . ♦> 3

.s:to a ^.

- " — ^ J3

IS,

a <a

{, o —
'= ^ "

•• Ct-i -

- c >» .

o *;?oi3

flj ^ /3

3 4> a '-'
* fe I 2

-1 .2

t? -a

.1^

3 i? -5 S 5

wi c _r w

Ji-~ S 'S •
^ • 5 J2 o

-c — • i> a

* ~ ^ c

2 (s 2 D . •

2 2 o 4s

a ., - j; ^
S >-» "^ "5 's

a a
-fl r

(M .S

a S

bo a
s

cs ^

F 2
P a -^ o

i S i; ^ 5

la F *J rO ,£

S^-Sx! a

1^*3 -M

O) ^ «

■fi a
•M .a

«fo-^

" « 2 2 >

(A SH a cQ ?

-« ^ .2

X —

to <->

3 to ■,:

.2- «< .5 5

"ra o -3

I" r- .5

s « - 2

•4-1

o
1/5

EXPLORATION OF THE NOUTH POLAR REGION.

1^
,11

S! I

■♦2

fit,

•c

a
o

■s

■S
?

V o

E <«

S to

2 g
■^ "S .2

b-. a « - CO
^ a — » -

t^ ■^ ^ ^

,4.1

.60

■

S "^
"o .S

p o

fl o

■s

S2;
o
So

.So
3 so

« .« -a
= 5 «

S o -S

^ C •"

J3 O O -

a, -rj<

.2 §

t- .2
a'i

<n S

-M ■= —

a ^ *-

= ^ -S o- S .fs

_ a,

.S fco i;
u ^ a

a bO

■a t,
■*' «

o«

a >

CI >
4) "^

n a
S.2

• tfi •

a. o

W fe a

a
o
•«^
bo

T? s

■otf)

"•"i

'TZ

^-s

-4^

rt 3

itton,
as on
.64.

'Ji

f 2 ^

^ ^ a

6^5

►^

2 2
c bo

•> ^

S«
S -^

33 i,

*3 g

^^ — ' 9 "
« — Ji

^-' .S « -S

^1e " to

- w a

- a

P
5

■■n

St; a
o,:a a,

e.S-

s*
c3

■*

a
p..

h
s

■S

efl

t»

1-4

.fro-

J^S

a O4

•P

a
3

:«

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

•J) "^

*" d

* .2

c25

s
U

2
a »

re
fci)

•c

s
S

•o

a
s
o

J a 2 >»■!.•

Ilia,

5z;

a
in

a
o

o ^

a
a
o

5-s g

^ B

5 o

? 3 3

2 1

>/s

S?5 « 3

o o p^
CO -I ^— '
00 oCi

CO
00

§1

o -<•

:5^

-s «

^ 5^ leg
6 6

•J

e<'/)

B-3' -S^

wO ^

a, .5

c .t*

2 m "5t«

(ft »s

«o

<»

00
CO

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH POLAR REGION.

1-5

.^,4

»
H

o
o

Ik
O

-<)

e
o

■s

•a

<41

<U ^

"ej

-<->

r/-i

•>

P-

.-1

bJ)

00 "^

_ O

JS s

o o

o S
"^ P

41 .

C %

•2^

56 •
? " «*

35 3 §
« u bo

•4-) Of

a ^

* S o " —

„ ® C .5 ^

_ __ .B

2 B sS "^ *"

"3 m >^ t2 «
bo -3

a
m

B
3

5 S

s s

B .S

« a

., 3 a if ^
2 « ea ♦J

o
o

-3

E
1

.S •'

'4-*

D.-3

s s

g^-=

.S-!^'

a
o

5 S

-i >

0) 00

e« ai — '

3
OS

1
I

jpI

O d

•4-1

CI .

"+ i^

-♦-t

C-1 o

"b T

^ CO

T-< m

f-4 <— t

■O "^

O) O)

^ — '

X
4

>tf

o
r73

*/i

^ .

^\ r^

.-^^

•■P

XT'

ft.

•■ ^

r-*'

V-

■/;

•3

a
o

a .S*

. CO

^ 1-4

&-■

B.S-

ft<

-5 '5

&4 - ■^' -^

B _B S S

2 '^ ai 33

ft. ft.

CO
l>-

{;

>V2

i
to

a ^

chan,
Frankli

Trent.

1^ O-^

.5 i^S

Capta

Lieutc

tiB

KXPLOIIATION OF THK NORTFI POLAR REGION.

'SV^

'*j

N«

'/}

^ .

•- N

• •^^

.^•<

'X>

i?5

■3 bc

•- 5, O

.S £
aT S
^ bO

Si -5 J

i.
%>

>-. CS •-

*^ 2 _

r 3 .Sf

©■Ml-

^ ©

.$ S
O 01

o a

t; CC' i3

a re
o ••::

■^ 2

-2 a

a 2

S> S —

h a ^ >»

©.«
5-J

■M So O

xr^

To To
o o

00 -^

-2 l<b

p^ ?* *^

1—

00 ^

-^^

es o
o g

CO --J
£3 S

,£3 O

d o
goo

^^^

rd g
CO 3

c?d

d a
d S

09 O

es re

bOt-
d t-

m d

tr- .d

3 flu T"

=^ a

to u "

.." 3

u v o

-2 a^

■,5 CI

a
•2 ^

1-5

=° CO

«3

O g

.. CO

I Cl

-'I

-3 bc
■*5 a

o
I**

o
00

a
re

»o

>o
o lo

♦^ 00

•X
'--i

i^^^

f -•• JT -,„

LONDON:

PBINTltT) BY WILHAM CLOV F.S AJ.1> SONS, STAMFORB STRRET,
AVD CIIAKING CT0S8.

1%'

fi.

1 " ■. i-l

::'<!