aT-J >r\.. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y // O A L* <. ■^M '^ <: , "1^ (/.A (/. I '" IW IIIIIM \.\J m — "'"^ I.I *^ IK |||||Z2 1140 II 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 6" ► V] h Hriu,Y i'fi.Mi.CJi r.H.S. f.oinhn . SiwWJfon Ac***-. ^fitl•flI^}£^ .ln\\i, <<• SmvU*, ISS >'/<•*•< .'?<>*| ai- M>- 4f ao* i6* 60' > tt(« .^iWA mi. ,'A W. '!■. >H>C. V,v»,dfV(h.? 1 KIP Karl •V,,/,;^ /;, /IW /. i •"^^bw' MAP OF THE EUROPEAN POLAR SEA CaapltA >y E.G.lUnrmBt«aii,I'.R.G.S. 8.000.000 sjfer ~S^Grog.3Btr 2.S- li ^W<<; . Jss ri,,t The ftj,,«* 3«^,« the Depth of thf Sea inlHtho,.,, cr the heipkt above It m Feet. SounM^ without r-eoMng bottom thua SO SOFaOumliM dOO RMom Line . . .. SOO Fathom line . 2000 FathotnZiiie . 7>l» Ji^th oftheSea u expre*ted by Tint t. thiu : I 1 Aprt.fa..«famJHE Dutch had not only watched the English pioneers of Arctic discovery very attentively ; their merchants had themselves opened a trade with Kola and Arch- angel as early as 1 5 78. But the obstacles to any progress eastward, caused by the heavy ice in the sea of Kara, turned the attention of Dutch navi- gators to the possibility of a passage round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya, and thus the first true Polar voyage was projected. The credit of its conception is due to the great cosmographer Peter Plancius, who recommended this route to the merchants of Amsterdam. In 1594 the Am- sterdammers fitted out a vessel of about 100 tons, called the * Mercurlus,' and they were most fortu- rr: i ^ i ■ 1 J:lr: Williafn Barents II nate in their choice of a commander. William Barents was a native of the island of Terschilling, near the Texel, a man of some education, a most accurate observer, and a bold and enterprising seaman. As some of our most valuable informa- tion respecting the Polar ice between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya is derived from the labours of Barents, it is certainly most fortunate that per- fect reliance can be placed on the observations of this able leader of the first true Polar voyage. On June 4, 1594, Barents sailed from the Texel in the ' Mercurius,' with a little fishing- smack, belonging to his native island of Terschil- ling, in company, and sighted Novaya Zemlya, in latitude 73° 25' N., on the 4th of July. He sailed along the coast, passing Cape Nassau on the loth, and arrived at the edge of the ice on the 13th. From July 13 to August 3, Barents continued to seek a passage through the pack, searching for a lane in every direction, from Cape Nassau to the Orange Islands at the extreme north-west of Novaya Zemlya. During this close and careful examination of the pack edge, Barents sailed over 1,700 miles of ground, and put his ship about no 12 Pctcrmaiins Baroits Map \ less than eiij^hty-one times. Assuredly, if ever perseverance deserves success, it should have been conceded to this indefatigable explorer. From time to time he carefully observed the meridian altitude of the sun, both with a cross- staff, with an astrolabe, and with a quadrant ; he discovered a long line of coast from Cape Nassau to the Orange Isles, and fixed the latitudes of various points with remarkable accuracy. We are indebted to Dr. Petermann for the valuable map, on which the track of Barents during his first voyage is accurately delineated, drawn to illustrate Dr. Beke's edition of the great explorer's voyages, which was printed for the Hakluyt Society in 1853. At last the men wearied of the incessant boxing about along the edge of the pack, and it became necessary to return. The second voyage in which Barents was engaged, merely sailed to the entrance of the sea of Kara and back. We now come to the third voyage of Barents, perhaps the most important, next to Hudson's, of all the voyages that have been made to the frontier of the unknown Polar region. The States-General determined that it would not be advisable to make Third Voyage of Barents n any farther attempt after the failure of the fleet with which Barents made his second voyage, which had been fitted out at great expense. But the merchants of Amsterdam listened to the repre- sentations of the cosmographer Plancius, and of the practical seaman Barents, and resolved to fit out another expedition. Two vessels, commanded by Jacob van Heemskerch and Jan Corneliszoon Rijp, were accordingly commissioned. Heems- kerch was accompanied by Barents as pilot, who was virtually in command, and Gerrit de Veer, the historian of the voyage, was also on board as second mate. The two vessels sailed from Amsterdam on May 13, 1596. The masses of ice in the strait leading to the sea of Kara, and the impenetrable nature of the pack near Novaya Zemlya, had strongly impressed both Barents and Rijp with the necessity of avoiding the land, and by keeping a northerly course, of seeking a passage in the open ; for there was a prevalent but erroneous opinion in those days, that ice could only be formed under the shelter of the land. Indeed, Rijp insisted upon keeping awa)' much farther to the westward 14 Discovery of Spitzbcrgcn t ' ■ ■ '1 i than Barents considered necessary, fearing that they might get entangled in the ice round the strait of Vaigats. On June 9, they discovered an island which they called Bear Island. Stephen Bennet, who was sent on a voyage by Sir Francis Cherie of London in 1603, fell in with it, and, ignorant of the previous discovery of Barents, called it Cherie Island. The two ships continued to steer north, passing a good deal of ice, until they sighted Spitzbergen on June 19. They believed it to be a part of Greenland, and sailed away in a north-westerly direction, but were stopped by the Polar pack. Barents then coasted along the western side of Spitzbergen ; and at the north-western point he found so great a number of birds that they flew against the sails, so he called the point Vogelsang. But he did not, as Dr. Beke and Dr. Petermann supposed, sail up the east side and circumnavigate the largest island in the group. That feat has never yet been per- formed, except by Captain Carlsen in 1863. Dr. Beke adopted the circumnavigation theory from the statement, in Gerrit de Veer's journal, that Barents steered a little east of north from Bear is ■k i Discovery of Spilzdcrgen 15 Island. But the journal is vague, and other entries go to prove that the ship of Barents was never on the east coast. De Veer speaks of land on his right hand, and of an east wind coming off the land. The question is set at rest by the nearly contemporaneous map of Hondius, which was specially prepared to illustrate the ' admiranda 7iavigatio' of Barents, and published, in 161 1, in the work on Amsterdam by Pontanus. It shows a small portion of the western and northern shores of Spitzbergen, and the track of Barents. He arrived at Bear Island again on July i, where he and Rijp agreed to separate. Rijp went up the east side of Greenland, expecting to find an opening in the ice, while Barents shaped a course more to the eastward. There is no account of the further proceedings of Rijp, but no doubt he was stopped by the Polar pack, and he returned to Holland the same year. The record of the subsequent proceedings of Barents and his crew, of their famous voyage round the north-western end of Novaya Zemlya, and of their terrible sufferings in the first Arctic winter ever faced by Europeans, is exceedingly i6 Barents off Novaya Zcmlya interesting, as it is told in the simple, straightfor- ward narrative of honest Gerrit de Veer. The voyage from Bear Island to Novaya Zemlya lasted from July 2 to 17, and although they went a good deal to the southward, they were frequently obliged to alter their course on account of the ice. On the J 4th, indeed, 'they sayled so farre into the ice that they could go no further : for they could see no place wh(;;e it opened, but were forced (with great paine and labour) to lauere^ out of it againe, and they were then under 74° 10' N.' They sighted the coast of Novaya Zemlya in 74° 40' N., and sailed along it until, on August 7, they passed Cape Comfort. The coast here runs east and west, and faces to the north, so that the Polar pack, when it drifts south, is forced full upon it. After several fruitless attempts to extricate himself from the ice, by tacking about in various directions, Barents found himself on the west side of a bay which was named ' Ice Haven,' and * here they were forced, in great cold, poverty, misery, and gricfe to stay all the winter.' This ' To iidvance by repeated short tacks. Barents Winter Quarters »7 htfor- The lasted good Dliged , On he ice could forced t of it o' n; ilya ill Tust 7, •e runs at the d full was on August 26. The heavy pack-ice drifted into the bay, gave the old craft several very severe nips, and fixed her immovably for the winter. In the calm weather which followed, the young ice began to form on the surface of the sea ; but, as oftens happens just before winter fully sets in, some westerly winds sprang up towards the end of September, drove the ice off the shore, and left a wide expanse of open water to seaward. The Dutchmen, however, found no comfort in this, for their craft was firmly wedged into the bay, by grounded masses of pack-ice. This was perhaps fortunate, for had they stood out into the treacherous October sea, they would soon have been beset in the young ice, and have had to winter in the pack, in a position of extreme danger. As late as November 8, some days after the sun disappeared, lanes of open water were seen beyond the bay when it had been blow- ing from the land ; and even on December 24 the ice was in motion. The seventeen stout-hearted Dutchmen now had to prepare for an Arctic winter, and it is im- possible to speak too highly of the cheerful way in c fill- 18 Barents Winter Quarters I ' i <) i {i which they set to work, of their discipline, and of their resolute determination to endure the worst that might befall them, with courage and subordina- tion. Their countrymen may well be proud of the conduct of these gallant seamen. Fortunately they found a large supply of drift-wood, and with this material, eked out by planks from the poop and forecastle of the ship, they built a house, into which they removed all their provisions and valuables. A chimney was fixed in the centre of the roof, a Dutch clock was set up and made to strike the hours, bed-places were placed along the walls, and a wine-cask was converted into a bath. The surgeon wisely prescribed bathing as a necessary preservative of health. Snow-storms and gales of wind prevailed throughout the winter, which had the good effect of drifting snow round the house as high as the roof, and thus raising the temperature within. But their sufferings were intense, and it is touching to read of these poor fellows asking their skipper to let them make merry on Twelfth Night with a little sack and two pounds of meal. The sun return(;d on Jan. 24. On Feb. 22 ^i!l Barents Ulntcr Ouartcrs 19 they a,L(ain saw ' much op(Mi water in the sea, which in lono^ time we had not seene ; ' and I 3 O -3 S s enormous quantities of snow fell durini,^ the whole month. On March 6 th(;y ai^ain saw much open c 2 20 Barents Winter Quartern [I water, and on the 8th there was no ice in sight to the north-east, while to the south the sea was covered with it. But on the 12th a N.E. wind brought all the ice back again, and the open water disappeared. ' The ice mightely driving in with a great noyse, the pieces rushing against each other fearfull to heare,' and on the 14th there was nothing but ice to be seen. A S.W. wind brought open water again on the 28th, but this only lasted for a day ; and from the 29th to April 8 the ice was as closely packed as ever. On May 1 1 the sea was quite navigable, although the N.E. winds always brought the ice again. Barents had been long ill, and when they set sail from the dismal scene of their sufferings, in two open boats, on June 14, 1596, he was too weak to stand, and was carried from the house. On the 1 6th the skipper hailed from the other boat, and asked how the pilot was. ' Quite well, mate,' was the reply. ' I still hope to mend, before we get to Wardhouse.' * But he died on the 19th, ' An island on the coast of Lapland. fl Death of Barents 21 ht to was wind open ng in rainst there , wind 1, but I 29th ed as igable, the ice ey set ngs, in las too Ihouse. other well, before 19th, I and, like La Perouse and Franklin, found a grave in the midst of his discoveries. The survivors encountered many difficulties from the ice, sometimes being drifted away from the land-floe, and at others being obliged to haul the boats for long distances over the ice to reach open water. At last, after a long and dangerous voyage, they reached Kola, in Lapland, towards the end of August, and by a strange coincidence were picked up by a Dutch ship commanded by the very Corneliszoon Rijp who had been skipper of their consort in the previous year. We last hear of these gallant fellows telling their story to the Prince of Orange and the Danish Ambassador after a grand dinner. They then dispersed to their homes, and are lost to us. There are two points in this remarkable voyage which are deserving of special attention, as con- nected with North Polar exploration. The pressure of the Polar pack on the northern coast of Novaya Zemlya, from Cape Nassau to the Orange Islands, is described by De Veer as terrific. The currents, no doubt, have somethinc^ .-^.imim 24 yo}'a£-e of Car hen . 11! sailed from Hammerfest in a sloop of sixty tons, called the * Solid.' He reached the Ice Haven of Barents on September 7, and on the 9th he saw a house standing at the head of the bay. He found it to be 32 feet long by 20 broad, and the planks of which it was composed were i\ inches thick by from 14 to 16 inches broad. The materials had evidently belonged to a ship, and amongst them were several oak beams. Round the house were standing several large puncheons, and there were also heaps of reindeer, seal, bear, and walrus bones. The interior is described by Captain Carlsen exactly as represented in the curious old drawing in Gerrit de Veer's narrative, which was reproduced in the edition of the Hak- luyt Society. The row of standing bed-places along one side of the room was exactly as shown in the drawing, and several of the articles repre- sented in the drawing, the clock, the halberd, and the muskets were still in their old places. The following is a catalogue of things found by Captain Carlsen in the winter quarters of Barents : — The Barents Relics 25 Iron frame, over the fire-place, with shifting bar. Two ships' cooking-pans of copper, found standing on the iron frame, with the re- mains of a copper scoop. Copper bands, probably at one time fastened round pails. Bar of iron. Iron crowbar. Long gun-barrel. Two smaller gun-barrels, one square externally. Two borers or augers, 3 feet long. Chisel. Padlock. Caulking-iron. Three gouges. Six files. Plate of zinc. Earthenware jar. Tankard, with lid of zinc. Lower half of another tankard. Six fragments of pepper-pots. Tin meat-strainer. Pair of boots. Sword. Fragments of many engravings, with Latin couplets under them. Three books in Dutch. A small piece of metal. Nineteen cartridge cases, with tops and strings attached, some st.ill full of powder. Iron chest with lid, and- inlricate lock-work. P'ragments of metal handle belonging to the chest. Grindstone. Iron weight of 8 lbs. Small cannon-ball. Gun-lock, witii hammer and flint. Clock. Bell of clock. Striker. Rasp. Small auger. Small narrow pieces of copper band. Two salt and pepper-j)ots, about eight inches high. Two pairs of compasses. Fragment of knife with iron handle. Three spoons. Borer. Hone. Wooden tap. Bronze tap. Two wooden stoppers for gun muzzles. Two spear or ice-pole heads. Four navigation instruments. .\ flute. Lock with key. 26 Barents Relics Another lock. Sledge-hammer head. Clock weight. Twenty-six pewter candle- sticks and fragments ; six in perfect preservation. Pitcher of Etruscan shape, beautifully engraved. Upper half of another pitcher. Wooden trencher, coloured red. Alarum of clock. Three scales. Four medallions, circular, about 8 inches in diameter ; three of them mounted in oak frames. A string of buttons. Hilt, and a foot of blade, of a sword. A halberd head. Two carved pieces of wood, one with the haft of a knife in it. The house in which Barents and his gallant crew had wintered can never have been entered by human foot during nearly three centuries that have since elapsed. There stood the cooking-pans over the fire-place, the old clock against the wall, as shown in the drawing, the arms and tools, the drinking vessels, the instruments, and the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago. The * History of China' points to the goal which Barents sought, while the ' Manual of Navigation ' indicates the knowledge which guided his efforts. Stranger evidence never told a more deeply-inter- esting story. William Barents 27 Captain Carlsen finally sailed from the ' Ice Haven ' on September 14, and made his way down the eastern side of Novaya Zemlya. He en- countered the same weather as Barents had done ; a S.W. gale blowing the ice off the shore until a shift of wind to the N.E. brought it back and beset the vessel. Towards the end of the month the position became very serious, as the young ice was beginning to form and they were beset, but fortu- nately a south wind set in, driving the ice north- wards, and on October 6 they passed through the Vaigats Strait, and thus succeeded in ciicum- navigating Novaya Zemlya. But Carlsen very narrowly escaped the fate of Barents. On the 4th of November 1871, Captain Carlsen completed his adventurous voyage by anchoring once more at Hammerfest ; and Mr. Lister Kay, who happened to be there on his way to Lapland, purchased the relics of Barents, and also obtained a copy of Captain Carlsen's log and chart. The Dutch Government, by paying Mr. Kay the price he gave for them, have secured the precious relics for preservation in the native land of the great navigator. -i j:f 38 The Barents Relics Mr. Dc Jonge has since done good service by publishing the results of his careful examiration of these Barents relics.^ He and his countrymen feel an affectionate pride in the glorious deeds of their ' Sea fathers,' and will cherish these memorials of a very noble achievement with careful reverence. They have been deposited in a room in the Foreign Office, at the Hague. In a pamphlet, published at the Hague in 1872, Mr. De Jonge first proves the authenticity of the relics, then gives an account of the voyage of Barents, and of his wintering in Novaya Zemlya, then considers the question whether any voyager had visited the wintering place before 1871, and lastly gives a detailed description of each relic, appending several in- teresting historical and antiquarian notes. The most important point in Carlsen's voyage is his correction of the north-eastern prolongation of Novaya Zemlya. To the north of the Matosken Strait he met another Norwegian captain, named ' * Nova Zembla. De voorwerpen door de Nederlandsche Zeevaarders na hunne ovenvintering aldaar in 1597, achter- gelaten en in 1871 door Kapitein Carlson teruggevonden.' Beschreven en toegelicht door Zhr. Mr. J. K. J. De Jongc, Adjunct. Rijks Archivaris 's (Jravenhage, 1872. The Barents Relies 29 IS of en ed ;he ler- F. Mack, in a vessel from Tromso, and they agreed to keep company. Mack was supplied with good instruipents from the M(^teorological Institute at Christiania, and the result of their observations was that the north-eastern end of Novaya Zemlya is incorrectly laid down in modern maps. It is placed in 73° E., while the observations of Mack and Carlsen give 67° 30' E. as its longitude. On September 3, the two vessels parted company in a thick fog. The map of this extremity of Novaya Zemlya, by Carlsen, agrees well with that published by Gerrit de Veer, the hist( Ian of the voyage of Barents in 1598; and Mr. De Jonge gives a map showing the two, together with the erroneous prolongation to the eastward on other recent maps. Mr. De Jonge then shows that the Russians have never visited the winter quarters of Barents, and that, though the Dutch navigator Vlamingh was very near them in 1664, he never landed nor saw the house. The account of the voyage of Vlamingh is given by Witsen. Mr. De Jonge gives an extremely interest- ing note on the old clock, and anotlier on a curious copper dial, through the middle of which i^ 30 The Barents Relics i a meridian is drawn. He believes this dial to be an instrument for determining the variation of the compass. Plancius, the famous cosmographer and tutor of Barents, invented such an instrument to work on an astrolabe, by which to calculate the longitude at sea. At the time when the expedition sailed, in 1596, Plancius was very busy with his theory of finding the longitude by the variation of the compass. With this object, he constructed a copper dial to be fixed on the astrolabe ; and it is probable that this interesting relic is the only extant example of the invention of Plancius. Of the three books among the relics, one is a translation of the work of Medina on seamanship, being the edition of 1580. An improved edition was pub- lished at Amsterdam in 1598, a proof that the ship sailed between those years, for a careful pilot like Barents would be sure to take out the latest edition of such a work. Mr. De Jonge considers this to be an additional proof of the authenticity of the relics. The other books are a chronicle of Holland, and a Dutch translation of Mendoza's ' History of China.* The Bai'cnts Relics o- These are perhaps the most vahiable relics in an antiquarian point of view ; but not the least interesting are the flute, which will still give out a few notes, and the small shoes of the poor little ship s boy. who died during the winter. It ■■ a:' If |i , . CHAPTER III. HENRY HUDSON [MONG the most important voyages that have ever yet been undertaken in the direction of the unknown Polar region are, undoubtedly, those of Henry Hudson ; for this able and persevering seaman examined the whole extent of the ocean which leads to it, searching for an entrance along the pack edge from Greenland to Novaya Zemlya. Nothing whatever is certainly known of the early history of Hudson, although General Mere- dith Read, in his valuable ' Historical Inquiry,' has made some probable conjectures as to his parent- age.^ He first appears fitting out a little cock- ' Cicneral Read's view is tliat the great navigator was a grandson of another Henry Hudson, who died, when an Henry Hudson 33 I the ^re- Ihas fcnt- ck- Is a un boat for the Muscovy Company, called the ' Hope^ well ' (80 tons) to discover a passage by the North Pole. On May i, 1607, he weighed anchor at Greenwich. When we consider the means with which he was provided for the achievement of this great discovery, we are astonished at the fearless audacity of the attempt. Here was a crew of twelve men and a boy, in a wretched little craft of eighty tons, coolly talking of sailing right across the Pole to Japan, and actually making as careful and judicious a trial of the possibility of doing so, as has ever been effected by the best equipped modern expeditions. Nor was Hudson ignorant of the difficulties and dangers of such a voyage, for the results of the three expeditions of Barents were known to him, and he had with him the best existing charts. Imagine this bold seaman sailing from Graves- end, bound for the North Pole, in a craft about the size of one of the smallest of modern collier brigs. Alderman of London, in 1555. Henry, the navigator, was a citizen of London, and had a house there, and was bred up in the service of the Muscovy Company. — An Historical Inquiry concerning Henry Hudson^ by jfohn Meredith Kcad^ jf^'H- {Albany, 1856). D 34 Hudson off East Greenland We can form a good idea of her general appear- ance, because three such vessels are delineated on the chart drawn by Hudson himself. The * Hope- well ' was more like an old Surat buggalow than anything else that now sails the seas, with high stern, and low pointed bow ; she had no head sails on her bowsprit, but to make up for this, the foremast was stepped chock forward. There was a cabin under the high and narrow poop, where Hudson and his little son were accommodated, and the men were crowded forward. Thus equipped and provided for the voyage, Hudson, as we have seen, sailed from Greenwich and passed the Shetland Islands on May 26, 1607. He came in sight of the east coast of Greenland, which he de- scribes as a very high land with much ice near the shore, on June 13, and continued to stand along it with a northerly course, until the 22nd. Although he was stopped in this direction, yet he considered the timci well spent, seeing that exten- sive land had been discovered which was not marked on any chart, and he adds, ' for aught we could see, it is like to be a good land and worth the seeing.' He named it ' Hold with Hope,' and Hudson off Spitzbergen 35 found his latitude, when in sight of it on the 22nd, to be 73° N. Hudson then left the Greenland coast, and, steering in a north-easterly direction for five days, came in sight of a part of Spitzbergen, or Newland as he called it, which he supposed to be the Vogelsang of Barents, The ice was found in latitude 78° 30' N. trending away from Spitz- bergen to the westward ; and the little craft was ' in many dangers amongst so huge a quantity of ice and fogge.' Hudson continued to examine the coast of Spitzbergen during many days, constantly attempting to make a passage to the northward, but always stopped by the ice. He gave the name which it still bears, to the N.W. point of Spitz- bergen — Hakluyt Headland. At one time he found his latitude to be 81° to the northward of Spitzbergen, when the land he sighted was pro- bably the Seven Islands; he observed that the sea was in some places green, and in others blue, and he says, ' our green sea we found to be freest from ice, and our azure blue sea to be our icie .sea.' Scoresby considers this to be accidental, and he ascertained the green colour to be caused by D 2 IffT m 36 Hudson s Tutches If! myriads of minute inedtisce^ 1 10,592 in a cubic foot. Having completed the examination of the western side of Spitzbergen, which he describes as very high mountainous land, like rugged rocks, with snow between them, Hudson formed the magnificent design of sailing round the north end of Greenland, and returning to England by Davis Strait. With this object he again examined the sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland, towards the end of July, but judged, from the strong ice-blink along the northern horizon, that there was no passage in that direction. He, therefore, after sighting Spitzbergen, determined to return to England, and, on his way homewards, he discovered an island in 71° N. which he named * Hudson's Tutches.' There cannot now be any doubt that this island, discovered by Hudson, is the same as has since so improperly been called Jan Mayen, after a Dutch skipper, who, on very weak authority, is said to have seen it some years afterwards, in 161 1. The island is about 30 miles long, by 9 miles broad, and at its northern end rises up the remarkable volcanic peak of Beeren- Res Jilts of Hiidsojis Voyage 37 id n- berg, 6,870 feet high. The little ' Hopewell' was safely anchored in the Thames again on Sept. 15. The results of this voyage were very important, both in a geographical and a commercial point of view. Hudson had discovered a portion of the east coast of Greenland ; he had examined the edge of the ice between Greenland and Spitzbergcn twice, in June and in the end of July ; and he had sailed to the northward of Spitzbergen, until he was stopped by the ice ; reaching almost as high a latitude as Scoresby in 1806, which was 81° 12' 42" N. Hudson's highest latitude by observation was 80° 23' ; but he sailed for two more days in a north-easterly direction. The practical conse- quence of Hudson's voyage was that his account of the quantities of whales and sea-horses in the Spitzbergen seas led to the establishment of a rich and prosperous fishery which continued to flourish for two centuries. In 1608, Hudson fitted out a second expedition to attempt a passage between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. His crew consisted of fourteen hands. Robert Juet was the mate; and two of the men had sailed with Hudson in his former !i! m m 38 H7idso7i off Novaya Zcmlya ! Ml! «l|l, voyage, namely, John Cooke, now promoted to the rank of boatswain, and James Skrutton. John Hudson, the captain's son, was also on board. On April 22 they sailed from the Thames, and reached the edge of the ice, in latitude 75° 29', on June 9. Hudson hoped to bore his ship through the pack, so he stood into it for several leagues, but found the ice ahead to be firm and thick, and was obliged to give up the attempt. He then sailed along the pack edge to the eastward, always keeping the ice in sight on his port beam, and watching for an opening until the 26th, when he reached the coast of Novaya Zemlya, in latitude 72° 25' N. He had thus ascertained that the barrier of ice between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya was impenetrable, as on his former voyage it ha,d proved to be between Greenland and Spitzbergen. It was quite clear that for 'Search-thrifts,' ' Hope- wells,' and such like craft, the portals of the unknown region were firmly closed. It remains to be seen whether a sharp-bowed screw steamer will be able to force them open. Stout Henry Hudson had failed, and his additional laurels were to be won elsewhere ; but he had done all Succour to Mrs. Hudson 39 that the boldest mariner could do, with nothing but a little ' Hopewell ' under his feet ; and no explorer has done much more in the same direction, since that 25th of June 1608, when he sighted Novaya Zemlya, and turned his vessel's head to the south. As a Polar explorer we shall meet him no more. He examined a part of the Novaya Zemlya coast, and arrived at Gravesend on August 26. During this second voyage, Hudson observed numerous pieces of drift wood floating in the gulf stream, from the North Cape to latitude 75° 30' N. Hudson, as is well known, was foully murdered. It is pleasing to find that his services were acknowledged by the bountiful old East India Company. Mrs. Hudson was left very poor, and the Court gave an appointment to her son on board one of their ships, in the year 16 14, because the brave father perished in the service of the commonwealth.^ ' 'Being informed that Mrs. Hudson, the widow of Mr. Hudson, who was left in the North-west discovery, desired their favour for employing a youth, a son of his, she being left very poor, and conceiving that they were partly obliged in charity to give assistance, in regard that his father perished in 40 yofuis Poole After the voyages of Hudson, the whale fishery commenced in the Spitzbergen seas. Captain Jonas Poole made four voyages for the Muscovy Company in 1609, 10, 11 and 12, for killing whales and morses. Horn Sound, and Bel Sound, in the south of Spitzbergen, still retain the names given by Poole; and, in 161 2, he tells us that a skipper from Hull, named Thomas Marma- duke, went as far as 82" N. ; two degrees beyond Hakluyt's Headland. Baffin was in the Spitz- bergen seas with the whaling fleet in 161 3, and in the two following years Robert Fotherby was sent up to make new discoveries, with Baffin as his pilot. In 161 5, Fotherby was despatched by Sir Thomas Smith to seek a passage to the northward, in the ' Richard,' of twenty tons. As usual they were stopped by the polar pack near Hakluyt's Headland, and like Hudson before the advance of the Commonwealth, resolved to recommend him to the care of some one who is to go the voyage.' {April 9, 1614.) ' Mrs. Hudson's son recommended to the care of Hunt, master's mate in the " Samaritan " : five pounds to be laid out upon him, in apparel and necessaries.' {April 19, 16 14.) — Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Scries. East Indies, i^iy 1616, paras. 709 <7//U «/'rit« ufiAni*wn Jl^m'fr) • h Marmiuiw l.H/H-S ImUm' JMi^«*n ii'ti Mtiratmt. /<*w#5«Nr(»J^0nM .'(frtvf I. r; English Delineation of Spilzheygen 51 r \ with the Dutch fleet, and the English found it more and more difficult to hold their own. Eventually, for many years, the trade fell almost entirely into the hands of the Hollanders. But during the time that the English mariners were in the ascendant in the Spitzbergen seas, from the voyage of stout Henry Hudson in 1607 to about 1622, they did excellent geographical work ; which is shown on the chart of Purchas. Here we have the whole of the west and north sides of Spitzbergen, with their fiords and off- lying islets delineated and named, as well as part of the strait between the main islai 1 and North- East Land, called Sir Thomas Smith's Inlet, but which was afterwards named the Waygat or Hinlopen Strait, after a rich Amsterdam Burgo- master of that name. We have North- East Land, called Sir Thomas Smith's Island. We have the whole of what is now called Stor Fiord by the Swedes ; with the west and south sides of Edge Island, and Alderman Freeman's Inlet on its northern shore ; and we have Wiche's Land far to the east, discovered by the English in 161 7, but \ 52 A Pica for the Old A\jmes never seen again, or at least delineated on a map, until 1870. Thus was the greater part of Spitzbergen fairly mapped by the English, and names given to the principal features. Some of those features were improperly named again by the Dutch, but the more ancient English names ought on all occasions now to be adopted, except, of course, those given by Barents, which have a prior claim. The old names should be restored on all new maps ; and we rejoice to see that Dr. Petermann is, as a rule, careful to preserve and restore the earliest name on every occasion when the locality to which it was given can be identified. On further considera- tion he will doubtless see the propriety of con- sistently maintaining this excellent rule in the case of Wiche's Land. Commodore Jansen, of the Dutch Navy, makes the following interesting remarks on the Spitz- bergen fishery of his countr^'men : ' When our whalers first came to Spitzbergen, they met with the whales in great quantities, enjoying all the luxury of this most exquisite feeding-ground, the best perhaps in the whole Arctic region. The I Dutch Whaling Ventures 53 whales were found sporting in open water off shore, with their huge backs above water, or taking their siesta in a cahn bay, surrounded by abundance of food. This was a most glorious time for the whales — the paradise of their history. In spite of the yearly increase of whalers, and the great number of whales that were killed on the same spot, they always resorted to this favourite ground. During this first period, called the "Shore Fishery," we had an oil-boiling establishment at Smeeren- burg, on Amsterdam Island, near the N.W. point of Spitzbergen. Every year our whalers went straight to this island ; each vessel had six or seven boats, and a large complement of men, who were employed in killing whales, bringing them ashore, and making oil as fast as possible. Thousands and thousands of whales were killed, and at last, from about 1640-50, they ceased for a time to come at all to the west coast of Spitzbergen. As soon as the scarcity of whales was felt, the direc- tors of the Dutch Whaling Company made great efforts to follow them to their place of retreat. Several ships were sent out on exploring expedi- tions, but they did not find any islands besides 54 Dutch Whale Fislicry those round Spitzbergen, nor any whaling- ground as easy and profitable as Smeerenburg and its vicinity had been. It had been remarked that a great number of whales took their flight round the N.W. point of Spitzbergen to the east, and in that direction our whalers went in search of the whales that came no more to the vicinity of that horrible slaughter-place, Smeerenburg. This new whaling-ground was called " to the Eastward'' and the whale that was caught there differed from a similar black whale that took its flight to the west, in the ice-bearing southerly Greenland current. The ice between Spitzbergen and Greenland was called " West Ice,'' and the whales that retreated into it the " West Ice Whales." After the havoc at Smeerenburg this West Ice Wfialc became shy, cunning, wild, and sometimes desperate. The other whale was more abundant in unusual years, when the ice east of Spitzbergen drifted in great quantities, and with smaller and flatter floes, much lower down than in a common year. Such an unusual year, in which there was great abundance of this particular whale, was called a " South Ice " year. This South Ice Whale was not so shy and N Dutch Whale Fishery 55 so cunning as the West Ice Whale, which leads to the conclusion that the South Ice years must have been very unusual. I do not believe that any ship went to the east coast of Spitzbergen from the south, and I am sure that no ship has ever been in the east ice, between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, unless along the coast of Novaya Zemlya. In ordinary years, our whalers were obliged to go in search of whales in the West Ice, where many ships were lost, and in about 1650 the whaling business was made a free trade. Every year from 100 to 200 ships went along the Greenland ice up to Prince Charles' Island, on straight to 79* or 79** 30' N., very seldom higher or lower, and steered from thence west, in the ice-bearing southerly current. In a South Ice year, however, they did not go so far north, but steered cast as soon as they detected that it was such a year. The real ice-fields, 36 miles long, are found 224 miles west of Spitzbergen, and the whalers penetrated through loose ice until they reached them. They then drifted with the field down to 75,°, and, if they had a full cargo, returned home. I it not, they went back again to 79". to make the same circuit 56 Dutch Discoveries ■/I' :-■> . I again, or else they tried the whaling-ground to the eastward of Spitzbergen. * Theunis Ys, one of the most experienced navigators in the seas near Novaya Zemlya, was of opinion that no vessel had been higher than 82", owing to the large fields of ice which are nearly always found to the nortii of Novaya Zemlya, although no land can be seen. In 1664, Cai)tain\Villiamde Vlaniingh sailed along the north and north-east coast of Novaya Zemlya, round to the east, and reached the bay where Barents wintered in 1596, though he did not land there. From thence he sailed in an E.S.E. direction, in latitude 74° N., and saw no ice, but here and there a iloc. He also went in a N.VV. direction from Novaya Zemlya, as far as 82° 10', and in going to the north the wat<;r invariably became more and more smooth, and there was less and less current. The state of the sea, with reference to ice obstructions, depended on prevailing winds. Vlamingh was afterwards selected to command an exploring expedition to New Holland.' In the year 1624 a small Dutch vessel of eighty tons, and a crew of ten men, ccjmmaudcd by mm Dutch Discoveries 57 Captain Williamszoon, with Jacob Jacobszoon as steersman, attempted to sail to the Pole. They reached to 3° N. of Spitzbergen, and then sailed along the ed'^c of the Polar pack, but found no opening in any direction. So the good skipper Williamszoon was convinced that it was impossible to come under the ' Polum Articum,' and he wisely returned to his whaling-ground. His attempt aroused a desire to make the discovery in others, and two captains named Sybrandt and Claas Cor- ncliszoon tried their luck, but were equally unsuc- cessful. Toris Carolus, who himself made two voyages to the north, published his sailing direc- tions in 1634, in which he stated that 83** N. was the highest latitude that had ever been reached. It would seem, from the above notes, that the Dutch frequenters of Spitzbergen had made no material addition to knowledge of the group up to the end of the seventeenth century. They never went beyond the Seven Islands and Hinlo- pen Strait, on the north coast, and, in a bad year, they went round to the east, by doubling the south point of Spitzbergen, and proceeding to a great fishery in Disco Bay, off VA«#»•' ' '-J' >t>A*Jtj}itmd, "i^b-nk I />..;(#' fiy lani /v S^IXnJf •tn o^ # '^^ ^ 62 Daincs Ban-ingiotis Fables ,r- ages ' ) that, fifty years before, he went in a ship to 88° N., where the weather was warm, and there was no ice. Dr. Campbell told the story to Mr. Barrington thirty years afterwards. The second came from a Hollander, who once swore to a Mr. Grey that he had been to 89° 30' N. ; and Mr. Grey told the story to Mr. Oldenburg in 1663. The third is from a Mr. Wheatly, who had been told by three Dutch skippers that they had heard of a Dutch ship having been in 89° N. The fourth is from a Mr. Reed, who told Mr. Barrington that, fifteen years before, he had himself been told by one Hans Derrick, that he had been in 86'' N. with five other ships. The fifth instance is given by Captair John Wood, as his fifth reason for be- lieving that he could sail to the North Pole. It is supplied by a Captain Goulden, who is said to have told the King in 1676 that he had heard from two Dutch skippers, twenty years before, that they had been in 89° N. They added that four journals were kept on board the two ships, and that they agreed within four minutes. But the sixth instance is the most absurd of all, Moxons Ale House Yarn ey he lur H. ^at although the authority for it is no less a person than Mr. Moxon, the hydrographer to the King's most excellent Majesty. It appears that about twenty-two years before Mr. Moxon told the story, or in 1654, the credulous old gentleman went into a drinking-house at Am- sterdam to drink a cup of beer, and sat down by the public fire, among several other tipplers. Presently a sailor came in, and, seeing a friend over his beer, whom he supposed to be with the Greenland fleet, he enquired what accident brought him home so soon. • Oh ! ' said the beer-drinker, ' we sailed to the North Pole and back.' This startled worthy Mr. Moxon, who joined in the conversation, asking if the statement was really true. Upon which the wag replied that he had not only been to the Pole, but 2° beyond it ; and then the Dutch sailors evidently resolved to see how much the stranger could swallow. In answer to his questions, they told him that there was a free and open sea round the Pole, that they saw no ice, and that the weather was as hot as at Amsterdam in summer. At last the hydrographer thought that, as they were engaged in discourse '4 64 English Whaling with each other, he could not in modesty interrupt them longer ; but he believed the Dutch sailor 'spoke matter of fact and truth, for he seemed a plain, honest and unaffectatious person, and one who could have no design upon me.' This conversation was gravely written out, and published with a map, some silly arguments to prove the truth of the ale-house chaff, and a still sillier story to cap the whole. It found many readers, and a second edition appeared in 1697. When Mr. Barrington asked the Dutch skippers themselves, he got the simple truth from them. In reply to his enquiries, they said, 'We can seldom proceed much higher than 80° 30' N., but almost always to that latitude.' The most flourishing period of the English fishery in the Spitzbergen seas was from 1752 to 1820. Bounties of forty shillings per ton were granted by Act of Parliament, and from "1733 to 1785 the sums paid in bounties amounted to 1,266,430/. The quantity of shipping thus em- ployed increased rapidly, and in 1778 as many as 255 sail of whalers were employed in the Spitz- bergen seas. As they usually ranged as high as Dairies Darrinzton s Yarns 65 So** and 81° N. latitude, and as many of the whaling captains were not very accurate observers, there were numerous statements of vessels having gone still farther north, and all these stories were industriously collected by Mr. Barrington. But the English statements were far more modest than the Dutch, and 84° 30' was the highest latitude that was ever mentioned in them. Yet they were nearly all given from memory, either by voyagers who had themselves made the observations, or by others who had had intercourse with them. In the former case more than half were from oral testimony, given at a distance of eighteen to thirty years from the time when the respective voyages were performed. The Polar pack drifts south during the summer and autumn, and no navigator has ever alleged that he has actually bored through it. The edge of this pack varies its position in the different seasons, in the Spitzbergen meridians. Sometimes it is close down upon Hakluyt Headland, at others it is much farther north : possibly in very extraordinary seasons it may not be met with before even the 83rd degree is reached. But 66 Reward for Reaching the Pole wherever it may be, it is quite certain that no vessel has ever yet sailed beyond its edge, and in this way, in remarkable seasons, some may have been in 81°, 82°, and even 83". Yet there is no really authentic instance of any vessel having been north of 81° 42', the latitude attained by the Swedes in 1868. The whalers received an inducement to push to the northward whenever there was a good opportunity, from the reward offered for attaining very high latitudes ; and we may be well assured that if any vessel had succeeded, the proofs of such a voyage would have been forthcoming. In 1776 a reward of 5,000/. was offered to the first person who should sail beyond the 89th degree of latitude (Act 16, Geo. 3, cap. 6). In 1818 the inducement was made more tempting by a re- vision of the former Act, and an arrange- ment by which proportionate rewards were offered for partial success. (Act 58, Geo. 3, cap. 20.) By the new Act the first ship that sailed to 83° N. was to receive a reward of 1,000/., to Ss'' N. 2,000/., to 87** N. 3,000/., to 88° N. 4,000/., and to 89" N. 5,000/. It is satisfactory Line of the Winter Ice 67 to find that this excellent law has not been repealed in the recent Acts of Parliament, which have swept away a vast number of old Acts (24 and 25 Vic. cap. 10 1, and 26 and 27 Vic. cap. 125). Although the whaling voyages have not done much towards an extension of our knowledge to the northward, yet to the great work of Scoresby, and to the careful observations of himself and his father, we are indebted for the most useful account of the Spitzbergen seas, and of the ice in them, up to the edge of the Polar pack. Dr. Scoresby found that the edge of the ice, during the winter and early spring, extended in a line from the east coast of Greenland to the north- ward of Jan Mayen Island, crossing the meridian of Greenwich between the 71st and 72 nd degrees of latitude, according to the year, then passing up north for several degrees and leaving a bay, and finally stretching away east to Novaya Zemlya. The deep bay thus left to the eastward of the Greenwich meridian, which is probably caused by the Gulf-stream, forms the route by which the whalers proceed to their fishing-ground, and is F 2 i 68 Lhic oj the Winter Ice \ y called the ' Whalc-fishcr's bight.' When the ice in the spring extends from the head of this bay to Spitzbcrgen, it is called a close season ; and when navigation is open along the west coast, as far as Hakluyt Headland, it is an opoL season. In an open season a large channel of water lies be- tween the land and the ice, from 20 to 50 leagues in breadth, as far as 79° to 80°, where the ice generally closes round again, and touches the islets to the northward of Spitzbergen ; but even in an open season the ice appears again on the east side of Spitzbergen, and extends thence to Novaya Zemlya. In a close season there is a barrier of pack-ice extending from the south side of Spitzbergen, and the whalers enter it without hesitation, and persevere in boring their way through it until the open water on the other side is reached. Such is the usual state of the ice when the whalers first approach it in April ; but by the end of June all obstructions so far south have dis- appeared. It is, however, very remarkable, that while on the west side of Spitzbergen the ocean is annually navigable on the meridians of 5° to % 'm Ice in the Spitzhcrgcn Seas 69 * "i ocean .0 , _ 10° E. to the 80th tleast. They called the passage between the '^^yiii i .lands and the north cape of North- East Land the ' Northern Gate,' and the south- eastern outlet of 1 jiii^!open Strait the ' Southern Gate ' ; and both were usuall}'^ blocked up with ice. Captain Carlsen was the first to venture through the ' Northern Gate ' in 1863, and he completed the circumnavigation of Spitzbergen. His was the first vessel that ever sailed round that group of snow-clad mountainous islands. She was a brig called the ' Jan Mayen.* On August 2, 1863, Captain Carlsen passed the Seven Islands, and on the 14th he had rounded the extreme point of North-East Land, and was beating through the channel between the main land and the ' High Island ' (Groot Hoog Eyl) of the Dutch chart. Carlsens Voyage 105 On the 1 6th he sighted Giles' (Gillis) Land; and on the 1 8th the 'Jan Mayen ' sailed along the coast of Barents and Edge Islands, and past the entrance of Alderman Freeman's Strait. On the 2 1 St she sailed round Hope Island, thus complet- ing the circumnavigation ; a feat which has never been performed before or since. Captain Carlsen has thus circumnavigated both Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and for this great nautical feat he has received a gold watch, as a recognition of his brilliant achievements, from the Royal Geo- graphical Society. In 1864 the Norwegians made another most important voyage, passing through the ' Northern Gate,' and returning in boats by the ' Southern Gate,' thus completing the circumnavigation of North East Land, but they left their vessels behind. Early in August 1 864 Captain Tobiesen, in command of the schooner * ^olus,' fell in with Captains Aarstrom and Mathilas off the Seven Islands, and they determined to pass the ' Northern Gate ' and round the eastern point of North-East Land in company. On the 7th, when about twelve miles N. by W. of that point, they sighted Giles' n. til m.\ m 1 r \ 1 06 Tobiesen (Gillis) Land, bearing S.E. by S. That unvisited isle, never seen except by Carlsen in the previous year since the stout Dutch skipper discovered it in 1 707, remained in sight during the 7th and the whole of the 8th of August ; and in the following days a great number of seals and walruses were secured on Great Island, the * Groot Hoog Eyl ' of the Dutch. But when they tried to return by the way they came, the Norwegians found so much drift-ice coming from the north, and blocking up the passage at Walrus Islands, that escape in that direction was impossible. The three vessels then tried to make their way to the southward, along the east coast of North-East Land, which, as the Dutch described it, is bordered by a continuous ice-field. They could not reach the * Southern Gate ' in their vessels, so they were obliged to take to their boats, and abandon their valuable property, including seals and walruses worth 1,100/. The boats went up Hinlopen Strait, and all along the northern and western sides of Spitzbergen, to Ice Fiord, a distance of 700 miles, before they were picked up — Tobiesen by a sealing-vessel ; Aars- trom and Mathilas by the ' Axel Thoresen,' of Re-discovery of IVic/ies Land 107 nvisited Drevious leered it and the )llowing es were )g Eyl ' turn by JO much cing up in that :1s then I, along as the inuous uthern take •perty, The ig the Ice were ars- n.' of the Swedish Expedition. This remarkable ad- venture turned the attention of the Norwegians to Eastern Spitzbergen, as a new country abounding in seals and walruses ; and it was suggested that it would be easier to reach it by sailing directly east from Bear Island instead of going round Spitzbergen to the * Northern Gate.' In fact it was said that such a voyage was made by a Hammerfest captain in 1854, who actually landed either on Giles' or Wiche's Land. In July 1872 Captain Altmann found the eastern side of Spitzbergen freer from ice than he had known it for twenty years. He sailed from the Ryk Ys Islands on the 26th, and on the 28th he sighted what he supposed to be Giles' Land, but which was really Wiche's Land, discovered by the English in 161 7. The ice was packed close in shore, but Altmann sailed along the land, which appeared to be composed of three large and several small islands. On his map the three islands are named Bear, Giles, and Fast-ice Islands, the southernmost point of the latter being in 78° 43' N. Captain Nils Johnson, in the schooner ' Lydiana,' r &i I 1 io8 Re-discovery of Wiche's Land I : \ \ iiil! ■' ''III 3" 111,1 .liii! '■' til! sighted the same land, in latitude 78* 10' N., on August 16, and anchored close to it on the following morning. He landed, with some of his men, to collect drift-wood for fuel, which was plentiful. The coast trended from N.E. to S.W., and terminated in a lofty hill, which rose sheer out of the sea like an upright wedge. It was named Cape Tordenskiold. Beyond this pro- montory the land takes a westerly direction, and appeared to curve into a deep bay, but there was a thick fog at the time. At some distance from the land three prominent hills looked like three separate islands, but, on a closer approach, low land could be seen to connect them. One of these mountains, crowning the north-east point, was named after Captain Johnsen. He climbed to the top of it, and saw the two other conspicuous hills, one to the south-west, and the highest to the west. The southern and eastern shores were free from ice, but the edge of the pack was close in shore to the north. There was a vast mass of drift-wood on the beach, and some fragments of wreck, which had accumulated to a height of 20 feet above high-water mark. Although decayed \ Rc-discovery of Wiches Land 109 with age, some of it answered capitally as fuel. The greater portion consisted of the trunks of fir-trees ; and their position favoured the conclusion that the land must have been up- heaved to the height of 20 feet at some com- paratively recent period. Among other animals, a fine reindeer was shot, in such good condition that there must be good store of pasturage some- where on the island. Captain Nilsen, in the schooner ' Freia,' sighted the same land on July 27, and noticed its steep cliffs, rising to a height of 1,000 to 1,200 feet. On the 31st the ' Freia' was off a small island at the extreme eastern point of the group, named Abel Island on the chart. To the east and north the sea was free from ice, except that a chain of bergs was drifting south. Sailing along the northern coast of the island, Nilsen saw that the Bear and Giles Islands of Altmann were continuous. On this westward voyage great masses of ice were seen to the north, some of them 200 feet high and half a mile long. He sailed westward until he sighted Cape Torell, and then retraced his steps. On August 8 he sighted a high mountain lip • 4 r i' t / I 1= Ill ,1 iii no Norwegian Arctic Voyages on the re-discovered Iinri o i l h's track is shown as rlZ °" "'^ ^'"'^ point. ""^'"^ --"""d the eastern The high mountain seen K„ m-. Haarfagrehant^en I Z ^ '"" ""^^ "''""^d *e yea? fthe ;?^-!'' "»%- ror in '.-hannivlsatorthlr^*^'^'^'^"'^ Th's year the bold Norwegians hav. • ~^eirworkore.p,o.atiorLt:r: V-« engagerin^ri::- ^"V"^ ^™'" JW average .0^4;:: -^^ -e. "r:::: ZLT °^ '- - -- ^- from southern to ^'"''^' '"^'"^'"^ '- -eame. outnern towns, sailed from Tr^ ■• catch white whales i„ ,he Sn,>T '° -des one or two sailin" f P"*^'-^^" «-as, be- haakjewmg' (shark) trade was repre ii; omso, from :rade. tons [men. icrs to be- lia; )re- Paycr and Wcyprccht III sented by eight ships of Tromso, fishing on the Spitzbergen bank. This same fishery for sharks, which yields cod-liver oil, employed fifty vessels from Hammerfest and Vardo, with an aggregate of 1,070 tons and 277 men. A more successful voyage, with the same object as that of Lutke, was undertaken by Lieutenant Payer of the Austrian service, and Lieutenant Weyprecht, two years ago. Their plan was to follow the Gulf Stream into the supposed Polar Basin, by keeping to the eastward of Spitzbergen. They sailed from Tromso on June 21, 1 871, in a small hired vessel of seventy tons, and a crew, all included, of eight souls. They attempted to reach Giles' Land by following the eastern coast of the outermost islands of the Spitzbergen group. On August 21 they had reached latitude "jf 17' N., between the 28th and 36th degrees of east longi- tude, where the ice was lighter than any they had previously met with. The vicinity of land was proclaimed by the decreasing depth of the sea, and by numerous bear- tracks on the ice. The fogs were so thick that they could not see far, but they seem to have been beating about for ■ M H % *■ '.f 112 Payer and Weyprecht m \ 1 some days in perfectly navigable ice, in *]']'^ 30' N. On August 30 they passed the forty-second meri- dian, in latitude 78° 25' N., without seeing ice ; but that night they came to the edge of the pack, which seemed to be moving north-east ; and in the evening of the 31st they were in 78** 41' N. Very thick fog, with a stiff contrary wind, prevented them from getting farther north ; and they inferred the near neighbourhood of land from the quantity of drift-wood, not very far north of their position on the foriy-second meridian. They then sailed east until they sighted Novaya Zemlya, and re- turned to Tromso on October 4. Since the deplorable abandonment of Arctic enterprise by Great Britain, Sweden and Norway have, with a skill and resolution which do the highest honour to the gallant Scandinavian nation, perseveringly continued, year after year, to prose- cute scientific investigations within the Arctic circle. Year by year, too, the Swedes and Nor- wegians have acquired experience in ice navigation; and their steady determination to achieve success is a sure sign that they will attain their end. Looking to the experience acquired in previous The Swedish Expediiion 113 voyages, the expedition which sailed from Sweden may be considered as the most important that has hitherto been undertaken. It was mainly equipped with the aid of funds subscribed in Gottenburg, under the superintend- ence of Professor Nordenskiold, and it sailed from Tromso on July 21, 1872. It is composed of the steamer ' Polhem,' the brig ' Gladan,' and the steamer * Onkel Adam.' The ' Polhem ' is a Government steamer, hitherto employed, during the winter, on postal service between the island of Gothland and the mainland of Sweden, and she is specially adapted for forcing her way through the ice. She was built in 1858, is 108 feet long by 20 feet extreme beam, draws 8 feet of water, and is propelled by a high-pressure engine of 60 horse-power, consuming, at full speed of 9 knots, 15 cubic feet of coal. She carries 1,960 cubic feet of coal, sufficient for from 131 to 164 hours' consumption. The ' Polhem ' is com- manded by Lieutenant Palander, of the Swedish Royal Navy, and is manned by officers and men of the same service. She was to remain out during the winter. She is accompanied by the I ' :. ■ ■ ■ 'V. 1 • 'Hi i , ■ •? ; 'l ■ ■'J fVi ,y ^■1 114 The Swedish Expedition \ J* ; Government transport brig ' Gladan,' and the steamer ' Onkel Adam,' freighted at Gottenburg ; which vessels took out a dwelling-house, reindeer, supplies of moss and coal, and were to have returned to Sweden before the winter set in. Commander Palander and his officers ; Professor Nordenskiold, Dr. Envall, Professor Wykander, Lieutenant Parent, an Italian officer ; two engi- neers, nine Swedish seamen, and four Laplanders, were to have remained throughout the winter ; but during the summer the expedition was also to be accompanied by Dr. Kjellman, a naturalist, the crews of the * Gladan ' and ' Onkel Adam,' and several supernumeraries. Besides coal, the expedition was supplied with 1,500 pounds of photogene oil, for lighting and fuel during the sledge journeys. The dwelling-house, for winter quarters, consists of six rooms, including the kitchen, larder, bathing-room, and potato cellar. One of the rooms is fitted up with a carpenter's bench and turning lathe, and other ap- pliances. There are also three large sheds at- tached to the house, adapted for observatories ; the supply of provisions and clothing is abundant, the former being sufficient for two years, and the ^**u. The Swedish Expedition 115 latter including Lapp costumes for winter for the whole of the party. For the sledge travelling par- ties, 900 pounds of pemmican were provided, concentrated rum, and cooking apparatus, with photogene oil, warm sleeping bags, and sailcloth tents. Three light ice-boats, weighing respectively 150, 200, and 300 pounds, and two larger boats, built with double planking, form the boat equipment, and all are provided with ash-wood sledges. Fifty reindeer were shipped at Tromso, most of them from Kola, in Lapland ; the reindeer of that district being the most hardy, and the best for driving. But reindeer, though hardy, are very sensitive to change of climate. Experienced Laplanders, to drive and attend the reindeer, and four or five reindeer dogs to assist in watching them, accompanied the expedition, and 3,cx)0 sacks of reindeer moss were taken for forage. Professor Nordenskiold took out a complete set of magnetic instruments by Lonant of Munich ; a magnetic variation instrument by Wrede ; a transit instru- ment by Estel ; a portable meridian compass by Repsold ; a register apparatus connected by electric regulated clock-work ; three chronometers in cases, la m6 The Swedish Expedition p ' and two pocket chronometers ; pendulum appa- ratus ; sextants ; a theodolite for geodetic measure- ments ; all requisite appliances for zoological, botanical, and mineralogical researches ; and photographic apparatus. The plan of the expedition was to pass the autumn on the eastern side of Spitzbergen, and to winter in Mussel Bay, or off Parry Island. The sledge travelling will begin in the early spring of 1873, with the hope of reaching the North Pole ; but there is reason to fear that the reindeer may prove unequal to the task, for there is great diffi- culty in carrying the moss, and it is said that reindeer cannot carry more moss than is required for subsistence during five or six days. But the achievement of most valuable geographi- cal work is within the power of the gallant Swedes. They intend to explore the eastern Spitzbergen sea, and to map the w'lole of the eastern lands, including the mysterious Gillis Land ; to arrange a connected series of meteorological and magnetic observations ; to take a series of observations with the pendulum ; to make careful zoological observa- tions extending over a whole year, with reference Tlic Siucdish Expedition 117 to the numerous varieties of animal life existing in the far north ; and to make botanical, geological, and other researches connected with the natural sciences. We, in England, have hitherto been condemned by our rulers to the disgrace of looking on while others complete the work so gloriously begun by our ancestors ; but we may at least feel some satisfaction in seeing our Scandinavian brethren recalling the deeds of those Vikings, with whom they and we may both claim kindred. Besides the expedition of Palander and Nordenskiold, two others sailed from Sweden and Norway to Spitzbergen in 1872. A Swedish expedition has been sent out by a company called the ' Isfjord ' Company, of which Mr. Patrick Graham, a British subject resident in Stockholm, is chairman. The object of the company is to establish a colony at Isfjordem, in the south- western part of Spitzbergen, for raising and shipping phosphate for artificial manure. The company commences operations with a working capital of 12,000/. The expedition consists of two well-equipped steamers of about 300 tons I ■?-t. 1f ii8 The Swedish Expedition each, the * Fiskaren' and ' Mime.' Mr. Graham com- mands the expedition in person, but he was to return at the close of the summer. The other members of the expedition are Dr. Oberg, a chemist, twenty miners, two or three women, and five joiners. The joiners are to put up two wooden dwelling- houses, which are taken out in pieces, and they will return with Mr. Graham. The other mem- bers of the expedition will remain through the winter, or perhaps permanently. Unfortunately the two vessels attached to the Swedish expedition which were intended to return in the autumn of 1872, were detained by the ice, and have been obliged to winter in Spitzbergen, with the ' Polhem.' The exploring vessel, by having to maintain other ice-bound craft through the winter, must thus, it is feared, have been crippled in her resources. Four fishing-vessels were also frozen in, off Grey Point, on the northern coast, and eighteen of their men have reached Ice Sound by sailing along the coast in open boats. The Swedish expedition, consisting of three vessels, wintered in Mussel Bay, a small inlet on the east side of VVyde Bay, on the Winter Voyages of Relief 119 northern coast of Spitzbergen. Much sympathy was excited in Norway by the news of the ice bound fishermen, and immediate, but unavailing, measures were adopted for their rehef. In November 1872 the steamer ' Albert,' commanded by Captain Otto, sailed from Norway for Ice Fiord, but was obliged to return owing to bad weather and the intense cold. Captain Kjelsen, in the * Isbiorn,' then made another gallant attempt to effect a rescue. He sailed from Tromso on December 24, and the days sensibly shortened as he went northward. The cold soon rendered navigation very difficult ; the sails were like boards, and the shrouds were covered with ice in thick masses. Still they stood gallantly on, and came in sight of Bear Island on January 8, seeing the ice light — the luminous appearance in the sky which is always seen over the ice — on the same day. The vessel was now one mass of ice, and the prospect of reaching Spitzbergen seemed very slight. The attempt was therefore very un- willingly relinquished, and on January 14, 1873, the ' Isbiorn ' was safely anchored again off Tromso. Nothing daunted, a third vessel sailed V % \ \ i A'' % I20 IVinicr Voyages of Relief \m for the rescue in the end of the same month. This was the seal hunter ' Groenland,' commanded by Captain Jacob Melsom. She arrived off Bell Sound, in Spitzbergen, on March 6, and the captain forced his vessel, under full steam, through the pack ice, up to the entrance of Ice Fiord, where she was stopped. It was impossible to approach the land, and the captain was obliged to give up his plan of sending a rescuing party over the ice, to the interior of the Fiord. The ice was a mixture of bay and old pack, covered with hummocks, and the vessel was ten miles from land. She ran the risk of being blown off while the sledge party was away. Captain Melsom died on April 27. Now that summer has at last arrived, succour will have reached the ice-bound crews ; and the • Polhem ' will, it may be hoped, be enabled to prosecute researches, during the season of 1873. Meanwhile Mr. Leigh Smith sailed from Dundee, on May 10, 1873, on his third voyage of discovery in the Spitzbergen seas. The ' Samson,' his own yacht, in which he made the voyage of 1872, sailed from Hull on May i, under Leigh Smit/is Expedition 121 the command of Captain VV. Walker (who formerly had the whaling steamer ' Polynia '), laden with stores. She is to be stationed in Cobbe's Bay, near the north-west point of Spitzbergen, and if any accident happens to Mr. Leigh Smith's vessel, his party will thus have a second ship to fall back upon. Mr. Leigh Smith's steamer for the exploring work is the ' Diana,' belonging to Mr. Lamont. She is well strengthened for ice navigation with an iron stem-piece and iron pieces on the bows, for several feet above and below the water-line ; but she is scarcely large and heavy enough for boring and charging the floes. Her tonnage is 103, and she has an engine of 50 horse-power. She has twenty hands on board, all told. Captain Fairweather, the sailing master of the ' Diana,' is an experienced and intelligent young seaman, who was first mate of the ' Victor ' last year, in Baffin's Bay. Mr. Leigh Smith is also accom- panied by the Rev. Mr. Eaton as naturalist, by Lieutenant Chernside, R.E., and by Mr. Richard Potter. The ' Diana ' will first proceed to Jan Mayen Island, and thence work northwards along 122 Leigh Smitlis Expedition the edge of the ice. She will then attempt to force her way to the eastward, along the northern shore of Spitzbergen, and to reach Giles Land. But the great object of Mr. Leigh Smith will be to attain the highest possible northern latitude, either by following the western coast of Giles Land to the northward, or by any other route which may prove more practicable. Mr. Eaton will give his attention to dredging and the preservation of specimens, and Mr. Leigh Smith will take a series of deep-sea soundings, with observations for temperature at various depths. Collections will also be made of the flora and fauna of the lands visited, photographs will be taken ; and the ' Diana ' is furnished with the necessary apparatus for killing whales. The expedition is provisioned for a full year, and the 'Diana' left the Tay on Saturday, May lo, thoroughly equipped for an Arctic voyage. The excellence of her equipment, and the despatch with which she has been got ready after returning from her sealing trip, is due to the zeal and activity of Mr. David Bruce, the shipping agent at Dundee, whose courtesy and obliging readiness Leigh Smitlis Expedition 123 to afford assistance is well known to all who have visited the port ^/here the Arctic enterprise of the British Isles now mainly centres. All Englishmen will heartily wish a full measure of success to Mr. L. Smith, whose steady determi- nation and pluck richly merit the reward he seeks. His interesting expedition efficiently provides for Arctic exploration by the Spitzbergen route. This route for North Polar discover}^ has usually been advocated by those who believe in a vast navigable ocean, free of ice, round the Pole ; and it may be as well, in this place, to glance at their stock arguments. I believe no one really thinks that the Gulf Stream, after passing under many hundreds of miles of a cold super-stratum of water, emerges from the depths and reaches the surface at so warm a temperature near the North Pole as to melt the ice far and wide. The Gulf Stream slowly mingles with the Polar current, and even- tually its waters go south again along the east coast of Greenland, on the surface. But there are two other arguments which deserve passing notice. i i n 124 Polar Basin Theories \ \ One is, that the sun, with greater power than it has at tlie equator, pours its rays on the North Pole without intermission for six months. Scoresby answered this argument fifty years ago. I le pointed out that in Northern Spitzbergen the sun also has greater power than at the equator, and shines for four months without intermission. Yet, in that region, the average annual tempe- rature is 1 7° Fahrenheit, and ice forms on the sea during ten months out of twelve. The difference that the other two months would make is in- appreciable, seeing that the four months of sun make so little. Speculators on this question have left many points out of consideration. The dry- ness of the Polar atmosphere is equally the cause of the great heating power of the sun's rays, and, by reason of the more rapid terrestrial radiation, of the excessive cold. The other argun}ent is much more generally adopted, and appears at first sight more plausible. It is that the enormous fields and floes of ice which drift away to the south during the summer, leave a wide space of open sea round the North Pole. By way of proof it is urged that in the Po/(ir Basin Theories 125 Antarctic regions Sir James Ross pushed through 800 miles of pack-ice, and reached an open sea to the south of it ; being the space whence it had drifted. But the analogy is false, as Admiral Col- linson well pointed out at a meeting of the Geogra- phical Society in 1865. TheAntarctic pack was drift- ing away from a solid line of immovable grounded ice cliffs, and of course left open water in its rear, because there was no moving ice further south to take its place. Unless there is a continent or a similar immovable line of ice cliff at the North Pole, the North Polar pack does nothing of the kind. The exact analogy to the voyage of Sir James Ross is that of Scoresby. The Antarctic pack, in latitude 75° S., is analogous to the ice met by whalers in the early spring in 75° to 76° N., through which they can usually pass. The open water north of Spitzbergen Is analogous to the open sea found by Ross in the south ; and the olar pack which Scoresby found bounding that >pen water to the north, from whence the ice he had passed through had drifted, is analogous to Ross's line of impenetrable ice barrier. If no )en Polar basin exists, the reason is, that i ' ! \ I 126 Polar Basin Theories there is no extent of land or grounded ice barrier on the Spitzbergen meridians, to the north of that group, from whence the ice could drift and leave an open sea. This may be assumed for two reasons. One is that the masses of Siberian driftwood on the Spitzbergen Islands and else- where would be intercepted if there was an extensive continent in their way ; the other is that, as Parry advanced to his extreme point in 82° 45' N., he found the water north of Spitzbergen rapidly becoming of very great depth. The North Polar land, if it exists, will probably be found in islands stretching north of the extreme north point on the west side of Kennedy Channel ; and this is one reason why the route by Smith Sound should be selected for a Government Arctic Expedition. The North Polar pack, drifting south, according to Scoresby, between Spitzbergen and Greenland, at the maximum rate of eight or ten miles a day, if there is no extensive land to the north, of course extends to far beyond the North Pole, as far as ice is formed on the other side, in 75" or 74°, a width of some 1,000 miles. The open sea left by its drift Polar Basin Theories 127 would not be at the North Pole, but on the coasts of Wrangell Land and Siberia, where the drift commences. No doubt, in the summer thaws, there is a great expansion of the ice, which causes open lanes and pools, at times of considerable extent ; and other open seas would be caused by winds and currents throughout the year; but the above considerations lead to the conclusion that a great permanent open sea round the North Pole is chimerical. Nevertheless, there is much that is interesting in the examination of the deep sea to tlie north of Spitzbergen. With a good screw steamer, ably commanded by an experienced ice navigator, taking advantage of every opening, and knowing when to charge the ice and when to forbear, a very much higher latitude might be reached in a favourable season than has ever yet been achieved. Most valuable observations might then be made with regard to currents and sea temperatures ; and we may therefore anticipate all the success that is attainable for Mr. Leigh Smith's gallant enterprise. :!i^ 11 ^- ^'^ '^'- /^ ^v ^^ \^ CHAPTER VII. THE EAST COAST OE GREENLAND. \ JOR ages it was supposec! that one of the Norman colonies of Greenland had been established on the eastern side of that continent, and had been isolated for centuries by the pack-ice. The voyages sent out for the purpose of re-discovering this lost colony went to the threshold of the unknown region ; for it is formed, in one part, by the eastern coast of Greenland. Hut, in his recent exhaustive demon- stration of the authenticity of the voyages of the Venetian lirothers Zeno, Mr. Major has fully established the fact that the ' East Bygd ' of the Normans was on the west, and not on the east coast of Gn^enland. ' ' Mr. Major's investigations will appear in his introdurtion to the voyage of the Zeni about to he issued by the Haklu)t \. Voyage of the Zt cm - notice of them At th '' "^'^ "'■"'°"' cen..,.an,e.be.ll;'r''^'''^^°--''' "ob,efamniesi„Vence;wr^"^''<^"'^"'' expense, went on ^ °^^" centuries before hJ^ .• . For txvo -nee. bot chance gave to ^ ' ""^• P-nliar interest. Nico.6 Ze '^ "''^"' " ''^■■>' the Faroe Isl,„ , k '''" ^^'''-■'^'^•cd on ''-vsi:c,'tr,:/rr^'^^<^'''^^ "•^val conquest, and T ''°'"^''"'°"^ ''J' --•-■^ p''o.v, nt ';: ^^"° '•- ''■•^ .^''•co..Zeno3enta,etter;ohtttr;r^°' invitinir him to ; • i • '"mer Antonio, ^■- Antonio t a ;?;" "''"''"^•"' '^"- lo a third brother r^ i / "i^'insuished „,an i„ Venetian h, ^' '"^ tnctian history), tliat tlie ■''*■"■■')■• ••■"d -ils" in an exh.,„sliv,. , '<"PI Gcogra„.„™l S„dc, " fo,; g';f' '" ""= 'J""™! of ,,„ ' t U-: ■1^ I30 ,^fisfnkis of Nicolo Zcno (jfunior) narrative of the movements of the two brothers is derived. The whole story had been written out by Antonio Zeno ; but a descendant of his, named Nicolo Zeno, born in 15 15, when a boy, not knowing the value of these papers, tore them up, but, some of the letters surviving, he was able from them subsequently to compile the narrative as we now have it, and which was printed in Venice in 1558. There was found also in the palace an old map, rotten with age, illustrative of the voyages. Of this he made a copy, unluckily supplying from his own reading of the narrative what he thought was requisite for its illustration. By doing this in a blundering way, unaided by the geographical knowledge which enables us to see where he goes astray, he threw the whole of the geography which he derived from the narrative into the most lamentable confusion, while those parts of the map which are not thus sophisticated, and which are consequently original, present an accuracy far in advance by m iny generations of the geography even of Nicolo Zeno junior's time, and confirm in a notable manner the site of the Story told by the Zcni 131 old Greenland colony. In these facts we have not only the solution of all the discussions which have arisen on the subject, but the most indisputable proof of the authenticity of the narrative ; for it is clear that Nicolo Zeno, junior, could not himself have been the ingenious concocter of a story the straightforward truth of which he could thus ignorantly distort upon the face of the map. The story, as we have it, comprises, in the first instance, some insignificant expeditions in the Faroe and Shetland groups, but fortunately treats at greater length of a much more important subject, viz., a visit by Nicolo Zeno to Greenland, disclosing some interesting facts which, brought into harmony with recent observations, present a contemporaneous proof of the whereabouts of the lost colony of the Ostrebygd, about which there has been so much dispute, and to verify which the King of Denmark sent out Captain Graah on his famous voyage of 1828-30. In illustration of this portion of the subject, Mr. Major has adduced a highly important geographical discovery of his own, the ignorance of which led Captain Graah into great mistakes, and caused him to miss the value of a K 2 i ^ : 132 TJie Ginmbjorns Skerries >1^H most precious early document which otherwise would have answered the question which he went out to Greenland for the purpose of solving. This was nothing less than a chorography of the old Greenland colony, and sailing directions for reaching it from Iceland, written by Ivar Bardsen, the steward of the bishop of the colony. In this route he speaks of some large rocks midway between Iceland and Greenland, called Gunnbjorns Skerries, which had formed a nucleus for the ice coming down from the north, and on reaching which a south-west course was to be taken. Captain Graah denied the existence of these rocks as thus described, and so forfeited the guidance of these valuable sailing directions. Mr. Major has discovered, by a legend in the I 507 edition of Ptolemy, that the island, of which these rocks form the summit, was blown up by a volcanic eruption in 1456 ; and in a map by Van Kculen, of about the date 1700, the reef, 60 miles in length, formed thereby, is laid down by the name of Gombar Scheer, with soundings at the north and south ends of 25 fathoms, whereas the nearest soundings northward range from 70 to The Greenland Monastery >33 loo fathoms. Mr. Major further shows that Ivar Bardsen's chorography had only to be read with common attention to indicate the site of the old colony beyond all dispute. The most prominent and interesting item in the story relating to Greenland, is the description of a monastery dedicated to St. Thomas, the cells of which were heated from a natural spring of hot water, which was used also by the monks for dressing their meat and baking their bread. The monks had likewise gardens covered over in the winter time and warmed by the same means, so that they were able to produce flowers and fruits and herbs, the same as if they lived in a temperate climate. Many other advantages are described as accruing to the monks from their judicious employment of this warm water supplied by nature. In corroboration of this fact, and its valuable bearing on that much vexed question the site of the lost Scandinavian colony in Greenland, the testimony of Ivar Bardsen becomes most valuable, for after mentioning a monastery dedicated to St. Olaus and St. Augustine, he says that in a bay of a neighbouring fiord, called h ;?'! «34 The Greenland Monastery Rafnfiorcl, are some small islands abounding in hot water. These are no doubt the hot springs ol Ounartok, near which some remains of the buildings of the old colonists have been found, and Mr. Major has ascertained from Dr. Rink, the late Inspector of South Greenland, that there are no other hot springs to his knowledge in the district of Julianashaab, which is now definitely provetl to be the site of the ancient colony. The position of Ounartok coincides admirably with the site of the monastery in Ivar Bardsen's choro- graphy, and this point being established, may serve as a basis for tracing the topography of the entire colony. The difference between the names of St. Olaus and St. Thomas, given by the two authors to the same monastery, is easily explainable, for the strange northern name of St. Olaus would sound to the southern ear of the Venetian like nothing so much as St. Thomas. Antonio Zeno remained in the service of Earl Sinclair ten years after the death of his brother Nicolo, and the most interesting fact which survives to us, as coming from him, is the rei)ort , i Discovery oj .Itticrica '35 of fishermen who had discovered some poi)ulous countries in the west, which are, beyond all question, North America. They found Latin books in the possession of one of the cliiefs, but these were no longer understood. 'I'he people made beer — which was * a kind of drink that North people take as we do wine.' Their foreign intercourse was with Greenland, whence they imported furs, brimstone, and pitch. All this is in harmony with what we know of the Scandinavian settlements in North Ajncrica, in Pre-Columbian times, and the fishermen's report is a j'dstnnd of the knowledge acquired by the Northmen in their expeditions to the west and south-west. It was in the year looi that North America was discovered by Lief, son of Eric the Red. The tracts of country then dis- covered were called Helluland, i.e., State Land, supposed to be Newfoundland ; Markland, i.e., Woodland, supposed to be Nova Scotia ; and Vinland or Vineland. There is much uncertainty about the two former, but the site of Vinland is less problematical, for. as we learn from one of the old writers, that the length of the day was , 136 Position of Icaria \i nine hours, it gives us the latitude of 41°, and whereas the name was given by the old dis- coverers from finding the vine growing wild there ; the more recent English discoverers, for the same reason, but quite independently, gave the name of Martha's Vineyard to the large island close off the coast, in latitude 41** 23'. There is one locality on the Zeno map which has given rise to the greatest perplexity. It is a large island called Icaria, lying where certainly no island does lie — at an equal distance between Iceland, Frisland or Faroe Islands, and Estotiland, supposed to be Newfoundland. Many have imagined it to be some part of America, but Johann Reinhold Forster was the first to suggest that it meant Kerry, and Mr. Major has proved that he was right, although by reasonings that Forster had not adduced. An expedition was organised by Earl Sinclair for the verification of the fishermen's story, but after leaving the Faroe Islands for the west, and when well at sea, the fleet was driven they knew not whither by a storm which lasted eight days. After the storm abated they discovered what is described in the original i im\\ Position of /carta 37 Italian. as 'da Ponentc terra.' Now this expres- sion is susceptible of two renderings, either that they came upon ' an island to the westward,' or ' upon an island on its western side ; ' but, as when repulsed by the natives they sailed round about the island, and came into a harbour on its eastern side, it is manifest that the harbour which they first entered was on the west, and in a position corresponding exactly with Kerry in Ireland. This peculiar point of arrival, and the name Icaria, which, at that place, they were to' J was the name of the country ; the conduct of the natives, who would not allow them to land, and who, as the fleet made its way northwards along the east coast of the island, pursued it along the hill tops and howled the strangers off the shore, all go to show that Kerry and Icaria are identical. After leaving the north point of the island, the fleet sailed six days to the westward without seeing land, a fact which accords with the situation of Ireland, but not with any part of America, or any other country otherwise answering the con- ditions. The anomalous position of the island on the n •38 Value of Mr. Major s Labours map, whether due to Antonio Zeno or to the handiwork of his descendant Nicolo Zeno in his touching up of the map, is easily explained by the entire ignorance of the former as to where the fleet was after being beaten about for eight days by the storm. With this episode and the return of the remnant of the fleet to Frisland the Zeno narrative virtually concludes. The many riddles which it embodies, it must be acknowledged, have at length met with a complete solution at the hands of Mr. Major. If the realities which Mr. Major has detected had been made clear to people's minds, as they easily might have been, three hundred years ago, Martin Frobisher would have avoided the blunder of taking Greenland for Zeno's Frisland, which really meant the Faroe Islands ; a host of learned commentators during that period would have been saved from confusing themselves and others by wild speculations ; the site of the lost Greenland colony would have been established long ago on the highest possible authority : and the Kings of Denmark, from Frederic II. downwards, would have been spared the necessity of sending out a great number of \ Scarifies /or the L(>s/ Colony •39 unsuccessful expeditions ; many an elaborate work from the pens of some of the most illustrious literati in Europe, would have been rendered superfluous ; and the name of a noble gentleman, occupjing the exalted position of one of the Council of Ten in the Republic of Venice, would have been protected from the unwarrantable and infamous charge of being guilty of falsehood and forgery. Yet there was some good in all this blundering, for the erroneous belief in a lost colony on the east side of Greenland led to the despatch of several Arctic expeditions. No less than eight were sent out by successive kings of Denmark, but none of them were able to reach the coast along the southern part of the eastern side of Greenland ; though some islands were discovered by Captain Donnell. Hudson, as we have seen,' sighted the land which he called ' Hold with Hope,' but much further to the northward ; and in 1654, a Dutch skipper named Gale Hamke, had also been in sight of land. A bay was marked with his name on the old Dutch charts. ' '"^t-'t !>• 34- 1 40 Scorcsby on the East Coast of G recti iand The valuable chart by Van Keulen, in " the State Archives of the Hague, shows land forming part of the east coast of Greenland, in latitude ^^'' lo'. N., called ' Land van Edam,* discovered in 1655. Still further north, in 78" 20' N., another part of the coast was sighted in 1670, and marked on the chart as ' Land van Lambert.' Scoresby has the great merit of having forced his way through the ice floes which encumber the approach to land, in June, 1822, and of having surveyed a line of coast from Gale Hamke's bay in 75° down to latitude 69". He found a line of bold mountains, averaging a height of 3,000 feet, with precipitous cliffs rising from the beach, and rugged sharp rocks and peaks forming their out- line against the sky. There were many openings or sounds, and he supposed that the coast, which he examined for a distance of 400 miles, consisted of an assemblage of islands. The body of ice off shore was a hundred miles wide, and there were chains of immense bergs, the produce of the stupendous glaciers of the interior ; still there was little difficulty in sailing along the channel close in shore. GraaJis Expedition 141 From Scoresby's southern point in 69° N., there ii Islands, in latitude 74° 30'. From this central point many excursions were made, and thouj^h at times the thermometer sank as low as 40" below zero (of r'ahrenhcit), yet musk oxen — strange enough — being abundant (though these animals are unknown on the West Coast, south of Wolsten- holme Sound, they passed a not unpleasant winter — as winters in 74.^° of N. latitude go. Christmas was absolutely warm {only 25" below zero), and with open doors they danced and feasted as it had been their wont in festive, Christmas-loving Germany. In Koldewey's words — ' By starlight we danced upon the ice ; of the evergreen Andromeda {Cassiope tetragmia) we made a Christmas tree ; the cabin was decorated with (lags, and the presents which loving hands had prepared were laid out upon the tables ; every one received his share, and universal mirth pre- vailed.' After this holiday time, the explorers began to think of business. The sledge equip- ments were got reatiy, and after one false start, a party of seven set out on March 24, under the command of Captain Koldcwey and Lieutenant Payer — one of the scientific corps of tiie e.\pe- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) / O .^ 'Xict.on £)tiji\r\'ed byJoluiJJinver.forTheJlineshoUlof-^uhlcnxfwiiBeifion byCSJUarMuun. C.B. ESS. A- .*J' ; I. London. SampsonLooiM'fstonJ.trmitSearit ISSFlevt Slj-eet Ill .■ f 1 1 Ml 1 j i :| ^i^^ S.1"^ . ill yohn Davis 157 .7; ^ ^-ail annually encountered, battled with, and overcome. And this annual victory leads to the achieve- ment of a position whence a system of North Polar exploration can be organised, by the only thorough and efficient means — namely, modern Arctic sledge travelling. The pioneer to this route, the discoverer of the broad strait leading to Baffin's Bay, was that learned navigator and brave seaman John Davis of Sandrudge, in the county of Devon. His undertaking was supported by Sir Adrian Gilbert and many other gentlemen of Devonshire, and his little vessels, the 'Sunshine' (50 tons) and 'Moonshine' (35 tons), sailed from Dartmouth on June 7, 1585. The sight of Greenland was not cheering to the discoverers, for Davis says y that ' the lothsome view of this shore, and the irksome noyse of the yce, was such as it bred strange conceites among us,' and he called it ' Desolation.' But his intercourse with the Es- quimaux, whom he gratified with music and dancing, was pleasant and satisfactory, and in all respects becoming the character of the good English gentleman, who distributed presents I i\i > ■^1 ■I i ■■ '58 William Baffm ■', among ' the gentle and loving savages.* He crossed the strait which bears his name, and gave the name of Cape Walsingham to the point on its western side. The second voyage was over much the same ground ; but, in his third voyage, in 1587, in the same old 'Sunshine,' Davis pushed farther to the northward, and reached as far as the bold promontory which he named after one of the supporters of the voyage, Hope Sanderson. It is a magnificent headland, 3,300 feet high, to the southward of the Danish colony of Upernavik. Davis thus made known to future mariners that there was a wide opening in this direction, leading to the northward. One vessel only was destined to follow up the discovery of Davis during the next two centuries, and, unfortunately, but very unsatisfactory and vague accounts are extant of her voyage. No blame, however, attaches to the stout pilot William Baffin, who fully described the sounds and islands he discovered on a map now lost. The fault — and it is a serious one — lies at the door of old Purchas, who received the log and chart kept by Baffin, but threw them aside with the A^l Discovery of Baffin s Bay 159 remark that they were ' somewhat troublesome, and too costly to insert.' Owing to this miscon- duct on the part of Purchas, we are left to gather what we can from a letter to Sir John Wolsten- holnie, and from Baffin's own very ' Brief and True Relation or Journall.' From these we learn that the ' Discovery/ of 55 tons, sailed from Gravesend on March 26, 16 16, with Robert Bylot as master, William Baffin as pilot, and a crew of fifteen men. The little ' Discovery ' reached Hope Sanderson, the extreme northern point of Davis, on May 30, and, after a short stoppage by the ice, got into clear water again, and reached the islands in 72° 45', which he called the Women's Islands, after some Esquimaux fair ones, young and old, whom the mariners treated with much kindness and courtesy. After working up a lane of water between the land and the pack for several days, Baffin was at last stopped by the ice in 74° 15' N. on June 9. The 'Discovery* made a fortunate passage through the Melville Bay ice, which has since become so famous, and reached the ' North Water ' on July i, a detention of only twenty-two days. : i6o Tardy yusHce to Baffin After discovering the head of the great bay which bears his name, with its wide sounds or openings, Baffin returned by saihng down the west side of it, and the little ' Discovery ' was safely anchored in Dover Roads on August 30. It was exactly 200 years before another vessel forced her way into the ' North Water ' of Baffin's Bay, and the discoveries of that famous pilot were well-nigh forgotten. On the maps published as late as 18 18 we see a circular dotted line to the westward of Greenland, with this legend, ' Baffin's Bay, according to the relation of W. Baffin in 1 6 16, but not now believed.'^ So the memory of a bold and scientific navigator had to wait many weary years for that full justice which usually comes at last. Meanwhile, the Dutch opened a whale fishery in Davis Strait in about 1719, which proved very remunerative, and comparatively safe, for, in a period of sixty years, out of 3,161 ships fishing in Davis Strait, only sixty-two were wrecked. English whalers soon began to frequent the same ' See the map at the beginning of Daines Barrington's book on the North Pole, and many others. The Current tfi Baffins Bay i6i fishery ; but, in spite of old Baffin's judicious advice, no vessel ever followed in his track until 1817, and the whales were permitted to remain for two centuries in tranquil enjoyment of the * North Water.' It is necessary to describe the usual position of ice and water in Baffin's Bay during the navi- gable season. A surface current is believed always to be flowing down the bay, bearing vast harvests of ice into the Atlantic, and in the winter and early spring great floes of ice are constantly drifting down in this direction, through the wide openings at the northern end — Lancaster, Jones, and Smith Sounds. In the winter of 1850-51, the American Expedition was drifted with the ice from Wellington Channel to the Atlantic, at the rate of about twelve miles a day. Dr. Kane supposed that at one time the ice extended in an unbroken sheet from Lancaster Sound to Cape Walsingham, with a breadth of 200 miles. This ice averaged a thickness of 8 feet. In September 1855, the ' Resolute,' abandoned far up Barrow's Strait in May 1854, drifted out into the Atlantic; and it is well known how the gallant little ' Fox' under- M ,'; l62 The Current in Bajfins Bay went the same process in 1857-58. Sir Leopold M'Clintock found a north-westerly wind to be constantly prevailing from September to April, and he believes that the drift is due to the agency of the wind alone. Captain Maury thought that there was an under-current conveying warm water up the bay, to appear again on the surface, and form lanes and pools of open water far up in the Polar region. The existence of this under- current was conjectured from the fact that ma- jestic icebergs are sometimes seen sailing up the bay, near the southern part of the west coast, in the teeth of wind and surface current. This may, however, be caused by strong tides and counter currents. The drift of the vast masses of ice to the southward invariably causes the existence of a wide open sheet of navigable water in the upper end of Baffin's Bay, and for some distance within Lancaster and Smith Sounds during the summer and early autumn, which is known as the ' North Water.' But there is a formidable mass of ice between this ' North Water ' and Davis Strait, averaging from 1 70 to 200 miles in width, and The Middle Pack 163 blocking up the centre of Baffin's Bay, which interrupts the approach to the north-west end, and is known as the ' middle pack.' This ice consists of some ancient floe-pieces of great thickness, which may have come from a distant part of the Arctic seas, of a wide extent of ice formed during each winter, about 6 or 8 feet thick, and of those magnificent bergs which compose the principal charm of Melville Bay scenery. An immense quantity of this pack is destroyed every summer either by the thaws or by the swell and warmth of the Atlantic as it drifts south. The ice of Baffin's Bay is far lighter than that of the Spitz- bergen seas. On an average the floes in Baffin's Bay are hardly a fourth part of the thickness of those round Spitzbergen. The latter are not un- frequently in single sheets of solid transparent ice, from 20 to 30, or even approaching 40 feet in thickness. In Baffin's Bay the average thickness of the floes is only 5 or 6 feet, pieces of 8 or 10 feet thick being of rare occurrence. It is curious that, although there was a flourish- ing whale fishery in Davis Strait, the passage of the Middle pack was never attempted between 5 \ 1 1\, M 2 164 Voyage of John Ross ' the years 16 16 and 18 17. Old Baffin had gallantly led the way to the ' North Water,' and no man had dared to follow him. At last two whalers, the ' Larkins ' of Leith, and the ' Eliza- beth' of Aberdeen, made the attempt, and successfully passed the barrier in 1 8 1 7, finding so plentiful a fishery in the ' North Water ' of Baffin's Bay that, from that day to this, very few years have passed without whalers forcing the barrier of the Middle pack. In 1818, the 'Alexander' (252 tons) and 'Isabella' (385 tons) were despatched on an expedition of discovery up Baffin's Bay, by the Government, commanded by John Ross and Edward Parry. They sailed from England on April 18, reached the southern edge of the ice on July 2, and, after a detention of thirty-eight days, reached the ' North Water ' on August 8. The chief merit of this first voyage of John Ross is, that it vindicated Baffin's claims as a discoverer, and proved that his latitudes were very accurate. Ross, at his farthest point, was too far south to see more than the outline of the land near Smith Sound, but he named the capes .^i^ Passages through Baffin's Bay 165 on each side of its entrance after his two ships, • Isabella' and ' Alexander.' From that time the fleet of whalers pushed for the ' North Water ' every summer, and were rewarded by the discovery of a very abundant fishery. No bold mariner had taken the advice of Baffin during 200 years, and the poor whales had found a pleasant retreat in this distant corner of the sea, until they were thus invaded by the modern navigators of the middle pack. The southern edge of the ' North Water ' extends from Pond's Bay on the west side, in a north-w^esterly direction to Cape York ; and there are three routes through the middle pack by which it may be reached. The first and only safe one is called by the whalers the * North-about passage ' along the ^Greenland coast ; the second is by entering the drifting pack in the centre of the bay. It is called the * middle passage,' and should only be attempted late in the season, when the land ice of Melville Bay is most probably broken up ; and the third, called the * southern passage,' is along the west side of Baffin's Bay, and can only be effected very late in the season, 1 66 The ' North about Passage ' or after a long continuance of southerly winds. But the ' North-about passage ' may always be successfully performed, if not in June, then in July. On the coast of Greenland, between the Melville Bay 167 parallels of i'^ and 76°, there is a wide indenta- tion, open to the south, called Melville Bay. The ice formed in It, from the lay of the land, is not exposed to the general drift down Baffin's Bay, and remains firmly fixed to the coast, often extending from it to a distance of thirty to fifty miles. The prevailing winds in the early part of the season are from the north, in which case the drifting pack is blown off shore, and leaves a lane of open water along the land-floe of Melville Bay. When the wind is from the south, the pack drifts into Melville Bay ; but in that case the land-floe is a source of protection, for, as the drifting ice presses against it, the land ice, being oldest, almost invariably proves the strongest of the two. A dock can then be cut in the land ice, and a ship may ride in safety, until the pressure eases off. Thus, ' by sticking to this land-floe,' as the whalers say, of Melville Bay, a vessel is never at the mercy of a drifting pack, and though there may frequently be long detention, ground is seldom lost, and final success is the reward of perseverance. The main ice is generally met with off Cape Shackleton or the Women Islands 1 68 Melville Bay of Baffin, and the ' North Water ' commences at Cape York, a distance of about 1 70 miles. The earliest passage into the ' North Water ' was accomplished on June 12, 1849, and the average passage of the whalers during twenty- three years was effected on July 13. There is not a single instance, from 181 7 to 1849, of some of the whalers having failed to get through, and in the years 1825, 1828, 1832, 1833, and 1834 the whole fleet reached the * North Water ' before the middle of June. It so happens that, unless the whalers can get through so as to reach Pond's Bay in July, it is not worth while to persevere, and they give up the attempt. The navigable season, however, continues until the end of August, so that discovery-ships may always count upon effecting the passage at some period between May and September. The best chance is early in the year, and they should never fail to be at the edge of the ice before the end of May. Discovery- ships have been sent up Baffin's Bay thirty-eight times since 1 8 1 8, and only on two occasions have they failed to reach the ' North Water ' during the navigable season. One of these failures was Melville Day 169 experienced by the 'North Star' in 1849; but she did not arrive at the edge of the ice until the end of July, and if she had been earlier in the field she would have succeeded without doubt. This is certain, for in the very same year the ' St. Andrew ' of Aberdeen reached the • North Water ' on June 1 2. The other instance of want of success was in the case of the ' Fox' in 1857, but she was still later in the season, not arriving in Melville Bay until the middle of August. Had she been earlier she would have succeeded ; and when M'Clintock, with that indomitable per- severance which has been his motto ever since he commenced Arctic exploration, again charged the barrier on June 18 in the following year, he was in the ' North Water' by the 27th. But Melville Bay used to be a place of dread and anxiety for the whaling fleet ; for when a southerly wind brought the drifting pack in violent and irresistible contact with the land-floe, the ships, slowly creeping along its edge, were frequently crushed like so many walnuts. In 1 8 19 as many as fourteen ships were smashed to pieces in this way; in 182T, eleven; and in 1822, Hji ■3!i 170 J\iHg€ys of Mi'hille Bay seven. The year 1S30 was the great season of disaster for the whalers, when nineteen ships were entirely destroyed, occasioning a total loss to their owners of 142,600/. On June 19 a fresh gale from the S.S.W. drove masses of ice into Melville Hay, and nipped the whole fleet against the land- floe, about forty miles to the southward of Cape York. In the evening the gale increased, and the floes began to overlap each other. A huge floe then came down upon the devoted ships, and a scene of indescribable horror ensued. In a quarter of an hour several fine ships were con- verted into shattered fragments ; the ice, with a loud grinding noise, tore open their sides, masts were seen falling in all directions, great ships were squeezed flat and thrown broadside on to the ice, and one whaler, the * Rattler,' was literally turned inside out. The men only just had time to jump on the ice ; but it must be understood that there is little or no danger of loss of life in Melville Bay. The shipwrecked sailors took refuge on board their more fortunate consorts, for even in 1830 the 'Cumbrian' and several other ships escaped by digging deep docks in the land ice. ' Scenery of MelvilU Bay 171 Even if a solitary whaler is destroyed, when no other is in sight, the retreat in boats to the Danish settlements is perfectly safe and easy. When the fearful catastrophe occurred in 1830, there were a thousand men encamped on the ice, the clusters of tents were a scene of joyous dancing and frolic, for Jack had got a holiday, and the season was long remembered as the year of • Baffin's Fair.' Discovery-ships are more strongly fortified than whalers ; they can endure nips which would prove fatal to any other vessels, and they do not, there- fore, run the same risk. The proof of this is, that exploring vessels have passed through the ice of Melville Bay thirty-eight times, and not one has been lost. A good nip merely causes a little ' pleasurable excitement.' The weird beauty of the scenery, the wonderful effects of refraction round the horizon, the brightness of ice and sea and sky, the cutting of docks and blasting and charging of floes, all combine to render the Melville Bay detention a most enjoyable and exhilarating time. Here may be seen those stupendous icebergs which are among the most sublime of nature's works, with their brilliant 172 Scenery of Melville Bixy \ 1 \ \ l1 emerald and sapphire tints. Here the majestic movements of irresistible floes may be watched, and that still grander sight when a nip causes the formation of a long ridge of ice hummocks, and huge blocks are reared one upon the other amidst a loud grinding moan. The passage of Melville Bay may be a time of anxiety, but he must be dead to all sense of the beautiful in nature who does not derive an equal amount of pleasure from scenes of such unsurpassed grandeur and interest. Skill and judgment in watching the ice and selecting leads are required in this navigation, but an early arrival in Davis Strait ensures the certainty of reaching the ' North Water* during the navigable season. The average detention for steamers in Melville Bay has been twenty-two days, many of them under exceptionally unfavourable circumstances ; and curiously enough this is exactly the time that it took brave old Baffin to cross Melville Bay in 1616, in a little craft of 55 tons. It will be hard indeed if powerful steamers cannot do as well as this 55 ton fly-boat. We may count upon a successful passage of the middle pack The ' North Water ' •73 from a consideration of the nature of the ice and the physical causes which induence its move- ments, from the fact that whalers have almost annually reached the • North Water' since 1817, and from an examination of all former voyages of discovery, in thirty-six of which out of thirty-eight the ice obstructions in Baffin's Bay were over- come. Once in the ' North Water,' all obstacles to an exploration, more or less extensive, of the Un- known Region are at an end. From Cape York there is invariably a navigable sea to Smith Sound in the summer months. Of late years steam has made a great change in ice navigation, and the steam whalers are not now exposed to the same risks and detentions as fell to the lot of the old sailing ships. Whale oil was chiefly in demand for lighting streets and houses ; and the invention of gas had the effect of lessening the number of ships sent to the north in quest of whale oil. Although never wholly aban- doned, the whaling trade fluctuated for many years ; until it was found that an Indian fibre, when manipulated with whale oil, could be manu- 174 Dundee Whalers r':i ■ n ! factured into a great variety of useful fabrics. The extension of the manufacture of jute in Dundee caused the revival of the whale fishery in Baffin's Bay. A million bales of jute are now annually imported into Dundee, equal to 143,000 tons ; and the bulk of the whale oil is required by the jute manufacturers of Dundee and the neighbourhood. Thus the port of Dundee has now become the centre of the whale-fishing trade ; and cargoes of oil from the Arctic regions may be seen discharging alongside of cargoes of jute from Calcutta, both being essential to the pros- perity of the port. In 1858 the * Tay,' a full- rigged ship of 600 tons, was converted into an auxiliary screw whaler, being the first steamer that sailed from Dundee on a whaling voyage. In the following year two new steamers, the * Dundee * and ' Narwhal,' were built expressly for the seal and whaling trade ; and the experience of their voyages fully proved the enormous advan- tage of steam over sails in ice navigation. Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons, the enterprising Dundee shipbuilders, have since built several other steam whalers, and some of the sailing I Dundee Whaling Trade 175 vessels were fitted with auxiliary screws. By 1867 there was not a sailing vessel belonging to Dundee in the whaling trade. At first there was a question between wood and iron, but it has now been fairly settled in favour of wooden vessels. An iron whaler, called the ' River Tay,' was built at Kirkcaldy, and strengthened in every possible way, but all was of no avail when brought into contact with the ice and cold. She sunk on her first trip in Davis Strait, with several of the wooden fleet around her. The value of the Dundee whaling fleet of ten steamers, with their full equipment of fishing gear and provisions for a season's voyage, together with the necessary plant in casks and boiling accommodation, may be estimated at 150,000/. to 200,000/. ; and the gross value of the produce of a successful season's fishing in seal skins, whale- bone, and seal and whale oil, at about 100,000/ ; each of the crew, from the captain to the cabin- boy, having an interest in the success of the voyage, in the shape of oil money. A whale averages a yield of about ten tons of oil, valued at 40/ to 43/ a ton ; and about twelve ! I 176 Dundee Whalers hundredweight of whalebone worth 450/. to 5Cmd/. a ton. At present ten steamers sail from Dundee for Baffin's Bay. Four are owned by the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company — all built by Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons, expressly for the trade — namely, the ' Esquimaux,' of 439 tons and 70-horse power, built in 1865, and com- manded by Captain Yule, who now sails on his eighth voyage in her ; the ' Camperdown,' of the same size, built in 1859, and commanded by Captain Gravill, the son of an old and much- respected whaling captain, and himself an Arctic seaman of long experience ; the * Narwhal,' of the same size, under Captain Maclellan ; and the ' Polynia,' a smaller vessel of 370 tons, built in 1 86 1, and commanded by Captain Kilgour. The 'Victor' and 'Intrepid' are sailing vessels con- verted into steamers, and belong to the Tay Seal and Whale Fishing Company. They are com- manded by Captains Edwards and Souter. The • Arctic,' a fine steamer of 439 tons and 70-horse power, built in 1867, is the property of Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons, the Dundee ship- builders. She is commanded by Captain William Dundee Whalers 177 Adams, a daring and successful ice navigator. The ' Erik,' of 412 tons and 70-horse power, is a well-built, serviceable vessel, built for Messrs. Antony Gibbs and Sons of London, in 1864,^ and now commanded by Captain J. B. Walker, a seaman of sound judgment and long experience. The * Ravenscraig ' a sailing vessel converted into a steamer in 1866, owned by Mr. Lockhart, of Kirkaldy, is commanded by Captain Allen. The tenth vessel is the ' Tay,' also converted, in 1858. All the Baffin's Bay whalers are well strengthened for ice navigation, and have iron stem-plates, with iron ice-plates carried round the bows, and iron side-plates. They are also strongly fortified and staunched inboard, while the outside planking is covered with a doubling of iron bark''^ from the load line down to the bilge. The stem has con- siderable rake, so that they can charge the ice at full speed, rise to it 6 or 8 feet, and then come down upon it with crushing force. Thus the whole system of ice navigation is very different from what it was in the old days of sailing I »•" ' See pp. 144-147. * The hardest wood known, imported from Airstralia. N s 178 Discoveries of Whalers vessels ; and now it is very seldom that the whaling fleet does not pass through Melville Bay in good time, so as to have a spare fortnight or three weeks in the * North Water.' Most of the whaling steamers are ship rigged. Each carries eight whale boats about 25 feet long, manned by nearly the whole crew of sixty men ; for very few remain on board when the cry of ' There she spouts ! ' is heard. It is to be regretted that more pains have not hitherto been taken to collect the information year by year, which is acquired by the daring and intel- ligent commanders of the whalers, and which they are so ready to communicate. Twice at least, within the last few years, whalers have entered Smith Sound, and seen a navigable sea extending to the northern horizon. In 1871 Captain Walker took the ' Erik ' up Eclipse Sound and found coal, washed down by one of the rivers. In 1872 Captain Adams took the 'Arctic' from Pond's Inlet, by Eclipse Sound and Navy Board Inlet, into Barrow's Strait, and then went up Admiralty Inlet. In the same year Captain Edwards took the ' Victor ' some distance up Admiralty Inlet. Discoveries arc thus constantly made, and J L Captain A. //. Markham, R.N. 179 generally plotted on charts with care ; and all that is needed for the utilisation of these valuable observations, year by year, is the establishment of a system such as Professor Mohn, of Christiania, has inaugurated with excellent effect in Norway ; tlirough which commanders may be induced to record careful observations on every opportunity, and to report them. The knowledge that such observations are valued and appreciated will always be a sufficient inducement. The first whaler to sail from Dundee, in the season of 1873, was the ' Intrepid,' which left the Tay on April 30. Most of the others followed on May 1. The 2nd was a Friday; but on the 3rd the ' Arctic ' sailed, under the command of Captain Adams, with sixty hands on board. Among them is Commander A.H. Markham, R.N., as a passenger, who proceeds to Baffin's Bay to acquire a knowledge of all details connected with a whaling voyage and experience in ice navigation ; to learn how these steamers are handled in the ice ; to see the bergs and fiords of Greenland, and the ' North Water' with its straits leading to the vast unknown region ; to examine the little-known N 2 i8o The Arctic Campaign ^1873 i harbours and inlets on the western side of Baffin's Bay ; to collect, note, and observe with watchful accuracy. Next followed the ' Erik/ under Captain Walker, taking with him a young sportsman, Mr. Rickaby, who wishes to make acquaintance with the bears, looms, and dovekeys. The 'Esquimaux' did not sail until the 12th, and the ' Tay ' a fortnight later ; but all will probably meet before the encounter with Melville Bay ice floes commences. ^ Once more the region beyond the Arctic circle is invaded by keen and intrepid seamen — some eager for the sight of whales spouting in the offing ; others bent on discoveries ; others resolved to combine both pursuits ; all determined to do their duty zealously and completely : and so the Arctic campaign of 1873 commences with every prospect of useful results. * I am indebted for the detailed information respecting the present Dundee whaling fleet to the courtesy of Mr. Yeaman of that town, and to Mr. David Bruce, the manager of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. assiiiwM»*H.'c»..o.»:; il / X i 1 *C n IS 14 7Z 70 Si t6 (4 et ^ix ^!^ ««r TiiF. 2W1TM s^wsm mmoTS iUiutntiinff du, IVudi'cssoFExplaratianTrim BYLOTani) BAFFIN toHALL . 161G-I873. Goiiiiiilrtl hyE.G.IWcnsUtin. Sraln uT lar^)Lq>. I:&.00<).000. M) ~ UKl I 1 ( -r- — 1 r— r f -I _] Ttu. tmnHtrJUape art Jxalt'thi. Smlt afOu. larfft erw _^^____ IKic** lyf S/n'fts Boat/Jbum^ SItdqf J(iunujB ovrr ihf la/ it on/ Land 7T i XTeUltt t C? tidi. Loodon- ack i i ! ! Hi Hi 1^ '"• 1 ■"" I CHAPTER IX. SMITH SOUND. 1r" N July 6, 1616, Baffin made the chief discovery of his voyage ; namely, the entrance of ' the greatest and largest sound in all this bay.' It is the portal leading north into the vast unknown region, and the only point in the whole circuit of the 80th parallel where lines of coast stretch away towards the Pole. Baffin gave it a very common name ; but the worshipful person from whom Smith Sound derives its name was no common man. Sir Thomas Smith was the life and soul of the East India Company during the first years of its existence. He was its first governor, and he continued to hold that office for many years When, in October, 1614, he excused himself from l82 Sir T/iovias Suiitli \ holdiiij^r olfia; longer on account of liis a^e and failing- health, he was, nevertheless, unanimously elected, lie procured both the first and second patents of incorporation for the East India Company, in 1600 and 1609. Not only did he superintend the outfit of the early voya<^es to India, and patronise those of Hudson and Baffin, but he subscribed to them largely out of his own means. In- 1612 he was appointed the first Governor of the Company of Merchants' dis- coverers of the North- West Passage. \ le fostered the early efforts of that mighty Company which afterwards founded an empire. His excellent advice and constant supervision ensured the preservation of order and good faith among the numerous servants of the Company. He anxiously sought out the best remedies against tropical diseases, and even stooped to interest himself in the amusements of the sailors. He bought virginals for the Company's ships, ' which is a delightful sight for the jacks to skip up and down in such manner as they will.' Such was the man who gave his name to Smith Sound. All that Baftin tells us concerning it is '^ InxJl'in ami Ross i8 comprised in the followiiiL,^ words : — ' It runneth to llie north of 78°, and is admirable in one respect, because in it is the j,^reatest variation of the compass of any part of the world known ; for, by divers <;ood observations, I found it to be above five points or 66° varied to the westward, so that N.E. ))y E. is true north, and so of the rest. Also this Sound seemeth to be ^ood for the killing of whales, it bein<^ the greatest and largest in all this bay.' An interesting tribe of Esquimaux had lived on its shores for centuries ; but no European verified the discovery of Baffin until August, 18 18, when Ross and Parry, in the ' Isabella ' and ' Alexander,' saw the land at the head of the bay from a very great distance, and Ross named the two capes at the entrance of Smith Sound after his two discovery ships. Whalers may have sighted and even entered Smith Sound since the voyage of Ross ; indeed, this is very probable when we consider that they have annually frequented the 'North Water' since 1817, and that there is no difficulty in sailing from Cape York to Cape Isabella in August. We saw the til ^ H IJ « 1 f t 184 IngUJield land on each side of Smith Sound from the crow's nest of the 'Assistance' in August, 1851, when she was north of Carey Islands: and in 1853, Captain Inglefield went just within Capes Isabella and Alexander, but did not land. After passing through Melville Bay without any detention from the ice, the little steamer 'Isabel' (149 tons, 16 11. p.), commanded by Captain Inglefield, rcc^ched Cape Alexander on August 26, 1852 ; and, on rounding it, an open sea was seen to stretch through seven points of the compass, apparently unencumbered with ice, though bounded on east and west by two distinct headlands. The entrance of Smith Sound was found to be 3^ miles across; but, after naming twenty-four points of land and islets far and near. Captain Inglefield bore up on the 27th, and steered south again without landing, owing to a gale of wind having sprung up. His extreme northern point was 78° 28' 21" N. Bafiin had discovered Smith Sound in 161 6, but no civilised man explored it or landed on its shores until the year 1853, when Dr. Kane, in the little brig ' Advance,' of 1 20 tons, undertook to M : Dr. Kane 185 lead an American expedition to these far northern regions. But Baron Wrangell, the great Russian Arctic explorer, had, in 1847, recommended the route by Smith Sound as the best for Polar dis- covery, and had made detailed suggestions with reference to the equipment of an expedition.' Like Baffin's little ' Discovery,' the ' Advance only had a crew of seventeen men, and she was but poorly provided for an Arctic winter. She was supplied with no proper sledge equipment, no preserved meats, and only coals for one year ; and the sufferings of her gallant little crew afford no argument against Arctic enterprise, any more than do those of Sir Hugh Willoughby, A poisonous dietary of salt meat in a dirty, crowded little brig inevitably causes scurvy and debility ; while liberal diet, warm clothing, and ventilation ensure such vigorous and enjoyable health and strength in the Arctic regions as is known in no other climate in the world. Dr. Kane's plan was to push his little brig to the furthest navigable point up Smith Sound, and winter there ; then to follow the coast line with ' Journal of ihe Royal Geographical Society, xviii. p. 19, i86 Dr. Kane sledges until he reached the Polar basin of theo- rists, and finally to embark upon its imaginary waters in gutta-percha boats. After reaching the edge of the ice in Baffin's Bay, the ' Advance ' took the pack, and had the extraordinary luck to reach the ' North Water ' in ten days. On August 7, 1853, she entered Smith Sound, and passed the highest point reached by Captain Inglefield in the previous year. But in latitude 78° 45' N., only 17 miles north of Inglefield's jDOsition, Dr. Kane was stopped by ice. The coast consists of precipitous cliffs, 800 to 1,200 feet in height, and at their base there was a belt of ice about 18 feet thick, resting on the beach. Dr. Kane adopted the Danish name oS. Ice-foot {cisefod) for this permanent frozen ridge. The pack was drifting south, and many icebergs were moving up and down with the tides. After a gallant but ineffectual attempt to force his way through the pack to the northward, the young ice began to form, and on September 10 the 'Advance' was frozen in on the east side of Smith Sound, in latitude 78" 37' N., longitude 70° 40' W. The place was named Van Rensselaer Harbour. The i Dr. Kane 187 sun was i 20 days below the horizon. The lowest temperature was in February, when — 70 was registered. Until the end of November, parties were employed in laying out depots to the north- ward, for the spring travelling. The travelling parties, however, effected little, owing to the small number of hands, and to sickness ; but at the same time some interesting discoveries were made. Cape Alexander, at the entrance of Smith Sound, was found to be in 78'^ 10' N. ; and a little further north the coast of Greenland trends in an easterly direction, and is broken by two large bays full of islands. Precipices rise up to a height of 800 to 1 ,400 feet from the frozen sea, formed of old red sandstone and Silurian limestone, restintr on syenite. In latitude 79° 12' N., a great glacier abuts upon the sea, presenting a perpen- dicular face of from 300 to 500 feet. Icebero-s are ejected from it in lines, and are described by Dr. Kane as conferring a character of great sub- limity on the landscape. This vast mass of ice, with a sea face 45 miles long, was named the Humboldt glacier. Here Dr. Kane's personal •investigations ceased. His steward, a rnan i88 Dr. Kane ■i named Morton, with an Esquimaux and a team of dogs, crossed the front of the glacier, and ad- vanced along a part of the coast to the northward. According to Morton's own account he went 76 miles further north, and found open water extend- ing in an iceless channel to the western shores. At his extreme northern point, Morton said he came to a high cliff, where a heavy surf was beat- ing against the rocks. He gave the latitude of this cliff as 81° 22' N., and declared that he saw the western coast stretching far towards the north, with an iceless horizon, and a heavy swell rolling in with white caps. Crowds of birds were seen thronging the water of this alleged open sea, which was separated from the * North Water* of Baffin's Bay by a belt of ice 125 miles wide. This was in June, 1854. Morton added that the furthest point seen to the northward was a high mountain in about 82° 30' N., called by Dr. Kane Cape Parry. Another party explored a portion of the western coast of Smith Sound. Dr. Kane gave the name of Kennedy Channel to the northern end of Smith Sound or Strait. Mr. Arrowsmith has placed Morton's furthest Dr. Kane 189 point reached in 80° 56' N., and his furthest point seen in 81° 56' N. That eminent Danish geographer, Dr. Henry Rink, has expressed well- founded doubts of the accuracy of Morton's state- ments, and has shown that the conclusions de- rived from them are untenable. Dr. Rink is the highest authority on Greenland geography, and he derived his information from Petersen, the interpreter of Kane's expedition, who received the account of the Esquimaux Hans, Morton's companion. From this unbiassed witness, it appears that the 'Open Polar Sea' of Morton was merely a channel cut by the strong current during the warm days of midsummer. Dr. Kane mentions that great numbers of seals and sea- fowl were seen by Morton, and adduces this as a proof of an open Polar sea ; but Rink remarks, on the contrary, that the flocking together of sea- animals and birds is a sign of a single opening in a sea, the rest of which was covered with ice. In July, 1854, an unsuccessful attempt was made by Dr. Kane to communicate, by boats, with the English exploring ships up Wellington Chan- nel, and his return showed that the ill-provided ". ')> • tl 190 Dr. Kane crew must face another winter. Reduced to a salt diet which was absolute poison, and with fuel nearly used up, their only chance was to adopt the habits and dress of the Esquimaux as closely as possible, and to rely for food on the success of hunang- parties. The tribe of Arctic Highlanders proved real friends in need, and supplied the poor Americr.ns with raw seal and walrus flesh, thus, no dou'u saving their lives. But scurvy soon attacked ine whole party, and Dr. Kane with one other • m alone remained to attend upon the sick, and perform aii the v\^ork. During this time, the kindiy Esquimaux shared with the scurvy- stricken white men the proceeds of their hunting. Half the brig having been burnt for fuel, and all pro- visions being nearly spent, Dr. Kane abandoned her on May 17, 1855, and the little party com- menced their retreat to the Danish settlement of Upernavik. The Esquimaux brought the poor fellows daily supplies of birds, helped them to carry their provisions, and showed the kindest feeling and the most rigid honesty. On June 18 the Americans reached open water, and their kind- hearted saviours bade them farewell at the edge Dr. Kane 191 of the floe. Dependin<:j^ entirely on the birds they could shoot for subsistence, the worn-out and debilitated party reached the Danish settlement of Upernavik on Ausj^ust 6, 1855, eighty-three days after abandoning the brig. The story of the hardships and sufferings of this American party is very interesting as told in the charming volumes of Dr. Kane ; but, at the same time, it is quite clear that the nature of the equipment of the poor little ' Advance ' rendered them inevitable. She was totally unprepared for two winters in any part of the Arctic regions, and it would be as absurd and irrelevant to found any argument on her experiences, as on those of Arnbicern the Norman, or of Sir Hugh Wil- loughby. Dr. Kane's discoveries, however, are important. They prove that a wide strait leads from Baffin's Bay into the unknown Polar region ; that Greenland is separated from the land to the westward ; and that the coast line ex- tends for a considerable distance to the northward. The latter fact is the more important because this is the only point where the land trends in the direction of the Pole itself, instead of forming a I , 192 Dr, Kane Hi i w V circle of continent and archipelago round the frontier of the Polar region. The open water seen by Morton, in the end of June, was just such a water-hole as forms in almost all parts of the Arctic regions during the navigable season. It may have been as extensive as the ' North Water' at the head of Baffin's Bay, or it may only have extended to the point reached by Morton's vision ; but, under either circumstance, there is nothing remarkable in meeting with a water-hole, or Polynia as the Russians would call it, caused by a strong current, in this latitude, in the month of June. It must of course be the resort of innumer- able birds and seals during the summer months. During Kane's detention in Smith Sound, his Danish interpreter, Petersen, conversed with the Esquimaux who had been to a large island called Umingmtik (musk ox) Isle, far beyond Morton's furthest. They said that there was open water, with walrus there ; and that some of their people formerly lived on the island. On July 10, i860, Dr. Hayes sailed from Boston in the schooner ' United States,' of 133 tons, with a crew of fifteen men, with the object of following Dr. Hayes 193 id the 1 water 1st such of the ;on. It Water' ily have 5 vision ; nothing hole, or ised by a nonth of innumer- months. und, his with the nd called Morton's in water, ir people Boston with ["ollowing up the line of research opened by Dr. Kane. On August 27 the schooner entered Smith Sound, but she was blown out of it again no less than three times by heavy gales before Dr. Hayes effected a permanent lodgment within the strait. He wintered in a harbour named Port Foulke, 10 miles N.E. of Cape Alexander, in latitude 78° 17' 41" N., and 20 miles south of Kane's winter quarters in Rensselaer Harbour, though the distance by the coast is about 90 miles. On April 4, 1861, Dr. Hayes commenced his sledge travelling with twelve men and fourteen dogs, a metallic life-boat on runners, and provisions for seven persons for five months, and for six persons and fourteen dogs for six weeks. The attempt to drag the life-boat over the ice to the supposed open water in Kennedy Channel proved impracticable ; so, sending it back with the main party. Dr. Hayes pressed onward with three companions and two dog-sledges. They reached the west coast of the Sound on May 10, and continued to travel northward until the iSth, when their provisions were exhausted, and they were obliged to return, having reached a latitude of 81' 35' N. The o 194 Dr. Hayes A ill II schooner was broken out of the ice on July lo, and returned safely to Boston again on October 23, 1 86 1. There appears to have been a great abundance of animal life at the winter quarters in Foulke Harbour. Dr. Hayes reported that up- wards of 200 reindeer were shot during the winter, that walrus and seals were abundant, and that in the summer there were quantities of ducks and little auks, so that he had no difficulty in constantly supplying his party with fresh food. To this he attributes their entire exemption from disease. Dr. Hayes examined the west coast of Smith Sound and Kennedy Channel for some distance, and discovered a new sound or channel opening westward from the centre of Smith Sound. He found the portion of Kennedy Channel, w^hich Morton reported to be an open sea in June, 1854, entirely frozen over on May 23, 1861 ; but the ice was everywhere much decayed. The coast on the west side of the channel was lined with a heavy ridge of pressed-up ice, some of the masses being 60 feet high and far up on the beach, and he judged from this that they must have been forced up by ice-fields of great extent, coming down under 1 Hall's Expeditmi 195 ly 10, and ctober 23, I a great [uarters in I that up- the winter, ncl that in ducks and constantly To this he lisease. t of Smith e distance, 2I opening mnd. He nel, which une, 1854, lUt the ice coast on |th a heavy isses being and he |een forced iwn under .-a ■i the influence of winds and currents from a vast ocean to the northward. This theory, however, is quite unnecessary to account for the heavy ice. When H.M.S. 'Assistance' was severely nipped up Barrow's Strait, in 1850, the ice-hummocks were quite as high, and the pressure that formed them was from ice-fields of no great extent Two English whalers, in different years, have since been to the entrance of Smith Sound ; and saw an open navigable sea, extending to the horizon. The great success of the voyage of the ' Polaris,' under the command of Captain Hall — a full account of which, derived from one of the officers, has been supplied by Mr. Laurence Oliphant— is most en- couraging with reference to future exploration in the same direction. Considering the inadequate means at his disposal, and the absence of naval discipline. Captain Hall's success is very remark- able, and shows how much important work may almost certainly be done by a thoroughly equipped naval expedition. Captain Hall, in 1869, returned from an expedi- tion of five consecutive years in the Arctic regions, 02 J II [ 1 j 1 1 ! ! I 1 196 Captain Hall during which he lived like one of the l!!sqiiimaux, inured himself to their mode of life, and acquired their language. During that long period he was engaged in an earnest endeavour to col additional particulars respecting the fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition ; and he undoubtedly discovered the site of Sir Martin Frobisher's settle- ment. He brought away many interesting relics ; and he received full credit for his discovery from Admiral Collinson, when that distinguished Arctic ofiicer edited the voyages of Frobisher for the Hakluyt Society. Early in 1870 Captain Hall began his agitat for the despatch of an expedition to reach the North Pole. He appears to have received much assistance from Mr. Robeson, the American Secretary of the Navy, and the Department handed over to him a wooden river gunboat of 387 tons, called the * Periwinkle,' which was re- christened the ' Polaris.' Congress also granted him 50,000 dollars ; but no naval officer accom- panied the expedition. Captain Hall was not him- self a seaman, so he took with him Captain S. O. Buddington, a native of New London, in Connec- f Staff of the 'Polaris' »97 Esquimaux, md acquired ^riod lie was to col fate of Sir undoubtedly ishcr's settle- isting relics ; is discovery listinguished ^robisher for his agitat o reach the :eived much American Department gunboat of ich was re- Iso granted icer accom- as not him- Lptain S. O. in Connec- V* ticut, as sailing master. Captain Buddington is now forty-six years of age, and had made thirteen whaling voyages to Baffin's Bay before he sailed in the 'Polaris.' Captain George E. Tyson joined as assistant navigator ; and Doctor Bessells, a naturalist and Doctor of Medicine, who was in the German Arctic Expedition of 1869, had charge of the scientific department, and Mr. Meyer went out as meteorologist. Morton, Dr. Kane's ship's steward, Hans, the Esquimaux, who was in the expeditions of Kane and Hayes, and Joe and Hannah, the Esquimaux whom Hall had brought home with him from his former wanderings, with their daughter Silvie, were also of the party. On June 26, 1871, Captain Hall was received by the American Geographical Society at New York, when he announced his intention of proceeding up Jones Sound unless he was stopped by heavy pack-ice, in which case he would pursue Dr. Kane's route by Smith Sound, attempting it by the west side. He gathered from the narratives of K.ine and Hayes, that, owing to the configuration of the land, the icebergs, from the glaciers to the north, blocked up the deep bay on the east side of Smith 1 1 i! ; 1 III il 198 Departure of the ' Polaris ' Sound, and obstructed navigation. He trusted mainly to dogs for his sledge travelling, and had no hope of reaching a higher latitude than 80 ° N. in one year. The result exceeded his most sanguine expecta- tions. On the occasion of his reception by the American Geographical Society, Mr. Grinnell, the munificent promoter of expeditions for the search of Franklin, presented Captain Hall with the flag which, in 1838, had been with Wilkes to the Antarctic regions, and which had since been in the northern Polar seas, with De Haven, Kane, and Hayes. ' Now I give it to you, sir,' said Mr. Grinnell; 'take it to the North Pole, and bring it back in a year from next October.' A few days after this reception the ' Polaris * sailed, and, after filling up with provisions at Disco, finally left the most northern Danish settlement on the Greenland coast in August, 1 87 1. Captain Hall appears to have abandoned his intention of entering Jones Sound, and pushed for the more northern entrance. He no doubt carried out his intention of keeping on the western shore of Smith Sound in pushing north- if* j}/a/>s of Smith Sound 199 i trusted and had n8o°N. expecta- n by the nnell, the he search with the :es to the been in in, Kane, sir,' said ole, and wards, and was most successful. He took the 'Polaris' a distance of 250 miles up the strait leading to the North Pole, and reached a higher latitude than had ever before been obtained by any ship, and within 30 miles of the most northern point ever reached by civilised man. An examination of the maps at the commencement of this chapter will show the true significance of this achievement The first of the six maps shows the head of Baffin's Bay as delineated by Baffin himself in 1616 ; and the second shows how Sir John Ross made the strange mistake of closing up all the straits, and turning them into shallow bays. Ingle- field went to the entrance of Smith Sound, saw that there was a wide navigable sea to the northward, and sketched the map of which a copy is given. Kane and Hayes only took their small and unsuitable vessels to the entrance, where they wintered on the east coast ; and the extent of coast explored by their travelling parties is uncertain, owing to the absence of reliable observations. Dr. Kane himself certainly never went north of the 79th parallel. His steward, Morton, and the Esquimaux, Hans, are supposed to have gone, on ^ I i 2CX) Voyage of the ' Polaris ' i 1 I I a dog sledge, as far north as about 80° 56', to a point of land named Cape Constitution, on the east coast. Dr. Hayes went up the west coast on a dog sledge, and placed his furthest point in 81° 35' N. But these positions are very doubt- ful, and it is certain that no vessel had ever been beyond just within the entrance of Smith Sound. The largest map of the six shows the dis- coveries of Captain Hall, in the * Polaris.' During the month of August, 1871, he sailed up the long strait or channel, through the entrance to which alone the name of Smith Sound is now given, across the Kane Basin, through Kennedy Channel, across Polaris Bay, discovered by himself, and up a strait which he named after Mr Robeson, the Secretary to the Navy, finally reaching a latitude of 82° 16' N. on the 30th of August. Here the little vessel was beset ; but Captain Tyson reports that there was a water horizon to the north-east. The lofty eastern shore, at the furthest visible point, appeared to be trending to the north-east (but the accounts are somewhat conflicting), while the western land continued to trend north as far as the eye could •u Death of Captain Hall 20I " 56', to a n, on the it coast on t point in ixy doubt- had ever of Smith i the dis- ' During p the long to which ow given, J Channel, himself, ter Mr finally e 30th of cset; but a water eastern red to be )unts are ixvi land ye could ■i# I reach. The 'Polaris' had attained this high latitude without a check or obstacle of any kind. The winter quarters were in a harbour called 'Thank God' Bay, in latitude 81° 38' N., and longitude 61° 44' W., which the 'Polaris' reached on September 3. A large inlet, 20 miles wide, and of an unascertained depth, which they called the ' Southern Fiord,' breaks the coast line on the western side of Polaris Bay. On October 10, Captain Hall started with an autumn travelling party, consisting of himself, Mr. Chester the first mate, and the Esquimaux Joe and Hans, but did not get beyond the 82nd parallel, to a point in Robeson's Strait which he called Newman Bay.^ A bold promontory at the northern end of Polaris Bay was named Cape Lupton. On his return, Captain Hall was taken ill, he became partially paralysed, and died on November 8. He was buried on shore, and a wooden monument was erected on his grave. He had the glory of dying in the midst of his discoveries. The climate of the winter quarters in 81° 38' N. was found to be much milder than it is several ' Cape Brevoort, the northern point of Newman Bay, was in latitude 82" 2' N. and longitude 61" 20' W. 1. •' 11 202 Reitirn of the ' Polaris ' degrees further south. In June, the plain sur- rounding ' Thank God * Bay was free from snow ; a creeping herbage covered the ground, on which numerous herds of musk oxen found pasture ; and rabbits and lemmings abounded. The wild flowers were brilliant, and large flocks of birds came northward in the summer Traces of Esquimaux were found — a proof that they have wandered far into the unknown area. A current of a knot an hour flows down Robeson Strait from the north, and carries the ice through Smith Sound, and out into Baffin's Bay. On the death of Captain Hall, the command devolved upon the ice-master, Buddington, who seems to have resolved upon returning, without making further discoveries, in the spring, by means of sledge travelling. A party was sent in two boats as far as Newman Bay, but they abandoned the boats, and returned in July. On August 12, 1872, the ' Polaris ' was again free, and her head was turned southwards. She appears to have been beset in 80° 2' N., and drifted out into Baffin's Bay by the current; and on the 15th of October she was again beset, in latitude ']*]'' 53' N., Drift of the ' Polaris * boat 203 off the north entrance of Whale Sound. The nip was so severe that boats and provisions were got on the ice, and the necessary preparations were made to abandon the ship. This, however, proved to be unnecessary, as the ice eased off, and the ship righted. But Tyson, the second master, Meyer, the meteorologist, the steward and cook, six sea- men and eight Esquimaux, men, women, and children, remained on the floe with the boats and provisions. They assert that they expected the ship to come and take them on board, so that obviously there was nothing to prevent them from pulling in their boats to the ship. The true nature of their conduct can only be ascertained on the return of the ' Polaris.' Meanwhile it may safely be asserted that no such accident ever has, or ever could have, happened to a Government naval expedition. In any other country a boat's crew thus left in mid-ocean must almost certainly have perished ; but in the Arctic regions there are special means of escape from danger, and the friendly ice drifted the boat's crew into safety, and supplied the means of building shelter from the storms and cold of an Arctic night. They ob- C :■ ^Pr Mi t !|' 204 Position of the * Polaris' tained many birds, and killed more seals than they could consume. There is nothing wonderful in the drift of this boat on a floe in Baffin's Bay. James Ross, De Haven, M'Clintock, and the ' Resolute' drifted out exactly in the same way. Latterly, as the drifting floes began to break up, the means of obtaining food became precarious, and the party suffered much privation. On April 21, their larder was renewed by the Esquimaux, who shot a bear ; and on the 29th the party was picked up by the sealing steamer ' Tigress,' com- manded by Captain Bartlett, in 53° 35' N., and only 40 miles from the land, near Wolf Island. They were taken into St. John's, Newfoundland, and are in good health. In this way early news has been received of the remarkable success of Captain Hall's exploring voyage. Meanwhile the ' Polaris ' was seen to steam into a little bay to the north-east of Northumberland Island, at the entrance of Whale Sound, where she furled sails and blew off" steam. In these excel- lent quarters, with the remaining crew of fourteen men, she will have passed her second winter. She had plenty of provisions. If she is in need of I M_ will Deductions from the ' Polaris' Voyage 205 assistance, the English whalers will be in the ' North Water' of Baffin's Bay by this time, and it will be perfectly easy to communicate with them, through the Esquimaux at Cape York. More- over the United States steamer 'Juniata,' com- manded by Lieutenant Merriman, is to proceed at once to Disco to obtain intelligence of the ' Polaris.' The * Tigress ' has also been purchased, and sailed in July under the command of Captain Greer, U. S. N., to convey succour to the 'Polaris,' if it should be needed. The ' Tigress ' is built for ice navigation, and will go as far as Whale Sound. The ' Polaris ' may be expected to return next autumn, when we shall receive a more complete account of her remarkable voyage. All Captain Hall's journals and observations are in charge of Dr. Bessells, who is himself an accom- plished naturalist and a good observer. This news, received from the boat's crew of the ' Polaris,' furnishes additional information of great importance. We now know that the American vessel commanded by Captain Hall passed up the strait, in one working season, for a direct distance of 250 miles, without a check of any kind, reaching I' ' 1 . I lli!i 206 Deductions frow the latitude 82° 16' N. ; and that at her furthest point the sea was still navigable, with a water sky to the northward. The * Polaris ' was a mere river steamer of small power, and ill adapted for ice navi- gation, with a crew, all told, of thirty men, women, and children, including eight Esquimaux. If she could make such a voyage without difficulty, it may fairly be anticipated that a properly equipped English expedition, under equally favourable cir- cumstanced, would do more. Such an expedition would consist of two strongly fortified steamers of 70-horse power, adapted for charging the ice and forcing their way through it, with a crew of sixty officers and men each. Another very important feature in the voyage of the ' Polaris ' is the fact that she was safely drifted out into Baffin's Bay from a high northern position in the strait. This proves that the ascer- tained current keeps the ice in motion, and carries it south, thus preventing any long interruption of the navigation. The safety of a Government expedition is thus assured. For it is quite clear that the dangers of the Arctic regions are, in most instances, the direct consequences of despatching Voyage of the ' Polaris ' 207 ill-equipped and inadequately supplied vessels with undisciplined crews. The really unavoidable dangers are thoroughly understood, and most of them can be obviated by modern appliances and experience. Two vessels stationed at suitable distances could keep up communications with each other, and with the whalers which annually fre- quent the * North Water ' of Bafifin's Bay, while, under the most unforeseen and improbable con- tingency, a safe retreat would always be kept open. There is a third feature in the voyage of the * Polaris ' which strengthens the argument in favour of exploration by Smith Sound. At the winter quarters, in 81° 38' N., the climate was milder than it is further south, and animal life abounded, including musk oxen. This account corroborates that of Dr. Hayes, who was able to supply his men with plenty of fresh provisions in the less hospitable region near the entrance of Smith Sound. A Government expedition, with properly organised hunting parties, will be able to obtain considerable supplies of fresh meat, and thus add to the prospect of maintaining the men in health and vigour. Under such circumstances >i* I! r i|!il \V>'- . ' ;I.:N! •i; '. i m^ ! i i '! li'i 208 Importance of Arctic Exploration there is no healthier climate than that of the Arctic regions. These considerations are sufficient to show that the highly important scientific results of Arctic exploration can be secured without undue risk, and with a reasonable assurance that no disaster involving loss of life or health is to be appre- hended. The system of Arctic sledge travelling, which is now thoroughly understood, will ensure the examination of a vast extent of new country in various directions, from the wintering positions of the two ships ; and the navigable seasons will enable the expedition to obtain valuable informa- tion respecting the hydrography of the now unknown seas round the Pole, The story of Arctic exploration is a cheering and invigorating story. Each succeeding enterprise has added more and more to the stores of human knowledge ; and, in the present day, when the true methods of exploring are well known, and men of science have clearly enumerated the important problems that will be solved, and the numerous valuable results that will be derived from the labours of an Arctic expedition, the reasons for despatching one have acquired tenfold force. h£«- CHAPTER X. rilE PARRY ISLANDS. HE discoveries of Kane, Hayes, and Hall indicate the point where the known land reaches farthest north in the Polar space. Thence the threshold of the unknown region extends along the northern side of the Parry Islands to Behring's Strait, and has only been touched by officers in command of ships or travelling parties employed in searching for Sir John Franklin. Going west along the boundary, from the meridian of the west side of Smith Sound in 77° W. to near the entrance of Jones' Sound in 85° W., the coast line has been seen by whalers and discovery ships navigating the ' North Water ' of Baffin's Bay. From 85° W. to 90° W. is the channel leading from Jones' Sound Il '•"■ i ill 1 ! #''' f \m '■h 2IO yoNcs Sound to the unknown sea north of tho Parry Islands. Jones' Sound was discovered by Baffin in 1616 ; and has oftc^n been entered by whalers. In 184H, Cai)tain Lee of the 'Prince of Wales ' ran up Jones' Sound for fourteen hours, and sent a boat on shore ; where a view was obtained of very high land to the westward, ami deep water was found close to rocks on the south coast. Captain Lee then steered N.E. for some distance, and found open water, as far as he couUl see from the mast-heael, extendini: about N.W. to W.S.W. IMie distance the ' Prince of Wales ' ran up the Sound, from the entrance, was about i ^o miles. On August 16, 1S51, Lieutenant (now Admiral) Sherard Osborn took the 'Pioneer' into Jones' Sound. He found it to be narrowest at the tMitrance, and that it increased in width to the westward. The scenery is magnificent, especially on the south shore, where, some ten miles in the interior, a huge dome of pure white snow enve- lopes land 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, named the Treuter Mountains by Captain Austin, who a\.is on board the ' Pioneer' with Osborn. Froii ,;, dome, long winding glaciers pour down the valn;ys. n yokes' Sound 21 I and project through the ravines, into the deep blue waters of this magnitkejit strait. Unfortu- nately the progress of the steamer was stopped by lloes stretching across the strait, and she was oVjliged to return. Captain Inglefield, in the ' Phoenix,' also went some distance up Jones' Sound in 1853. From 85" to 90* W. is the portion of Jones' Sound not yet fully explored, and thence the discoveries of Sir Edward Belcher extend from 90° to 97° W., along what has been named Grinncll Land. Sir Edward explored this coast in the spring of 1853, and on May 20 he was stopped by open water, streaked with sailing ice, at the western entrance of Jones' Sound. This was in about 90° VV., and from a little to the westward of this point Sir Edward went across the floe to the southern- most island of a most extensive archipelago, ' leading,' he says, ' to the N.E., or possibly to the Pole.' He adds that the heavy, even solid, state of the surrounding floe, and, where nipped, the almost berg like lumps which protruded, afford a fair inference that the sea is seldom seriously dis- P3 2 1 2 Discoveries of Richards and Osborn turbed in these latitudes. But tlie pack ice to the northward was from 6 to 8 feet thick, and was acted upon by a strong tide. In the offing a wildly-packed state of floe ice was to be seen, denoting that during the severe autumnal and wintry gales that sea had been in motion. Early in June, the flights of birds pointed to the existence of water-holes, and consequent move- ments of the floes, and Sherard Osborn accounts for this early disruption by the passage of a strong tidal wave in an east and west direction. Admirals Richards and Sherard Osborn con- tinued the examination of the frozen shores of the unknown Polar ocean from 97** to 109° W., along the northern side of Bathurst Island, to the north point of Melville Island. These dreary shores are composed of limestone. Osborn believed that to the northward there existed much land, either in the shape of islands, or an exten- sive continuous continent. A large flock of lemmings was seen making its way over the ice, in a northerly direction. From the extreme northern point of Melville Island, Captain R. \^esey Hamilton penetrated a 1 Vesey 1 1 ami lion and Mecham 213 little distance into the unknown frozen ocean, and reached an island seven miles from the land on June 7, 1853, which has been named after himself. It was foui miles long, and the northern extreme consisted of a series of small peaks. The water had a strong taste of some mineral acid. Eight or nine miles further north, out in the unknown Polar Sea, another small island was discovered, and named Markham Island. From Melville Island to the north-west side of Prince Patrick's land, the threshold of the un- known region was traversed by Sir Leopold M'Clintock, and the examination of the western and south<;rn sides of Prince Patrick's land was completed by poor Mecham, one of the finest fellows who ever entered the ice. I cannot men- tion his name without a few words of affectionate regret for his loss. Never was officer more beloved by his messmates, and the men would do anything for him. Genial and warm hearted, he was the life and soul of the winter amusements, and, when the season for work arrived, it was Mecham who performed the most wonderful feat of Arctic travelling on record. An accurate and painstaking li\ f# ■III I Hi 'li:! \i H* 214 Mecham and M'Clintoch observer, full of resource, and endowed with indo- mitable resolution, he was at the same time most careful of the comforts of his men. He was indeed the beau idc'al of an Arctic officer, and when the subject of Polar exploration is discussed, the first feeling of those who served in the search for Franklin will be one of regret that the great ability, the high resolve, the numerous qualities for command which were rnitcd in the character of Frederick Mecham are lost to us forever. He was second only to one as an explorer, and in some points equal even to him. That one was his friend and messmate, Sir Leopold M'Clintock. These two officers explored the shores of Prince Patrick's Island. At the north end of this remote and outlying boundary of the unknown region there was tre- mendous pressure from heavy pack ice. There were hummocks 35 feet high, and masses of blue sea ice had been driven far inland. Mecham found the west side of Prince Patrick's Island to be com- posed of such low patches of gravel that it was difficult to distinguish land from sea. In this far- away part of the frontier of the unknown area, land S/r Robert M'C/uri' 215 ■; . \\ and frozen sea were mixed together in inextricable confusion. Nothing but heavy pack ice was to be seen to seaward, with enormous pieces forced upon the beach. Yet this dreary hmit of the known world once enjoyed a milder climate, for Mecham found trees of considerable size buried in a ravine, with bark in a perfect state, and in a position which proved that they must have grown on the spot. One tree was 4 feet round, and 30 long. The position was 400 feet above the sea. At the N.W. extreme of Banks' Land, a great number of fossil trees was also found, 300 feet above the sea. Dr. Hooker considered the wood to be that of while spruce {A dies a Ida). The boundary of the unknown Polar Region now crosses Banks' Strait, and passes down the west side of Banks' Land, discovered by Sir Robert M'Clure in the ' Investigator,' almost to the coast of North America. Here the ice presses close against the cliffs, and is of stupendous pro- portions. It draws 40 and 50 feet of water, and rises in rolling hills upon the surface, sotne of them 100 feet from base to sununit. The ice along the coast of North America, especially oj)[)osite the i' ;ii.;?; wi I , i iii ! i 216 Collinson and Kellett Mackenzie River, is of the same formidable character, and this mij^hty Polar pack forms the boundary between the known and the unknown on this meridian. It is called by the Esquimaux ' the land of the white bear.' Thus we have followed the boundary of the un- known region from Novaya Zemlya to Behring's Strait, the third opening into the Polar ocean. The heaviest and most formidable pack in the Arctic seas is that which presses against the land from the north end of Prince Patrick's Island to Behring's Strait, and no vessel has yet succeeded in sailing far towards the Pole on the meridian of Behring's Strait. Captain Collinson, in the ' Enterprise,' went a little to the northward of 70° N. on the meridan of Cape Lisborne, and Captain Kellett, in the ' Herald, 'discovered some high land a little further to the eastward, in 72° N. The boundary from Behring's Strait to Novaya Zemlya, which completes the circle, has been examined by Russian explorers. Admiral Sherard OsL)orn has pointed out that the tremendous ice to the west of Banks' and Prince Patrick's Islands is never seen in Barrow Osborn on the American Pack 217 or Jones' Straits, except in small fragments, and nothing like it ever comes clown into the Atlantic by way of vSpitzbergcn ; and he therefore con- cludes that it is land-bound on its northern edge, and that an archipelago must sweep up very near the North Pole, on the meridians between Prince Patrick's Island and Siberia. In a valuable paper read before the Royal Geographical Society,* Osborn thus explains his reasons for believing that land extends far to the north of any point yet reachctl in the Arctic archipelago known as the Parry Islands : — 'While employed in compiling from the journals of Captain Sir Robert M'Clure the discovery of a north-west passage in H.M.S. " Investigator," I was struck with his description of the extraordi- nary ice met with by him in the sea west of the archipelago under consideration, and which he traced from Behring's Strait up to the north-west of Banks' Land, round a great curve of more than 1000 miles. I compared it subsequently with the reports of Lieutenants Mecham and M'Clintock, who visited in 1853 the west shores of Prince Patrick's Land ; and again with the remarks of ' On .April 28, 1873. 1^ I 2l8 Osdorn on (he Pack Ice f Hi Ji i i : w Captain (now Admiral) Collinson, vvlio like M'Clure, passed between this ijreat ice and the American continent in his remarkable voyage in H.M.S. " Enterprise." * All their descriptions agreed, and it was evi- dent to me that no one who has travelled else- where in the Arctic Regions had ever met with similar oceanic ice ; and it certainly was notiiing' like the ice-fields found about Spitzbergen or the east coast of Greenland. • Its character I olten discussed with the able navigator of Sir Robert M'Clure's ship, the late lamented Stephen Court, who was subsequently my navigating officer for two years in H.M.S. '• Furious." l'>om his statement I can safely describe this western ice as a vast floating glacier- like mass, surging to and fro in an inclosed area of the Arctic Sea, bounded on the south by the shores of North America, on the west by Kellett and Wrangell Land, on the east by the Arctic archipelago under consideration, and on the north — and there is the query. But if there was space for it to move north, there is no (question but that the furious south storms which sweep over the North American continent would blow it far in .*' IVc's/ of /)(in/cs Land 219 that direction, and brinj^ its masses down into the Atlantic by way of Spitzbergen, wlicreas, as a matter of fact, it never went more than a few miles off the American coast, leaving a narrow belt of water ; and directly the gale ceased it surged back again, with its edge grounding in 100 feet of water. The same phenomenon occurred along its eastern edge, where this great ice- field imping(;d on the archipelago in Banks' Land. There, under the most favourable circumstances, the ice never moved off more than a mile or two, and in most places came honvj against the cliffs, leaving hardly the width of the " Investigator " to go past the ii.(\\fQ of it, aground sometimes in i 2 or 15 fathoms water, showing a thickness of 70 or 80 feet. Mecham and M'Clintock found it on the west coast of Prince Patrick's Island, pressed up with tremendous energy on those low shores, and forming in places such a barrier, especially on the south-west extreme, as to oblige Mecham lo take his sledges landward, to avoid the insurmountable barrier the broken lloe edge had there formed. ' This ice, as described to me, consisted of vast continuous fields, whose thickness below \vat( r was more than 60 feet, wiiilst the surface resembled ir •' I; i V ;■ W 2 20 Osborn on the Pack fee El'Mi ' hills and dales of rounded oudine, studded close together ; the major portion of these hillocks, 30 or 40 feet in height above water, and some of them as much as 100 feet, packed so close together from the effects of alternate snow, thaw, and frost, that there was hardly footing to be found amongst them. And in proof of the extra- ordinary age of these ice-fields, these hillocks were found to be pure, fresh-water ice, indicating the long period that the snows had fallen on the surface of that frozen sea. This ice must not be confounded in any way with what is called " packed ice." It was far too heavy and massive to be broken up in that manner, and it was only along its edge that fragments were found broken off by contact with the cliffs or shore. These fragments, as far as is known, form great ice streams, which pour through Behring's Straits and Barrow Straits, though much broken up and re- duced in thickness long before they had been met with by our navigators. We saw very little of this ice in Jones' Sound, the entrance being there barred by Prince Patrick's Island and the lands which lie north of it. «ll! li ll^es/ of Banks Land 221 ' Apart from the ponderous character of this " mer de glace " leading me to the conclusion that it is formed in a land-locked sea, there are additional data, namely the direction and the amount of tide on its shores. For of course, as in the Mediter- ranean and Black Seas, an enclosed area of salt water, with only a narrow outlet to a great ocean, has generally but slight rise and fall of tide. 'We find at Kotzebue Sound and Point Barrow, in Behring's Strait, where Moore and Maguire wintered in H.M.S. " Plover," that the flood tide came from the Pacific, and the rise and fall was only 2 feet at the former, and only 7 inches at Point Barrow. ' M'Clure, in the Princess of Wales' Strait, found the flood tide came from the south, with only 3 feet rise and fall on spring-tides. ' At the Bay of Mercy, Banks' Land, the flood, such as it was, came from the east up Barrow Strait, with only 2 feet rise, agreeing much with all other observations taken ud Barrow Strait, namely, at Beechy Island, Comwallis Island, Leopold Island, and Melville Island, at which places the flood evidently came from the Atlantic, if. "r. F* ^ m h 222 Osborn on the Pack Ice via Baffin's Bay, diminishing as it approached the sea west of the archipelago. ' In Jones' Strait the tlood-tide likewise came from the east, as Admiral Richards and I had good proof of in a boat expedition during the autumn of 1852 ; and we both found, as we went westward along the north shore of the Georgian or Parry group, that the tides, as indicated by the ice-action upon the shore, diminished likewise as we went west. ' Now, if the area of sea west of this archipelago was not land-locked, but opened into the general space called the Arctic Ocean, I think seamen and geographers would agree with me that the tidal wave of that vast area, as compared with the limited one of Baffin's Strait, would cause the flood-tide to come from it into, at any rate, the west entrance of Barrow Strait and Jones' Sound, whereas the evidence I adduce shows that the flood travels towards this sea, which I say is enclosed by land, instead of from it, as would otherwise be the case. The best parallel I can give to the tidal observation of Barrow's Strait, is that of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Cattegat, TM i'\'ii V'Xts 'Piraiwld ot'the unknown. He^wrC tjf C.li.iliirkhn.,Low . Se S*arle. 188 Fltft Street Kd»<<* 'i 'alirJ»*nil»d .iu» V" ■ \i\ M I I m t''' Vir Tlkftiiiitltl ti'thr 'itOmimn Hniwn ifv C. HMurkhnmiU: r n •> Early Russian Voyages 227 •m ,H trees, which line their banks in immense masses, and are eventually carried into the Polar sea, to be drifted away with the current which flows from east to west along the Siberian coast. The efforts of the Russians to double the extreme northern points of Siberia — Capes Taimyr and Chelyuskin, the latter in 77° 30' N., — have hitherto been unsuccessful. Burrough, Pett and Jackman,^ the early English explorers, discovered the straits between Novaya Zemlja and the main, thus entering the sea of Kara. The Russians, in very early times, constantly went from Archangel to the mouth of the Obi, creeping along between the land and ice in. the sea of Kara, and usually hauling their boats, or lodias, across the isthmus between Kara bay and the gulf of the Obi. In the last century several expeditions were sent by the Russian Government in the same direction, and vessels reached the mouth of the Pyasina, on the west side of the northern point of Siberia, and the Khatanga on the east side. Rut no navigator has ever doubled that most northrrn cape of the Asiatic continent. ' .See pages 5 and 7. Q2 fl- ^ 22S Early Russian Explorers In 1734, Lieutenant Muravicf sailed from Archangel towards the river Obi, but was stopped by the ice in the sea of Kara. In 1738, however, Lieutenants Malgyn and Shurakoff doubled the promontory with great difficulty and reached the mouth of the Obi. The next step was to sail from the Obi to the Yenisei. This was effected in the same year by Lieutenant Koskclef. In the same memorable year for Siberian exploration, the pilot Menin sailed from the Yenisei towards tiie Lena, but was stopped by the ice at the mouth of the Pyasina, and returned unsuccessful. Three years before, in 1735, Lieutenant Pronchishchcf made a similar attempt from the eastern side. He sailed down the Lena from Yakutsk, accom- panied by his wife, but was hampered by ice, which only left a passage of 200 yards along the coast, and was at last obliged to winter at the mouth of the Olenek. The following year he reachcc ihe mouth of the Khatanga, and pushed beyond it, but found himself at last closely beset near Cape Chelyuskin, his extreme northern point being 77° 25' N. He and his wife died at the winter quarters, near the mouth of the Olenek, Discovery of Cape Chelyuskin 229 and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Chelyuskin who returned. In May, 1740, Lieu- tenant Laptef found fixed and impenetrable ice in the same place, and returned convinced of the impossibility of sailing round Cape Taimyr. But, in 1742, Chelyuskin reached the northernmost point of the continent in al^dgcs, in latitude 77° 34' N.. doubled it, and returned to the mouth of the Taimyr. This cape is now known as Cape Chelyuskin. In 1843, Middendorf was sent to explore the region which terminates in Cape Taimyr, by land. He descended the river Khatanga, and reached the Taimyr lake in June. In August he arrived at the shores of the Polar sea, and sighted Cape Taimyr, whence he saw open water, and no ice- blink in any direction. He found the rise and fall of the tide to be as much as 36 feet. His visit was, however, in the very height of the short Arctic summer. From the mouth of the Lena eastward, vessels have frequently reached the river Kolyma, but the doubling of the capes still farther east has been attended with great difficulty. Nijni .' • J " ;*.■:• ' , « * ' I III: ) 230 Expcdilion oj Jichring Kolymsk, near the mouth of the Kolyma, was founded, in 1644, by a Cossack named Michael Staduchin ; and, in 1648, another Cossack, named Simon Deshnef, equipped an expedition there, consisting of three little craft called kotchys^ which were broad, llat-bottomed, decked vessels, about 70 feet long, with sails and oars. He rounded Cape Chelagskoi, passed through the strait after- wards named after the explorer Behring, and reached the gulf of Anadyr. Most of his men died of hunger ; but Deshnef himself succeeded in establishing a walrus fishery in the Anadyr. Peter the Great desired that the whole northern coast of Siberia should be explored by sea, ami he died a few days after giving his instructions to Captain Vitus Behring with his own hand, in 1725. Behring was a Dane, in the Russian service. He was despatched from St. Petersburg to the furthest point of Siberia with sailors and shipwrights, and two vessels were built at Okhotsk and in Kamschatka, the 'Gabriel' and the * Fortuna.' In July, 1728, he sailed from the river of Kamschatka, and examined the coast for some distance to the northward, ascertaining ^W/a>a m Discovery of Behring's Strait 23» thu existence of a strait between Asia and America. In September, 1740. Behring sailed again from Okhotsk, in a vessel called the ' St. Paul,' with another in company, commanded by Lieutenant Chirikof, called the * St. Peter.' George Wilhelm Steller embarked with Com- modore Behring as naturalist of the voyage ; and in June, 1741, they sailed to discover the American coast. That magnificent peak, named by Behring Mount St. Eli.is. was discovered, and the Aleutian Islands were explored, but scurvy broke out amongst the crews, and the commodore himself was attacked by it. In November the ship was wrecked on an island which was named after the ill-fated discoverer himself, who was carried on shore, and placed in a sort of pit or cavern dug in the side of a sand-hill. Here he was almost buried while alive, for the sand kept continually rolling down, and he requested that it might not be removed as it kept him warm. In this miser- able condition poor Behring died on December 8, 1 74 1 . Steller was naturally anxious to procure supplies of animal f«Kxl for his scurvy-stricken patients, and he carefully examined into the i . I 'f • ilM: 232 Steller on Behring Island m III natural history of the island. He attributed the cure of those who recovered, to the flesh of the sea-otter ; and 900 of their skins were collected on the island, which the Chinese, at Kiakhta on the Russian frontier, will buy at the rate of eighty to a hundred roubles (about 30/.) a piece. Thirty of the crew died on the island, and the forty-five survivors escaped to Kamschatka in a little vessel built from the wreck of the ' St. Paul.' The most remarkable and interesting event of this voyage was the discovery by Steller of a rare and solitary species of manatee or sea-cow, called Rytina Stelkres. It has since been hunted and probably exterminated, for no specimen has been seen for more than seventy years. This creature had a sort of bark an inch thick, composed of fibres or tubes perpendicular on the skin, and so hard that steel could penetrate it with difficulty. It lived on sea- weed. After Behring's Strait, the most important discovery of the Russians during the last century was that of the Islands of Liakhof or New Siberia in the Polar ocean, opposite the coast between the mouths of the Lena and Indigirka. In Discovery of the Ncio Siberia Isles 23^^ XI March, 1770, a merchant named Liakhof saw a large herd of reindeer coming over the ice from the north, which induced him to start with sledges early in April, to trace the tracks they had left. After a journey of fifty miles over the ice he discovered three large islands, and the following year he obtained the exclusive right from the Empress Catherine to dig for mammoth bones on them. The largest of these islands is called Kotelnoi, and is 100 miles long by 60 broad, in 76*' N. latitude. The next is called Fadeyef, and there is another, called New Siberia, more to the eastward. The length of the whole group is 205 miles. Immense alluvial deposits, filled with wood and the fossil bones of animals, are found throughout the shores of Arctic Siberia; but in the cliffs or ' wood hills ' of the New Siberia Islands these deposits are still more plentiful. For years after their first discovery the seekers for fossil ivory annually resorted to these islands ; and, in 1821, the fossil ivory thus procured weighed 20,000 lbs. Hedenstrom, a Russian officer, residing at Yakutsk, was employed by the Government to survey the New Siberian » • IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I :s I^ IIIM " 1^ iilM 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" — ► v^ V/, /y %^'j3 7 y /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. MS80 (716) 873-4503 ,v5" ' i^ Q- ^ 234 Hedenstrom and Anjoti ! i jfi iiii Islands in 1809, and occupied three years in their exploration. He reported, in 18 10, that, to the northward of these islands during three years, he was always stopped, at a short distance from the land, by weak ice. In March, 1 821, Lieutenant Anjou^ went across the ice with dog sledges, to the Kotelnoi Island. He then travelled over the ice to the northward in April, and saw vapour rising to the N.W. when at a distance of 42 miles from Kotelnoi (latitude 76° 38'), which led him to suppose that there was open water in that direction. But Wrangell tells us that when the ice cracks, even in places where it is thick and solid, vaporisation immediately ensues, which is more or less dense according to the temperature of the atmosphere. In the same month, Anjou made another journey to the northward, but was stopped by thin unsafe ice. On the i8th, the party saw open sea with drift-ice to the northward, from Cape Visokoi in New Siberia, and dense vapour. Off Cape Raboi the ice appeared unbroken, but was rugged with lofty hummocks. Hedenstrom had met with hummocks 90 feet high. In May, the expedition • Afterwards Admiral Anjou. Pi Anjou 235 i of Anjou returned to the mainland, and wintered at Ust-Yansk. In March, 1821, Anjou again saw vapours rising to the northward, when he crossed to Liakhof Island. Open sea, with drifting masses of ice, was seen on the 26th, the ice drifting from east to west. The frequenters of the islands believe this current to be the ebb tide. On April 9, he started over the ice to the eastward of New Siberia, and met with thin ice on the i4ch, at a distance of 60 miles, but lines of im- passable hummocks obliged him to make for the mainland. Lieutenant Anjou arrived at the con- viction that all efforts to advance by the ice to any considerable distance from land would prove unavailing, owing to the thinness of the ice, and to the open water within 20 to 30 miles of the islands. His expedition, however, effected a complete survey of this interesting group. There is very little drift-wood on the north side of these islands, but on the south side it is found in two bays in great abundance. The sea between the islands and Siberia is not completely frozen over until the end of October, and the coasts are free by the end of July. Throughout the summer fi It! 236 Wrangell the sea is covered with fields of ice, drifting to and fro with winds and currents. While Anjou was conducting these explorations, Wrangell was prosecuting similar researches from his head-quarters at Nijni Kolymsk, near the mouth of the Kolyma, whence he made four journeys on the Polar sea, in 1820, 21, 22, and 23. These journeys were performed in dog sledges, called narii. The runner of a Siberian narti of the best construction, is 5 feet 10 inches long, breadth of the sledge, i foot 9 inches, and height of runner, 10 and a quarter inches. The runners are of birchwood, and the upper surface of the sledge of willojv shoots woven together. All the parts are fastened together with hide thongs. When in use the sledges are turned over, and water is poured on the runners, to produce a thin crust of ice, which glides easily over the snow, and the ice runner is called wodiat As spring advances, it of course becomes useless, and whalebone is sometimes sub- stituted. Wrangell considered March to be the best time of the year for sledging, when it is easier work for the dogs. A well-loaded sledge requires a team of twelve dogs, and they will Wrattgell 237 edge will drag 1,260 pounds in spring, but in the intense cold of winter, 360 pounds is a heavy load. They were fed on frozen fresh herrings. The provision for five men for a month was 100 pounds of rye biscuit, 60 pounds of meat, 10 pounds of portable soup, 2 pounds of tea, 8 pounds of grits ; 3 pounds of salt, 39 rations of spirits, 1 2 pounds of tobacco, and 200 smoked fish (luchala), each equal to five herrings. The men wore reindeer-skin shirts, great leathern boots lined with fur, a fur cap, and reindeer-skin gloves. The party had a conical tent of reindeer-skin, 1 2 feet across on the ground, and 10 feet high, with a light frame- work of six poles ; and, when they encamped, they lighted a fire in the centre of it, and were half smothered. Each man slept on a bear-skin, and a reindeer- skin coverlet was provided for every two. In his first journey, during March, 1820, Wran- gell explored the coast from the mouth of the Kolyma to Cape Chelagskoi. The temperature was occasionally as low as — 31° Fahr. His second journey was undertaken in order to see how far he could go over the ice to the northward away from the Siberian coast, and he started on March * s .'M ,• i Ii I 238 WraiiQell 27, 1821. At a distance of two miles from the shore, the party had to cross a chain of high and rugged hummocks five miles wide, beyond which there was an extensive plain of ice. Wrangell continued to advance to the northward for a dis- tance of 140 miles, when he found the ice to be very thin and rotten, owing to large patches of brine that were lodged on the snow. There were cracks in every direction, through which the sea-water came up, and the ice was scarcely a foot thick. It was, therefore, deemed prudent to commence a retreat on April 4. In approaching the coast again, they had to cross ranges of hummocks of greenish-blue coloured ice, often 80 and 90 feet in height, denoting tremendous pressure during the winter. Wrangell returned to Nijni Kolymsk on April 28, after an absence of thirty-six days, during which time he had travelled over 800 miles. He was much struck during this journey at the wonderful skill displayed by the sledge-drivers in finding their way by watching the wave-like stripes of snow, which are formed by the wind. ' These wave-like stripes of snow, formed on the level ice of the sea by any wind of long continuance, are called 6* tLLE ■j:=^ nn^ Wrangcll 239 sastrugi in Siberia. The ridges always indicate the quarter from which the prevailing winds blow. The inhabitants of the tundras often travel over several hundred miles with no other guide than these sastrugi. They know by experience at what angle they must cross the greater and lesser waves of snow, in order to arrive at their destination, and they never fail. It often happens that the true, permanent sastrugi have been obliterated by others produced by temporary winds, but the traveller is not deceived thereby, his practised eye detects the change, he carefully removes the recently drifted snow, and corrects his course by the lower sastrugi, and by the angle formed by the two.' On his third journey Wrangell started northward from the coast on March 16, 1822, chiefly with the object of ascertaining the truth of a native report that there was high land in that direction. On April 12, after having travelled for many days over very difficult hummocks, the party came to such weak ice, broken up by so many cracks, that he supposed that the open sea must be at hand, and deemed it prudent to return, when 170 miles from the land. The north winds were >■ 240 Wraiigell Land observed to be invariably very clamp winds, which was also supposed to indicate the existence of open water in that direction. On this occasion Wrangell was absent fifty-five days, and went over 900 miles. He reached Nishni Kolymsk on May 5th. The fourth and last journey was com- menced on March 14, 1823, and Cape Chelagskoi was reached on the 8th. A Tchuktchi or Tuski chief here informed Wrangell that, from an adjacent part of the coast, on a clear summer's day, snow- covered mountains might be descried at a great distance to the north, and that herds of reindeer sometimes came across the ice of the sea, probably from thence. The natives concur in stating that Cape Jakan is the nearest point to this northern land. The party struck off across the ice to the northward when they had gone a little beyond Cape Chelagskoi ; but, a violent gale of wind cracked and broke up the ice, which was only three feet thick, placing them in considerable danger. As they advanced it became thinner, and they only succeeded in crossing the cracks, just frozen over, in safety, owing to the incredibly swift running of the dogs. Wrangell was obliged to 'm*- m IVrafigi'll Land 241 turn back a distance of 70 miles from the land, and in reaching it they had to ferry themselves across many cracks, on pieces of ice, the dogs swimming and towing. The temperature of the sea was + 28° Fahr. This was in the end of March. To the west the sea appeared completely open, with floating ice, and dark vapours ascending from it obscured the horizon. Lanes of water were opening in all directions, and, without a boat, the little party was placed in a position of extreme danger. A gale of wind dashed the pieces of ice against each other with a loud, crashing noise, and split many of the floes iito fragments. The dogs saved them. They dashed wildly and swiftly towards the land, and reached it on the 27th. Wrangell continued the coast survey for some time longer, and returned to Nijni Kolymsk on May 10, after an absence of seventy-eight days, having travelled over 1,530 miles. Thus ended the series of attempts to reach the unknown northern land, which, though not seen by him, Wrangell still thinks may possibly exist. It was sighted by Captain Kellett, and afterwards, in 1867, by Cap- tain Long, an American whaler, who approached 4' I I «ir^' ii II ; ; : ! 1(5 I 243 IVrangell Land from Behrlng Strait; and it is now marked on the maps as Wrangell Land. On Wrangell's map it is stated that the mountains are visible, from Cape Jakan, in clear summer weather. The observations of Hedenstrom, Anjou and Wrangell, have led Russian geographers to the conclusion that there is a part of the Polar ocean always an open sea, extending from some twenty miles north of the New Siberia Islands, to about the same distance off the coast of the continent between Cape Chelagskoi and Cape North. This opinion rests on the instances in which these explorers, in March and April, encountered either open water covered with loose floes, or very thin ice, indicative of its immediate vicinity, at different points of this line. Admiral von Wrangell con- sidered that the fact of the northerly winds being sufficiently damp to wet the clothes of his party, was a further corroboration of the existence of an open sea in that direction. In summer, the current along the Siberian coast is from east to west, and in autumn from west to east. The great Siberian rivers bring down immense quantities of drift-wood, which is afterwards carried off by the '•■■'¥* Poly ma of the Russians 243 currents, and spread far and wide over the Arctic shores. On the breaking up of the ice their waters contribute to drive the floes from the coast, and the westerly current then carries them in heavily-packed masses towards the Atlantic, and millions of tons of ice are thus sent to swell the size of the Polar pack, and are annually melted between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya. Admiral von Wrangell, using an allowable poetical licence, has called the open water off the Siberian coast 'the wide immeasurable ocean,' and ever since the 'great Polynia^ of the Russians ' has been a phrase on which geographi- cal theorists have founded the wildest specu- lations. Now, in all parts of the Arctic Regions the ice is more or less in motion during the summer, so that the observation of open water by Middendorf, near Cape Taimyr in August, is nothing remarkable. Anjou and Wrangell, during the months of March and April, found the ' Polynia simply means a pool or lane of water in the ice. The term is applied to such pools when the ice is breaking up in the Neva. Folyi is an obsolete Russian word meaning open ; Nya, the feminine termination, giving the word a sub- stantive form. Polyi-dven\ ' Open doors.' R 2 244 Polynia of the Rii.^sians ice to be thin and rotten at a distance of about loo miles from the coast, and on one or two occasions an open sea covered with floating pieces of ice was seen in the offing. Vapours rising at a distance, and damp north winds, were looked upon as additional proofs of the existence of this great Polynia. There can be no reason to doubt that, owing to strong currents and gales of winds, the ice is in motion off the coast of Siberia very early in the spring, giving rise to Polynias^ or lanes and pools of water ; but there is nothing in the observations of the Russian explorers to warrant the belief in a ' wide immeasurable ocean.' The rising vapour, so often mentioned by Anjou, is caused by tidal cracks in the ice, and is no proof of an open sea ; and the phenomena of damp winds and rotten ice betoken just what Anjou saw — a limited expanse of sea, covered with drifting floes. There is no evidence whatever that the Siberian Polytiia of the early spring is of greater extent tha.i the prevalence of gales of wind and currents would easily explain. The weak ice, where the Rus- sians were stopped, was in a very shallow sea. J ^^,-sm* Polynia of the Russia }is 245 and they nevei* mention a greater depth than 14 fathoms. I lence the winds have a great effect in producing currents. In this depth they mention the ice being packed up until it grounded ; and, thus obstructed, the crushing up of the drifting ice was prodigious. It should be borne in mind that the exceptional condition of the Siberian polar sea never offered any obstruction to the examination of the coast, and that weak ice was first met with at a distance of several miles from the shore. The latest Russian exploring achievement in Siberia has been the examination of the mouth of the Yenisei, by Herr Schmidt. In 1866, in consequence of the alleged dis- covery of a mammoth skeleton in the vicinity of the lower Yenisei river, Herr F". Schmidt was despatched by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg to conduct a reconnoitring ex- pedition in the districts between the Obi and the Yenisei, arwi to amplify the work of Von Midden- dorf in those parts. The account of the expe- dition was published in the ' Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences' at St. Petersburg. a. T -J. -r, .>,•■•/-■; 4 ■': i i;t I ^iH ii«=iii ;'\«'.:| :\\ -mf. 246 Exploration of the Yetiisei An interesting fact in connection with the river Yenisei, is the immense quantity of drift-wood lying on either side of its banks. About the low lands of the estuary the wood lies scattered about, and, mixed with loam and sand, forms the chief component of the numerous islands studded about the mouth. In many places peat-moss is to be found, and stems of trees, which prove that vege- tation formerly ."pread further north than now. Here, as well as in most parts of Siberia, the larch {Larix Sibirica) marks the commencement of forest growth. Looking from Dudino, all to the south of the Dudinka is forest, while to the north dead stumps of trees are to be seen in hollows. Westward there is proof that vegeta- tion formerly extended further north. The line of demarcation of the larch runs from Passino lake in the Noril mountain range, about 67° 50' N. latitude (to the east of the Yenisei), along the Dudinka river to Dudino, and thence along the right bank of the Yenisei to Sselakino; here it crosses the Yenisei, and from the mouth of the K eta runs in a south-westerly direction past the upper Solenaya to the lower Tas. Northward of by Herr F. Schmidt 247 the larch, two trees are met with, the Betula cati- torta and Abies obovata, and on and about the river Yenisei the A blaster fructicosa, a species of alder, which grows up to one's shoulder as far as 70** 50' N. latitude, and about 71° creeps along the ground. The population consists wholly of Russian peasants, who are divided into two congregations or parishes, the two churches being in Turuchank and Dudino. From Tolstoi to Turuchank occur small settlements of one or two houses, whose sole duties consist in looking after the postal com- munications. From Tolstoi to beyond the mouth of the Pasina, settlements or groups of houses (though long since abandoned through the severity of the climate or difficulty of communi- cation) have been laid down on maps, being copied from older maps without sufficient warrant. From the middle of June to the end of August, Samoyedes and Russians erect tents, dome-shaped huts made of drift-wood and loam, and regular cottages with windows and ovens, on these islands, and a brisk preparation of salt-fish goes on in them and on board the river craft. The 248 jil;iit!i n !i Russian Arctic Explorers Tundra is inhabited by the Ufer-Juraks in ad- dition to the Russian population. These pene- trate into the peninsula between the Obi and the Yenisei from April till October, and during the winter months they retire into the Beresow circle of the Tobolsk Province. The labours of such men as Hedenstrom, Anjou, Wrangell, Lutke, Baer, Erman, Midden- dorf, and Schmidt, entitle Russia to take rank next to England as a nation that has won glory in the noble field of Arctic exploration. The bleak tundras and forbidding shores of Northern Siberia offer great obstacles to such work, and these obstacles have been overcome with an amount of energetic perseverance and determina- tion which places the Russian explorers high on the glorious roll of Arctic worthies. It is to their exertions that we owe the examination and careful survey of more than a third of the threshold of the unknown Polar Region, the whole of which has been accurately surveyed and scientifically described. The gallantry with which Wrangell and Anjou again and again forced their way northward over weak and rotten ice, thereby ex- Russian Arctic Explorers 249 posing themselves to danger and risk of no ordi- nary character, in the cause of science, and in their zeal for geographical discovery, excites our warmest admiration ; while to the charming work of the Baron von Wrangell we are indebted for much of the knowledge we possess of a consider- able section of the threshold of the unknown region. v- . ,8 •IK ,1 I iiii! 11 "li —^ — \r - v — c — \7~ v V r- CHAPTER XII. THE AUSTRIAN 'ARCTIC EXPEDITION, HE whole circuit of the threshold of the known region has now been made, and we return to Novaya Zemlya, the point which Barents reached nearly three hundred years ago, and where Carlsen, in 1871, discovered the relics of the great Dutch navigator. It only remains to notice the voyages of other Norwegian fishers off the coasts of Novaya Zemlya, and to record what is known of the proceedings of the Austrian Arctic Expedition. In 1869 Carlsen had passed through the Pett^ Strait, and sailed along the coast of Siberia to the mouth of the Obi ; Palliser sailed northwards and returned by the Matochkin Strait, and Johannesen ' Improperly called Jugar Strait. It was discovered by Arthur Pett in_i58o. See p. 8. Norwegians off Novaya Zemlya 251 twice sailed through the sea of Kara without check from ice. In 1870 about sixty Norwegian sailing vessels went to the seas round Novaya Zemlya, and Captain Johannesen circumnavigated those islands. In 1 871, as has already been recorded, Carlsen and Mack were in company. Mack left Tromso on May 22, 1871, and encountered thick impenetrable ice in 71° 12' N. lat., and 45° E. long. In 71° 50' N. the sea was clear of ice, and after sailing into the sea of Kara, Captain Mack turned northwards, and coasted along 500 miles of the Novaya Zemlya coast. He found a mild temperature off the islands that have been named the * Gulf Stream Islands.' It is on this spot that Barents, in 1598, is supposed to have found a sandbank in 1 8 fathoms. There are now, on what is thought to be the same site, some barren and sandy islands, and it has been suggested that there has been an upheaval of land to a height of upwards of 100 feet in 3CX) years. Pods of a West Indian bean were found near these islands — an indication that the warm Atlantic current which flows past the coast of Norway reaches as far as these islets off the Novaya Zemlya coast, which !!l :.) Ij .- lllii i^ III i V 252 Norwegians off Novay.i Zemlya have hence been called the ' (julf Stream Islands.' Captain Mack reached a point in latitude 75° 25' N. and longitude 82° 30' in the beginning of September, when no ice was in sight, and the temperature was remarkably mild. This was his furthest point before returning to Norway. In the same year, as has already been recorded,^ Captain Carlsen circumnavigated Novaya Zemlya. In June 1871, Captain E. H. Johannesen found the Matochkin Strait, and those of Burrough ' and Pett, blocked with ice ; so he sailed northwards, and on October 15 was in 76" 25' N., the sea being clear of ice. In the same year Captain Isaksen left Tromso on June 6, and after passing through much pack-ice on the Novaya Zemlya coast, reached as far as the Hooft promontory. Captain S. Johannesen sailed through Bur ough's Straits on August 26, and coasted along the Samoyeden Peninsula in a sea clear of ice, returning through the straits on September 27. Captains Dorma and Simonsen made similar voyages in the same year. These Norwegian voyages fully corroborate the ' See p. 24. ' Improperly called Kara Strait. It was discovered by Stephen Burrough in 1556. See p. 6. 'r;f-r-5?i-»?«« The Austrian Expedition 253 by observations of Barents, and show that, during the summer months, the seas round the western and southern shores of Novaya Zemlya may generally be navigated, and that the open water seen by Wrangell and Anjou to the north of Siberia m.ay probably be reached. On July 23, 1871, Herr A. Rosenthal's expedition left Tromso, and reached the Matochkin Strait on August 7, but the channel was filled with ice. The vessel was then steered south, in hopes of finding the Straits of Burrough or Pett clear, but they remained blocked until September 9, when Herr Rosenthal returned. Six weeks later in the year Captain Johannesen sailed through them. The information collected by the Norwegian fishers, and the deductions from his own pre- liminary voyage,' which has already been referred to, induced Lieut. Payer to select the route by Novaya Zemlya and the Siberian coast for the Austrian Arctic Expedition. The Austro- Hungarian Arctic Expedition was undertaken in 1872, and the idea was received with enthusiasm by the whole Austrian empire. ' Sec p. III. 254 Staff of the Tegethoff The command was entrusted to Lieutenant Payer, an accomplished and resolute officer, who had already acquired considerable Arctic experience. He served in the German expedition under Captain Koldewey, on the east coast of Green- land, and prepared the elaborate and beautifully e.xecuted map of its discoveries ; and he after- wards explored the seas between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya in a little schooner. Lieutenant Weyprecht, who goes out as second in command, was the comrade of Lieutenant Payer in both his previous Arctic voyages. The steamer * Tegeth- off' was fitted out in the Elbe, with every modern appliance, and Lieutenant Payer has received much assistance from Sir Leopold M'Clintock in preparing for the organisation of the sledge travelling parties. That veteran Arctic seaman. Captain Carlsen, joined the expedition as pilot. Dr. Kepes, the surgeon, is a Hungarian. Most of the crew are Italians from the Adriatic coast ; but there is great confusion of tongues on board the * Tegethoff' — Italian, German, English, Nor- wegian, and Slavonic, are all spoken. Captain Carlsen gives his orders in Norwegian, with Payer and Wilczek 255 forcible Italian expressions occasionally thrown in. Dr. Kepes talks to the crew in Latin and Hungarian, and two men speak a very curious dialect, the German of the Tyrol, which Lieu- tenant Payer alone understands. Count Wilczek, in the small yacht ' Isbyorn,* accompanied by Baron Sterneck, a geologist named Hans Hofer, Herr Berger a photographer, and the Count's huntsman, went as far as the Novaya Zemlya coast. Lieutenant Payer's intention was to round the north-eastern point of Novaya Zemlya, and press eastward to the most northern point of Siberia, where he would winter. In the following year he hoped to continue the voyage to Behring's Strait ; thus completing a most important and interesting achievement, while during the spring his sledge travelling parties, equipped on M'Clintock's system, would make exploring journeys and achieve geographical dis- coveries, perhaps, along the unknown coasts of Wrangell Land. The * Tegethoff' left the Elbe in June, and all preparations having been completed, she steamed out of Tromso Harbour on July 13, 1872, with i ^\ 2KCy Payer ami ll'i/izck Captain Carlsen as pilot. Tlic first ice was encountered on the 25th, in latitude 74° 15' N., and on the 29th tlu; coast of Novaya Zcnilya was sighted. Here the vessel was beset, hut steam was got up, and, by repeated charges, she was extricated, and reached a lane of open water, about twenty miles wide, to the north of the Matochkin Strait. Much ice was met with on the following days, and on August 12 the ' Isbyorn ' yacht joined company, with Count Wilczek and his companions on board. On the 1 3th the tvvo vessels anchored about two cables' lengths from the shore, in latitude 76° 30' N., and the 1 8th was a gala day, being the Emperor's birthday. Covers were laid for twelve, and the ntciiition '■57 tlien parted company. The ' TegLthoff steamed away northwards on her gallant voyage of discovery, while the ' Isbyorn ' endeavonred to push southwards along the coast. She passed the Kostin Shar on the 26th, and on reaching the mouth of the Petchora, Count VVilczek and his friends left the vessel, which proceeded on her return voyage to Tromsci, while they sailed up the Petchora in small boats, finally reaching Perm, and returning home by Moscow. Herr Hofer's geological observations ]r:u\ him to connect Novaya Zemlya with the Ural system. Meteorological observations were also carefully taken, and a collection of 150 photographic views has been made. The season of 1872 appears to have been ex- ceptionally severe, and large quantities of ice were encountered where, in more favourable seasons, the .sea had been clear of any obstruction. Still Lieutenant Payer and his gallant companions were full of hope, and looked forward to being able to advance to the eastward, so as to winter near Cape Chelyuskin, the most northerly Sibe- rian promontory. The ' Tegethoff ' was last seen s •^1 :i =5» The Aiii>trian Iixpcditio)i on Aui^ust 23, 1872, pusliini^ her way, with the aid of steam, round the northern coast of Novaya Zemlya ; and all who love gallantry and adven- ture, all geographers and seamen of every civilised country, must earnestly hope that the next news of the brave Austro-Hungarians will be good news, and that they will succeed in their useful but difficult undertaking. % i ith the N^ovaya advcn- :ivilised :t news e good r useful CHAPTER XIII. THE REST ROUTE FOR ARCTIC EXPLORATION. |HE various expeditions which, witliin the last three centuries, have touched the threshold of the unknown Polar region along its whole circumference have now been passed in review, and it remains to sum up the evidence thus collected, and to decide from it the best route for future Arctic exploration. The unknown area is of vast extent, covering several millions of square miles, and, as only a portion can be explored by one expedition, a route must be selected which offers the best security for the acquisition of important results. In order to justify the despatch of a Government expedition, there are two main points to be con- sidered. These are the certainty of exploring a S 2 iiiiii ' ' . 260 The Spitzbergen Route previously unknown area of considerable extent, and the prospect of obtaining" the most valuable results in various branches of science. These advantages can only be secured in that portion where a coast-line of great extent is known to exist, because many discoveries must be made on or near the shore. Observations of oceanic currents and deep sea temperatures are the only branch of the inquiry which does not depend upon the discovery of land. As routes by Behring's Strait and the Siberian seas are left out of the c[uestion for the present, as regards an English expedition, the number of routes b)- wdiich the threshold of the unknown region may be passed is reduced to two — namely, the sea between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya, usually called the Spitzbergcn route, and Smith Sound at the head of Baffin's Bay. Let us see which of these two means of approach best com- ply with the essential conditions. It has been seen that, since the days of Barents (1596), expedition after expedition has vainly attempted to make discoveries by the Spitsbergen route. The Polar pack, constantly drifting south, Thi Spiizbergen Route 261 has hitherto barred all progress in that direction. Very frequently it has been found impossible to proceed farther north than the coast of Spitz- bergen in about 80° N., while a very open and favourable season has only enabled vessels to proceed 100 miles farther north, where the threshold of the unknown region is blocked up by the impassable Polar pack. Expeditions making attempts by this route have been led by daring and experienced seamen, and no human means have been w^anting to secure success. It may, there- fore, be considered as proved that nothing of importance can be achieved by the Spitzbergen route in a sailing vessel. It is, however, sup- posed that a powerful steamer might succeed where so many sailing vessels have failed, if the season is favourable. This anticipation is, to some extent, well founded. A steamer can more rapidly take advantage of a lead in the ice, can more readily escape from being beset, and can force her way through packed ice which would stop the progress of a vessel under sail. 1 hese are undoubtedly great advantages. But they should not be overstated. In an unlucky season, '•f^ : m 262 T/ie Smith Sound Route when the ice is closely packed, a steamer could do no more than a sailing vessel, while even under the most favourable circumstances her power of battling with the ice must be limited by the approach of winter. The inevitable conclu- sion must therefore be, that by the Spitzbergen route, in a bad season, nothing whatever can be done ; and in a favourable season a steamer may possibly press one or two or even more degrees farther north than has hitherto been reached, and obtain some valuable deep-sea soundings and temperatures, but no other scientific results in the absence of land. The Spitzbergen route cannot be recommended, because there is no sure probpect of exploring an extensive unknown area, and because no valu- able results in geology, botany, ethnology, or geodesy could be obtained under any circum- stances. Let us now turn to the Smith Sound route, by which the vast extent of coast-line on either side of Kennedy Channel, and the ocean which bounds it, must be examined. Details have already been given respecting the navigation of Baffin's Bay. S ledge Travelling 26- and it has been shown that, humanly speaking, the ' North Water' and the entrance to vSmith Sound can ahvays be reached, twenty-one out of twenty-three expeditions having successfully overcome the ice obstructions in Melville Bay. The same success now annually attends the steam whalers. Under the most unfavourable circum- stances, therefore, by this route a position can certainly be reached near the entrance of Smith Sound, whence most important discoveries can be made. Two well-equipped vessels could, during the spring, send out at least two extended sledge- travelling parties, besides depot parties, which could explore many hundreds of miles of the unknown region in different directions. The extended parties might each be absent 105 days from the ships, and would travel over 1,200 miles of ground. This was wdiat M'CHntock did in 1853, and a new expedition might have two M'Clintocks in the field at least. A single extended sledge party could take sixty days' provisions and travel over 600 miles. This single sledge, by means of depots and five auxiliary sledges, can be pushed forward to a / i ■: I ,. 264 Results from Sledge Travelling distance of about 400 miles from the ship. With an expedition consisting of 1 20 officers and men, two extended exploring parties could be despatched in each travelling season, and 1,600 miles of land would thus be thoroughly explored, much of which would be new. The exploration of fifty miles of coast by a sledge party is worth more to science than the discovery of 500 miles by a ship. In the one case the coast is accurately laid downy and its fauna, flora, geology, ethnology, and physical features are fully ascertained ; in the other, a coast is seen and inaccurately marked by a dotted line on a chart, and that is all. Take for example the shores of the Parry Islands. Parry sailed along them from Wellington Channel to Byam Martin Island in 1819, without landing, and showed them on the chart by dotted lines. For the next thirty-two years that was all that was known about them. In 185 1, sledge parties belonging to Captain Austin's expedition travelled along the same shores. The results were not dotted lines. They were a correctly surveyed coast ; physical features properly noted and '1 J: ', Navigation up Smith Sound 265 delineated ; the collection of a valuable series of Silurian fossils ; of a fiora which, though meagre, was of considerable scientific interest ; of a fauna ; and of numerous ethnological specimens throwing light upon the ancient migrations of man. The two methods of exploring will not bear comparison, and they represent the difference between the Spitzbergen route under the most favourable cir- cumstances, in a ship, and the Smith Sound route under the least favourable circumstances, by sledge-travelling parties. But there is every reason to expect that a well- commanded expedition will be able to proceed for a considerable distance up Kennedy Channel, and Robeson Strait, and so attain a position whence far more extensive discoveries may be achieved. It is true that in 1853 a wretchedly equipped little schooner, the 'Advance' (120 tons and seventeen men), was stopped by the ice near the entrance of Smith Sound ; but she was wholly unsuited for such navigation, and had not the advantage of steam power. On the other hand, Captain Ingle- field, in 1852, found the sea open in Smith Sound, and was convinced that it was navigable ; in 1868 W^ I '!!»■• 266 N'az'iga/ion up Sniilk Sound Captain Adams ascended a hig^h cape at the entrance, and also found the sea open far to the north. Dr. Hayes also, In i(S6o, in another unsuitable little schooner of 133 tons, was not stopped by the ice, but by a gale of wind and a heavy sea. The vessel was unfit for the work. In 187 1, Captain Hall, in the ' Polaris,' sailed up Kennedy Channel without any check or obstruc- tion to latitude 82° 16' N., the farthest northern point that has ever been reached by a ship in any direction. If we turn to other straits leadinof from the head of Baffin's Bay, we shall find that analogy confirms and strengthens the personal observation of Inglefield, Hayes, Adams, and Hall. Pond's Bay leads into Eclipse Sound, and thence, by a strait, through Navy Board Inlet into Barrow's Strait ; and these intricate channels were success- fully navigated only last year. Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait are almost always open for some distance, and on two occasions vessels have sailed up them for several hundred miles, as far as Melville Island. Jones' Sound was also navigated for a considerable distance by Captain Lee, in 1848, without any check. The positions of these assass^gs Discoveries by Smith Sound 267 Sounds, round the head of Baffin's Bay, will be seen on the little map at page 166. There is, therefore, every reason to expect that, in an ordinarily favourable season, the waters of Smith Sound and Kennedy Channel will be as navigable as those of Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait. An expedition should consist of two Dundee steam-whalers. One would be stationed near the entrance of Smith Sound, so as to preclude all possibility of danger to the more advanced party, in the improbable event of their vessel being lost. The other would press forward beyond Cape Parry of Hayes, and possibly winter in 83*^ or 84° N., or perhaps even still nearer to the Pole. From such a position advanced travel- li4ig parties could reach the North Pole, or explore the whole of the northern coasts of Greenland or of Grinnell Land. The distance from Cape Parry to the North Pole and back is 968 miles, a distance which has frequently been exceeded by Arctic sledge parties belonging to the expeditions in search of Franklin. A sledge party, led by M'Clintock, walked 1,210 miles in 105 days ; Mecham went over 1,157 miles. The work of i 268 Evidence of Laud far to the North I these travelling parties would be rt'iulcTed com- paratively easy if the land trends far to the north. As regards the land in that direction, the crew of the ' Polaris,' in 82° 16' N., found both the coasts of Greenland and of Grinnell land stretchinyf away to the north as far as the eye could reach. But there are also other reasons for the conclusion that the land, either on one or other side of Robeson Strait, or on both, extends far towards the North Pole. The current flowing- down the east coast of Greenland has been observed by Dr. Forchhammer to be composed, not of Polar water, but of Atlantic water. A strong current flows through the channels between the Parry Islands and down Baftin's Bav- If Greenland or Grinnell Land, it matters not which, extended no farther to the northward than the Cape Constitu- tion of Kane, this current would also sweep round Greenland, and flow down its eastern shore. Observation has shown that this is not the case ; and hence it may be inferred that it is prevented from doing so by the land extending far towards the North Pole on those meridians. Numerous g^eodetical, magnetic, and meteorological observa- The Two Routes compared 269 tions could be made. The ships could also avail themselves of recent experience obtained in dredging the sca-bottoni, of which nothing what- ever is known in Baffin's Bay and Smith Sound. The above considerations offer convincing proofs that the route by Smith Sound is the best road across the threshold of the unknown region. In an unfavourable season by the Spitzbergen route nothing whatever would be done. In an unfavourable season by Smith Sound 1,600 miles of previously unknown country would be dis- covered and thoroughly explored, and valuable observations and collections would be made in every department of science. In a favourable season by the Spitzbergen route an ice-laden sea may be penetrated for some distance, and deep-sea soundings may be taken over a previously unvisited area, but there would be no other result whatever. In a favourable season by the Smith Sound route the North Pole would be reached ; the northern coast of Greenland and Grinnell Land would be explored ; their geology, flora, fauna, and ethnology would be investigated ; and a vast addi- tion would be made to the sum of human knowledge. 270 IVflrk io he done in Spitzber'gen Seas y\-w III By the Spitsbergen route there is the bare cliance of doing little. By the Smith Sound route there is the certainty of doing much. It is not by poking about in pack-ice at a distance from land, but by carefully examining hundreds of miles of coast-line, that the most useful work is to be done in the unknown region. Moreover, all observations by the Spitzbergen route would be limited to a few weeks in the summer, whereas the Smith Sound expedition would obtain lengthened, valuable, and complete series. It will be remembered that the luivisited islands to the east of Spitzbergen, and the chance of attaining a higher latitude than has yet been reached on those meridians, are points of interest which are offered by the Spitzbergen route. But they are not of sufficient importance to occupy a Government scientific expedition, and ought to be left to private enterprise. These are laurels which will rightfully belong to such men as Mr. Leigh Smith, who is so perseveringly and gallantly striving to win them. The more complete and extensive exploration of the unknown area by Smith Sound must, on the other hand, be achieved by a Government s.V A GovernnwU Arctic Expedition 271 expedition, because thoroii<,^h preparation and equipment are essential, and because, in the case of large bodies of men passing through an Arctic winter, naval discipline and naval esprit dc corps are absolutely necessary. The enterprise, though feasible and devoid of undue risk, is one of vast proportions. It is one which, while re(|uiring all the highest qualities of seamen to conduct success- fully, and involving dangers and hardships to individuals such as it is the pride of our naval men to laugh at and overcome, is yet absolutely free from a chance of any such catastrophe as overtook Sir John Franklin and his gallant crews. By stationing a vessel at the entrance of Smith Sound all such risk for the advanced party will be avoided. There is great abundance of excel- lent animal food up Smith Sound. The climate is exceptionally healthy ; and though the officers and men who volunteer for this arduous service will be exposed to individual dangers and priva- tions, which will test their high qualities to the utmost, there is no more chance of a disaster to the whole expedition, and far less danger of sick- ness, than on any other station frequented by the \ '■ I I'M jjlll, !l!!! li 272 Advantage to the Navy ships of our navy. No work can be conceived more important to science, more useful to our navy, and more worthy of being undertaken by our Government. ' The navy,' said Admiral Shcrard Osborn in 1865, and his advice is even more urgently needed now than it was then, ' the navy needs some action to wake it up from the sloth of routine, and save it from the canker of prolonged peace. The navy of England cries not for mere war to gratify its desire for honourable employ- ment or fame. There are other achievements as glorious as a victorious battle ; and a wise ruler and a wise people will be careful to satisfy a craving which is the life-blood of a profession. Upon these grounds, as well as those of scientific results, would it be too much to ask for a fraction of the vast sum yearly sunk in naval expenditure for two small steamers and 1 20 officers and men ? ' The people of England will answer this question in the same spirit which has led to discoveries and brilliant achievements on almost every part of the earth's surface during the last four centuries. There are only two objections that can be raised to Arctic exploration — namely, that the danger is >AtJ „,-',]-. •/ ■» nj»iaiai» ri i -i ii .jr iii ''i i Mi»iw ' jB..niiug.a^.r g,'s::*:/':L~^^ II call /lines s o/ i/ie Arctic Regions so ^^rcat that, although it has Ikm.-h faccil and overcome by our ancestors durin^; three centuries, it is not justifiable to expose the seamen of the present jj^eneration to it : and that the cxpcMise could not rightly be incurrctl. I will first deal with the question of" danger, and will quote the evidence of one of the most dis- tinguished medical officers who has served in the Arctic regions to prove that ' of all seas visited by men-of-war the Arctic have proved the most healthy. ' This assertion,' he continues, ' though startling in itself, will find ready credence when it is con- sidered that the precautions necessary to guard against the evils which man encounters in these seas are well and accurately known, and when, from an examination of the tables below, the mortality will be seen to be 1 7 per cent. only. ' The North Polar expeditions which have left the shores of England under the directions of the Admiralty since the ill-fated one commanded by Sir John Franklin have, by the improvements of Arctic travel, by the superior quality and ample quantity of provisions, by the system of warming T i^^^fi 2 74 Heallhiness of the Arctic Regions and of ventilation, given substantial proofs of the truth of this assertion ; and the evils which have hitherto been considered as inherent to these seas have, by this advance of knowledge, been dispelled, and men enter upon them with a spirit of enterprise and of love, and may do so with as little dread as those who seek a summer cruise to the shores of the Mediterranean or the Baltic. The real terrors of Arctic voyages were scurvy, and starvation. Scurvy, the scourge of the navy in days gone by, is but little known now. Instances of this disease have occurred in several of the late expeditions, but none have presented those cha- racters which, in former times, caused scurvy to be dreaded as plague and cholera are now. ' The expedition commanded by McClure was more than three years absent before the first death from scurvy occurred. In Kane's expedition three men died in the space of two years. It will scarcely be credited that the crew of this ex- pedition depended solely upon salt meat and a small supply of fresh vegetables ; and had it not been for the resources of their winter quarters — under the 79th parallel — they must all have Healthiness of the Arctic Regions 275 succumbed to scurvy. McClintock's expedition, consisting of about the same number of souls as Kane's, and absent about the same length of time, had but one death from scurvy ; and this was in great measure due to the poor fellow himself, the subject of it, who refused to take the remedies which were offered to him in abundance. ' Neither Kane's nor McClintock's were Government expeditions, and their crews had not been subjected to any medical examination to test their fitness for Arctic service. * It is to the advanced stage of knowledge in naval hygiene ; to the attention paid to the cleanliness, warmth and ventilation of the ships ; to the good quality of provisions, and especially to the preservation of cheerfulness among the crews, that this immunity from scurvy is due ; and so rare has it become that the naval surgeons, who possess any knowledge of this disease, derived from actual observation among the crews of royal ships, may be counted upon one's fingers. ' The starvation which caused so much sufl'ering to the men forming Franklin's expedition, between T2 I III 1 11 u\- i il; I W- 276 ffealthiiiess of the Arctic Regions 1 8 19 and 1822, and which it is feared was chiefly instrumental in sweeping away the crews forming his last, can only again occur through some un- foreseen and unavoidable accident, such as may happen in the temperate or torrid zone. ' The expedition which it is to be hoped will leave the shores of England in the spring of 1874, for the exploration of the North by the proposed way of Smith Sound, will find exceptionally large resources of animal life on the shores of this sound ; for it has been proved by Kane, Hayes, and Hall, that walruses, seals, bears, musk oxen and reindeer, besides visitors of the feathered tribe, which flock to these parts during the summer season, are found in abundance on these shores. The route to the North Pole by Smith Sound, with the resources of its shores, and with the great advantage of having tevi'-a Jirma to fall back upon, has therefore a superiority over other routes. ' In every sea casualties will occur, but in the Arctic those which have been noted during the last quarter of a century, have been few and far between, and they have arisen chiefly from frost- ,»SS.' •c 9bfuB!^l£iK*-):~.^:;Lr.l..^:».': Healthiness of the Arctic Regions 277 bites, from which one death alone is recorded. Of those diseases which swell the bills of mortality in England, especially of that class termed zymotic, and which include typhus, typhoid, small-pox, &c., none are known. Chest diseases are ignored among those forming these expeditions, for though deaths have occurred from consumption, the germs have been brought to and not engendered in these seas. It is a circumstance worthy of note that those who suffered from bronchial affections each winter in England, were exempted from them whilst in the Arctic. ' The power of resisting cold is remarkable in the Arctic regions ; this power of resistance was observed by Wrangell in the Jakuts, the " iron men of Siberia," of whom he says ; " I have seen them frequently in the severe coid of this country, and when the fire had been long extinguished and the light jacket had slipped off their shoulders, sleeping quietly, completely exposed to the heavens with scarcely any clothing on, and their bodies covered with a thick coat of rime." The precautions to be taken in these seas are wdl known ; but the chief and the most important is 278 Healthiness of the Arctic Regions II I,'! to preserve, by every possible means, cheerfulness of mind among the crew. This contented state of mind is the best guard against scurvy, and upon it is mainly dependent the efficiency of an Arctic expedition. ' The following tables of the Government searching expeditions which wintered out, between 1848 and 1854, will show the remarkably small percentage of deaths arising from all causes : — Addition of time i spent on ' outward SHll'S Winters Comple- Mean for and home- Mean out mcnt Winter, ward pas- corrected sage, two ; imonths for 1 each ' winter. Plover .... 3 X 60 = = 180 -f. 30 = 210 Enterprise 4 X 70 = = 280 -1- 47 = 327 Investigator . 5 X 65 . = 325 + 54 = 379 Assistance 3 X 90 = = 270 + 45 = 315 Resolute .... 3 X 90 = = 270 .f 45 = 315 Lady Franklin and Sophia I X 75 = = 75 + 12 = 87 North Star 3 X 70 = = 210 -f 35 = 245 1,878 In Ross's Expedition „ Austin's do. „ KcUett's do. „ Belcher's do. „ Plover's (uncertain) „ Penny's Expedition „ North Star (both expeditions) „ Collinson's „ iMcClure's Total of Deaths No. of Deaths 7 I 6 3 3 o 3 3 5 or 6 No. of Men, 1,878 Deaths, 32 Percentage of Deaths, 17 Absence of Risk in Antic Exploration 279 * The risk by climate and disease which is there- fore run in a voyage to the Arctic seas — such as a Royal Expedition necessitates — is not greater than that which a ship like the "Challenger" will incur in her voyage of discovery.' So much for dangers arising from climate. But it has been urged that, although the climate may be healthy, the navigation is too dangerous for seamen of this generation to encounter. The answer to this is that Baffin's Bay is annually navigated by ten or a dozen whalers, and that, since the introduction of steam, no casualties have occurred ; while the little ' Polaris,' a vessel wholly unfitted for such service, went up Smith Sound, in 1 87 1, as far as 82° 16' N. and returned. Sir John Franklin's expedition consisted of two sailing ships, with auxiliary steam power of a very imper- fect nature, and both in that respect, as well as in their general equipment, stores, and provisioning, they fell far short of what an Arctic expedition of the present day would have at command ; but sub- sequent events reveal to us that this expedition succeeded in making one of the most remarkable, Arctic voyages on record, and that the explorers I"} .1 li i; 280 jVo undue Risk in Arctic Exploration perished, after abandoning their ships, at a position near the entrance of the Great Fish River, where, had proper foresight been exercised, they could 'easily have been rescued. Subsequent experience ] '.as shown that tlie fatal omission which led to this catastrophe was the want of proper depots of provisions being arranged so as to cover the .-.uine of the crews, in the event of disaster to the sbpb a measure of precaution which, since that disaster, has always been carefully provided for in all subsequent oxjoeditions with signal success. The conclusion to be derived from former experience is, that with the introduction of steam power in Arctic ships, and the remarkable im- provements in victualling them, navigation in the polar seas has been rendered comparatively safe ; while those maladies can be warded off, from which seamen suffered In ancient times. Hence, during the searches for Franklin, officers and men sought Arctic service as the most popular employment in the navy. There is no doubt that private ex- peditions, without naval discipline, inefficiently equipped, and inadequately provisioned, are ex- posed to great dangers ; but so they would be in «-i. .'-i. opinions of .Ire tic Officers 281 all other parts of the world. It Is tor this reason that all officers, with Arctic experience, insist upon the necessity for a Government naval expe- dition, and for officers and men being under naval discipline and control. In this view Mr. Robe- son, the American Secretary to the Navy, now fully concurs. In his recent report to the president, after examining the rescued men of the * Polaris,' he emphatically says that ' there is little of either success or safety in any expedition which is not organised, prosecuted, and controlled under the sanctions of military discipline.' The dangers of Arctic navigation are thoroughly understood ; and those who are best acquainted with them, through long practical experience, are the best, indeed the only authorities as to their nature. Sir George Back is not the man to advo- cate the exposure of his professional brethren to undue risks. No one knows better what those risks are than the brave officer who battled so long with the Spitzbergen ice, who starved with Franklin on the barren lands of Arctic America, and who wintered in the moving pack. Nor are Collin- son, Ommanney, Richards, M'Clintock, Sherard f-' 282 Coicaniice IH. Osborn, or Vesey Hamilton the men to give fool- hardy advice. Yet all are unanimous in the opinion that, with modern appliances and by working in the light of former experience, there is no undue danger in Arctic service ; provided that the expedition is under naval discipline and Government control. I owe an apology to all my readers for having dwelt so fully upon this disgraceful objection to Arctic exploration ; but it has been seriously urged and it must, therefore, be presumed that, in this generation, there are persons in England who, it is supposed, would be influenced by it. To such men, if they really exist, the answer is, that even if the dangers were such as they describe. Englishmen have faced them before, and will do so again and again. These danger-mongers are willing enough that their countrymen should face far greater dangers to obtain the comforts and luxuries they require. Let them be told that the pursuit of know- ledge is at least as good a motive for incurring risks as the pursuit after their luxuries, and that the words of good Sir Humphrey Gilbert have not yet come to be looked upon by his countrymen as •.■- '.■,;_:.£aa*S»*a Lady Franklins Letter 283 •4 Other tlian wise and true : — *He is not worthy to live at all, who, for fear and danger of death, shunneth his country's service or his own honour, since death is inevitable and the fame of virtue immortal.' At all events, for very shame, let them not seek for arguments from the * Erebus ' and ' Terror,' but rather read and benefit by the following noble letter, written in 1865, by the widow of the gallant Franklin: — ' My dear Sir Roderick, — Although I have little doubt you know^ from some of our mutual friends that they have written to me on the subject of the Polar Expedition, yet I cannot leave it to them alone to tell you how very deeply I sympathise with the proposed effort, and how earnestly I wish it may be realised. For the credit and honour of England, the exploration of the North Pole should not be left to any other country. . . . ' I am sending you these lines because I do not wish you to think it possible that my interest can flag in anything connected with Arctic enterprise ; and though, at first, sad memories of the past ""I ||;|5,>i! Il lir'^^ \'\ < 284 Insiguijica)it Cost made me feel some sickness of heart at the revival of the question, I have struggled against that weakness, and overcome it. . . . It would, in- deed, be unreasonable, and much to be deplored, if the fate of my dear husband and his companions were to be made an official objection to all future Arctic exploration. They met with the unhappy end which too often befalls the pioneers of tentative and dangerous enterprise, but they rest alone in their awful calamity. Every succeeding expedition sailed with better ships, better equipments, better charts, better supports, and with ever-increasing knowledge ; and thus it has happened that no naval service on the face of the globe exhibits, on the average, so few casualties as that in the Polar Seas. You have justly said, that " in the proposed expedition no such calamity can be dreaded, for it has no analogy to the case of Franklin." * Jane Franklin.* The question of expense is really the only one which the Government will have to consider ; and, in the first place, it must be borne in mind that of Arctic Expeditions 285 only one expedition will be necessary ; the fact of the depot vessel being stationed near the entrance of Smith Sound, within easy annual communica- tion with England, entirely precluding the possi- bility of its becoming necessary, even under the most unfortunate and improbable combination of circumstances, to despatch search expeditions here- after. This can be proved to demonstration, and must silence the grumblers who croak about one expedition leading to another and another. The cost of the first and only expedition, con- sisting of two screw steamers, with sixty men each, alone has to be considered. M'Clintock's voyage in the ' Fox ' cost 8,400/. Parry's attempt to reach the Pole, in 1827, cost 9,900/. Besides the original cost of ships and outfit, the proposed Arctic expedition of 1873 may cost from 20,000/ to 30,000/ a year, for three years, but the ships, on their return, will fetch a good price. If the solution of the greatest geographical problem that remains to be solved, and the attainment of nu- merous important scientific results are not con- sidered worth the expenditure of so trifling a sum — an expenditure which would be richly and Insignificant Cost abundantly repaid — the character of the English people, as represented by their rulers, must be strangely altered. Certain it is that our fore fathers would have held that such a sum, appro- priated for such an end, was money well spent. There is good reason for the belief that, if the subject receives full and fair consideration, the public opinion of the country will now approve the despatch of an Arctic expedition, and heartily concur in the propriety of appropriating the necessary sum for so useful and important an object, At present, including the cost of the • Challenger,' the expenditure for the scientific branch of the naval service is wretchedly in- adequate. The total tonnage of the British mercantile marine in 1871-1872 was 7,142,894; and the total effective naval expenditure was 7,807,946/. ; while the expenditure for the survey- ing branch was 70,456/. In other words — the total effective naval expenditure per ton of British merchant shipping was 1/ is. Md.\ and the proportion of expenditure on surveying and scien- tific investigation, per ton of British merchant shipping, was 2d, ; while the proportion of each of A re tic ExpedHions 287 1,000/. of total effective naval expenditure spent on surveying and exploring in the same year was only 9/., or less than i per cent. This is deplor- able, and it is a state of things which has been getting worse year by year. In the days of Sir Francis Baring, or from 1849 to 1853, the propor- tion of each 1,000/. of naval expenditure spent on surveying and exploring averaged 15/. 5^. ; and it ought now to be at least as high ; for, in time of peace, such service is the most useful that can be performed. Surely, then, it is not much to expect that this infinitesimal proportion should be almost imperceptibly augmented, in order that an important and valuable service may be performed. The results to be derived from Arctic explora- tion will be enumerated in the following chapter. I ji ^ tr I iifi I: m I ml' . M .-, aJ CHAPTER XIV. RESULTS OF A A' ARCTIC EXPEDITION. J^^^SHE results of scientific importance to be derived from an examination of the unknown area of 2,500,000 square miles round the North Pole are as numerous as the region to be explored is extensive It may be shown that no such extent of unknown area, in any part of the world, ever failed to yield re- sults of practical as well as of purely scientific value ; and it may safely be urged that as the area exists, which is mathematically certain, it is impossible that its examination can fail to add largely to the sum of human knowledge. Further, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Polar area is, in many most important respects, of an altogether special character, affording exclusive Results of an Arctic Expedition 289 opportunities of observing the condition of the earth's surface, and physical phenomena under certain extreme and singular circumstances, which are due to the relation of this area to the position of the axis of revolution of the terrestrial spheroid, and which have to be considered, not only with reference to the present time, but to the earth's past history. It may be received as certain that discoveries will be made in all branches of science the exact nature of which cannot be anticipated. But there are also numerous results, the attain- ment of which make it desirable to despatch an Arctic expedition of discovery, that can be defini- tively enumerated. Foremost among them is the subject of geo- graphical discovery. A problem of great import- ance and interest will be solved by completing the circuit of Greenland, ascertaining the extent and nature of its northern coast, exploring the land to the westward, and discovering the conditions of land and sea in that portion of the unknown area. A very noble and unmistakeably English work is this. To use the words of Sir Edward Sabine, u 7"^ f:m 1"^' I I * :^ 1 "! ! li > 1 ' 1 :i^^m 1 li' ||: 290 Geographical Results who himself took no small share in such work in former days : — ' It is the greatest geographical achievement which can be attempted, and will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic researches in which our country has hitherto had the pre- eminence.' The science of hydrography will be advanced, and some of its chief problems connected with equatorial and polar currents will be solved, by an Arctic expedition. It is surely a matter of deep interest to discover the actual condition of this secluded ocean, which has never yet been cut by the keel of mortal ship. The hydrography of the unknown sea has a most important bearing on the general question of oceanic currents, a ques- tion which is of practical consequence to naviga- tion. Our knowledge of the general system of currents will continue to be very incomplete with- out an investigation of the currents and deep sea temperatures in the unknown area. A series of pendulum observations on and near the North Pole will be of essential service to the science of geodesy. Such observations, conducted by Sir Edward Sabine at Melville Island, on the MiUb^iSkA Pendulum Observations 291 ork in phical ivill be arches e pre- ^anced, d with 1, by an 3f deep of this 1 cut by y of the ring on a ques- naviga- 5tem of te with- eep sea Ind near to the iducted on the east coast of Greenland, and at Spitzbergen, were among the most valuable results of former Arctic expeditions. Their extension further north, and to the Pole itself, is a great desideratum. Neither the data for forming a mathematical theory of the physical condition of the earth, nor the means of testing such a theory, are complete without ex- perimental determinations of the intensity, as well as the direction of the force of gravity. Mr. Miller, in a letter to Sir Edward Sabine, lately observed that * the pendulum observations made by yourself and by Captain Foster would prob- ably be amply sufficient for the determination of the form of the earth, if its surface, and that of every stratum of invariable density, were surfaces of revolution, as has been assumed. Lately, how- ever, doubt has been thrown upon the correctness of this assumption. The importance, therefore, of the determination of the earth's ellipticity in a meridian widely removed from the spots at which pendulum observations have been previously made is greatly increased.' The North Pole is upwards of 600 miles from the nearest point at which the pendulum was swung by Sir Edward ua 292 Pendidum Observations Sabine. Thus pendulum observations made by a Polar expedition will be a very valuable contri- bution to our knowledge of the earth's figure. That knowledge cannot be complete as long as it rests merely on geodetic and astronomical mea- surements ; for both these are essentially con- nected with the direction of local gravity, and therefore with the distribution and density of the subjacent materials. To obtain any reliable notions of these, Dr. Robinson, of the Armagh Observatory, remarks, * We can only look to pen- dulum experiments.' ^ s,» ' The pendulum experiments made by Sir Edward Sabine at many widely separated stations showed that the number of vibrations which a ])endulum makes per diem is not the same in different parts o*" the earth. It makes about 240 more vibrations in a day at Spitzbergen than it does when near the equator, because the force of gravity is greater there. If gravity be very small indeed, the motion of the pendulum will be ex- ceedingly sluggish. Thus, it measures the gravity at diftcrent |)arts of the earth. The proportion of gravity near the Pole to gravity at the Equator is as 180 to 179. Pendulum exi)eriments give the law of change of gravity, and enable us to infer what is the elfijjticity of the earth, provided the law of gravitation be true. If the ellipticity, thus found, agrees with that calcu- lated from trigonometrical surveys, it will be a strong proof of the correctness of the law of gravitation. Both methods give -Ij, t.' X'^^U^uiM^t^^U^ •■'W7 Spectrum Analysis 293 The extension of research in the phenomena of magnetism and atmospheric electricity, in the vicinity of the Poles, will necessarily be of much scientific importance. So far as the conditions of the climate and the means of an exploring expe- dition will permit, investigations in all branches of physics in the vicinity of the Pole, where so- many of the forces of nature operate in an ex- treme degree — either of excess or defect— will surely be followed by the acquisition of know- ledge which can only be obtained in such ex- ceptional localities. The study of the Aurora, which is among the most striking phenomena visible on our planet, is almost impossible in low latitudes, while the advance of spectrum analysis has given the means of determining the chemical elements in- volved, so that all that seems to be required is the means of applying this description of obser- vation, and this can only be secured near the Pole. Mr. Norman Lockycr has pointed out that a proportion of about 300 : 299. Pendulum obserwitions also aftortl the means of determining the force of gravity at any place. — See Airy s Astronomy, p. 248. If- r^ Hi 294 Meteorological Results the separation of the terrestrial lines from the truly solar ones, in the solar spectrum, as seen from the earth's surface, is another important desideratum. But inquiry into it can only be well pursued in high latitudes, where the path of the sun, at low altitudes above the horizon gives opportunities for the necessary observations, not to be secured elsewhere. The climate of Europe depends, in no small degree, on the atmospheric conditions of the Polar area, in which the development of ex- tremely low temperatures necessarily leads to corresponding extreme changes of pressure, and other atmospheric disturbances, the effect of which is felt far inta the temperate zone. For the satisfactory appreciation of these phenomena a precise knowledge of the distribution of land and water within the Polar region is quite neces- sary, and any addition to our geographical know- ledge of the unknown region, accompanied by suitable observations of its meteorology, cannot fail to afford improved means of understanding the meteorology of our own country, and of the earth generally. Meteorological Results 295 Observations of the temperature of the sea at various depths ; of temperature and pres- sure of the atmosphere ; and of prevailing winds, with reference to currents, in very high latitudes, will, therefore, form valuable contributions to meteorological science. It may be added that, although all previous observations for temperature at great depths are of doubtful value, owing to the imperfections of the instruments, this defect has now been provided against. The present state of meteorology requires a more thorough investiga- tion of the motions of the earth's atmosphere than has yet been undertaken ; and for this important object the less frequented parts of the earth's surface should be studied as well as the most frequented. The hygrometric quality of the air is one that it is most desirable to note by long series of observations in Polar lati- tudes, as an aid in determining the movements of air, similar to that which temperature affords in tracing the currents of the ocean. Meteorological phenomena never yet seen by mortal eye will be observed by the bold explorers who reach the Pole. They will see the sun revolving with a I f li 296 Geological Results uniform altitude from the day it comes north of the Equator in March until it returns in Sep- tember, its altitude being equal to its declina- tion. The Arctic Committee of the Geological Society have reported that a more complete investigation of the geology of the Arctic regions is extremely desirable, both for its scientific im- portance and the value of its practical results. The existence of a true palceozoic coal formation has been determined, but we require to know its extent and composition. A long list of minerals, many of them extremely rare and valuable, have been found in extreme northern latitudes, and much attention should be paid to their further dis- tribution. Masses of meteoric iron have been recently discovered by the Swedish expedition, extending for a distance of no less than 200 miles ; these require further study, and their position determined. The existence of Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Miocene rocks is known, but much is needed to be done to obtain complete collections of their organic remains, (^ne of the most interesting facts of i fa iiiiiii iw. Geological Results 297 late years acquired to geological science has been that of a luxuriant and highly organised vegetation of Miocene age on the east coast of Greenland, no less than 200 species having been established. Equally important additions have been succes- sively made by the supply of materials for the more certain determination of the large number of species that before could be only provisionally recognised. It is of great importance that deter- minations based on fragments of leaves should be confirmed by the acquisition of more perfect foliage, as well as of seeds and fruits ; such materials would be of great value in illustrating a flora which is in itself of much interest, but this interest is vastly increased when one realises the important inquiries on which such knowledge would throw light. These inquiries are : — 1. The geographical distribution of the Miocene flora, as indicated by the agreements and differences between the Miocene plants of Arctic regions and of Central and Southern Europe. 2. The relation of the Miocene flora to previous and subsequent vegetations, and its bearings 298 Geological Results I on the present geographical distribution of plants on the globe. 3. The evidence derived from these plants as to the physical conditions of the globe in past geological epochs. It is certain that additional localities for fossil plants will be discovered, and of necessity additional species be brought to light ; for, in the past, such remains have been found as far as explorers have penetrated. From the important part extreme cold has of late years been found to have played in the last geological period, it would be of much value to have exact determination of the effect produced on the rocks by the intense cold of the northern regions, and to determine the extent, height, and range of the glaciers, and their effects on the sur- face of the country, and on the different classes of rocks. Again, it would be interesting to deter- mine the extent of the river floods, and the depth of the channels they have excavated in the Arctic regions. Another important and interesting result of the proposed Arctic expedition would be the investi- Geological Results 299 gation of the Mollusca, not only of marine, but also of land and fresh-water kinds. Of late years that enterprising and scientific nation, Sweden, has done something to increase our scanty know- ledge of the Arctic marine shells ; but their re- sources were limited, and not to be compared with those of our own nation. In a geological as well as a zoological point of view, a proper inves- tigation of Arctic Mollusca would be especially valuable. The palaeontological basis of the glacial epoch consists mainly in the identity of certain species which inhabit the Polar Seas, and are fossil in Great Britain and elsewhere. But such species may owe their present habitat and position to other than climatal causes, viz. to the action of marine currents. It is quite a mistake to assume that Arctic species are few in number. We know very little about them, because the exploration of the circumpolar seas by means of the dredge is so difficult. But the researches of the Scandinavian zoologists show that the Arctic marine inverte- brate fauna is extremely varied and numerous. All fossils should be diligently collected, and their i !• ^;l': I 300 Botanical Results positions accurately noted. The former condition and climate of the Arctic regions may be thus ascertained, and a new chapter opened in the his- tory of our globe. The mineralogy of the Green- land continent is also important, and the discovery of new veins of cryolite and other valuable mine- rals is not improbable. The botanical results of a Polar expedition will be of equal importance. The vegetation of the Arctic regions, in the opinion of Dr. Hooker, throws great light upon the geographical distribu- tion of plants on the surface of the globe. On the return of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition from those regions, a series of rocks collected in the neighbourhood of Disco, by his former fellow- voyager, Dr. Lyall, were placed in Dr. Hooker's hands, containing an accumulation of fossil leaves of plants totally different from any now growing in that latitude. These fossils he forwarded to Professor O. Heer, of Zurich, for investigation who had brought forward the most convjnr? proofs that that latitude was once inha^ jd by extensive forests, presenting fifty or sixty different species of arborescent trees, most of them witii Botanical Results 30 r deciduous leaves, some 3 or 4 inches in diameter — the elm, pine, oak, maple, plane, &c. ; and, what was more remarkable still, evidences of apparently evergreen trees, showing that these regions must have had perennial light. It seemed extremely probable that the vegetation which belonged to the Miocene period extended over a large portion of the Northern Arctic region. It would be of great interest to ascertain whether such vegetation extended even to the Pole ; and there is nothing that would give greater assistance in solving this problem than the proposed exi^edi- tion along Smith Sound. Turning to the existing flora of Greenland, Dr. Hooker has pointed out that, though one of the most poverty-stricken on the globe, it is possessed of unusual interest. It consists of some 300 kinds of flowering plants (besides a very large number of mosses, algce, lichens, &c.), and presents the following peculi- arities : — I. The flowering plants are almost without exception natives of the Scandinavian peninsula. 2. There is in the Greenland flora scarcely any admixture of American types, which nevertheless are found on the opposite coast of 302 Botanical Results 'HH' Labrador and the Parry Islands. 3. A consider- able proportion of the common Greenland plants are nowhere found in Labrador and the Parry Islands, nor, indeed, elsewhere in the New World. 4. The parts of Greenland south of the Arctic Circle, though warmer than those north of it, and presenting a coast of 400 miles long, contains scarcely any plants not found to tiie north of that circle. 5. A considerable number of Scandinavian plants which are not natives of Greenland are nevertheless natives of Labrador and the Parry Islands. 6. Certain Greenland and Scandinavian plants which arc nowhere found in the Polar plains, Labrador, or Canada, re-appear at considerable elevations on the White and the Alleghany and other mountains of the United States, No other flora known to naturalists presents such a remark- able combination of peculiar features as this, and the only solution hitherto offered is not yet fully accepted. It is that the Scandinavian flora (which Dr. Hooker has shown evidence of being one of the oldest on the globe) die , during the warm period preceding the glacial — a period warmer than the present — extend in force over the Polar Botanical Results 303 regions, including Greenland, the Polar American Islands, and, probably, much now submerged land in places connecting or lying between Greenland and Scandinavia, at which time Greenland no doubt presented a much richer Scandinavian flora than it now does. On the accession of the glacial period, this flora would be driven slowly south- wards, down to the extremity of the Greenland peninsula in its longitude, and down to the latitude of the Alleghanies and White Mountains in their longitudes. The effect in Greenland would be to leave there only the more Arctic forms of vegeta- tion, unchanged in habits or features ; the rest being, as it were, driven into the sea. But the effect on the American continent would be to bring the Scandinavian flora into competition with an American flora that pre-occupied the land into which it was driven. On the decline of the glacial epoch, Greenland, being a peninsula, could be re- peopled with plants only by the northward migra- tion of the purely Scandinavian species that had been previously driven into its southern extremity ; and the result would be a uniform Scandinavian flora throughout its length, and this an Arctic one, i 1 BW^^^^^^ m 304 Botanical Results ■ m m from north to south. But in America a very different state of things would supervene : the Scandinavian plants would not only migrate north, but ascend the Alleghanies, White Mountains, &c. ; and the result would be that, on the one hand, many Scandinavian plants which had been driven out of Greenland, but were preserved in the United States, would re-appear on the Parry Islands and Labrador, accompanied with sundry American mountain types ; and, on the other, that a few Greenland-Scandinavian types, which had been lost in the struggle with the American types during their northward migration, and which hence do not re appear in Labrador and the Parry Islands, might well be preserved in the Allegha- nies and White Mountains. And. lastly, that a number of Scandinavian plants, which h.ad changed their form or habit during the migrn.tion in America in conflict with the American types, would appear in the Parry Islands as American varieties or representative species of Scandinavian plants. Whether or no this be a true h)pothesis, it embraces all the facts ; and botanists look anxiously to further explorations in tin* north(trn Botanical ResnUs 305 311 in ypcs, rican avian icsis, look tlu-rn parts of Greenland for more light on tlie subject, and especially for evidence of rising or sinking of the land in Smith Sound and the countries north and east of it. and for evidence of ancient connec- tion between Greenland and Scandinavia ; for observations on the temperature, direction, and depth of transporting currents in these seas, and on the habits of its ruminant migrating animals that may have influenced the distribution of the vegetation by transporting the seeds. Such facts as those of the existence of ancient forests in what are now Arctic regions, and of the migration of existing florae over lands now bound fast in per- petual ice, appear to some naturalists to call for vaster changes than can be brought about by a redisposition of the geographical limits of land and sea, and to afford evidence of changes in the direction of the earth's axis to the plane of its f variations in the pernnp;- ipticity the orbit itself ' See Dr. Hooker's paper, ' Outlines of the Pistribiition of Arctic Plants,' in tlie 'I'ransactions of thf Linmran Soa'fty, vol. xxiii. p. 251, for a more detailed arcount of the Arrtic plants, their affinities and distribution. i '1 I '■ 1 _ !i' !r p't, w 306 Zoological Results The specific results in zoology which may be expected from an Arctic expedition are numerous and interesting. It is known that the Arctic ocean teems with life, and that of the more minute organised beings the multitude of kinds is pro- digious : these play a most important part, not only in the economy of organic nature, but in the formation of sedimentary deposits, which in future geological periods will become incorporated with these rock formations, whose structure has only lately been explained by the joint labours of zoologists and geologists. The kinds of these animals, the relations they bear t<^ one another, and to the larger animals (such as whales, seals, &c., towards whose food they .so largely contribute), the conditions under which they live, the depths they inhabit, their ch.inges of form, &c.. at diftcrcnt seasons of the year, and at different stages of their lives ; and, lastly, tlu'ir distribution according to geographical areas, warm and cold currents. &c.. are all subjects of which very little ^s known. With regard to the larger animals- -the fish. mollitsca, ecluHodenuatij, corals, sponges, &c.. of 1 ■' .1 i^iL"*! Zoological /u'siil/s 307 iinals food under their of the ; and, phical hjects e fish, c, of the Arctic zones, those of Greenland alone have been well explored. A knowledge of their habits and habitats is most desiderated, as are good speci- mens for our museums. More imj^ortant still would be anatomical and physiological experiments, and observations on those animals under their natural conditions. It is also probable that new species may be found in the unknown north. Here may be the last hiding-place of animals like that curious manatee {Rhytina) which was last seen by Stcller, in 1 741. off Hchring's Island.' and which is conjectured by Professor (^wen to have been .separated from its natural habitat in the Indian Ocean, at some remote period, by the rising of the Asiatic continent. .Seas which support whales and seals must be tenanted by myriads of fish and of those minute organisms which are disclosed by the dredging machine, while the presence of walrus tells us of submarine forests of sea-weed. Professor Newton of Cambridge has drawn attention to the interesting questions relating to the migrations of birds, which will be solved by an examination of tlv? unknown area. I le says : — ' See p. 2 7,2. m !? i Iff Hi 1 ii. T^ I- 308 Zoo/ogicai Results .|;., ' The shores of the British Islands, and of many other countries in the northern hemisphere, are annually, for a longer or shorter period, frequented by a countless multitude of birds, which, there is every reason to believe, resort in summer to very high northern latitudes, for purposes the most important, and, since they continue the practice year after year, they must find the migration conducive to their advantage. There must be some water which is not always frozen ; secondly, there must be some land on which they may set their feet ; and thirdly, there must be plenty of food, supplied either by the water or by the land, or by both, for their nourishment, and that of their progeny. ' It may be worth while to give a short account and to sketch the movements of one class of birds — the Knots — Trino;a canutiis of ornitho- logists. The knot is something halfway between a snipe and a plover. Examples of it are com- monly to be seen in the cage at the southern end of the Fish House in the Zoological Gardens, and may be seen there at the present time. Like many other kinds of birds belonging to the same tal i la^..- y^ 1 f1 Migration of Birds 309 )iint of tho- tecn )m- hiiJ ind like me group, the colour of its plumage varies most wonderfully accord int; to the season of the year. In summer it is of a bright brick-red ; in winter it is of a sober ashy-grey. Kept in confinement, it seldom assumes its most brilliant tints, but some approach to them is generally made. Now the knot comes to this country in vast rtocks in spring, and, after remaining on our coasts for about a fortnight, can be traced proceeding gradually northwards till it takes its departure. People who have been in Iceland and Greenland have duly noted its appearance in those countries ; but in neither of them is it known to tarry longer than with us, the summer it would there have to endure is not to its liking ; and as we know that it takes no other direction, it must move further north. We then lose sight of it for some weeks. The older naturalists used to imagine it had been found breeding in all manner of countries, but the naturalists of the present day agree in believing that we know nothing of its nidification. Towards the end of summer back it comes to us in still larger flocks than before, and both old birds and young haunt our coasts till November: if the •■ 3IO Migration of Birds season be a very open one, some may stay later ; but our winter, as a rule, is too much for it, and away it goes southwards, and very far southwards too, till the following spring. What has been said of the United Kingdom is equally true of it on the eastern shores of the United States. There it appears in the same abundance and at the same seasons as with us, and its movements seem to be regulated by the same causes. • Hence we may fairly infer that the lands visited by the knot in the middle of summer are less sterile than Iceland or Greenland, or it would hardly pass over those countries, which are known to be the breeding-places for swarms of water- birds, to resort to regions worse off as regards supply of food. But the supply of food must depend chiefly on the climate. The inference necessarily is that, beyond the northern tracts already explored, there is a region which enjoys in summer a climate more genial than they pos- sess. It would be easy to summon more instances from the same group of birds, tending to show that beyond a zone where a rigorous summer reigns there may be a region endued with a l^ljv W M i - .lO.^ Et/ino/oin'cai Results 3«i comparatively favourable climate. If so, surely the conditions which produce such a climate are worth investigating.' The knowledge already aquired of the Arctic regions leads to the conclusion that the dis- covery of the unknown portion of the Greenland coasts will yield very important results in the science of anthropology. Although barely one- half of the Arctic regions has been explored, yet abundant traces of former inhabitants are found throughout their most desert wastes, where now there is absolute solitude. These wilds have not been inhabited for centuries, yet they are covered with traces of wanderers, or of sojourners, of a bygone age. Here and there, in Greenland, in Boothia, on the shores of America, where existence is possible, the descendants of former wanderers are still to be found. 'Ihe migrations of these people, the scanty notices of their origin and movements that are scattered through history, and the requirements of their existence, are all so many clues which, when carefully gathered to- gether, throw light upon a must interesting subject. The migrations of man within the Arctic \. % 12 Ethnological Results i\ 1 ' 5 * ' 1 9 • ; ' \ 4^ ' t * UiM^k zone give rise to questions which are closely connected with the geography of the undiscovered portions of the Arctic regions. The extreme points which exploration has yet reached on the shores of Greenland are in about 82° on the west and in 76° on the eastern side ; and these two points are about 600 miles apart. As there have been inhabitants at both these points, and they are separated by an unin- habitable interval from the settlements further south, it may be inferred that the unknown in- terval further north is or has been inhabited. On the western side of Greenland it was discovered, in 18 1 8, that a small tribe inhabited the rugged coast, between 76° and 79° N. ; their range being bounded on the south by the glaciers of Melville Bay, which bar all progress in that direction, and on the north by the Humboldt Glacier, while the Sernik-sook, or great glacier of the interior, confines them to the sea-coast. These ' Arctic Highlanders' number about 140 souls, and their existence depends on open pools and lanes of water throughout the winter, which attract animal life. Hence, it is certain that where such con- w\ Ethnological Results :^'3 ditions exist man may be found. The (juestion whether the unexplored coast of Greenland is inhabited, therefore, depends upon the existence of currents and other conditions such as prevail in the northern part of Baffin's Bay. But this question is not even now left entirely to con- jecture. It is true that the ' Arctic Highlanders ' told Dr. Kane that they knew of no inhabitants beyond the Humboldt Glacier, and this is the farthest point which was indicated by Kalahierua (the native lad who was on board th j ' Assistance ') on his wonderfully accurate chart. But neither did the Esquimaux of Upernavik know anything of natives north of Melville Bay until the first voyage of Sir John Ross. Yet now we know that there either are or have been inhabitants north of the Humboldt Glacier, on the extreme verge of the unknown region ; for Morton (Dr. Kane's steward) found the runner of a sledge made of bone lying on the beach on the northern side of it. There is a tradition, too, among the ' Arctic Highlanders' that there are herds of musk oxen far to the north on an island in an iceless sea. Traces of these were found by Captain Hall's expedition, in 1871-72, 314 lithnoloi^iial Results i as far north as 81** 30' N. On the eastern side of Greenland there are similar indications. In 1S23 Captain Clavering found twelve natives at Cape Horlase Warren, in 79" N. ; but when Captain Koldewey wintered in the same neighbour- hood in 1869 none were to be found, though there were abundant traces of them, and ample means of subsistence. As the Melville Bay glaciers form an impassable barrier, preventing the 'Arctic High- landers ' from wandering southwards on the west side, so the ice-bound coast on the east side, between Scoresby's discoveries and the Danebrog Isles, would prevent the people seen by Clavering from taking a southerly course. The alternative is that, at the time of Koldewey's visit, they must have gone north. These considerations lead to the conclusion that there are, or have been, inhabitants in the unexplored region to the north of the known parts of Greenland. If this be the case, the study of all the characteristics of a people who have lived for generations in a state of complete isola- tion would be an investigation of the highest scientific interest. jiiij&ijL. lilli no log ii a I Res u ih 3«5 lusion the lown itudy have isola- L»^hest Light may not improbably be thrown upon tlie mysterious wanderings of these northern tribes, traces of which are fountl in every bay and on every cape in the cheerless Parry group ; and these wanderings may be found to be the most distant waves of storms raised in far-off centres, and among other races. Many circumstances connected with the still unknown northern tribes may tend to elucidate such inquiries. Thus, if they use the igloo, they may be supposed to be kindred of the Greenlanders ; snow iuits will point to some devious wanderings from lioothian or American shores ; while stone yourls would indicate a march from the coast of Siberia, across a wholly unknown region. The method of con- structing sledges would be another indication of origin, as would also be the weapons, clothes, and utensils. The study of the language of a long isolated tribe will also tend to elucidate questions of considerable interest ; and its points of coincidence and divergence, when compared with Greenland, Labrador, Boothian, and Siberian dialects, will lead to discoveries which, probably, could not otherwise be made. Dr. Hooker has 3i6 /:'/// iic/oi^ i((i I /\rsii//.< pointed out that the prohltiin conncctfHl with thr Arctic flora can j)r<)hal)ly 1)(.' solved only l)y a stiuly of llu! pliysical coiuh'lions of much hij^dicr latitudes than have hitherto been explored. In likt" manner, the unsolved j)U/,zles connected with the wanderinjj^s of man within \.\\v. Arctic zone may dejuMid for their explanation u|)on the clues to he found in the conditions of a tribe or tribes in tin; far north. These are speculations which the results j^ained by Polar tliscovery would i^robably. but not cer- tainly, show to be well founded. liut there arc other investii;ations which would undoubtedly yield valuable materials for the student of man. Such wouKl be carefully prepared notes on the skulls, the features, the stature, the dimensions of limbs, the intellectual anil moral state of indivi- duals bclons^inj^^ to a hitherto isolated and unknown tribe ; also on their religious ideas, on their superstitions, laws, lanj^uai^e, songs, and traditions ; on their weapons and methods of hunting; and on their skill in delineating the topography of the region within the range of their wanderings. The condition of an isolated tribe, deprived of ^Jrn.'HS^^^' f Unk'uoi.ni J\i'su//'i ;>>7 111 the )ns of lulivi- iu)\vn tlu'ir ions ; and if the Ci\ of the use of wo(xl i)V metals, and dependent entii\:ly upon bone and stone for tlie construction of all implements and utensils, is also a subject of study with reference to the condition of mankintl in the Stone a)^e of the world ; and a careful comparison of the former, as reportinl by explorers, with the latter, as lU.'duced from the contents of tumuli and caves, will probably be of };reat imjiorlance in the advancement of the science of man. lUit liie unknown results of ex|)lor.ition must also have their tlu(.' weis^ht. Jiid.i;inj4 from analoj^^y we may Ixr surt: that many of the discoveries of the Polar explorers will be unfore- s<;en and unexpected. The learned President o) the Anutrican CJerjirraphiral Society, in Juu; 1871. well said that we do not know and cannot estimate, in anticipation, the consecpunces that will i«'sull from .1 mor(; accurate knowledge «>f our }.;h)be. ' Columbus,' he added, ' found very few who would symjjathise with him, or who |)erceived the u».lit) of the effort on his part to ^40 out into the unknown waste of waters beyond tin- straits of (iibraltar, in search of a new countr) . Who can. at this time, estimate ll;e atlvantaij<'s whi'on, R.N., C.B. (Private Secretary to the First Lord), were also present. Sir Henry Ratvlinson read the following letter ad- dressed to Mr. Lowe and Mr. Goschen, and presented each Minister with a copy, together with the en- closures : — ' I Savilc Row, W., Dec. 16, 1872. ' On behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, I have the honour respectfully to request that you will bring to the notice of Her Majesty's Government the reasons The Arctic Deputation 323 which make it desirable to despatch, next year, a naval expedition with the object of exploring the unknown region around the North Pole. ' I hereby submit the opinion of a Committee of Arctic officers appointed this year by our Council to consider the subject of an Arctic Expedition, as well as the views expressed by the Royal Society, the Geological So- ciety, the Linnxan Society, the Scottish Meterological Society, the Meterological Department, and the Anthro- pological Institute ; including the valuable remarks of Dr. J. D. Hooker, C.H., l'\R.S., and of Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., the President of the British Association. ' The collective evidence of these seamen and men of science will, I trust, leave no doubt with regard to the value and importance of the results which a well- appointed expedition must yield, in exploring nearly two million square miles of unknown ground within the 80th parallel of north latitude. Such an expedition ought to lead to the solution of the numerous im- portant scientific questions in physical geography, geology, natural history, terrestrial magnetism, anthro- pology, and meteorology, which are referretl to in the accompanying letters from the above-named scientific Societies. This Society, after a careful consideration of the subject, is convinced that its geographical results would be of great value. 'In 1865 our late President, Sir Roderick Murchison, took steps to bring the subject of Arctic exploration before Her Majesty's Government ; but his application Y 3 324 The ^\ re til Deputation « *, was put on one side, and a decision was postponed until the question of the most advisable route could be de- cided by the expeditions then about to be despatched by the Swedish and German Governments by way of Spit/bergen. Seven years of unsuccessful labour in that direction have led to the collection of further proofs, by the leaders of both the Swedish and German expeditions, that the experience of all previous navigators was not at fault as to the impracticability of penetrating the ice in that direction. Arctic authorities are now, therefore, unanimous in the opinion that the route by HafTrn's liay and Smith Sound promises the largest amount of valu- able scientific results combined with the best assurance of safety. The American expedition, commanded by Captain Hall, has gone in an entirely different direction up Jones Sound,' and must return in 1873. It consists only of one small vessel, and the results that can be ob- tained by it must necessarily be limited. •Apart from the purely scientific point of view, the various explorations of the Arctic regions, by Ihitish navigators, have, since 1818, redounded to the national honour and repute, and have, in no small degree, con- tributed to keep alive, through a long period of peace, that spirit of courage, enterprise, and self-denial which is so essential to the character of the seamen of a great maritime nation. ' Neither I nor those who are acting with me would submit this proposal if its adoption involved any undue • See page 197. The Aniii DcputiUion 325 itish lional coii- )C.1CC, hich of a risk of life, such as existed in former clays. The expe- rience acquired between 1S50 and 1S72, durinj; which period expeditions commanded by Ikitish, A mcrican, Swedish, and German officers, have safely, and at many points, ^onc to and fro within the Arctic circle, has proved that, with the help of steam and other modern appliances, and of the kniiwled^e gained concerning the proper orj^anisation of travellin^^ parties, Arctic explora- tion, under judicious leadership, is not unduly dangerous. ' Univers.il interest continues to be felt in the exami- nation of the unknown north I'olar region. I'A'cry first-class power of Kurope and America, except ICngland. has sent forth expeditions for Arctic discovery during the last twelve years. These attempts have been watched with the deepest interest, and not without some feeling of shame, by the press and the people of Great Hritain ; and there is mow a very general feeling in this country, that the time has come for us again to assert our old pre-eminence in the field of Arctic discovery. • I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, ' II. C. K.wvi.iNsoN, President: After reading the letter, Sir Henry urged that no scientific expedition had been despatched to the Arctic regions since 1845, aiul that the time had surely come for ICngland to resume her oUI place in the van of Arctic discovery. He explained the geographical results to be derived from the labours of an Arctic expedition ; and pointed out on a map the discoveries to be made. H P"^ 326 The Arctic Deputation « He IhiMi reverted to the admirable nature of the school for naval ofTicers which service in the Arctic regions supplies, and appealed to Sir Alexander Milne with regard to the high character borne by Arctic officers in the navy. In conclusion, he said that great care and attention had been bestowed upon the subject by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, and he begged that Her Majesty's Government would not come to a hasty decision, but woul''. maturely consider the tjuestion in all its bearings. Mr. Goschcu eiujuired upon what scale it was suggested that the proposed Arctic expedition should be ccpiipped.^ Sir Ilairy Rawlinson said that two vessels, such as those used in the whaling trade, would suffice, but referred to Captain Sherard Osborn for details. Contain S/icrard Osborn said that two whalers might be bought or chartered at Dundee, which would be admirably adapted for the purpose. They are of oak, planked with elm, with a doubling of Australian or African oak from stem to stern, and specially strengthened with cross beams for ice navigation ; and arc fitted with auxiliary lifting screws. They should each have a crew of sixty men, and be provisioned for three years. Mr. Gosi/icn. — Would such vessels be more suitable than any ships now belonging to Government ? Captain Sherard Osborn. — Yes. Mr. Goschcn. — Then the navy would only have to contribute two crews of 1 20 officers and men ? 'i . jilUt iOlfc't — 1 ■ The Antic Dt-pitialion 3^7 Oi/>/iii/i Slurard Osborn. — Yes ; and the vcssclu must receive some additional fittings in one of Ilcr Majesty's dockyards. I'cmmican must also be prepared ; but the vessels can easily be reaily to sail by May I next. One vessel would press forward up Smith Sound to explore, while her consort would remain within easy reach of communication with Haftln's Hay. Mr, Gosclicn. — Will it be necessary to send out a vessel every year to communicate with the expedition ? Captain Slurard Osborn. — That will be a matter for the Admiralty to decide ; but there is no difficulty in such a course. While the expedition of 1852-55 was away, a vessel was sent to communicate with it every summer, and to return — a service which was performed without difficulty. Mr. Loxvc asked for an outline of the route that it was proposed should be adopted. Captain S/urard Osborn. — The two vessels will proceed up Smith Sound, at the head of Haffin's Bay. One will be established within easy reach of the most northern Danish settlement, at Upernavik. The other will push to the northward, but keeping well hold of her base. She will send out travelling parties to the North Pole, and to explore all the northern side of Greenland ; and, in case of accident, her crew can fall back on the consort. IJoth vessels will be engaged in obtaining valuable scien- tific information and collections within the unknown area. Mr. Goschcn. — How long will the expedition be absent } »■• I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 2.8 m ^ " m |M 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 , M 6" - ► Photographic Sciences Corporation V <^ L1>^ ;\ \ tv .'•', .'■ . 1 ■'. ) 1 f ■ I.' '^l INDEX AAS AASTROM, Capt., his voyage with Tobiesen, 105 Abel Island (Wiche's Land), 109 'Active' whaler, of Peterhead, 155 Adams, Capt. W., of the whaler 'Arctic,' 177, 178, 266 Admiralty, first Arctic expedition sent out by, 42 ; second, 77 ; third, 79 ; despatches Parry to reach the Pole, 85 ; interview of Arctic deputation with First Lord of, 322 {see Baring, Sir Francis) Admiralty Inlet, explored by whalers, 178 •Advance,' Dr. Kane's brig, 184, 185, 191, 265 ' iEolus,' schooner of Capt. Tobie- sen, 105 ' Albert,' winter voyage of, to re- lieve ice-bound crews on Spitz- bergen, 119 Aleutian Isles, 231 'Alexander,' Captain Ross's ship, 164 Alexander Cape (Smith Sound), 165, 184, 187, 193 Alfred, King, told the story of the first Arctic expedition, 4 Allen, Captain, of the whaler ' Ravenscraig,' 177 ARC AUman, Dr., on thy Arctic Com- mittee of the Royal Society, 335 Altmann, Norwegian captain, re- discovery of Wiche's Land by, 107 America, discovery of, by Normans, 13s American Expeditions (see Kane, Hayes, Hall) American Geographical Society, reception of Captain Hall by, 197 Amsterdam Island (Spitzbergen), 53 Amsterdam, 30 ; Arctic research promoted by merchants of, 10, 13 Anadyr, Gulf of, 230 Anjou, Russian Admiral, open water seen by, 22 ; his expedi- tions, 234, 235; his achievements, 248 Anthropology {see Ethnological Results) Archangel, Burrough arrives at, 7 ; Dutch open trade with, 10; ships for Arctic discovery built at, 76 ; Russians sail from, along Siberian coast, 227 Arctic Committees, 335 Arctic Deputation, interview of, with H.M.'s Ministers, 322 Arctic enterprise of the English, i Z m ^ ft 338 Index . -*: ARC and/asshn, {set! Expeditions) of the Dutch, 10 ; {siv Barents, Spitz- bcrgen) ; of the Swedes, 97, 112 ; of tlic Norwegians, 104, no, 250, 251 ; of the Germans, 99, 100, III, 147-153; of the Russians, 75. 76, 83, 84, 226-248 ; of the Americans, 184-206 ; of the Auslrians, 253 Arctic expeditions, by Government, by Spitzbcrgcn route, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84; Russian, 75, 83, 226-248; Swedish, 96, 97, 113-117 ; Ger- man, 99, III, 147-153 ; Austro- Hungarian, 250-257 {siv Phipps, Buchan, Parry, Clavering, Baffin, Ross, Graah, Inglefield, Kane, Hayes, Hall, Belcher, Richards, Osborn, McClintock, Mecham, McClure, Kellett, CoUinson, Leigh Smith) ; equipment of an English naval, 270 ; advantage of, 270 ; importance to the navy, 271 ; absurd objections to, 272 ; small percentage of deaths in, 278 ; necessity for being imder Government, 281 ; John Milton's view of, 9 ; campaign of 1873, 180 ; by sledge travelling (which see), 262, 263 ; importance of, 208 ; results of, 288 ci saj. Arctic Highlanders {see Esquimaux) Arctic regions, healthiness of, 207, 273 Arrowsmith, Mr., his opinion of Morton's work, 188 'Assistance,' II. M.S., north of Carey Isles, in Baffin's Bay, 184 ; nipped in Barrow's Strait, 195 Austin, Captain T. H., up Jones' Sound in 'Pioneer,' 210; sledge- travelling during expedition of, 264 Austro-Hungarian Arctic expedi- tion, 250, 253, 256, 257 OACK, BAR Admiral Sir George, dered by Sir R. |:e to westward n shore of, 22 1 ography of old 132, 133, 134 tzbergen), 100, I, 250, 253; cter, first expe- 1 voyage, 12 j ertaking third wcry of Spitz- irced to winter Dvaya Zemlya), return of his points for con- ference to voy- cr quarters of, 23 ; list of tion of house, 1 of relics, 30 Index 339 BAR CAR Baring, Sir Francis, more adequate provision for surveying and ex- ploring branches of naval service in time of, 287 Barkham, Mr., a merchant adven- turer in the time of James I,, 47 Barrington, Daines, evidence col- lected by, 59, 61, 64, 65 ; advo- cates Polar discovery, 76 Barrow, Sir John, straits named after, 161 Barrow Strait, 161 ; whalers in, 178, 195 ; tides in, 221, 266 Barrow Point, 221 Bartlett, Captain, of 'Tigress,' picks up boat's crew of ' Polaris,' 204 Bassendine, sent on a voyage by Muscovy Company, 7 Bear Island, discovered by Barents, 14, 15. 107 Beechey, Admiral, in Buchan's ex- pedition, 80 Beechey Island, 221 Behring, Comnit dorc, his expedi- tion, 230; death, 231 Behring's Strait, 2, 3, 216, 221, 224, 226 ; discovered, 230 Beke, Dr., his edition of the voyages of Barents, 12; theory of, as to circumnavigation of Spitzbergen by Barents, 14 Belcher, Sir Edward, his dis- coveries, 211 Bell Sound (Spitzbergen), 40, 49, 76, 120 Bergen, German expedition sails from, 99 Bennet, Stephen, gave name of Cherie to Bear Island, 14 Bessells, Dr., in charge of the scientific work in the ' Polaris,' 197 ; has charge of Captain Hall's journals, 205 Beverley, Dr., with Parry in his Polar boat expedition, 86 Bird, Edward (now Admiral), with Parry in his Polar boat expedi- tion, 86 Birkbeck, Mr., his voyage to Spitz- bergen, lOI Bismarck, Cape (East Greenland), 152 Botanical results of an Arctic ex- pedition, 300 Bounties, to Spitzbergen whalers, 64 Broch Isle (Spitzbergen), 91 Brook, Captain, his survey of Spitz- bergen, 79 Browne, a sailor sent on a voyage by the Muscovy Company, 7 Bruce, Mr. David, manager of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company, 122; information from, 180 (ftoU-) Buchan, Captain, h'c expedition, 79 ; examination of the pack edge by, 81 ; results, and return of his expedition, 82, 83 Buddington, Captain, sailing master of ' Polaris,' 197-202 Burrough, Stephen, expedition of, S ; off Kola, 6 ; discovers straits into sea of Kara, 227 Burrough, Straits of, 252 Busk, George, Esq., F.R.S. on the Arctic Committee, 335 By lot, Robert, 159 CABOT, Sebastian, bids the ex- pedition of Burrough ' God speed,' 5 Campbell, Dr., 62 'Camperdown/ whaler, of Dundee, 176 ' Carcass, ' Captain Lutwidge's ship, in Phipps' expedition, 77 Carey Islands (Baffin's Bay), 184 Carlsen, Norwegian captain, dis- Z 2 :i -t 11 340 Index CAR covers winter filial Icir. of Ilnrmts, 2_} ; rnsl tl)(•irc•^mlnavi^;i\l(" Spit/.- l)crm'n. 14, 27, 104, 25 • ; Ki>"'> of ii ^iild wiilili lo, l)y llic Koyul ( li'ii(;iii|ilii('(il Soi'ioty, I05 J rcr- • iirnslo lliiniim'rfcsl witli Itarcnls' ri'lii's, 27 ; liis corroction of llic ninps of Novnyii /ctnlya, V)\ liis Noviiya Zcinlyn voyajjc, 250 ; joins llic Austrian Arctic expedi- tion, aS4 Cnrolus, Toris, Dutch explorer, 57 C'lirjientcr, Dr., I'.R.S., with the Arctic Dcputulion, 322 ; on the Arctic Committee t)f the Koynl Society, 335 . Chancellor, voynjje of, 5, 8 ("hiulcs XI I. !sIo (SiiilzhciKen), yi Clieirtgskoi, Ciipc, 230, 237, 240, 24a Chelyuskin, I.ieutonnnt, discovers northern point of Sihcria, 229 i'helyuskin, Cape, 22, 227, 228, 329> 257 Cherie Island (ivf Hear Island) Chennside, l,ieutenant, K.li., sails with Mr. l.ei^^h Smith's expedi- tion, 121 Chirikof, Lieutenant, with Hehrin};, 231 Christiania, Meteorolojjical Institute nt, 29 J vessels sailing from, no (.r whalers — the scaling voyages, 74, 146 ; steamers from, 173, 174 ; jute manufactories at, 174 ; shi]) building, 1 74; value of whaling trade, 175 ; build and equipment of whalers, 177 ; whalers sail on voyage of 1873, 179 Dundee .Seal and Whale Fishing Company, whalers owned by, 1 76 Duner, M., in Swedish expedition, 96 Dutch, Arctic enterprise of, 10,61 ; purchase of Barents' relics by Government, 27 ; whaling ven- tures, 48 ; wli.-xle fishery, 52-57 ; chart of Spitzbergen by, Co ; ap- proaches to the I'olc, 61, 62 ; fishery of, in Davis' Strait, 160 ; {set Barents) EAST India Company, genero- sity to Ml i. Hudson, 39 (;/f/<) ; sends whalers to Spit/.- bergen seas, 47 ; Mr. Richard Wichconeoftlie founders of, 50 ; (see Smith, Sir T.) Eaton, Rev. Mr., naturalist with Mr. I • igh Smith, 121 Eclipse Sound, exi)lorcil by whalers, 178, 266 'Eclipse' whaler, commanded by Captain David CJray, 155 Eilge, Captain, his whaling voyages to Spitzbergen, 47, 48 Edge Island, 48, 51, 57; explored by Von Ilcuglin, 100 Edwards, captain of whaler ' Victor,' 176, 178 mm |i .J N , N I! •^ '^ •.♦' * 342 Index EKA Eknlumlut, on the east coast of (irccninnd, 144, 145 ' Klizabctli ' of Aberdeen, second whaler to reach the ' North Water' of llaflin's Day, 164 • Entlcnvour,' one of I'nrry's sledge boats, 86, 87 EuRlish Whale Fishery (jtv Whale Fishery) • Enterprise,' one of Parry's sledge boats, 86, 87 ' FIntcrprisc,' Captain CoUinson's ship, 216, 218 'Erik,' Messrs, Gibbs' exploring ship, 146 ; employed as a whaler, 147, 177, 178, iSo l'"rnian, Russian explorer, 248 Esquimaux, with Captain Graah, 141 ; seen by Clavering, 143 ; seen by Davis, 157; seen by HalTin, 159 ; at north end of lialVm's Day, l8j ; witli Morton on his journey, iSS, 189 ; their kindness to Dr. Kane and his crew, 190 ; reports of, resiioctiiij; land up Smith Sound, 192 ; mi- grations of, 311 ; traces of, up Smith Sound, 202 ; in the IhxU of the ' Polaris, ' 203; at Cape York, 205 • Esquimaux ' whaler, of Dundee, 176, I So Estotiland, 136 Ethnological results of Arctic ex- ploration, 311 Evans, John, Esq., on the Arctic Committee of the Royal Society, Expeditions {sec Arctic) Expense of an Arctic expedition, 284 ; of McClintock's voyage in the ' Fox,' 2S5 ; of Parry's at- tempt to reach the Pole, 285 ; small cost, 285 ; present inade- quate expenditure on surveying FRA and exploring branch of the naval service, 286 FADEYEF, one of Siberia Islands, 23 the New 233 Fnirweather, Captain, of the ' Diana ' (Leigh Smith's expe- dition), 120, 121 Fanshawe, Cape (Spitsbergen), 9I Farewell, Cai)e, 141, 150 Faroe Isles, 129 Fergusson, J,, Esq., F.R.S., on the Arctic Committee of the Royal Society, 335 Findlay, A. G., Esq., on the Arctic Committee, 335 Fishery {see Whale Fishery, Nor- wegians, Dutch) Forchhammer, on Greenland cur- rent, 96, 268 l''ossils (.r■.■ J: '■^' ■'■;.l ,.■'1 346 Index JAC Jacobszoon, Jacob, Dutch explorer, 57 Jakan, Cape (Siberia), 240 ; Wrangell Land in sight from, 242 Jakuts, Siberian tribe ; their en- durance of cold, 277 Jan Mayen Island {see Hudson's Tutches), 36, 67, 74, 121 'Jan Mayen,' brig, of Carlsen, 104 'Jan Mayen,' whaler of Peterhead, 155 Jansen, Commodore, his account of Dutch whale fishery, 52 Johannesen, Captain, in the sea of Kara, 250, 252 Johnsen, Captain Nils, re-discovers Wiche's Land, 107 Jones' Sound, 209, 217, 266 ; drift of ice in, 161 ; intention of Captain Hall to go up, 197 ; tide in, 222 ; explored by Lee and Osbom, 210, 211 Juet, Robert, Hudson's mate, 37 Julianshaab, 134 'Juniata,' steamer, sent by the United States' Government for tidings of the 'Polaris,' 205 Jute fibre, importation into Dundee ; whale oil required for, 1 74 KAMSCHATKA, 230 Kane, Dr., 71, 150, 161, 199 ; account of his expedition, 184-I92 ; kindness of Esquimaux to, 190 ; reasons of his failure, 189, 190, 191 ; his ship impro- perly victualled, 274 Kara, Sea of, straits leading to, discovered by Burrough, 227, and Pett, 8 ; heavy Polar ice in, 9, 10 ; voyage of Barents to entrance of, 12, 13 ; Norwegian voyages into, 250, 25 1 LAN Kay, Mr. Lister, purchases the relics of Barents, 27 Kellett, Captain, land seen by, north of Behring's Strait, 216, 218, 223, 241 Kennedy Channel, 188, 193, 194, 264 ; Hall sails up, 200 Kennedy, Port, 23 Kepes, Dr. , in the Austrian Arctic expedition, 254 Kerry (see Icaria) Keulen, Van, charts published by, 59, 60, 97 (see Van Keulen) Khatanga, River (Siberia), 227, 229 Kjelscn, Captain, captain of 'Isbjorn,' 119 Kilgour, captain of the whaler 'Polynia,' 176 Kirkcaldy, iron whaler, built at, 175 Knots (Tringa canutus), migrations of, 308 Kola, survivors of Barents' crew reach, 21 Koldewey, Captain, commanding German expeditions, 99, 148 ; his views, 153; in favour of Smith Sound route, 154 Kolyma, river, 226 ; reached from mouth of Lena, 229, 237 Kos' elcf, sails from the Obi to the V .nisei, 228 Kostin Shar, 257 Kotelnoi, one of the New Siberia Islands, 233, 234 Kotzebue Sound, 221 LAMBE, Mr., builds ships for Russians at Archangel, 75 Lament, Mr., his yacht voyages to Spitzbergen, loi ; owner of the •Diana,' 121 Lancaster Sound, drift of ice in, 161 ; open water in, 162 :hases the n by, north i, 218, 223, 193. >94, X) rian Arctic iblished by, eulen) 1), 227, 229 :aptain of the whaler r, built at, , migrations irents' crew lommanding 99. '48 ; favour of 54 cached from 237 Obi to the ew Siberia Index 347 s ships for angel, 75 voyages to ATier of the of ice in, 162 LAN Land floe, importance of sticking to, 167 Lapland {see Kola, Wardhouse) Laptef, Lieutenant, attempt to sail round Cape Taimyr, 229 'Larkins,' of Leith, first whaler to reach the ' North Water ' after Baffin, 164 Lee, captain of whaler ' Prince of Wales,' explored Jones' Sound, 210, 266 Lena, river, 226, 229 Leopold Island, 221 Liakhof, or New Siberia Islands (which see) Lief, son of Eric the Red, dis- covered America, 1 35 Linschoten, 6 1 Lisborne, Cape, 216 Lockhart, Mr., of Kirkcaldy, owner of whaler 'Ravenscraig,' 177, Lockyer, Mr. Norman, on impor- tance of observations near the I'ole, 293 Lomme Bay (Spitzbergen), 59 Long, Captain, sighted Wrangell Land, 241 Lowe, Mr., Chancellor of the Exche- quer, interview of Arctic Depu- tation with, 322 ; correspondence with Sir Henry Rawlinson, 331 Lupton, Cape, of Hall, 201 Lutke, Russian Admiral, his voyages in Novaya Zemlya sea, 83, 84, III, 248 Lutwidge, Captain, second in com- mand in Phlpps' expedition, 77 Lyall, Dr., Fossil Flora, collected by, 300 •Lydiana,' schooner, of Captain Johnsen, 107 M cCLINTOCK, Admiral Sir Leopold, 23 ; system MAR of sledge travelling of, 85, 254, 255 ; opinion as to BafHn's Bay currents, 162 ; drift of, in the 'Fox' {see 'Fox'), 204, 223; discovery of Prince Patrick's Land, 213, 214, 217, 219; dis- tances travelled by, 263 ; expetli- tion in the ' Fox,' 275 ; cost, 285 ; advocates renewal of Arctic exploration, 281 ; one of the Arctic Committee, 335 McClure, Admiral Sir Robert. Dis- covery of shores of Banks' Land, 215 ; no death by scurvy on board ship of, until fourth year, 2 74 Mack, Norwegian captain, meets Carlsen off Novaya Zemlya, 29 ; his correction of longitudes on Novaya Zemlya coast, 29 ; his voyages round Novaya Zeuilya, 251 Mackenzie, river, 216 Maclcllan, captain of whale 'Narwhal,' 176 Magdalena Bay (Spitzbergen), 80 Magnetism, phenomena of, their investigation by an Arctic ex- pedition, 293 Maguire, Captain, R.N., 221 Major, Mr., his discoveries respect- ing the voyage of the Zeni, 128- ».^q ; with the Arctic Deputation, 322 Malgyn, Lieutenant, reached the mouth of the Obi, 228 Markham Island, discovered by Captain R. V. Hamilton, R.N., 213 Markham, Captain A. H., R.N, his voyage to Baffin's Bay, 1 79 Markham, Clements R., Esq. C.B., F.R.S., with the Arctic Depu- tation, 322 ; on the Arctic Com- mittee, 335 ; Markland, 135 r:\ : '■ .',• "»• '*, ' ■ 1 . • I , '■ ' 1 .,«■■ A ;i -4 348 Index MAR Marmaduke, J., a Hull skipper in the time of James I., 40 Martens Frederick, his account of Spitzbergcji, 58 Mathilas, Captain, his voyage with Tobiescn (whom sec), 105 Maury, Captain, opinion as to Baffin's Bay current, 162 •Mazenthian,' a whaler of Peter- head, iss Mecham, Captain Frederick, R.N., notice of, 213 ; his discoveries, 214, 215, 217, 219; distance travelled by, 267 Medina, work on navigation by, among the Barents' relics, 30 Melsom, Captain Jacob, voyage for relief of ice-bound crews on Spitzbcrgen, 120 Melville Bay, 159, 178 ; ice in, 167 ; time of passage through, 168, 169, 172; dangers of, 170; scenery of, 171 Melville Island, 212, 213, 221 , two voyages to, 266 ; pendulum observations at, 290 Mendoza's history of China, among the Barents' relics, 30 Menin, Russian Pilot, sails from the Yenisei to the Pyasina, 228 ' Mercurius,' ship of Barents in his first voyage, 10 Meteorological results of Arctic exploration, 294 ; observations of Herr Hofer, 257 Meyer, meteorologist on board the • Polaris,' 197 ; in the rescued boat, 203 Middendorf, Russian explorer, his expedition to Cape Taimyr, 229, 243, 24s, 248 Middendorf, Mount (Spitzbergen), I(X) Middle Pack, in Baffin's Bay, 163, 172 NEL Middle Passage of Baffin's Bay, 165 Migrations of birds in the Arctic regions, importance of investiga- tions as to, 309 Miller, Mr., letter of, to Sir E. Sabine, on jiendulum observa- tions, 291 Milne, Admiral Sir AlexarKler, G.C.B., present at the Arctic Deputation, 322 Milton, John (the poet), his view of Arctic exploration, 9 Mohn, Professor, of Christiania, 104 Mohn, Cape (Spitzbergen), 102 ' Moonshine,' one of John Davis's ships, 157 Moore, Captain, R.N., of II. M.S. ' Plover,' 221 Moxon, Mr., the hydrographer, his ale-house yam, 63 Muravief, Lieutenant, saris from Archangel for the Obi, 228 Muscovy Company. Expeditions sent out by, 7, 8 ; despatches the voyages of Hudson, 33 ; report of Fotherby to, 41 ; sends whalers to the Spitzbergen seas, 47, 48 Musk oxen up Smith Sound, 192, 202, 207, 276 « TVTARWHAD,' steam whaler, iNI of Dundee, 174, 176 Nassau cape (Novaya Zemlya), il, 21, 83 Navy, Arctic discovery must be achieved by the, 270 ; importance of Arctic enterprise to, 272 ; ex- penditure on, 286 {see Admiralty, Arctic, Expense) Navy Board Inlet, explored by whalers, 178, 266 Nelson, Horatio, Lord, in Phipps' Arctic expedition, 77 Index 349 in's Bay, 165 • n the Arctic Cff invesliga- f, to Sir E. lum observa- Alexander, It the Arctic t), his view of 9 hristiania, 104 rgeii), 102 John Davis's f., of II. M.S. irographer, his it, sails from Obi, 228 Expeditions despatches the •n, 33 ; report sends whalers jen seas, 47, \ Sound, 192, steam whaler, 174, 176 Zemlya), il, Ivery must be |c ; importance le to, 272 ; ex- \see Admiralty, explored by [rd, in Thipps' 77 NEM Nemtinoff, Russian lieutenant, forms a depot on Spitzbcrgen, 75 Nenootalik, Graah's jwint of de- parture on west coast of Green- land, 141 Newland (see Spitzbergen) New Siberia Islands discovered, 233 ; mammoth bones on, 233 ; surveyed by Iledcnstrom, 233; visited by Anjou, 23s Newton, Professor, accompanied Mr. Birkbeck to Spitzbergen, loi ; on migrations of birds in the Arctic regions, 307 Nijnei Kolymsk, founded, 230 ; head-quarters of Wrangell, 236, 238, 240, 241 Nilscn, Norwegian captain, re-dis- covery of Wiche's Land by, 109 Nordenskiold, Professor, in Swedish expeditions to Spitzbergen, 96 ; his views of ice-navigation, 97, 98 ; in the Swedish expedition of 1872-73, 114 Normans, discovery of America by, 13s * North-about Passage ' {see Melville Bay), 165, i66 North Cape, drift wood off, ob- served by Hudson, 39 North-East Land of Spitzbergen, SI. 58. 59. 91. >o3 ; coast of, altered by Leigh Smith, 102 ; coast explored by Carlsen and Tobiesen, 104, 105 'Northern Gate,' of Norwegians, 104, 107 North Pole (see Pole) ' North Star,' detention in Melville Bay, 169 North-West Passage, Company for discovery of, 182 'North Water' of Baffin's Bay, reached by Baffin, 159, 162 (see ' Larkins,' and ' Elizabeth ') ; OLD reached by Ross, 164; by whalers, 165 ; position of, 165, 168 ; usual time of reaching, 168, 169 ; earli- est passage into, 168, 172, 178; reached by the 'Advance,' 186 ; ' Polaris,' 205 Northumberland Island, ' Polaris ' wintering off, 204 Norwegians, sealing fleet, 74 ; voyages of, 104, 1 10 ; numbe- of vessels in Arctic fishing trtde, 1 10 ; voyages of, to Novaya Zemlya, 250, 252 Novaya Zemlya, 7, 8, 37, 67, 150, 216, 226 ; Dutch scheme to sail round north end of, 10 ; first sighted by Barents, ii, 13; voy- age of Barents round north-west point of, 15 ; Barents forced to winter at, 16 ; drift of ice on coast of, 17, 21, 23 ; circumnavi- gation of, by Carlsen, 26 ; correc- tion of N.E. prolongation of, 28 ; Hudson's voyage to, 38 ; Captain Wood's expedition to, 44 j Dutch voyages to, 56; coast surveyed by Admiral Lutke, 83 ; voyage of Lieutenant Payer to coast of, ii2; circumnavigation of, by Norwegi- ans, 250 ; Austrian expedition off, 255-257 ; geology of, 257 Nugarlik, Captain Graah's winter quarters, 141 OBI, Siberian river, 7, 226, 227, 245 ; mouth reached from Archangel, 228 ; Noi-wegians sail towards, 250 Oil,whale and seal, demand for, 173; used in manufacture of jute, 1 74 ; price of, 1 75 (see Whale Fishery) Okhotsk, Behring's expedition fitted out at, 230 Oldenburg, Mr., 62 T ■ :'< ..■ 350 Index OLE Olenek river (Siberia), 228 Ommanney, Vice- Admiral, C.B., advocates Arctic discovery, 281; with the Arctic Deputation, 322 j on the Arctic Committee, 335 Orange Islands (Novaya Zemlya), II, 21 Orkney, Henry Sinclair, Earl of, 1 29 Osbom, Rear-Admiral Sherard, C.B., 154 ; explored Jones' Sound, in the 'Pioneer,' 210; discoveries on shores of Parry Islands, 212 ; his views as to heavy Polar pack west of Banks' Land, 216-225 ; urges the im- portance of Arctic enterprise to the Navy, 272 ; advocates a re- newal of Arctic exploration, 281; his remarks at the Arctic Deputa- tion, 326-329 ; on the Arctic Committee, 335 Ostre Bygd [see Greenland) Outger Reps, Dutch explorer, voy- age of, 58 Outger Reps' Island (Spitzbergen), 91 PACK {see Ice, see Polar Pack), wintering in, 225 Palander, Lieutenant, commanding Swedish Arctic expedition, 114 Palliser, Norwegian captain, voy- age to Novaya Zemlya, 250 Parent, Lieutenant, Italian officer in Swedish expedition, 114 Parry, Sir Edward, 2 ; proposes Polar exploration by sledge travelling, 84 ; equipment of his boat expedition, 87 ; passes the Seven Islands, 87 ; details of his , journey over the ice, 88, 89 ; his extreme northern point, 90 ; his return, 91 ; reflections on his at- tempt to reach the Pole, 92 ; his voyage with Ross to Baffin's PET Bay, 164, 183 ; cost of his at- tempt to reach the Pole, 285 Parry, Cape (Smith Sound), 188, 267 Parry Islands, 210; discovery of northern shores, 212, 214; tides along shores of, 221, 222 ; efficiently examined by sledge travelling, 264 Payer, Lieutenant, in the Austrian service ; his voyage in the sea be- tween Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, ill ; in the second Ger- man expedition, 148 ; sledge tra- velling on east coast of Green- land, 152 ; in command of Austrian Arctic expedition, 253 ; intentions of, 255 ; equipment of his expedition, 254 ; last seen, 257 Pendulum observations, 82, 142, 290 {see Sabine) Pepys, Mr. Samuel, Secretary to the Admiralty ; fitted out Wood's Arctic expedition, 43 'Periwinkle,' former name of the 'Polaris,' 196 Petchora, Count Wilczek returns by the, 257 Peter tne Great, his desire to have Siberian coasts explored, 230 Peterhead whalers, 74, 155 Petermann, Dr. Augustus, 153 ; his map of the route of Barents, 12 ; his theory as to circumnavigation of Spitzbergen, by Barents, 14 ; casts doubt upon the discovery of Wiche's Land by the English, 48; careful, as a rule, to restore old names, 52 ; promotes German Arctic expedition, 99 Petersen, Kane's interpreter, 189 ; reports of Esquimaux obtained by, 192 Pett, Arthur, sent out by the Mus- covy Company, 7, 227 Index 35^ St of his at- ole, 285 louncl), 188, discovery of 212, 214; if, 221, 222 ; [ by sledge the Austrian in the sea be- and Novaya e second Ger- 8 ; sledge tra- ast of Green- command of ledition, 253 ; equipment of ; last seen, 257 jns, 82, 142. , Secretary to ed out Wood's 43 name of the ilczek returns desire to have )lored, 230 4, ISS stus, 153; his Barents, 12 ; cumnavigation Barents, 14 ; e discovery of e English, 48; to restore old otes German erpreter, 189 ; Ix obtained by, [t by the Mus- 227 PET Petts' Strait, 250 Phipps, Captain, R.N., Polar ex- pedition commanded by, 77 ; his effoi ts to penetrate the Polar pack, 78 ; return of, 79, 84 • Phrenix,' Captain Inglefield's steamer, 21 1 • Pioneer,' H. M. S. ,up Joncs'Sound, 210 Plancius, Peter, the Dutch cosmo- grapher, 10, 13 ; his instrument among Barents' relics, 30 Plants, limits of Siberian vegetation, 246, 247 {^see Botanical Results) Platen, Cape (Spitzbergen), 91 ; rounded by Swedes, 97 ; by Leigh Smith, 103 'Plover,' li.M.S., 221 Polar basin, Swedish view of, 98 ; Payer, 1 1 1 ; theories as to, 1 23- 1 2 7 Polar current, 94, 95, 223, {wc Forchhammer), 96, 268 ; Von Heuglin on, loo Polar pack, edge of, reached, 4 ; voyages which led to examination of, 8 ; reached by Barents, 14 ; drift of, at north end of Novaya Zemlya, 16, 21 ; examined by Hudson, 34, 36, 38 ; examined by Wood and Grenville Collins, 44 ; edge of, well known, through whaling voyages, 46 ; position of edge, in winter, 65 ; edge of, in summer, 69 ; observations of Scoresby on, 72 ; state of, as seen by Phipps' expedition, 78 j Buchan's, 80 ; Clavering's, 82 ; examined by Admiral Lutke, 83 ; enumeration of explorers who have examined the, 83, 84 ; as seen during Parry's boat expedi- tion, 90 ; views of Swedes on, 97> 98 ; fed by ice from Siberian coast, 243 ; hitherto impassable, 261 PON Polar research, commencement of, 4 ; projected by Plancius, 10 ; advocated by Daincs Barrington, 76 ; its importance, 208 ; best route for, 259 ; by sledge travel- ling, 263 ; absurd objections to, answered, 272 ; (jtV Arctic Expe- ditions ; Results) ' Polaris,' Captain Hall's ship, successful voyage of, 195, 196 ; staff of, 197 ; drifts down Smith Sound, 202 ; nip, 202 ; drift of boats from, 203 ; goes into second winter quarters, 204 ; steamers sent by American Government for relief of, 205 Polaris Bay, discovered by Hall, 200 Pole, north, Dr. Thome on a voyage to the, 4 ; Henry Hudson sent on a voyage to, 33 ; argu- ments of John Wood respecting, 43; Dutch voyages towards, 57 ; fabulous voyages to, 62, 63, 64, 65 ; reward oflered for reaching, 66 ; impracticability of sailing to, by Spitzbergen route, 84 ; true way of reaching, by Smith Sound and sledge travelling, 84 ; coast line in Smith Sound stretching towards, 181, 200 ; attempt of Captain Hall to reach, 196, 199; land near, 217, 267; may easily be reached by sledge travelling, 267 ; value of pendulum and other observations at, 290 ' Pole Star,' whaler, of Peterhead, ISS ' Polynia,' seen by Morton, 188, 192 ; of the Russians, 242, 245 ; meaning of the word, 243 {note) ' Polynia,' whaler, of Dundee, 121, 176 Pond's Bay, 165, 1 68, 266 Pontanus, map of Hondius (whom see's published in work of, 1 5 352 Index POO Poole, Jonas, his whaling voyages to Spitzbergen, 40, 83 Potter, Mr., sailed in Mr. Leigh Smith's expedition, 121 Prestwich, Mr,, on the Arctic Com- mittee of the Royal Society, 335 ' Prince of Wales,' whaler, explores Jones' Sound, 210 Prince Charles' Isle (Spitzbergen), 55 Prince Patrick's Island, 213, 214, 215, 217, 219 Princess of Wales' Strait, 221 Pronchlshchef, Lieutenant, expedi- tion of, 228 'Prosperous' pink, one of Wood's vessels, 43 ' Purchas his Pilgrimes,' account of the discovery of Wiche's Land in, 48 ; chart of, with reference to position of Wiche's Land, 49 ; chart of Spitzbergen in, 51 ; treatment of Baffin's papers by, 158 Pyasina river (Siberia), 227, 228 •Q UEEN,' whaler from Peter- head, 155 RABOI Cape (New Siberia), 234 ' Racehorse,' Captain Phipps' ship, 77 ' Rattler,' whaler, turned inside out, 170 ' Ravenscraig,' whaler of Dundee, 177 Rawliiison, Sir Henry, K.C.B,, with the Arctic Deputation, 322 ; correspondence with Mr. Lowe, 333 Read, General Meredith, his bio- graphy of Hudson, 32 ' Recherche,' French discovery ship to Spitzbergen, 59 Reikjavik, 146 ROS Relics of Barents, list of, 25 ; de- scription, 29-31 Rensselaer harbour, Kane's winter quarters, 186, 193 • Resolute,' II, M.S., drift in Baffin's Bay, 16 1 ' Resolution,' Scoresby's ship, » voyage of, 71, 72 Results to be derived from Arctic exploration, 288 et seq. ' Richard,' Fotherby's ship, 40 Richard III,, sets forth voyages to Iceland, 4 Richards, Rear- Admiral, C. B. Discoveries on the shores of Bathurst and Melville Islands, 212-222 ; advocates a renewal of Arctic exploration, 281 ; present at the reception of the Arctic Deputation, 322 ; on the Arctic Committee, 335 Ricka )j, Mr., his trip to Baffin's Bay, in the ' Erik,' i8o Rijk Ys Islands, 59 (see Ryk Ys Isles) Rijp, Jan Cornellszoon, colleague of Barents in third voyage, 13 ; parts company with Barents, 1 5 ; picks up survivors of crew of Barents, 21 Rink, Dr., 134, his opinion of Morton's story, 189 Robeson, Mr., American Secretary of the Navy ; aids Hall, 196 Robeson Strait, discovered by Hall, 200, 201 ; current flowing down, 202 Rosenthal, expedition to Novaya Zemlya, 253 Ross, Captain John, R.N,, voyage up Baffin's Bay, 164, 183, 199 Ross, Captain James, R.N,, with Parry in his Polar boat expedi- tion, 86 ; false analogy from his Antarctic voyage exposed by Ad- Index 353 r, as ; «J«- le's winter ; in Baffin's y's ship, rom Arctic lip, 40 voyages to ml, C.B. shores of le Islands, a renewal tion, 281 ; tion of the J22 ; on the ) to Baffin's 80 {see Ryk Ys colleague of royage, 13 ; Barents, 15 ; of crew of opinion of an Secretary all, 196 red by Hall, iwing down, to Novaya .N., voyage 183, 199 R.N., with Doat expedi- bgy fro^ ^'^ losed by Ad- ROY miral Collinson, 125 ; drift in his ship down Barrow's Strait, 223 Royal Society, advocacy of Arctic discovery by, 76 ; appoints an Arctic Commi'tee, 335 Royal Geograpliical Society {see Deputation, and Committee), grant to Captain Carlsen, of a gold watch by, 105 Russians, never at Barents' winter quarters, 29 ; expedition to Spitz- bcrgen, 75 ; surveys by Admiral Lutke, 83 ; discoveries on Sibe- rian coast, 226-240 ; views re- specting a 'Polynia,' 242-245; achievements of, in the Arctic regions, 248 {see TchitschakofT, Anjou, Hedenstrom, Wrangell, Behring, Middendorf, Laptef, Lutke) Ryk Ys Isles, 59 ; touched at by Lamont and Birkbcck, loi ; by Norwegians, 107 Rytina Stelleres, 232, 307 {See Steller) SABINE, Sir Edward, his voyages, to take pendulum observations, 82, 142, 290 ; on Arctic discovery, 289 ' St. Andrew,' whaler, early passage of, into ' North Water,' 169 St. Olaus, Greenland monastery, 133 St. John's, Newfoundland, 'Polaris ' boat's crew brought to, 204 Samoyeden, peninsula, 252 ' Sampson,' yacht of Mr. Leigh Smith, 103, 120 Sastrugi, waves on snow, as guides to Siberian travellers, 239 Scandinavian explorers, 112 Schmidt, Herr P., his expedition to the Lower Yenisei, 245-248 Scoresby, Captain, 2, 37, 103 ; SI,E on the colour of the sea, 35 ; his ability and intelligence, 47 ; his position of Ryk Ys Ii.les, 39 ; value of his work, 67-73 ; his famous voyage in the ' Resolu- tion,' 71 ; high luitude reached by, 73 ; drift of Polar pack ob- served by, 94 ; observations of deep-sea ttinporatures by, 95 ; discoveries of, on east coast of Greenland, 140 ' Search Thrift,' ship of Burrough, s. 38 Seven Islands (Spitzbcrgcn), 57, 58, 78, 97, 103 ; probably sighted by Hudson, 35 ; passed by Parry, 87, 91 ; by Norwegians, 104-105 Shackleton, Cape, 167 Shurakoff, Lieutenant, reaches mouth of the Olii, 228 Siberia, water-holes off coast of, 22, 23 {see Polynia) ; discovery of coast, 226-230 ; rivers of, 226 ; ice and trees brought down by rivers of, 242 ; drift-wood, 246 ; limits of northern vegetation, 246 {see Currents, Russians, New Siberia, Yenisei) Simonsen, Norwegian captain, voyage of, to Novaya Zemlya, 252 Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, employs the Zeni, 129 Skrutton, James, one of Hudson's crews, 38 Sledge travelling, first proposed by Parry and Franklin, 84-92 ; by Germans, 152 ; only efficient means of exploring, 157 ; Kane's, 188 ; Hayes', 193 ; Anjou's, 234-235 ; Wrangell's, 236-240 ; McClintock's, 85, 213- 219, 263; Richards', 212; Me- cham's, 213, 263 ; Hamilton's, 213; Osbom's, 212 ; preparations for by Lieutenant Payer, 254-255 ; A A 354 Index SME ■ its advantages for efficient exami- nation of coasts, 264 Smeerenburg (Spitzbergen), 53 Smith, Sir Thomas, sent Fotherby on a voyage to Spitzbergen, 40 ; inlet named after, and island (Spitzbergen), 51 ; notice of, 181, 182 Smith Sound, 150 ; opinions in favour of route by, 154; open water in, 162 ; approach to, 173 ; open water seen by whalers in, 178, 183; discovered by Baffin, 181 ; sighted by Ross, 183 ; entered by Inglefield, 184 ; Dr. Kane's expedition to, 184-192; Baron Wrangell in favour of route by, 185 ; description of coast of, 186, 187 ; reports of Esquimaux as to land up, 192 ; Dr. Hayes' expedition to, 193- 195 ; whalers at entrance of, 195 ; view of Captain Hall as to navi- gation of, 197 ; Maps of, 199; Captain Hall's expedition up, 200; abundance of animal life on shores of, 202, 207, 276 ; route by, its advantages, 262 ; navigable for a considerable distance, 266 ; route by, the best for Arctic discovery, 268, 276 Smith, Mr. B. Leigh, islands dis- covered by, 91 ; his observations of deep-sea temperatures, 95 ; his expeditions to Spitzbergen, and discoveries, 103 ; high lati- tude attained by, 103 ; his expe- dition of 1873, 120, 270 Smith, Cape, 103 ' Solid,' ship of Captain Carlsen, 24 ' Sophia,' steamer of the Swedes, high latitude reached by, 97 ; Souter, Captain, of whaler 'Intre- pid,' 176 .SWE ' Southern Passage ' of Baffin's Bay, 16s Spectrum analysis, value of obser- vations near the Pole, 293 'Speedwell,' Captain Wood's ship, 43 ; wrecked, 44 Spitzbergen, discovered by Barents, 14 ; west coast examined by Hudson, 35 ; whale fisheiy in seas of, 40, 46 ; voyages of Poole and Fotherby to, 40 ; voyages of Captain Edge to, 48 ; discoveries to eastward of, in 161 7, 48 ; discoveries of the English, 51 ; account of, by Martens, 58 ; Van Keulen's chart of, 60 ; English fishery off, 64 ; description of coast, 69 ; English Govcnnnent expeditious to, 76, 80, 82 ; navigation of surrounding seas ; currents, 94- 96 ; Swedish expeditions to, 96, German, 99 ; circumnavigated by Carlsen, 104 ; pendulum obser- vations at, 82, 291 ; disadvan- tages of route by, 260, 261, 269 ; {see Arctic Voyages) Staduchin, Michael, a Cossack, founded Nijnei Kolymsk, 230 Stephen, Messrs. Alexander and Sons, ship-builders at Dundee, build whalers, 1 74 ; owners of the whaler ' Arctic,' 176 Steller, naturalist with Behring, 231, 232 Stembech, Baron, accompanies Count Wilczek, 255 Stor Fiord (Spitzbergen), 48, 51, 99, loi Strachey, Major-General R. , C. S. I. , on the Arctic Committee of the Royal Society, 335 ' Sunshine,' one of Davis's ships, 157 Swedish expeditions to Spitz- Index 355 Baffin's Bay, lue of obser- e, 293 Wood's ship, d by Barents, examined by le fisheiy in voyages of rby to, 40 ; Edge to, 48 ; itward of, in relies of the sunt of, by 'an Keulen's ish fishery off, if coast, 69 ; lit expeditions navigation of currents, 94- iditions to, 96, mnavigatcd l)y idulum obscr- 91 ; disadvan- !6o, 261, 269 ; ) a Cossack, ilymsk, 230 lexander and at Dundee, ; owners of 176 ivith Behring, accompanies -gen), 48, 51, :ralR.,C.S.I., nmittee of the Davis's ships, s to Spitz- SWE bergen, 96 ; their highest lati- tude, 97 ; views on Polar navi- gation, 97 ; expedition of 1872- 73, II 3-1 14; good wishes for, 117 Swedish Foreland, east of Spitz- bergen, 97, 99 Sybrandt, Dutch explorer, 57 TAIMYR, Cape, 22, 227, 229, 243 (see I^ptcf, Midden- dorf ' Tay,' first steam whaler at Dundee, 174 ; whaler, 177 ; sails, 180 * 'J'ay Seal and Whale Fishing Company.' Thnr whalers, 176 'iaylcr, Mr. T. W., leader of Messrs. Gibbs' expedition to the east coast of Greenland, 144, 146 TchitschakofF, commander of Rus- sian expedition to Spitzbeigen, ^ 75. 76, 83 Tchuktche (set Tuski) 'Tegethoff,' steamer, Austrian ex- ploring vessel, 254, 256 ; last seen, 257 Thank -God Bay, winter quarters of ' Polaris,' 20I Theunis Ys, Dutch exjilorer, 56 Thorne, Dr. Robert, views as to Polar discovery, 4 Tides, in the Arctic seas, west of Banks' Land, 22 1 -223 ; off Cape Taimyr, 229 'Tigress,' steamer, picks up boat's crew of ' Polaris,' 204 ; chartered by United States' Government to relieve ' Polaris,' 205 Tobiesen, Norwegian captain, 60 ; his voyage round Norlh-East Land, 105 Tordenskiold, Capc(Wiche's Land), 108 UST Torell, Cape (Spitzbergen), 109 Travelling (see Sledge-Travelling) 'Trent,' Franklin's ship in Bu- chan's expedition, 79 Treurenburg Bay (Spitzbergen), 6t Treuter Mountains (Jones' Sound), 210 Tromsb, 29, III, 252, 256; 'Tegethoff ' sails from, 255 Tryon, Captain, R.N. C.B., present at the Arctic Deputation, 322 Tundra, frozen region of .Siberia, 226 ; inhabitants, 248 ; guide to travellers on, 239 (see Sastnigi) Tuski or Tchuktche, chief of, tells Wrangell of land north of Siberia, 240 Tyson, Captain, assistant n.avigator of ' Polaris,' 197 ; his report on state of the ice, 200 ; in the boat which drifted out of Baffin's Bay, 203 ULVE, Captain, with Mr. Leigh Smith, I02 Umingmuk (Musk Ox Isle), up Smith Sound, 192 ' United States,' schooner of Dr. Hayes, 192 Unknown Region, its extent, 2 ; approaches to, 3 ; ai)proacIied by Hudson, 32 ; ajiproach to, by Smith Sound, 173 ; wide strait leading to, uji Smith Sound, 191, 200 ; north of Parry Islands, 212, 213 ; along Siberian coast, 226, 248 ; best route for exploration of, 259 ; results of exploration of, 288 d scq. Upcrnavik, 158; Kane retreats to, 190 Ust Yansk, winter quarters of Anjou, 235 356 Index VAI VAIGAT, discovered by Bur- rough and Pett, 7, 8, 14; Captain Carlsen sails through, 27 (see Way gat) Van Keulen, chart of Spitzbergen, 60, 97 ; points on east coast of Greenland on chart, 132, 140 Van Rensselaer harbour, Kane's winter quarters, 186, 193 Vardo, 1 10 Vegetation {see Plants, Botanical Results) •Victor,' whaler, of Dundee, 121, 176, 178 Visokoi, Cape (New Siberia), 234 Vlamingh, Captain, Dutch explorer, 29, 56, 61 Vogelsang Pt. (Spitzbergen), so named by Barents, 14, 35 WALIG, Dutch Captain, of Helder ; his account of the voyage of Giles (Gillis), 59 Walden Island, 78 Walker, Captain, of whaler • Erik,' 147, 177, 178, 180 Walker, Captain W. , of Mr. Leigh Smith's yacht 'Sampson,' I2I Walker, Dr., of the • Fox,' 71 Walsingham, Cape, 158, 161 Wardhouse Isle, 21 Waygat, or Hinlopen Strait, 51, 58 Waygat Isle, 102 Wellington Channel, drift of ice in, 161, 189 Weyde Bay (Spitzbergen), 103 Weyprecht, Lieutenant, companion of Lieutenant Payer (whom see), I", 254 Whale Sound, • Polaris ' wintering at entrance of, 204 Whalers of Peterhead, 74, 155 ; of Dundee, 1 76 ; steamers, 1 74 ; iron steamer tried and failed, 175 ; WOO sail from Dundee in 1873, 179 ; in Smith Sound, 195; discoveries of, 178 Whale fishery in Spitzbergen seas, 40, 41 ; Hudson's voyages led the way to, 46 ; ventures of Mus- covy Company, 48; Dutch, 52-57; « Whale-fishers' Bight,' 68 ; in- formation collected by captains, 73 ; Dutch in Davis' Strait, 160 Whalers in Baffin's Bay, 168 ; in Melville Bay, 170 ; introduction of steamers, 173, 174; demand for oil, 174 ; value of Dundee whaling trade, 175 Wiche, Mr. Richard, after whom Wiche's Land was named, 50 Wiche's Land, discovered by one of Captain Edge's shij^s, 49, 50, 51, 59; sighted by Von Heuglin, 100; sighted by Birkbeck, 102 ; re- discovered by the Norwegians, 107, 108, 109 Wilczek, Count, voyage in the ' Isbjom ' to Novaya Zemlya, 254 ' William,' ship of Charles Jackman, 7 Williamszoon, Captain, voyage towards the Pole, 57 Willoughby, Sir John, 5 ' Windward,' whaler of Peterhead, Winter quarters of Barents, 16 ; of Graah, 141 ; of Kane and Hayes, »S6, 193, 194 J of Hall, 201; of Anjou, 235 Witsen, his account of the voyage of Vlamingh, 29 ; Grenville Collins's letter to, 44 Wolf Island, 204 Wolstenholme, Sir John, 5, 159 Wolstenholme Sound, 151 Woman's Islands, 159, 167 Wood, Captain John, account of, 42; his arguments for a Polar ,s. n >873, 179; )5; discoyeries Index woo voyage, 43, 44 ; his voyage to Novaya Zemlya, 43, 45 Wooclcocke, sent out by the Muscovy Company, 7 Wyche's Land (see Wiche) "yAKUTSK, 233 ■I Yenisei river, 226, 228 ; ex- pedition of Schmidt to, 245, 248 ; drift wood carried down by' 246 -" 357 zoo ;■:;;':;■;..: Yeaman, Mr., of Dundee. Informa- tion furnished by 180 (note) York, Cape (Baffin's Bay), 16? »68, 170, 173, 183, 204 Yule, Captain, of Dundee whaler 'Esquimaux,' 176 ZEIL, Count, accompanies Von Heuglin, 99 Zeni, voyage of, 128-139 Zoological results of Arctic explo- ration, 306 im, voyage LONDON : PRINTED BV .rOTTISWOODE AN„ CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE ANU PAKLIAMKNT STREET f \r, »• SAMPSOir LOW, MARSTOlf, & CO.'S NEW BOOK.S. THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN REGION. By Cr.KMENrs n. Maiikiiam. C.n., F.ns.. Swretury of the Royal Oeosruphicnl Society. The olrjwrt of tliifl Work in to (five the Pulilic a correct linowledt'o of tlie wliolu Line of Frontier t^ppnrutinjr tlie known from ttio unknown negion round the North I'olo, It will contain a Sketch of the Extent of tlie Unknown Region, and of theAp- pronr-hcs to its Thresliolil— The Earliest A'oyaKes— Wiilinm Uurents— HiH Voyat'rs and I)lKCoverle8— His Winter yuarters— Henry Hndson— Dutch and Knglish Whaling Voyages in the SpitzlH'rgen Seiu* — Kxpeditions hy the Spitzlicrgcn Rontc— Phipjis, Rnchan, I'arry— (ierniana, Swedes, Norwej^'ians- Leigh Smith— Baffin's Bay anemy 8vo. with Map and Illustrations, cloth extra, 16<. DHOW-CHASING in ZANZIBAR WATERS and on the EASTERN COAST of AFRICA : a Narrative of Five Years' Experiences in the S ippression of the Slave Trade. By Capt. G. L. Sui.ivav.-R.N., late Commander of H. M.S. • Daphne.' With lUnstrations from Photographs and Sketches token on the Spot by the Author. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. cloth extra, 16t. 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Prime. In 1 vol. small post 8vo. cloth extra, 5j. ' Mr. W. C. Prime has published a volume that will be a treat to cveir contemplative fisherman.... He calls it, "I Go a-Fishing." The tender charm of the book, its sober eloquence, and its genial breadth, remind one very much of the style of Jertmy Taylor. ... .A rare love of nature, and a simple-hearted adoration of the God of nature, and an intense devotion to tho finny denizens of the deep, especially of pools in tront-streams .... Its subdued humour, power, its fondness for that which is Rood and honest and natural, its Christianity, without the specialities of sectarianism, should recommend it to every one who likes to cast a tly in a likely pool. . . . Mr. Prime ought to be able to rely on a h« ixty reception of this book among his English cousins.'— IMPORTANT NEW WORK ON BRITISH AMERICA. OCEAN to OCEAN. Sandford Fleming's Expedition through Canada in 1872. 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