The rapid progress which has been made within the last half century in physical science and geography, has thrown a deeper interest on whatever concerns the polar regions, than belongs to the mere commercial speculation in which originated the earliest attempts for discovering a passage through the North Polar Ocean to India and China. It is not here intended, however, to enter into any detail concerning the new objects of natural history, the atmospheric phenomena of temperature, electricity, and magnetism, and various other points of scientific research, which the late expeditions have been the means of collecting and communicating; but to exhibit a sketch of the various attempts which have been made to explore those regions of darkness, long supposed not only to be uninhabitable, but unapproachable, and to take a very concise view of the progressive discovery and geographical information which have resulted from those attempts.
NORTH POLAR SEA.
We are now able to draw, with nearly geographical accuracy, the boundaries of the North Polar Sea. A very large portion of the northern shores of Europe, Asia, and America, which circumscribe it, have been visited; and the position of most of their bays, headlands, and rivers, geographically ascertained. By casting our eye over the north polar chart, it will be seen that the Polar Sea of that hemisphere is an immense circular basin, which communicates with the two great oceans of the world, the Atlantic and the Pacific, by two channels, the one separating America from Europe, and the other America from Asia. It will be seen that few points of the coasts of Europe and Asia, which occupy a full half of the circumsciribing circle, extend much beyond the seventieth parallel of latitude; and all these points have been passed by water, though at different times and by different persons, with the single exception of the Cape Cevero Vostochnoi, which, on the charts, is made to extend to the latitude $75^\circ$. The northern coast of America, with Old Greenland, and the two channels above mentioned, complete the circle, America extending about $80^\circ$ of longitude, or just two ninths of the whole circle; and of this portion the whole coast has now been ascertained, with the exception of that part which lies between Cape Turnagain of Franklin, and the land at the bottom of Prince Regent's Inlet, which the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company are now (1888) exploring. This being accomplished, we shall have the whole line of the northern coast of America completed. We may therefore state, that the average of the degree of latitude of this coast is about the same as, or rather lower than, that of Europe and Asia, and the extent of the North Polar Sea may be considered as about 2400 geographical miles in diameter, or 7200 in circumference.
The interior or central parts of this sea are very little known. Several islands are scattered over its southern extremities, the largest of which is Old Greenland, whose northern limit has not yet been passed; the others are, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, the islands of Liakhov, or, as some have been pleased to call them, New Siberia; the North Georgian Islands of Parry, and those which form the western land of Baffin's Bay; to which may be added the Boothia Felix of Ross, which there is little doubt is an island. Besides these, there are a number of small alluvial islands formed at the mouths of the several rivers of the two continents; but whether any, or what number of islands may exist nearer to the pole, we must of course remain ignorant till the Polar Sea has been further explored.
For the little which is known of this sea, we are indebted to that spirit of discovery which showed itself immediately after a passage to the East Indies had been effected round the Cape of Good Hope; not so much, it is true, Iceland, for the sake of geographical discovery, as that of shortening Greenland, the passage by sea to the eastern parts of the world, &c. It was obvious that, if a ship could proceed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on a great circle of the sphere, or nearly so, the distance, compared with the circumnavigations around Southern Africa or Southern America, would be prodigiously shortened. The voyage of Columbus had that object; but it was soon discovered that, from the Straits of Magellanes to the Gulf of St Lawrence, there was one uninterrupted continuity of land. Of the northern regions, the information obtained has been scanty and discouraging for such an enterprise. One of the Scandinavian pirates had indeed been driven by stress of weather, as early as the middle of the ninth century, upon an island to the north-west, to which, from its appearance, he gave the name of Snowland, which was afterwards changed to that of Iceland by the leader of the Norwegian colonists who took refuge on that inhospitable spot; but it was not till more than a century after this that Eric Rauda discovered the southern part of Old Greenland; and there are grounds for believing that, in the year 1001, some of these colonists discovered Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador.
The colony of Iceland continued to flourish in spite of Greenland the storms and tempests, the chilling temperature, the colonies, earthquakes and volcanoes, which shook to its centre this Ultima Thule of the inhabitable world; but the Greenland colonies were less fortunate. For some time that on the west is said to have succeeded so well as to number one hundred villages, divided into four parishes; but having engaged in hostilities with the natives, whom they named Skraelings (the same people as the present Esquimaux), the latter compelled them to abandon their settlements. The eastern colony is supposed to have shared a more deplorable fate; a stream of ice having fixed itself to the coast, about the year 1406, and rendered the whole of it, from that time to this, utterly inaccessible. The existence, however, of any such colony has of late years been called in question; and it is now supposed that all the Danish and Norwegian settlements were confined to the western side of Cape Farewell.
The voyages and adventures of the two brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno in 1380, though they added but little to the knowledge of northern geography, are extremely curious, and throw considerable light on the state of Greenland, Labrador, and the Feroe Islands (Friesland), at that of the early period. It may be doubted, however, if any of the Portuguese voyages hitherto made were undertaken for purposes of discovery and the benefit of navigation. The Portuguese have unquestionably the merit of being the first to send out expeditions with these views; and it is to their successful discovery of a passage round the Cape of Good Hope that we owe the bold enterprise of Christopher Colon, better known as Columbus, to find out a passage to the East Indies by steering directly to the westward.
It was not till the year 1496 that England was engaged in nautical discoveries. In that year, Henry VII, encouraged John Cabota, a citizen of Venice, to make discoveries, by granting him a patent to search for unknown lands, Polar Seas, and to conquer and settle them. His son Sebastian, either alone or in company with his father, discovered Newfoundland, to which was given the name of Prima Vista, "the first seen." We say discovered; for although the testimonies are in favour of the Scandinavians having settled colonies upon this island, no vestige then remained or has since been found of any such colonies. The object of the voyage was, as stated by himself, that, "understanding, by reason of the sphere, that if I should sail by way of north-west, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two caravels to be furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage." He states in his report that he reached the fifty-sixth degree, but finding no opening in the coast, he despaired of a passage, and returned.
A claim, however, has been set up for the discovery of Terra de Bacalhaos, or the Land of Codfish, afterwards called Newfoundland, by John Vaz Costa Cortereal, a Portuguese gentleman belonging to the household of the Infanta Don Fernando, who is said to have touched at that island in the year 1463 or 1464, in an attempt to find a route to India and the Spice Islands by sailing westward round the northern extremity of America. This claim rests on the testimony of Cordeira, and on a patent commission, granting to Cortereal the captaincy of Terceira, in 1464, as a reward for his important discovery. The Portuguese certainly not only fished on the banks, but formed establishments on the island of Newfoundland, towards the end of the fifteenth century.
In the summer of 1500, two ships sailed from Lisbon, under the command of Gaspar Cortereal, on northern discovery. According to Ramusio, they arrived at a region of extreme cold; and, in the latitude of 60° north, discovered a river filled with ice, to which they gave the name of Rio Nevado, that is, Snow River. This land was Labrador, which on an old chart is named Corterealis. In returning he discovered the Gulf of St Lawrence. Gaspar Cortereal was so satisfied of the existence of a north-west passage to India, that he again left Lisbon in May 1501 with two vessels; but his own was separated on the coast of Terra Verde, and never more heard of. A second brother went out the following year, but his ship was also supposed to be lost, and all hands perished. A third expedition was sent out in search of the unfortunate navigators, but no tidings could be obtained of their fate.
The French are the only maritime people who have seen, with apparent indifference, the exertions made by other nations for the discovery of a passage to India either by the north-east or the north-west. Auberton Cartier's voyages to Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence, between 1508 and 1534, can hardly be considered as voyages of discovery; and the subsequent voyages of Roberval and of the Marquis de la Roche had no other object than the discovery of gold, or of a desirable spot for establishing a colony on the coast of America.
In the year 1524, the jealousy of the Spaniards would seem to have taken the alarm at the attempts which were making by other nations to discover a shorter way to China and the Indies by the north; for it appears that a skilful navigator who had been with Magellan, of the name of Estevan Gomez, sailed in that year from Cornua, with the view of discovering a northern passage from the Atlantic to the Moluccas. Gaspar, the only author who has recorded this voyage, enters into no details; but it is supposed he reached no farther than the coast of Labrador, from which he brought away some of the natives. On his return he was asked by a friend what success he had met with? The answer was clavros (slaves), which the inquirer mistook for cloves (clove), and spread the report of his having made, as Purchas calls it, a "spicy discovery." It is evident, however, that his voyage was a complete failure, of which, as Polar the voluminous compiler just mentioned observes, "little is left us but a jest."
The alarm of the Spaniards spread to the Pacific; and of the Cortez, the conqueror and viceroy of Mexico, on receiving Spanish intelligence of the voyages of the Cortereals, fitted out three ships, under the orders of Francisco Ullon, to look for the supposed Strait of Anian, through which they were to pass. In 1542, the viceroy Mendoza sent one expedition by land and another by sea from Mexico to the northward. No discoveries were made by any of these voyages. Two years after this the court of Spain ordered another expedition along the western coast of America, the conduct of which was intrusted to Juan Rodrigues de Cabrillo, a Portuguese in the service of Spain. He reached the latitude of 44° N., and gave the name of Cape Mendocino to the land, about the latitude 48° N., in compliment to the viceroy.
England in the mean time was not inactive. At the suggestion of Mr Robert Thorne of Bristol, King Henry VIII. caused to be sent forth "two faire ships, with divers cunning men, to seek strange regions," which left the Thames in 1527. All that Hakluyt could discover of these ships and the cunning men was, that the name of one of them was Dominus Vobiscum, and that a canon of St Paul's of London, a great mathematician and wealthy man, went on the expedition. One of these ships was cast away in the great opening between the north parts of Newfoundland and Meta Incognita, supposed to be Greenland.
In the year 1536, two ships, the Trinity and the Minion, were set forth by Master Hore of London, "a man of good estate and of great courage, and given to the studies of cosmography." Six score persons, we are told, embarked on this expedition, whereof thirty were gentlemen. They reached no higher than Newfoundland; but there is a curious account of their proceedings by Hakluyt, which he procured from Mr Oliver Dawbeny, merchant of London, who was one of the adventurers on board the Minion.
On the return of Sebastian Cabot to England, he was constituted Grand Pilot, and "Governor of the Mystery, and Companie of the Merchants Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown." At his suggestion a voyage was undertaken, in the year 1553, for the discovery of a north-east passage to Cathia, consisting of three vessels, the crews of which, including eleven merchants, amounted to 113 persons. Numerous candidates stood forward for the command of this expedition; but Sir Hugh Willoughby was appointed captain-general of the fleet, "both by reason of his goodly personage (for he was of tall stature), as also for his singular skill in the services of warre." The fate of this expedition was most disastrous. Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his brave associates, as well as the crew of the second ship, to the number of seventy persons, miserably perished from cold and hunger on the coast of Lapland, at the mouth of a river called Arzina, not far from the harbour of Kegor. The third ship, under Master Richard Chancellor, had parted company, and, by putting into Wardhusys, in Norway, escaped the fate of his companions; and in the following year discovered the port of Archangel, and opened the first intercourse with Russia.
In the years 1555 and 1556, two ships were sent out to Archangel to carry commissioners to the court of Moscow, and, having landed them, to prosecute discoveries, and "to use all ways and meanes possible to learne howe men may passe from Russia, either by land or sea, to Cathia." Stephen Burrough, in the Serchthrift, proceeded easterly as far as the island of Waygatz, where he was stopped by the constant north-east and northerly winds, thick weather, and abundance of ice. The neighbouring country was inhabited by Samoieds, who had no houses, but only tents made of deer's skins. The rapid progress made from this time by land through Russia to Persia and India revived the ardour for discovery by sea, and the pens of the most learned and ingenious men in the nation were employed to prove the existence, the practicability, and the great advantages which would result from the discovery of a north-west passage. Amongst others, Martin Frobisher had laboured for fifteen years, but without the means of setting forth an expedition, till at last, in the year 1576, by the assistance of Dudley, earl of Warwick, and a few friends, he was enabled to fit out two small barkes, the Gabriel of thirty-five, and the Michael of thirty tons, and a small pinnace of ten tons. On the 11th of July this little squadron came in sight of Friesland, "rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snow." This Friesland, being in 61° latitude, was probably the southern part of Old Greenland. He entered a strait which now bears his name, in latitude 63° 8' N., and had communication with the Esquimaux, whom he describes as "like to Tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, and flat noses." He brought home one of these "strange infideles, whose like was never seen, read, nor heard of before;" and Frobisher had the satisfaction to find himself "highly commended of all men for his greate and notable attempt; but speecchily famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathaia."
Some of the crew having brought home a stone which "glistend with a bright marquesset of gold," Queen Elizabeth now gave countenance to a second attempt, and added to the expedition "one tall ship of her majesties named the Ayde." In this voyage they proceeded to Mount Warwick, on Resolution Island, in latitude 63° 5' north, whence they sailed on their return home on the 23rd of August, having lost only one man by sickness, and another who fell overboard.
Though Frobisher brought home neither gold nor silver, but something which had the appearance of both, the queen and her court, pleased in "finding that the matter of the gold ore had appearance, and made show of great riches and profit, and the hope of the passage to Cathaia by this last voyage greatly increased," determined to establish a colony on Meta Incognita; for which purpose fifteen ships were prepared, carrying 100 persons to form the settlement, with whom three of the ships were to remain, and twelve to bring back cargoes of gold ore. The fleet sailed on the 31st of May 1578; part of it entered Frobisher's Strait, and part were driven towards the coast of Greenland. On the 30th of August, the ships having re-assembled off Hatton's Headland, on Resolution Island, and all hands disheartened by the cold and tempestuous weather, they resolved to make sail for England, where they all arrived at different ports about the beginning of October, with the loss, by deaths, of about forty persons.
The progress made by land to the eastward induced the Russian Company to fit out two ships, under the command of Pet and Jackman, to make another attempt at a north-east passage. They left Harwich on the 30th of May 1580, reached Wardhuys on the 23rd of June, and the coast of Nova Zembla on the 16th of July; passed the Strait of Waygatz, but were obliged to return on account of the ice. Sir Humphry Gilbert and his brother obtained from Queen Elizabeth, in 1578, a patent for making western discoveries, by which they established a corporation under the name of "The Colleagues of the Fellowship for the Discovery of the North-west Passage." In 1583 Sir Humphry set out to take possession of Newfoundland, but the voyage proved most disastrous; and on his return his little bark foundered at sea, when he and all that were in her perished.
In 1585 John Davis was sent out by the merchants of London, for the discovery of the north-west passage. Two barks, the Sunshine and the Moonshine, one of fifty, other of thirty-five tons, were fitted out for this purpose. On the 6th of August, Davis had proceeded so high up the strait which now bears his name as latitude 60° 40', and anchored in Exeter Bay, under "a brave mount," to which he gave the name of "Mount Raleigh, the cliffs whereof were as orient as gold." On the 8th of August they returned to the southward, and arrived in Dartmouth on the 30th of September.
In 1586 Davis set sail a second time, and coasted the western shore of Greenland up to the latitude of 66° 33', stood from thence across to the westward, made the land in 66° 19', and, turning to the southward, along the coast and numerous islands, anchored in a bay on the coast of Labrador, in latitude 56°, and, sailing from thence, arrived in England in the month of October.
A third voyage being determined on, Davis sailed from Dartmouth on the 19th of May, made the land on the west coast of Greenland in latitude 64° on the 14th of June, had advanced as high as latitude 67° on the 24th, and, on the 30th, was in latitude 72° 12'. From thence he crossed to the westward in an open sea, but being driven, as he supposed, by a current, found himself, on the 19th, abreast of Mount Raleigh. After this Davis advanced sixty leagues up the strait he had discovered on the former voyage, now called Cumberland Strait; passed through Lumley's Inlet, the same, it is supposed, which Frobisher had discovered, and known as Frobisher's Strait; and, standing to the southeast, discovered Cape Chidley, and, returning homewards, arrived in England by the middle of September.
Of the voyage of Maldonado in 1588, and of Jan de Fuca in 1592, it is not necessary to say anything; the latter being at best but problematical, and the former altogether spurious.
The next attempts we find in chronological order were Voyages of three voyages for the discovery of a north-east passage, undertaken by the Dutch, in which William Barentz was chief pilot. The first of these was set forth in 1594; proceeded easterly as far as Waygatz, then along the western coast of Nova Zembla as high as latitude 77° 25'; and returned to the Texel on the 16th of September. On the second voyage, the following year, they did not reach Nova Zembla till the 17th of August, when finding it impossible, on account of the great quantity of ice, and "the weather being misty, melancholie, and snowie," they returned to the westward, and arrived in the Maes on the 18th of November.
The third voyage of Barentz is intensely interesting. The ships left the Texel in May, and on the 9th of June, after sailing amongst much ice, they discovered Bear (since called Cherry) Island. Proceeding northerly, they discovered Spitzbergen, along the western coast of which they had advanced, on the 19th, as high as 86° 11', opposite the point since known as Hakuyt's Headland. Returning to the southward, Barentz made for the coast of Nova Zembla; doubled the northern extremity; then found himself compelled, by the pressure of the ice and bad weather, to seek for refuge in a small bay, which they called Ice Haven; and here they passed "their cold, comfortlesse, darke, and dreadfull winter," in about the seventy-sixth parallel of latitude. The ship was wholly wrecked, and the surviving part of the crew, fifteen in number, left this spot the following year in two open boats; and after an exertion of forty days, in which they suffered the greatest fatigue, famine, and cold, and in which Barentz and two others died, they reached Kilduin in Lapland, a distance of a thousand
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1 An interesting account of the proceedings of this able and intrepid navigator, by himself, is contained in a very rare and curious little book called *The World's Hydrographical Description*, 1593. Polar Seas. miles and more from the bay in which they had passed the winter.
Of George Weymouth. The merchants of England seem to have lost all hope of a northern passage to the East Indies, till they were once more roused by a supposed piece of information of Captain James Lancaster, that the passage was in the north-west of America, in latitude 62° 30′. Accordingly, in 1602, the Muscovy and Turkey Companies fitted out two fly-boats, the Discovery and Godspeed, the command of which was given to Captain George Weymouth. This voyage, however, proved a complete failure. It is difficult to make out precisely the utmost limit at which it arrived; it was not much beyond Resolution Island in Hudson's Strait; but, to use the words of a subsequent sagacious navigator, Luke Fox, "Davis and Weymouth lighted Hudson into his straits."
In 1605, the king of Denmark sent out an expedition of discovery, in which two Englishmen, James Hall and John Knight, were employed. The ships proceeded along the west coast of Greenland, but reached no higher than about latitude 60° 55′; gave the names of Christian's Fiord, and Queen Anne's Cape; traded and quarrelled with the natives; left two malefactors amongst them, and returned to Elsinore. This expedition was followed up by two others in the two following years, neither of which was productive of any discoveries; the first having advanced only to 66° 25′ on the coast of Greenland, and the latter not farther than Cape Farewell.
In 1606, the merchants of London sent out the Hope-well, under the directions of John Knight. In latitude 56° 48′, on the coast of Labrador, Knight, with his mate and four others, went on shore, and were supposed to be murdered by the natives, as none of them were ever afterwards heard of. The ship returned home.
Henry Hudson made no fewer than four voyages of discovery. The first, in 1607, was along the eastern coast of Greenland, when he reached, in 78° 56′, a higher degree of latitude on that coast than has since been ascended. The second, in 1608, was an attempt to the eastward, where, as in all preceding attempts, he was stopped at Waygatz Strait. Of the third little is known. Its northern limits appear to have been the North Cape on one side, and Newfoundland on the other.
The fourth voyage was fatal to Hudson, but it opened the way to the coast of America in a higher degree of latitude than it had yet been approached. He left the Thames in the Discovery of fifty-five tons, on the 17th of April 1610, and reached the Isle of Godsmere, in the strait which bears his name, on the 6th of July; on the 2d of August he discovered land, which he named Cape Wolstenholm; and near it, on a cluster of islands, Cape Digges: And here ends Hudson's narrative; for his crew having mutinied, they put Hudson, his son, and seven others, into an open boat, which was never more heard of. The ship returned to England, and, what is most remarkable, the inhuman and atrocious act does not appear to have caused any sensation; nor was any inquiry instituted into the proceedings of the mutineers.
Two of them, in fact, Abacuk Pricket and Robert Bylot, were employed under Captain (afterwards Sir Thomas) Button, appointed to prosecute the discovery of a north-west passage, in two ships, the Resolution and Discovery. Button followed the tract of Hudson, and succeeded in reaching the coast of America, where he wintered in Nelson's River, in latitude 57° 10′. The following year they stood to the northward, and discovered Southampton Island, as high up as latitude 65°; made some discoveries of islands, and returned to England in the autumn of 1613.
In 1612, we find James Hall employed on an expedition up the western coast of Greenland, where he was slain by one of the natives, at Ramel's Point, in latitude 67°. The account of the voyage is written by William Baffin, who was pilot, in which he relates the method of determining the Polar longitude by an observation of the time when the moon came upon the meridian; the first navigator probably who practised this method.
In 1614, Captain Gibbon was sent out in the Discovery, of the command of her given to Robert Bylot, who took William Baffin as his mate. They visited Button's Islands, Savage Islands, and Mill Islands, and proceeded along the east coast of Southampton Island to Cape Comfort, in latitude 65°. From thence they returned to the southward, and reached England in the month of September.
In 1616, Bylot and Baffin again set out in the bark Discovery, in search of a north-west passage; and, following their instructions, proceeded up Davis's Strait to Hope Sounderson, the extreme point of Davis's progress, between 72° and 73° of latitude, which they reached as early as the 30th of May. A little to the northward was a group of islands, to which, finding females only, they gave the name of Women's Islands. From hence they stood northerly, between the ice and the land, passing in succession Horn Sound, Wolstenholm's Islands, Whale Sound, Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, in latitude 78°, and at the northern extremity of what has since been called Baffin's Bay; and following the direction of the land, they passed, on the western shore, Alderman Jones's Sound, and lastly, Lancaster Sound; whence the ice compelled them to leave the land, and they therefore shaped their course homewards. This last voyage of Baffin is the most important that had yet been made; and it is quite surprising that the discovery of so many immense openings, which he calls sounds, for want of a better word, should not have been followed up, and that not one of them should have been examined until the expedition sent out under that intelligent and enterprising officer Captain Parry.
In 1619, the Danes sent out an expedition under Jens Munck, who penetrated as high up on the coast of America as Chesterfield Inlet, which he named Munck's Winter Harbour; for he wintered in it, and all his people, except two, perished of cold, disease, and famine. Munck and these two survivors with great difficulty fitted out the smaller of the two vessels, and reached Denmark, where they were considered as men risen from the dead. Munck is said to have received the indignity of a blow from the king, on which he took to his bed, and died of a broken heart; but there is an air of romance in the account of this voyage, which makes its authenticity doubtful.
In 1631, Captain Luke Fox, who quaintly calls himself the "North-west Fox," prevailed on some merchants of London to procure from King Charles I. his countenance, and the loan of one of his ships, for attempting the discovery of a north-west passage. Fox was undoubtedly more shrewd and intelligent than all former navigators; and if, when he reached what he calls Fox's Farthest, he had stood across to the westward, the probability is, that he would have got upon the northern coast of America, and succeeded in working his way into the Pacific, by the very route which Parry since pursued.
In the same year the merchants of Bristol fitted out the Maria of seventy tons, the command of which was given to Captain James. In proceeding up Hudson's Strait, somewhere about Resolution Island, he got his ship entangled in the ice; and from that spot to Charlton Island, at the bottom of Hudson's Bay, in latitude 52°, he details a series In 1652, the king of Denmark again set forth an expedition under Captain Daniel, to explore the eastern coast of Greenland. He stood to the northward of Iceland, but he could not approach the land on account of the ice; though the mountains were visible at least sixty miles. The most northern cape seen was in $65^\circ 30'$, to which he gave the name of Cape King Frederick. From this point to Cape Farewell the ice lay between him and the shore, which in no part he could approach within twenty miles; of course, no discovery was made by him.
After the lapse of more than a century, a paper admitted into the Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1675 tended to revive the attempt at a north-east passage in England. It contained an account of a Dutch ship fitted out by a company of merchants in Holland, having passed to the north-eastward of Nova Zembla several hundred leagues, between the parallels of $70^\circ$ and $80^\circ$; and the sea in that direction was found to be perfectly open and free from ice. About the same time it was reported that Spitzbergen had been circumnavigated, and that a Dutch ship had proceeded within one degree of the pole. Upon the strength of these reports, Captain John Wood addressed a memorial to the king, assigning seven reasons and three arguments for the existence of a north-east passage. Accordingly, two ships were fitted out under Captains Wood and Flaws. They left the Nore in May 1676; on the 22d of June had reached the latitude $75^\circ 79'$; and on the 26th got sight of the west coast of Nova Zembla. Three days after this, Wood lost his ship amongst the ice, and after some perils, and the loss of two men in reaching the shore, they were picked up by the other ship, and returned homewards without making the least discovery: when Wood published many peremptory and ill-founded reflections on former navigators, and now found out seven reasons and three arguments against the passage to the north-east.
Of the voyages of Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs, from the Hudson's Bay Company's settlements, along the eastern coast of America, little else need be said, than that they did not extend the knowledge of that coast beyond Whale Point; but the observations they made on the strong tide flowing down the Welcome induced a gentleman of the name of Dobbs to press the Board of Admiralty to appropriate a ship of the navy to make discoveries in this quarter. Two ships were accordingly fitted out; the Furnace bomb, and the Discovery pink, commanded by Captain Middleton and Mr William Moor. They left England in 1741, and wintered in Churchill River, in latitude $58^\circ 56'$; remained there till the 1st of July; proceeded northerly to the latitude $65^\circ 23'$; and entered Wager River, which they examined in an imperfect manner. They then stood to the northward as far as Cape Hope, in latitude $66^\circ 14'$, longitude $86^\circ 28'$ W.; and, most unaccountably, abandoned all farther search, having seen, or fancied they saw, "a frozen strait" between them and the point round which they had to proceed to the westward. Middleton had been an old servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were supposed to be jealous of any discoveries in their neighbourhood, and averse from encouraging them; and he was accused of having taken a bribe from them to defeat the object of the expedition. The lords of the Admiralty refused to approve of his proceedings; and to evince the feeling of the government, an act was passed the very year after his return, offering a reward of L20,000 to the person or persons, being subjects of his majesty, who should discover a north-west passage through Hudson's Strait to the Pacific. Dobbs, turning these circumstances to the advantage of his favourite project, got up a large subscription, and in 1746 two other vessels were fitted out, and the command of them given to Polar Seas. Captain William Moor and Captain Francis Smith.
Their first examination was that of the Wager River, which Of Moor was found to terminate in a broad rapid, beyond which were two unnavigable rivers. They then proceeded northerly, till they came to Captain Middleton's "frozen strait," or opening into Repulse Bay, when a difference of opinion arose amongst the officers, whether they were authorized by their instructions to examine this bay. The fact appears to be, that the officers and men had no taste for the business, and were under no kind of discipline. Instead, therefore, of proceeding, they began to murmur; and although only the 7th of August, they urged the lateness of the season, and wished to return home. After this nothing was done or even attempted; and Repulse Bay remained, till the second voyage of Captain Parry, unexamined.
No farther attempts at either passage appear to have been Of Phipps made by any of the maritime nations for nearly thirty years, and Lutwidge, But the Honourable Daines Barrington having, in the year 1773, presented to the Royal Society a series of papers on the practicability of approaching the North Pole, the president and council of that society made application to the first lord of the Admiralty (then Lord Sandwich) to send out a ship or ships, to try how far navigation might be practicable towards that quarter. The Racehorse and Carcass bombs were accordingly prepared, and the command given to Captain the Honourable Constantine Phipps and Captain Skiffington Lutwidge. They left the Nore on the 10th of June, passed along the western coast of Spitzbergen, and advanced to latitude $80^\circ 48'$, in sight of the Seven Islands; here they were beset in the ice on the 1st of August, and on the 10th, after being forced through it by a north-east wind, they proceeded to the southward, and arrived at the Nore on the 25th of September.
The hopes of a north-west passage were not abandoned Of Cook by this failure; but it was resolved to make the attempt by and Clerke, a different route to any that had yet been attempted; that is to say, from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Captain Cook was selected for this enterprise, and two ships, the Resolution and Discovery, were fitted out for the purpose, the latter being commanded by Captain Clerke. An amended act was passed for granting the reward of L20,000 for the discovery of "any northern passage" by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and also the reward of L5000 to any ship which should approach the North Pole within one degree. Captain Cook left England in July 1776; entered Behring's Strait on the 9th of August 1779; and on the 17th of August reached latitude $70^\circ 41'$ N., and saw the highest point of America, surrounded with ice, and therefore named by him Icy Cape, in latitude $70^\circ 29'$, longitude $198^\circ 20'$. The main body of the ice drifting down towards the ships, and the weather becoming foggy, they stood to the southward; and as the season was far advanced, Captain Cook determined to pass the winter at the Sandwich Islands, and to renew the attempt at an earlier period the following year. By his death at this place, Captain Clerke became the commanding officer. That he should have failed in reaching as far north as Cook had done, is not at all surprising, after an absence of three years from home, and all hands, as is avowed, "heartily sick of a navigation full of danger." A small vessel had been sent in the year 1776 up Davis's Strait, under Lieutenant Pickersgill, and the same vessel again in 1777, under Lieutenant Young, to render any assistance that might be required, in the event of Captain Cook's reaching Baffin's Bay; but neither of these officers made a progress beyond the 73d degree of latitude.
In 1786 and 1787, the king of Denmark, at the suggestion of Bishop Egede, sent out an expedition under Captain (afterwards Admiral) Lowenorn, for the purpose of re-discovering the eastern coast of Greenland. This officer per- Polar Seas severed for two years, but with no better success than his predecessors. They saw the coast at various points, as high up as 66°, but could not approach it on account of the ice. No discovery, therefore, of importance resulted from this expedition.
On the part of England, all further attempts appeared to be abandoned after the failure of Captain Cook. One gentleman, however, Mr Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer to the Admiralty, considering that three points of the northern coast of America had been clearly established, viz. Icy Cape, by Cook; the north of the Copper Mine River, in 1772, by Hearne; and the mouth of Mackenzie River, by the traveller whose name it bears, in 1789; which three points were supposed to lie in or about the 70th parallel of latitude, and that they comprehended within them fully two thirds of the whole of that coast; and combining these discoveries with other circumstances, he was decidedly of opinion that a north-west passage did exist, and that it was practicable. On the strength of this opinion he prevailed on the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company to employ Mr Charles Duncan, a master in the navy, on the discovery. He left England for this purpose in 1790, to join a sloop of the name of the Churchill, then in Hudson's Bay; but he soon discovered that the crew were adverse to the intended enterprise, and set up so systematic an opposition to proceeding upon it, that he deemed it prudent to leave them, and to return to England. The governors of the company expressed their regret; and, to prove how much they were in earnest, fitted out a strong ship called the Beaver, and Mr Duncan set out a second time. He wintered in Churchill River, where he remained till the 15th of July, and entered Chesterfield Inlet; but his crew mutinied, encouraged by his first officer, who was a servant of the Hudson's Bay Company; and thus ended his second voyage.
We have said nothing of the Russian voyages along the northern coast of Asia. That no one person has performed the whole, either at once or by successive trials, is quite clear; but, with the single exception of one "sacred promontory," called Cape Cevero Vostochnoi, between the Yenisei and the Lena, the whole has been navigated by various persons at different times. In the years between 1734 and 1738, Lieutenants Moroviof, Malgyn, and Skurakoff, succeeded in proceeding from Archangel to the Bay of Obe; and in the latter year, Offizin and Koskelet proceeded from that bay to the mouth of the Yenisei. In 1735, Lieutenant Pronstshitshef set out in the contrary direction from the Lena, but was stopped by the promontory above mentioned; though some affirm that he passed it, and reached as far as Taimura. From the Lena eastward to the Kowyma the voyage has frequently been performed, and Shaularoff, in 1671, succeeded in reaching the Shelatskoi-noss, but could not double it; and the only instance of its having been passed is that of Deshnel, as far back as the year 1648, who sailed from the Kowyma, through Behring's Strait, to Anadyr.
The immense distance by sea from St Petersburg to Kamtschatka, and the Russian settlements on the north-west coast of America, would render the discovery of a north-west passage of infinite importance to Russia. Impressed with the magnitude of this importance, an individual of that nation, the Count Romanzoff, fitted out at his own expense a small vessel, named the Rurick, the command of which was given to Lieutenant Kotzebue. She left the Baltic in 1815, passed Cape Horn, and in 1817 entered a deep inlet on the eastern side of Behring's Strait, in which he passed the remaining part of the summer. He found no ice, neither in the strait nor the inlet, and saw nothing to prevent his proceeding up the American coast to Icy Cape but the lateness of the season; and therefore returned to the southward, with the intention of renewing the attempt the following year. An accident, however, Polar which occurred on his second entrance of the strait, though personal only, put an end to the expedition.
This voyage of Kotzebue would alone have been sufficient to stimulate England to attempt once more to accomplish the almost only interesting discovery in geography that remains to be made; but other circumstances were reported in the year 1817, which determined the government to fit out two expeditions for northern discovery. A ship from Hamburg, in the summer of that year, made the eastern coast of Greenland, which was supposed to have been shut up with ice for four centuries, in the 70th parallel of latitude, continued along it to the 80th degree, and stood along that parallel to the coast of Spitzbergen. For three years before this, the post-office packets, and other vessels crossing the Atlantic, had fallen in with very unusual quantities of ice floating to the southward. This breaking up of the ice was deemed favourable for the prosecution of northern discovery. For this purpose two separate expeditions were put in preparation. One was intended to proceed by the North Pole, as the nearest route, and, if no interruption from land occurred, probably the most practicable, to Behring's Strait; the other, to attempt a passage by some of the openings leading out of Baffin's Bay. To each were assigned two ships. Those destined for the polar passage were the Dorothea, of 370 tons, commanded by Captain David Buchan, and the Trent, of 250 tons, by Lieutenant John Franklin. Those for the north-west were the Isabella, of 382 tons, commanded by Captain John Ross, and the Alexander, of 252 tons, by Lieutenant William Edward Parry. The polar expedition was rendered abortive by the disabling of the Dorothea in the ice; the other circumnavigated Baffin's Bay, and ascertained that the narrative of that able navigator whose name it bears is substantially true; and that the chart appended to the Voyage of the North-West Fox is in fact the chart of Baffin, and wonderfully correct for the time in which it was laid down. Not one, however, of the many great openings which appear in that chart, and were ascertained to exist, was examined; and the only one that was entered was abandoned in a most unaccountable manner, and on grounds which were at once suspected, and subsequently proved, to be utterly without foundation.
Another expedition was, therefore, immediately fitted out, consisting of two ships, the Hecla bomb and Griper L gun-brig, and the command of it given to Lieutenant Parry, Lieutenant Lidden being appointed to that of the Griper. They dropped down the river on the 4th of May 1819; saw Cape Farewell on the 15th of June; and by the 30th of July had succeeded in crossing the ice of Baffin's Bay, and reaching the opening of Sir James Lancaster's Sound, just one month earlier than in the preceding year. To the examination of this sound Mr Parry was particularly directed by his instructions. In proceeding along it to the westward, he met with little obstruction from the ice (though he was evidently navigating through an archipelago of islands, where it usually most abounds) until he came to the western extremity of what he calls Melville Island, the last that was visible on the northern side of the strait or passage through which he had proceeded. Beyond this he struggled in vain, till the 20th of September, to get to the westward, when the severity of the weather made it prudent to look out for a secure spot to pass the winter; and, after cutting a canal through the ice upwards of two miles in length, tracked the two ships into Winter Harbour, the crews "hauling the event with three loud and hearty cheers." The following year, when released from their icy prison, every effort was again made to pass the western extremity of Melville Island, but in vain; and, after many fruitless attempts, the ships returned to the eastward, and reached England in safety, bringing back every man who On their return to England, there was not an officer or man in the whole expedition that was not satisfied with the practicability of a western passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, though in some other line of direction, either to the northward or the southward of the extensive group of islands amongst which they had been navigating. The lords of the Admiralty appear to have entertained the same feelings, and accordingly gave directions for two bombs, the Fury and the Hecla, to be prepared for the prosecution of the discovery. To Captain Parry was given, as was justly due, the command of the expedition, and to Captain Lyon that of the Hecla. They left England in May 1821, and on the 2nd of August arrived in the channel formed between Southampton Island and the coast of America; passed the Frozen Strait of Middleton, and unconsciously entered Repulse Bay, "wherein was not a piece of ice to be seen." They found it entirely surrounded by land. Proceeding to the northward along the coast of America, they examined several inlets, all of which terminated at short distances from their entrance. The arrival of the 1st of October gave sufficient indications of the necessity of finding some place to pass the winter in; and after much research, to a small island selected for that purpose, Parry gave the name of Winter Island. Its latitude was observed to be 66° 5', the lowest temperature, during the winter, was — 40°.
On the 2nd of July they left Winter Island, proceeded up Fox's Channel, in which, from the strength of the current, and the floating masses of ice, both ships had a narrow escape from being nipped, that is, crushed between the huge hummocks. At length they reached the latitude of 67° 15', where they found a considerable opening in the land of America, out of which a strong current was observed to set into the sea. It turned out, on examination, to be the mouth of a fresh-water river. Proceeding still northerly along the coast of America, they came to a strait which had been previously indicated by a party of Esquimaux at Winter Island, and which one of the women, of a very superior cast, had marked down on a chart, with extraordinary correctness. Near it was the island of Igloolik, where (the 30th of October having arrived) they resolved to take up their second winter quarters. Its latitude was 69° 5', the lowest temperature 45° below zero. That horrible disease, the scurvy, having, in the following spring, made its appearance, both amongst the officers and the crews, which, however, yielded to the universal specific, lemon-juice, Captain Parry, by the advice of the surgeons, deemed it expedient, as soon as the ships could be liberated, to make the best of his way home, where he arrived on the 18th of October, having lost, in the course of the voyage, and the two winters he was shut up in the ice, five of his crew, three by sickness, one of previous disease, and one killed, out of the two ships' companies amounting to 118 men.
The result of this voyage forms a valuable and important addition to our geographical knowledge. The strait near which they wintered was named by Parry the Fury and Hecla Strait. The north-eastern termination of the continent of America was for the first time ascertained to be the southern point of land forming its entrance, and is in latitude 69° 41' north, longitude 52° 35' west. The narrowest part of the strait is about two miles across; its length about sixty geographical miles, where it joins Prince Regent's Inlet. It is through this strait that the waters of the Polar Sea are poured, in a perpetual current, into the Welcome and Fox's Channel, carrying with them those Polar fields and hummocks of ice that accumulate in the Frozen Strait, and amongst the narrows between the islands that occur from this point down to Hudson's Bay. The strait itself is so choked with ice, adhering to its two shores, as to render it unfit for navigable purposes, otherwise it would be the nearest and most direct line to pursue to get into the Polar Sea through the lower portion of Prince Regent's Inlet.
A third attempt was made in the Hecla and Fury in the years 1824–1825, the least successful of all. In this voyage Parry entered Lancaster Sound, and, instead of proceeding westerly, as he had before done, towards Melville Island, he deemed it expedient to strike off to the southward, down Prince Regent's Inlet, on the supposition, that having reached the current which he had previously ascertained to pass through the Fury and Hecla Strait, he would find himself in the direct line of the passage that would bring him to Icy Cape. It was, however, with much difficulty he was enabled to reach Port Bowen on the eastern shore of the inlet, on account of the vast masses of ice that almost filled up this strait or inlet; and it was then so late in the season that he resolved to winter in this port. On the 20th of July following, the ships were released from their winter quarters by the disruption of the ice; but such was the pressure of the vast masses by which they soon found themselves surrounded, that both ships were driven on shore, and the Fury was finally wrecked. Parry was therefore under the necessity of taking on board the crew of the Fury, and as much of her provisions as he could stow, and of making the best of his way to England.
Parry was not in the least disconcerted by the unsuccessful issue of the last voyage. He offered his services on a new plan of discovery, which indeed had already been proposed by Sir John Franklin. This was to proceed to the northern extremity of Spitzbergen, and from thence, with boats, to make the attempt to reach the North Pole. These northern voyages had always been popular from the earliest periods of British navigation. The president and council of the Royal Society addressed a letter to Lord Melville, signifying their approval of Parry's proposal, and stating their opinion, that such an enterprise could not fail to afford many valuable scientific results, and to settle points of philosophical inquiry. The Hecla was again put in commission for this service. She left the Nore the beginning of April 1827, and on the 14th of May was abreast of Hakluyt's Headland, and in June was anchored in a bay in latitude 79° 55' north, longitude 16° 54' east. From thence Parry proceeded in two sledge-boats, which he named the Enterprise and Endeavour; Parry in the one, and Lieutenant (now Captain) Ross in the other. At first they had to contend with loose and rugged ice, amongst which were pools of water; they then came to floe or field-ice, in places rugged, and sometimes covered with snow. Over these the boats were to be hauled, which proved a most severe and laborious task, the result of which was a progress of four or five miles a day due north, seldom more. But the most mortifying circumstance of all was, that when they thought they had advanced some ten or twelve miles to the northward, they found that they had retrograded as many miles to the southward, the floe on which they were exerting themselves having been carried by the current in that direction. In this way they struggled for thirty-five days, when, having expended half their provisions, and the season approaching to its termination, it was resolved they should return to the ship, the farthest point that they had reached being only 82° 45' north, longitude 19° 25' east.
It has been observed, that this unsuccessful attempt is of so bold and daring a character, that it must stand as a record to the latest posterity, of the patient, persevering, energetic, and undaunted conduct which British seamen Polar Seas are capable of displaying in the most difficult, discouraging, and dangerous circumstances, when under the command of prudent and intelligent officers, in whom they have entire confidence. On their return they met with open water to a considerable extent, and they reached the Hecla in sixty-one days from the time they had left her. If any future attempt to reach the pole be undertaken, it should not be made by boats, which are at the mercy of every current, and of every floe of ice with which they may come in contact; but in a small sailing vessel, that can take advantage of the open water, which every breeze from the northward affords to a vast extent. The distance is so short, that the success of an expedition of this kind is far from improbable.
Of Ross. — Of Captain (now Sir John) Ross's expedition little need be said. It was a bold but inconsiderate undertaking, and every soul who embarked on it must have perished, but for the ample supplies they received from the Fury, or rather from the provisions and stores which, by the providence of Captain Parry, he had ordered to be carefully stored up on the beach; for the ship herself had entirely disappeared. He proceeded down Regent's Inlet as far as he could in his little ship, the Victory; placed her amongst the ice clinging to the shore, and after two winters left her there; and, in returning to the northward, by great good luck fell in with a whaling-ship, which took them all on board, and brought them home. Captain James Ross, by his indefatigable exertions, collected some geographical information, and proceeded along the eastern coast of the land which Sir John Ross has named Boothia, out of compliment to his generous friend Booth, who bore the expenses of the expedition; and in this journey Ross came to the spot on which, he informs us, the magnetic pole was then situated.
Captain Beechey was employed on a surveying expedition along the western coast of North America, and when he had reached Behring's Strait he despatched his master, in the long-boat, round Icy Cape, to endeavour to fall in with Sir John Franklin, who was proceeding westerly from Mackenzie's River towards Icy Cape. These two officers, uncertain of their respective situations, returned each the way they had come, when about one hundred and twenty miles distant from each other. At the same time Dr Richardson had proceeded easterly and surveyed the American coast as far as Hearne's River, Franklin on a previous expedition having surveyed from thence to Cape Turnagain. The interval between the point reached by Beechey's master and that by Franklin on the second journey was, in the summer of 1837, accurately surveyed by Mr Simpson and the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who, with a zeal and spirit that cannot be too strongly approved, are in the present summer of 1838 engaged in completing that part between Cape Turnagain and the bottom of Regent's Inlet, which Captain Back was sent by land to complete, but was too late in reaching the coast for the party to undertake it. Captain Back in the year 1837 was sent, in the Terror, to land at Wager River or Repulse Bay, with the view of accomplishing what the Hudson's Bay servants are in the present year engaged upon; but his attempt was a complete failure, owing to the ship being immovably fixed in the ice which adhered to the shore of Southampton Island.
The sketch here given of the various attempts which have been made for the discovery of a north-west, a north-east, and polar passage, is purely historical. The results have been uniformly unsuccessful; but though they have failed in the main object, it must not be concluded that they have been useless. On the contrary, they have been the means of accumulating a stock of information of the highest importance in almost every department of science, so as to entitle those who, at the expense of every personal comfort, embarked in them, to the gratitude of mankind.
From the present state of our knowledge thus acquired, a very probable conjecture may now be formed of the practicability, or otherwise, of a navigation through some part of the Polar Sea.
In the first place, it has been distinctly ascertained that human beings can winter with impunity to their health in the highest possible degree of cold which can exist in any part of the earth's surface; for there is every reason short of actual proof to believe, that the temperature of the atmosphere on the pole itself is not lower than, perhaps not so low as, in the parallel of 75°, where Parry wintered; the spirit in the thermometer having there descended to 55° below zero. So little, indeed, is a high parallel of latitude the sole cause of a decreased temperature, that, in 65° north, ten degrees less than Parry's winter-quarters, Lieutenant Franklin had the spirit in the tube down to 57°, two degrees lower than Parry. This officer, therefore, left England with the impression that he should experience no injury, nor much inconvenience, from passing a second winter in the Polar Sea, if it should be found necessary.
In the second place, it has now been ascertained in what situations it would be a waste of time to look for a passage, and where the only remaining points are deserving of examination. That a communication, if not a practicable passage, does exist between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, through the medium of the Polar Sea, very little doubt can remain. The constant current which the old navigators Button, Fox, Middleton, and since their time Parry, Lyon, and Back, found setting down the Welcome, and which also, in a less degree, prevails in Baffin's Bay and Davis's Strait, together with the current which as constantly sets up Behring's Strait, as appears from the journal of Cook, Clerke, Glotof, and Kotzebue, testifies to this position. The fact of this circumvolving current, which we have no doubt contributes to those permanent movements everywhere existing in the great oceans, has been called in question, because, forsooth, Sir John Ross found it running as much one way as the other in Baffin's Bay. Sir John Ross had no further knowledge of currents than of those which are generally known to agitate the surface of the sea, and which are known to change with every wind. Superficial currents, however, are not here meant, but the uniform motion of that great body of water, which, in spite both of winds and superficial currents, and in the teeth of both, carry icebergs many hundred feet immersed below the surface, and bear them along the coast of America, in direct opposition to the strongest and most extensive current that we know of, the Gulf Stream. How happens it, then, it may be asked, that none of these icebergs, so very commonly met with in the Atlantic, ever come across to the coast of Norway or Denmark, Scotland or Ireland, with the spread of the said Gulf Stream, after it reaches the banks of Newfoundland, and carries with it so many other matters, floating on the surface, to these coasts? Or why do all the bottles which have been launched in Davis's Strait leave the direction taken by the icebergs, and turn up on some of the above-mentioned coasts? Clearly, because there is a body of water acting on those parts of the icebergs under the surface (and which are at least thirty times the magnitude of the parts above the surface) in a contrary direction to that which is in motion above. The fact is so obvious as not to require another word on the subject. It is the icebergs only that are subject to this law. The field-ice, which is influenced and drifted about according to the winds and the currents on the surface, gives no indication of the direction in which the great body of water is moved.
In the same manner, we may be satisfied of the constant rush of water from the Pacific, through Behring's Strait, into the Polar Sea, to supply the constant stream which flows down the Welcome into Hudson's Bay. It is this current which, according to the observations of Kotzebue and the naturalist Chamisso, brings the great quantity of drift-wood found in Behring's Strait and Kotzebue's Inlet. It is the same current by which, on the same authority, we are told, the icebergs and fields of ice, which are formed and break up in the sea of Kamtschatka, "do not drift, as in the Atlantic, to the south, but into the strait to the north?" and the strength of this set of the sea is stated to be from two and a half to three miles an hour; and that even in the teeth of a strong northerly wind. The conclusion drawn by M. Kotzebue is this, "that the constant north-east direction of the current of Behring's Strait proves that the water meets with no opposition, and, consequently, that a passage must exist (to the Atlantic), though perhaps not adapted to navigation. Observations have long been made that the current in Baffin's Bay runs to the south; and thus no doubt can remain that the mass of water which flows into Behring's Strait takes its course round the northern shore of America, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the ocean. But we have still more direct and positive information. Two Russian ships doubled the Icy Cape in 1821, and proceeded some forty or fifty miles beyond the point reached by Captain Cook; and such was the strength of the current to the eastward, that it was with the utmost difficulty they could stem it on their return, which a want of provisions, and of every requisite to pass the winter or encounter ice, compelled them to do; but they had no doubt whatever of a practicable passage.
An idea has heedlessly been started, that the superficial current in Baffin's Bay, and that which descends along the coast of Labrador, may be owing to the melting of the ice in summer; but if so, why does not the summer current at least descend through Behring's Strait instead of perpetually ascending it? But the supposition is altogether without foundation; for the quantity of ice destroyed above the surface will be replaced by very nearly the same quantity rising from below the surface; and, therefore, the water produced by the melting of the ice will merely supply the place of the latter, and not raise the surface of the sea above its usual level, nor produce any current. Be it observed, too, that in the arctic regions little or no increase of the ice is occasioned by the fall of rain or snow, which are of trifling amount.
Another objection, equally frivolous, was taken against a communication of the waters of Hudson's Bay and Behring's Strait, on the ground that the continent of Asia overlapped and was united to America, making Behring's Strait to terminate in a great bay. That question, however, has been set at rest for ever; even with those who were disposed to doubt of the voyage of Deschresche. The Russian government has recently employed several men of science to determine points of doubtful position on the northern coast of Siberia. In February 1821, Baron Wrangel, a distinguished officer in their service, left his head-quarters on the Nishchey Kolyma, to determine, by astronomical observation, the position of Shetatskoi-noss, or the north-east cape of Asia, which was found to be in latitude 70° 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed on the maps. He then proceeded over the ice directly north for eighty miles, without perceiving any other object than a boundless field of ice. The supposed continuation, therefore, of Asia to the eastward, may be considered as an idle speculation.
But the perpetual current from Behring's Strait has been traced along the whole extent of the northern coast of America into Hudson's Bay (with the exception of some 200 miles not yet examined), by Beechey, Franklin, Richardson, Back, and the Hudson's Bay Company, and so distinctly, as not to leave a doubt on the subject; and Parry found it discharging itself impetuously into Fox's Channel, and down the Welcome through the Strait of the Hecla and Fury. These facts, then, being established, it may be assumed that a water communication does exist between the Atlantic and Pacific; and that, from the low latitude of the coast of America, may be inferred the probability that this communication is a navigable one. The question, then, is narrowed to the direction in which it is most probable a passage will be found? The north-eastern route may be given up, were it only for the great distance (just one half of the whole circumference of the Polar Sea) that it would be necessary to navigate, more or less, amongst ice.
The tract pursued by Parry on his first voyage through Barrow's Strait, and amongst the islands, must obviously be direction of given up as hopeless. The prevailing north-westerly winds the passage wedge in amongst the islands such a mass of ice, which never melts, as to render all attempts to penetrate it at the western opening of the funnel impracticable; but beyond this ice, Captain Parry had no doubt there was an open sea, as it was observed, that, whenever the wind came to the eastward, the whole body of the ice kept moving to the westward for several days together. And this open sea is probably not inaccessible from some other quarter. Indeed we now know, that from the concurring reports of those who have examined the line of coast which terminates America, and from Captain James Ross when on the western shore of Boothia, that neither land nor ice was visible to the northward in the first case, nor to the westward in the second. It is clear, then, that to effect a passage to Behring's Strait, the route should be through Lancaster Sound (always free from ice), along Barrow's Strait, to the first opening beyond that of Regent's Inlet, proceeding in a slanting direction to the south-west till the coast of America be in sight, and then westerly to Icy Cape. It is much to be wished that a trial were made of this passage. The attempts hitherto made have taught us that straits, and islands, and shores, should be avoided, as the ice is generally found to block up the first, and by grounding to adhere to the others, and render navigation impracticable. Parry, and Lyon, and Back found that to be the case in the straits through which they in vain attempted to pass; whilst, as all the Greenland fishermen know, there is little obstruction in the field-ice of the open sea, which breaks up and is scattered in all directions by moderate breezes of wind.
Sir David Brewster, in an ingenious and interesting paper on the Mean Temperature of the Globe, has shown, in a manner satisfactory to the late patronage of expeditions with those he had drawn from a preconceived theory, "that the mean temperature of the north pole of the globe will be about 11°," which, he says, is "incomparably warmer than the regions in which Captain Parry spent the winter." The mean annual temperature of this spot, according to a series of accurate observations for twelve months, was actually 1° 33'; and on shore could not have been more than 1° below zero.
In fact, the whole surrounding coast of the North Polar Coast of Sea is inhabited; the European part with Laplanders and the Polar Finns; the Asiatic shores with Ostiacks, Samoieds, Yuck-Sea inhabitants, Tchutskies, and Koriacks, who derive their subsistence from the rein-deer and dried fish. The Tchutskoi bordering on Behring's Strait are a superior kind of Esquimaux, and are no doubt the same race which extend along the northern coast of America, the shores and islands of Baffin's Bay, Davis's and Hudson's Straits, and the coast of Labrador; and as high up on the coast of Old Greenland as latitude 78°, the highest habitable spot, in all probability, on the face of the globe. All these people, distantly as they are removed from each other, speak the same language, wear the same dress, subsist in the same manner, and in all their habits and appearance are precisely the same people. Spitzbergen has no permanent inhabitants; but English, Polar Seas. Dutch, Danes, and Russians, have frequently wintered there; and, even as high as 80° north, many hundreds, some say thousands, of graves are met with in two or three particular spots where it was usual with the Dutch and other nations to extract the oil from the whale and other marine animals furnishing blubber. On Nova Zembla, the body of which is five or six degrees lower in latitude, no inhabitants are found, nor, with the exception of Barentz and his associates, have any been known to pass the winter even in the more southerly parts. Such, indeed, is the difference of climate on the same parallels, that whilst on the southern part of Nova Zembla, in latitude 69°, not a shrub is to be found, at Altengoord, in Norway, in latitude 70°, trees grow to a considerable size. Old Greenland, and the islands on the western shore of Baffin's Bay, of Davis's Strait, and of Hudson's Bay, down to the 55th degree of latitude, are barren of trees and shrubs; whilst on the western side of America, as high up as the 60th and even 65th degree, the firs and birch grow to a considerable size. Even in the short distance which separates America from Asia across Behring's Straits, Kotzebue, in passing from the former to the latter, experienced a change like that of summer and winter; in the former all was verdure, in the latter a complete surface of ice and snow. On the south side of Melville Island, in 75° of latitude, the moment that the snow had departed, the ground was enamelled with a variety of brilliant flowers.
Nor are these dreary regions entirely destitute of animated nature. Rein-deer are met with on the northernmost part of Spitzbergen. The polar bear, the wolf, the arctic fox, the polar hare, the ermine, the lemming or Hudson's Bay mouse, the musk-bull, and the rein-deer, were all caught on Melville Island, the first six being perpetual residents, the two last migratory. Grouse, ptarmigan, plover, and a great variety of water-fowl, frequent in vast numbers the straits and islands of the Arctic Seas. The following picture, drawn by the naturalist who accompanied Kotzebue, is correct and interesting. "As, on the one hand, in proportion as you advance farther on the land towards the north, the woods become less lofty, the vegetation gradually decreases, animals become scarcer, and lastly (as on Nova Zembla), the rein-deer and the glories vanish with the last plants, and only birds of prey prowl about the icy streams for their food; so, on the other hand, the sea becomes more and more peopled. The algae, gigantic species of tang, form inundated woods round the rocky coasts, such as are not met with in the torrid zone. But the waters swarm with animal life,—the medusa and zoophytes, mollusca and crustacea; innumerable species of fish, in incredibly crowded shoals; the gigantic swimming mammalia, whales, phycsters, dolphins, morses, and seals, fill the sea and its shores, and countless flights of water-fowl rock themselves on the bosom of the ocean, and in the twilight resemble floating islands."
SOUTH POLAR SEA.
Of the South Polar Sea little or nothing may be said to be known. Captain Cook, in the years 1773 and 1774, crossed the antarctic circle in five places only; in longitude 391° east, where he advanced to latitude 67½°, and met with fields and detached pieces of ice; in longitudes 101° and 110° west, between which he proceeded to latitude 71° 10' south, the farthest progress made by him towards the south pole, where he was stopped, or at least deemed it prudent to return, on account of the fields and mountains of ice which were scattered over the surface of the sea; and in longitudes 136° and 148° west, between which he descended to latitude 68°, and saw many floating ice islands. There are, therefore, still remaining about Polar 340 degrees of longitude in which the antarctic circle has not been crossed, and full half the circumference of the globe which has not been visited lower to the southward than the parallel of 60° south latitude.
Mr Weddell, a master in the navy, proceeded some three degrees farther south than Cook; and since that, two ships of Mr Enderby discovered a long tract of land, the extent of which they did not determine. It is understood this spirited gentleman either has or is about to send out other ships to prosecute at the same time the whale-fishery and maritime discovery.
There was little doubt of the existence of high land in the South Polar Sea, though Cook discovered none beyond the Southern Thule, or Sandwich Land, on the parallel of 60°. Without high precipitous land, those large icebergs which he met with floating amongst the fields of ice could not have been formed; the hummocks of ice, occasioned by the agitation of the sea and the meeting of the fields or floes in opposite directions, seldom rise to the height of twelve or fifteen feet above the surface. The Russians, indeed, on a recent voyage of discovery, are said to have fallen in with many islands about the seventieth parallel of latitude: they also circumnavigated the Sandwich Land, which was left undetermined by Cook; and conjectured that it might be a part of the great southern continent, which occupied so much of the attention of the geographers and philosophers of the last century. This idea was renewed by the recent discovery of a very considerable extent of land to the southward of Cape Horn, in latitude 63°, and seen extending from longitude 55° to 65° west. As the eastern extremity had not been seen, and the winding of the coast was to the north-east, it was conjectured that it might unite with the Southern Thule of Cook, and form the long-sought-for southern continent. It is said, however, that the Russians have also circumnavigated this land, and that it is composed of a great cluster of islands.
The land in question has been called South Shetland, but it is no new discovery. In the account of the voyage of the Fire Ships of Rotterdam, under the command of Jacob Mahu and Simon de Cordes, to the South Seas, in the year 1599, it is stated, that, on approaching the Strait of Magelhaens, the yacht, commanded by Dirk Gherritz, was separated from all the other ships, and was carried by tempestuous weather to the south of the strait, to 64° south latitude, where they discovered a high country, with mountains which were covered with snow, like the land of Norway. This land of Gherritz was marked on some of the old charts, but discontinued on the more modern ones, from the uncertainty of its position with regard to longitude. There can be no doubt of its identity with the modern South Shetland. It answered to the description of the mountains of Norway, covered with snow, and is wholly barren, having neither tree nor shrub of any kind. It is unnecessary to say that it is uninhabited, there being no such people in the southern hemisphere as the Esquimaux; and it may be remarked, that no human beings are found in the Southern Ocean below the fifty-fifth parallel of latitude, and none beyond the fiftieth, except on Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. On the shores, the seals and sea-horses, which had remained from the creation undisturbed, were so numerous, that, on the first notice of the rediscovery, a whole fleet of vessels from England and North America crowded thither on speculation; but the loss of several, from tempestuous weather and a dangerous navigation, and the destruction and alarm of the objects of their curiosity, will probably cause it, for some time at least, to remain as much a land of desolation as it had been before.