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diff --git a/old/52462-0.txt b/old/52462-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 71d601f..0000000 --- a/old/52462-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10036 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Round About the North Pole, by W. J. Gordon - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Round About the North Pole - -Author: W. J. Gordon - -Illustrator: Edward Whymper - -Release Date: July 1, 2016 [EBook #52462] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND ABOUT THE NORTH POLE *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - ROUND ABOUT - THE NORTH POLE - - -[Illustration: "DONE UP"] - - Frontispiece - - - - - ROUND ABOUT - THE NORTH POLE - - - BY W. J. GORDON - - WITH WOODCUTS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS - BY EDWARD WHYMPER - - - - - NEW YORK - E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY - 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET - 1907 - - - - - _Printed in Great Britain_ - - - - - PREFACE - - -Among the many books about the Polar regions there is none quite like -this, dealing with the gradual progress of exploration towards the north -along the different areas of advance within the Arctic Circle. - -The subject is always interesting, for few regions have been the scene -of more persistent effort and exciting adventure and unexpected gains -from the unknown, particularly in the earlier days when the endeavour to -find the northern passages to the east and west led to the beginning of -our foreign trade. - -It is often asked, "What is the use of further Arctic discovery?" No one -knows. Nor did any one know the use of most discoveries before they were -made. - -When Eric landed in Greenland he was not in search of cryolite for -aluminium. When Cabral sailed to Porto Seguro he knew nothing of the -incandescent gas-mantle. When Oersted looped the live wire round the -magnetic needle he was not bent on founding electrical engineering. And -when Linnæus noticed the sleep of plants he had no intention of -providing a substitute for a clock in high latitudes where, though the -sunshine is continuous during the summer, the plants within the Circle -sleep as in the night time, their sleeping leaves telling the traveller -that midnight is at hand. - -Men have made up their minds to reach the Pole, and thither they will -go. What they will find when they get there may not promise to be much, -but what they have found round about it has been enough to influence -considerably the history of the world. - - W. J. G. - - _July, 1907._ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER I - PAGE - - SPITSBERGEN 1 - - - CHAPTER II - - SPITSBERGEN (_continued_) 24 - - - CHAPTER III - - NOVAYA ZEMLYA 49 - - - CHAPTER IV - - FRANZ JOSEF LAND 64 - - - CHAPTER V - - CAPE CHELYUSKIN 84 - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE LENA DELTA 106 - - - CHAPTER VII - - BERING STRAIT 127 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE AMERICAN MAINLAND 146 - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE PARRY ISLANDS 170 - - - CHAPTER X - - BOOTHIA 190 - - - CHAPTER XI - - BAFFIN BAY 215 - - - CHAPTER XII - - SMITH SOUND 235 - - - CHAPTER XIII - - GREENLAND 259 - - INDEX 287 - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - "DONE UP" _Frontispiece_ - - From Nansen's _First Crossing of Greenland_ - (Longmans) - - TO FACE PAGE - - THE SUMMIT OF ORAEFA 2 - - From a photograph - - COLUMBUS 4 - - From the portrait at Versailles - - SAMOYEDS AND THEIR DWELLINGS 10 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans) - - FRANZ JOSEF FIORD 14 - - From a drawing by Lieutenant Julius Payer - - WHALERS AMONG ICEBERGS 30 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans) - - SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 34 - - From _Le Tour du Monde_, 1860 (Hachette) - - TRACK OF H.M.S. "DOROTHEA" AND "TRENT" 36 - - From _A Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, - performed in His Majesty's Ships "Dorothea" and - "Trent," under the command of Capt. David Buchan, - R.N., 1818_, by Capt. F. W. Beechey, R.N., F.R.S. - (Richard Bentley, 1843.) - - PARRY CAMPED ON THE ICE 40 - - From Captain Parry's _Narrative_, 1828 (Murray) - - PARRY'S BOATS AMONG THE HUMMOCKS 42 - - From Captain Parry's _Narrative_, 1828 (Murray) - - HOW OUR SHIP STUCK FAST IN THE ICE 50 - - From _A True Description_, by Gerrit de Veer - (Hakluyt Society, 1853) - - HOW WE NEARLY GOT INTO TROUBLE WITH THE SEA-HORSES 56 - - From _A True Description_, by Gerrit de Veer - (Hakluyt Society, 1853) - - ADOLF ERIK NORDENSKIÖLD 90 - - From a photograph - - FRIDTJOF NANSEN 96 - - With autograph. From a photograph supplied by - himself - - REINDEER 112 - - By permission. From _Short Stalks_, by Edward - Buxton (Stanford) - - SAMOYED MAN 114 - - From Seebohm's _Siberia in Asia_ (Murray) - - OSTIAK MAN 116 - - From Seebohm's _Siberia in Asia_ (Murray) - - THE FACE OF THE FUR SEAL 130 - - From _The Seal Islands of Alaska_, by Henry W. - Elliott (Washington, 1881) - - THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 132 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans). From an - original Sketch by Frederick Whymper - - DRIVING THE FUR SEAL 134 - - From _The Seal Islands of Alaska_, by Henry W. - Elliott (Washington, 1881) - - FUR SEALS AT SEA 136 - - From _The Seal Islands of Alaska_, by Henry W. - Elliott (Washington, 1881) - - THE PARKA OF THE ALASKAN INNUITS 138 - - From Whymper's _Alaska_ (Sampson Low) - - THE FROZEN YUKON 140 - - From Whymper's _Alaska_ (Sampson Low) - - ASCENDING THE YUKON 142 - - From Whymper's _Alaska_ (Sampson Low) - - MOOSE-HUNTING ON THE YUKON 144 - - From Whymper's _Alaska_ (Sampson Low) - - MAHLEMUT MAN 146 - - From Whymper's _Alaska_ (Sampson Low) - - WINTER TRAVELLING ON THE GREAT SLAVE LAKE 150 - - From Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1819-22 - (Murray, 1823) - - CROSSING POINT LAKE 152 - - From Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea, 1819-22_ - (Murray, 1823) - - KUTCHIN INDIANS 154 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans). From an - original sketch by Frederick Whymper - - PREPARING AN ENCAMPMENT ON THE BARREN GROUNDS 156 - - From Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea, 1819-22_ - (Murray, 1823) - - SIR JOHN RICHARDSON 158 - - With autograph, from a letter in the possession of - Edward Whymper - - BACK'S JOURNEY DOWN THE GREAT FISH RIVER 160 - - From Back's _Arctic Land Expedition to the mouth of - the Great Fish River in the years 1833, 1834, and - 1835_ (Murray, 1836) - - SIR WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY 170 - - With autograph, from a letter in the possession of - Edward Whymper - - SIR JOHN BARROW 178 - - With autograph - - H.M.S. "HECLA" AND "GRIPER" IN WINTER HARBOUR 180 - - From _A Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west - Passage_, by Capt. Parry (Murray, 1821) - - PARRY'S DISCOVERIES ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE 182 - - From _A Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west - Passage_, by Captain Parry (Murray, 1821) - - AN IGLOOLIK ESKIMO CARRYING HIS KAYAK 190 - - From Parry's _Second Voyage_ (Murray, 1824) - - PARRY'S FARTHEST ON HIS THIRD VOYAGE 192 - - From Parry's _Third Voyage_ (Murray, 1826) - - THE "VICTORY" 194 - - From Sir J. Ross's _Arctic Expedition, 1829-33_ - (Webster, 1835) - - NORTH HENDON 196 - - From Sir J. Ross's _Arctic Expedition, 1829-33_ - (Webster, 1835) - - ESKIMO LISTENING AT A SEAL-HOLE 198 - - From Parry's _Second Voyage_ (Murray, 1824) - - H.M.S. "TERROR" LIFTED BY ICE 202 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans) - - FRACTURED STERN-POST OF H.M.S. "TERROR" 204 - - From Capt. Back's _Narrative, 1838_ (Murray) - - THE "FOX" ESCAPING FROM THE PACK 208 - - From M'Clintock's _Voyage of the "Fox"_ - - THE "FOX" ON A ROCK 210 - - From M'Clintock's _Voyage of the "Fox"_ - - DISCOVERY OF THE CAIRN 212 - - From M'Clintock's _Voyage of the "Fox"_ - - SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 216 - - From _The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher_ - (Hakluyt Society, 1867) - - ESKIMO AWAITING A SEAL 222 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans) - - A GREENLANDER IN HIS KAYAK 224 - - From _Le Tour du Monde_, 1868 (Hachette) - - BAFFIN BAY IN 1819 232 - - From _A Voyage of Discovery_, by Capt. John Ross - (Longmans, 1819) - - DR. E. K. KANE 234 - - From the Frontispiece to Kane's _Arctic - Explorations_, 1856 - - KALUTUNAH 236 - - From _Le Tour du Monde_, 1868 (Hachette) - - THE EAST COAST OF SMITH SOUND 238 - - From Hayes' _Open Polar Sea_ (Sampson Low) - - DR. I. I. HAYES 240 - - By permission, from Hayes' _Open Polar Sea_ - - THE SHORES OF KENNEDY CHANNEL 242 - - From Hayes' _Open Polar Sea_ - - TYNDALL GLACIER 244 - - From Hayes' _Open Polar Sea_ - - A SEAL IN DANGER 246 - - From Parry's _Second Voyage for the Discovery of a - North-west Passage_ (Murray, 1824) - - SIR GEORGE NARES 248 - - From a photograph - - SLEDGES USED BY SIR LEOPOLD M'CLINTOCK AND SIR GEORGE 254 - NARES - - (In the collection of Edward Whymper) - - BISHOP PAUL EGEDE 258 - - From the Frontispiece to _Efterretninger om - Grönland_ (Copenhagen) - - GREENLANDERS 260 - - From Hartwig's _Polar World_ (Longmans) - - ON LEVEL GROUND 262 - - Nansen's _First Crossing of Greenland_ (Longmans) - - THE ALLAN LINER "SARDINIAN" AMONG ICEBERGS 264 - - From a photograph - - THE "GERMANIA" IN THE ICE 266 - - From _Le Tour du Monde_, 1874 (Hachette) - - THE REGION ROUND MOUNT PETERMANN 268 - - From a drawing by Lieutenant Julius Payer - - THE LAST DAYS OF THE "HANSA" 270 - - From _Le Tour du Monde_, 1874 (Hachette) - - ROBERT E. PEARY 280 - - With autograph, from a letter in the possession of - Edward Whymper From _Nearest the Pole_, by - Commander Peary. By permission of Hutchinson and - Co. - - - - - SECTIONAL MAPS - - - 1. SPITSBERGEN 12 - - 2. CAPE CHELYUSKIN 84 - - 3. THE LENA DELTA 106 - - 4. BERING STRAIT 128 - - 5. THE PARRY ISLANDS 174 - - 6. GREENLAND 272 - - - - - ROUND ABOUT - THE NORTH POLE - - - - - CHAPTER I - SPITSBERGEN - - Iceland—Greenland—America—Sebastian Cabot—Robert Thorne—The - North-east Passage—Willoughby—Chancellor—Borough—The North Cape - rounded—The White Sea reached—The First Arctic Search - Expedition—Pet and Jackman—Brunel—Cornelis Nai—Barents reaches 77° - 20´—Second voyage of Nai—The Samoyeds—Rijp, Jacob Van Heemskerck - and Barents—Bear Island discovered—Spitsbergen discovered—The - Dutch reach 79° 49´—Stephen Bennet—Welden—Jonas Poole—Henry Hudson - reaches 80° 23´—Poole starts the British whaling trade—Baffin's - voyages to Spitsbergen—Pellham winters at Green Harbour. - - -The story of the lands within the Arctic Circle is a record of the brave -deeds of healthy men. This would seem to be true were we to take the -story, if we could, back to the days when man followed the retreat of -the glaciers, as he may in turn have to retreat before them, such a -condition of things being not beyond the range of probability though it -may be remote. For the boundaries of the frozen north are not dependent -on a line of latitude, and have never been the same from period to -period, or even from year to year. In some cases they have changed -considerably within the Christian era, and it is evident that the ice is -not eternal. The fossils declare that the climate round the North Pole -has varied greatly, and must in comparatively recent ages have been -comfortably warm, so genial indeed that some people would have us -believe that men came from there in their last distribution. Not, -however, with such migrants from the far north do we concern ourselves, -but with those who have endeavoured to get there in historical times by -different lines of approach, as we follow the circle round from east to -west and note the record of each section by itself. - -Who was the first to sail to the northern seas we know not. Suffice it -for us that in 875 Ingolf the jarl, from Norway, refusing to live under -the sway of Harold Haarfager, sighted Mount Oraefa. As he neared the -coast, overboard went the carved wood; and where the wood drifted ashore -he founded Reikjavik. But he was not the first in Iceland, for the Irish -monastery had been there for years when he arrived, though the monks -retired to their old country when they found the Norsemen had come to -stay. - -Then the Icelander Gunnbiörn, driven westward in a gale, sighted the -strange land he called White Shirt from its snowfields, which Eric the -Red, following a long time afterwards, more happily renamed. "What shall -we call the land?" he was asked. "Call it Green Land," replied Eric. -"But it is not always green!" "It matters not: give it a good name and -people will come to it!" - -[Illustration: THE SUMMIT OF ORAEFA] - - From a photo - -Then the Norsemen worked further south. In 986 Bjarni sighted what we -now call America, and in 1000 came the voyage of Leif Ericson, who, on -his way down the mainland, landing again and again, gave the names to -Helluland, Markland, Vinland—in short, the Viking discovery of the New -World. - -Greenland, like the eastern coast of the continent, was duly colonised, -its two chief settlements being one just round Cape Farewell, the other -further north on the same coast. In those days the island, or chain of -islands beneath an ice-cap, as many think it is, would appear to have -had a milder climate than it has now. The colonies throve, their -population becoming numerous enough to require a series of seventeen -bishops, the last one dying about 1540, to superintend their spiritual -welfare. But the Eskimos, in their migration from Asia across the Arctic -islands, arrived in the country before the middle of the fourteenth -century and gradually drove the Norsemen downwards, the northern colony -coming to an end in 1342 owing to the enemy attacking during a -visitation of the Black Death. - -Meanwhile Iceland, which touches the Arctic Circle in its northernmost -point, and extends but half as far south of it as Greenland, increased -in prosperity as a sort of aristocratic republic, and produced more -vernacular literature than any country in Europe, in which, as might be -expected, the story of Greenland and the American colonies was kept so -well to the fore that it became as familiar among the people as a -nursery tale. Thither, from Bristol, in February, 1477, went Columbus; -and thence it was he returned to seek a patron for his western voyage -across the Atlantic. - -The first voyage of Columbus in 1492 gave a great stimulus to maritime -discovery, and many were the projects for searching the seas for a new -route to the east. Of these the most important was that submitted to -Henry VII by John Cabot, of Bristol. Much has been written, on slender -and confusing evidence, as to the share in its success due to him and to -his son, the more famous Sebastian; and, to be brief, we cannot do -better than follow Anderson, who, in his _Origin of Commerce_, -ingeniously evades the difficulty by speaking, commercially, of "Cabot -and Sons." The Bristol firm, then, in 1497 despatched their ship -_Matthew_ to the westward and discovered and took possession of Labrador -and the islands and peninsulas in the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the -district being at first known as the New Found Land, a name afterwards -restricted to the largest island. And they had their reward, as shown in -the Privy Purse accounts of Henry VII, where an entry of the 10th -August, 1497, appears—"To hym that found the new isle, £10." Surely not -an excessive honorarium for the finding of a continent. - -In 1498 another voyage of the same ship by way of Iceland, in which some -attempt seems to have been made to colonise the newly discovered -territories, resulted in the discovery of Hudson Strait and a visit to -Labrador, judging by the finding of the deer in herds, the white bears, -and the Eskimos who are not known to have ever crossed into the island -of Newfoundland. This was not the only English vessel to appear in these -parts at that time, for in the same year the Privy Purse accounts record -a gift of £30 to Thomas Bradley and Launcelot Thirkill for going to the -New Isle, adding that Launcelot had already received £20 "as preste" for -his ship going there. - -[Illustration: COLUMBUS] - -It is evident that the fisheries were found to be worth working, for no -less than fifty Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships were engaged in -them in 1517, the year of Sebastian Cabot's disputed voyage to Hudson -Bay. Ten years afterwards Robert Thorne, of Bristol, wrote to the King, -mentioning this voyage and suggesting three sea routes to Cathay—by the -north-west, as Sebastian had attempted, by the north over the Pole, and -by the north-east—and, in 1547, when Sebastian returned to England for -good, after his long service with Spain, he again, as the first Governor -of the Company of Merchant Adventurers, took up this Cathay question, -which had frequently been raised, and fitted out, as a commencement, an -expedition to the north-east. - -The ships were built at Bristol specially for the purpose, and they were -sheathed with lead, the first so treated in this country. This sheathing -of ships was not the only innovation we owe to the most scientific -seaman of his time, for in his famous ordinances for the voyage many -excellent new things are enjoined, including the keeping of a log and -journal, which date from this expedition. There were three vessels, the -_Bona Esperanza_, of one hundred and twenty tons, Captain Sir Hugh -Willoughby; the _Edward Bonaventure_, one hundred and sixty tons, -Captain Richard Chancellor; and the _Bona Confidentia_, ninety tons, -Captain Durfourth. In Chancellor's ship, as master, was the best -navigator of the fleet, whose monumental brass in Chatham Church is -noteworthy for its epitaph: "Here lieth buried the bodie of Steven -Borough, who departed this life ye xij day of July in ye yere of our -Lord 1584, and was borne at Northam in Devonshire ye xxv^{th} of Septemb. -1525. He in his life time discouered Moscouia, by the Northerne sea -passage to St. Nicholas, in the yere 1553. At his setting foorth of -England he was accompanied with two other shippes, Sir Hugh Willobie -being Admirell of the fleete, who, with all the company of ye said two -shippes, were frozen to death in Lappia ye same winter. After his -discouerie of Roosia, and ye Coastes thereto adioyninge—to wit, Lappia, -Nova Zemla, and the Countrie of Samoyeda, etc.: he frequented ye trade -to St. Nicholas yearlie, as chief pilot for ye voyage, until he was -chosen of one of ye foure principall Masters in ordinarie of ye Queen's -Mat^{ties} royall Nauy, where in he continued in charge of sundrie sea -services till time of his death." - -The ships left in May, but did not remain long together. On the 2nd of -August Willoughby and Durfourth separated from Chancellor in a storm off -the Lofodens, and after devious courses, that might have led anywhere, -were frozen in on the coast of Lapland, where they wintered and died, as -did all the men with them. Chancellor, having waited at the rendezvous -in vain, crossed the Arctic Circle, rounded the North Cape—so named by -Borough—and found his way into the White Sea. While his ship was in -winter quarters near where Archangel now is, he made a sledge journey to -the Czar at Moscow, which led to the formation of the Muscovy Company -and the beginning of England's Russian trade; and through his meeting -there with the Persian Ambassador came about the mission of Anthony -Jenkinson to the Shah, which opened up for us the Persian trade. Never -was a voyage more successful. With it began the foreign commerce of this -country, and from it dates the rise of our mercantile marine. - -In 1556 Borough, in the _Searchthrift_, persevered further east, and, -passing between Novaya Zemlya and Waigatz Island, through the strait -that bears his name spelt differently, entered the Kara Sea. Next year -in the same ship he was given the command of the first Arctic Search -Expedition, its object being to discover what had become of Willoughby. -Of one ship, the _Confidentia_, he obtained news in an interview with a -man who had bought her sails, but the full story of the disastrous end -of the voyage remained a mystery until the Russians found the ships and -bodies and Willoughby's journal, and took the ships round to the Dwina. -Then for the first time did people realise what it meant to battle with -an Arctic winter without preparation, and many were those who withdrew -their interest in the frozen north, preferring tropical dangers to the -possibility of such accumulating miseries as the journal records in due -order in its matter-of-fact way, its last entry being the terribly -suggestive—"Unknowen and most wonderful wild beasts assembling in -fearful numbers about the ships." - -With Stephen Borough in the Chancellor voyage was Arthur Pet—or Pett, a -name not unknown in the navy—who, after two centuries, has become -notable again through a strange discovery. In search of the much-desired -passage by the north-east he sailed from Harwich on the 31st of May, -1580, in the _George_, of forty tons, accompanied by Charles Jackman, in -the _William_, of twenty tons. His orders were to avoid the open sea and -keep the coast in sight all the way out on the starboard side, and -William Borough—Stephen's brother, afterwards Comptroller of the -Navy—gave him certain instructions and notes. - -Arranging with Jackman, whose little vessel sailed badly, to wait for -him at Waigatz, Pet went ahead and endeavoured to pass through Burrough -Strait, but meeting with trouble from the ice, missed the passage, and -working round Waigatz to the south, entered the Kara Sea through Yugor -Strait, or as it used to be called after him, Pet Strait. Coasting -eastward with the mainland in sight, he was, as might be expected, much -hampered by the heavy pack. On being joined by the little _William_ he -made for the northward, seeking a way to the east, but the "more and -thicker was the ice so that they could go no further," and, after -talking the matter over on the 28th of July, Pet and Jackman reluctantly -decided to return to Waigatz and there decide on what should be done. - -Their way back was difficult. They became shut in so that "they could -not stir, labouring only to defend the ice as it came upon them." For -one day they were clear of it, but next day, the 16th of August, they -were encumbered again, though they got out of the trouble by sailing -between the ice and the shore, which was a new experience. In this way -they just scraped through Pet Strait, and bore away in the open sea to -Kolguiev, both vessels grounding for a time on the sands to the south of -that island. On the 22nd of August, two days afterwards, the _William_ -parted from the _George_ in a dense fog, while Pet brought his ship home -and dropped anchor at Ratcliff on Boxing Day. - -The Dutch had for some time been trying to outstrip the English on this -route to the far east. In 1565 they had settled at Kola, and about -thirteen years afterwards had established the factory at the mouth of -the Dwina on the site of Nova Kholmogory, generally known as Archangel. -In 1584 Olivier Brunel, their energetic emissary in Russia, sailed on -the first Dutch Arctic discovery expedition. He tried in vain to pass -through Pet Strait, and the ship, with a valuable cargo of furs and -mica, was wrecked on its homeward voyage at the mouth of the Petchora. - -Ten years elapsed, and then there sailed from the Texel the expedition -of Cornelis Nai, in which the _Mercury_, of Amsterdam, was commanded by -Willem Barents. Barents—really Barentszoon, the son of Bernard—sighted -Novaya Zemlya, with which his name was to be thenceforth associated, on -the 4th of July, and coasting along its mighty cliffs, peopled with -their myriad seabirds, passed Cape Nassau ten days later. Thence -reaching 77° 20´, and thus improving on John Davis's record for the -highest north, he struggled through the ice to the Orange Islands and -back, some twenty-five miles, during which he tacked eighty-one times -and thereby sailed some seventeen hundred geographical miles. Failing to -proceed further, he came south, and off Pet Strait—named by the Dutchmen -Nassau Strait—fell in with the other two ships returning from their -unsuccessful attempt to cross the Kara Sea. - -Next year a fleet of seven vessels under Nai left the Mars Diep on -another endeavour to get through to China. One of the two chief -commissioners on board was the famous Van Linschoten, who had been on -the previous voyage, and the chief pilot was Barents, who was in the -_Winthont_ (Greyhound) with Jacob van Heemskerck as supercargo. Arriving -at Pet Strait they found it so blocked with ice that no passage was -possible, and Barents, in search of information, went ashore on the -mainland south of the strait and made friends—in a way—with the -Samoyeds, whose appearance, as described by Gerrit de Veer, was "like -that of wild men," dressed as they were in deerskins from head to foot, -those of importance wearing caps of coloured cloth lined with fur; for -the most part short of stature, with broad flat faces, small eyes, and -bow legs; their hair worn long, plaited, and hanging down their backs. - -They were evidently suspicious of the Dutchmen, who did their best to be -friendly. The chief had placed sentinels all round to see what the -new-comers were about and note everything that was bought and sold. One -of the sentinels was offered a biscuit, which "he with great thanks took -and ate, and while he ate it he still looked diligently about him on all -sides, watching what was done." Their reindeer sledges were kept -ready—"that run so swiftly with one or two men in them that our horses -were not able to follow them." They were unacquainted with firearms, -and, when a musket was fired to impress them, "ran and leapt like -madmen," but calmed down as soon as they saw there was no malicious -intention, to wonder much more, however, when the man with the gun aimed -at a flat stone he placed as a mark, and, fortunately, hit and broke it. -The meeting ended satisfactorily; "after that we took our leaves one of -the other with great friendship on both sides, and when we were in our -pinnace we all put off our hats and bowed to them, sounding our trumpet; -they in their manner saluting us also, and then went to their sledges -again." - -[Illustration: SAMOYEDS AND THEIR DWELLINGS] - -Barents was by no means convinced that the strait was impassable, and -held out against the opinion of the others for some days, but with the -firm ice stretching round in all directions he had to give in, and on -the 15th of September the fleet began the voyage home. Much had been -expected, and the result was so conspicuous a failure that the States -General abandoned any further attempt at a north-east passage on their -own account, but decided to offer a reward to any private expedition -that proved successful. Whereupon the authorities and merchants of -Amsterdam fitted out two vessels for a third voyage, giving the command -of one to Jan Corneliszoon Rijp, and that of the other to Jacob van -Heemskerck, with Barents as chief pilot. - -The ships left the Dutch coast on the 18th of May. Four days afterwards -they were off the Shetlands, going north-east. On the 9th of June they -discovered an island, on which they landed. Here they saw a prodigious -white bear, which they went after in a boat, intending to slip a noose -over her neck, but when they were near her she looked so strong that -their courage failed, and they returned to the ships to fetch more men, -and what seems to have been quite an armoury of "muskets, harquebusses, -halberds and hatchets." Accompanied by another boat they attacked this -formidable beast for over two hours, one of them getting an axe into her -back, with which she swam away until she was caught and had her head -split open by another blow from an axe. From this remarkable bear, whose -skin, we are told, was twelve feet long, the island was named Bear -Island. - -Continuing northwards they sighted, on the 19th of June, Spitsbergen, -which they supposed to be Greenland—an error that led to much -confusion—and on the 21st of June they landed and had another trying -time with a bear, whose skin proved to be thirteen feet long. On one -island of the cluster they found the eggs of the barnacle goose, -_Bernicla leucopsis_, whose nesting ground was up to then unknown, and -on others they saw reindeer, for in this land "there groweth leaves and -grass." Returning to Bear Island after attaining 79° 49´, some hundred -and seventy miles higher north than in 1594, Rijp departed for the north -again, and, failing to get beyond Bird Cape, went home to Holland by way -of Kola; and to Kola he came back the year afterwards. - -In 1603, following the Dutch, came Stephen Bennet to call Bear Island -Cherie Island, after his patron, and find the walruses in thousands and -the birds in millions. A rocky tableland of mountain limestone and -carboniferous sandstone, with the usual fossils in unusual numbers and a -few coal seams in between; the ravines faced and floored with fragments -of every dimension and shape, split off by the frost and weathered by -wind and rain: a grey, grassless, monotonous country, except along the -coast, where the guano from the vast numbers of seabirds has coated the -crannies and ledges of the cliffs, that tower up perhaps four hundred -feet from the water, with a thin layer of soil in which the scurvy-grass -and a few other plants thrive amazingly, though the island's complete -flora contains but forty species—such is Bear Island, the stepping-stone -to Spitsbergen, of which Jonas Poole took possession in 1609 for the -Muscovy Company. - -[Illustration: SPITSBERGEN] - -Lying east of the influence of the Gulf Stream, the range of temperature -is of the widest. Often the island is unapproachable owing to the ice, -sometimes it is even now as hot as Welden found it in 1608, when, in -June, "the pitch did run down the ship's sides, and that side of the -masts that was to the sun-ward was so hot that the tar did fry out of it -as though it had boiled." That was a great year for Welden, for he -killed a thousand walruses in less than seven hours and took a young one -home with him, "where the king and many honourable personages beheld it -with admiration, the like whereof had never before been seen alive in -England." - -Poole did much useful work in these seas, but is now little heard of, -most of the surviving interest in such matters being concentrated on -Henry Hudson, who was in the same service at the same time. Hudson was, -perhaps, a grandson of Alderman Henry Hudson, one of the founders of the -Muscovy Company, but nothing is really known of him beyond his being a -captain in the Muscovy Company, who, on the 19th of April, 1607, took -the sacrament at St. Ethelburga's, in Bishopsgate Street, with his son -and crew "and the rest of the parishioners." That he was a parishioner -may be true, but that all the ten members of the crew were so is -unlikely. Anyhow, they were outward bound for Japan and China by way of -the North Pole, and sailed from Gravesend on the 1st of May. - -Where he went is not clear in detail, as his latitudes are seldom -correct and his longitudes are not recorded. He sighted Greenland north -of Iceland, and, shouldered off by the ice barrier, left it somewhere -about Franz Josef Fjord, working easterly by the edge of the ice to -Spitsbergen. Here he sailed round Prince Charles's Foreland and went -north, passing Hakluyt Headland, which he named, reaching on the 13th of -July, 80° 23´, "by observation." He saw many whales, but found his way -blocked by ice; and after many attempts, assuring himself that there was -no passage hereabouts to the north, sailed southwards for Bear Island. -On leaving this he seems to have gone west, possibly to the coast of -Greenland again, for on his way home he lighted upon Hudson's Touches, -now known as Jan Mayen Island, the principal cape of which bears the -name of Hudson's Point—which may be either Hudson's or Rudston's (after -the Rudston mentioned in Baffin's fourth voyage)—while another is known -as Young's Foreland, perhaps after the James Young who was the first in -the ship to sight the coast of Greenland on the outward journey. He -dropped anchor in the Thames on the 15th of September all well. He had -not crossed the Pole, nor did he find Spitsbergen stretching up to 82°, -as he said, its most northerly point being miles further south; but he -had gone beyond Van Heemskerck's furthest north and found a fishing -ground for whales and walruses which proved of great commercial value. - -[Illustration: FRANZ JOSEF FIORD] - -In 1610, Poole, finding that he could not land on Bear Island owing to -the ice, stood away to the north-west, reached Spitsbergen, and worked -along the western side to Hakluyt Headland, where the ice barred further -advance. On his way up and down the coast he gave many of the capes and -bays the names they still bear, and generally did so well that on his -return he was put in the place of Hudson, who had left the service two -years before, and made a sort of special commissioner by the Muscovy -Company "for certain years upon a stipend certain" to make further -discoveries round Spitsbergen and to ascertain whether there was an open -sea further northward than had already been found. In addition to -searching for the open polar sea, he was to convoy the _Mary Margaret_, -in which were six Biscayners "expert in the killing of the whale," to -Bear Island, and thence to Whale Bay in Spitsbergen. In short, Poole was -to start the British whaling trade, the _Mary Margaret_ being the first -British vessel to be employed in that lucrative but hazardous -occupation; and she was under the command of Thomas Edge, whose name is -borne by Edge's Island. - -The beginning was so promising that in 1613, two years afterwards, a -fleet of seven vessels went out to take part in the fishery and clear -away the foreigners who had come to share in the good fortune; the -company claiming the islands on the ground of their purely imaginary -discovery by Willoughby, the Dutch resting their claim on the real -discovery by Van Heemskerck. In this fleet as chief pilot was William -Baffin—his second recorded voyage. By him, who as usual kept his eyes -open, we have the first description of the Spitsbergen glaciers. He was -at the time—the 29th of July—in Green Harbour in Ice Fjord. "One thing -more I observed," he says, "in this harbour which I have thought good -also to set down. Purposing on a time to walk towards the mountains, I, -and two more of my company, ascended up a long plain hill, as we -supposed it to be; but having gone a while upon it, we perceived it to -be ice. Notwithstanding we proceeded higher up, about the length of half -a mile, and as we went saw many deep rifts or gutters on the land of -ice, which were cracked down through to the ground, or, at the least, an -exceeding great depth; as we might well perceive by hearing the snow -water run below, as it does oftentimes in a brook whose current is -somewhat opposed with little stones. But for better satisfaction I brake -down some pieces of ice with a staff I had in my hand, which in their -falling made a noise on each side much like to a piece of glass thrown -down the well within Dover Castle, whereby we did estimate the thickness -or height of this ice to be thirty fathoms. This huge ice, in my -opinion, is nothing but snow, which from time to time has for the most -part been driven off the mountains; and so continuing and increasing all -the time of winter (which may be counted three-quarters of the year) -cannot possibly be consumed with the thaw of so short a summer, but is -only a little dissolved to moisture, whereby it becomes more compact, -and with the quick succeeding frost is congealed to a firm ice." - -Next year he was out again in the _Thomasine_, one of a fleet of -thirteen vessels, and in endeavouring to pass to the north-east, reached -Wijde Bay, where at the point of the beach at the entrance he "set up a -cross and nailed a sixpence thereon with the king's arms," probably the -neatest property mark in history. Thence he went on to the entrance to -Hinlopen Strait, completing the journey along the north of the main -island. It was on this voyage that he endeavoured to find his longitudes -by observing the moon, for Baffin was the first who attempted to take a -lunar at sea. - -Year by year the fishery increased, and the whale fishers multiplied as -if the sea were a goldfield, the monopoly being respected until 1618, -when the Dutch, who had all along prospered more than the rest, proved -too strong for the English, and a compromise was arrived at by which the -different harbours were allotted to the different nations for the -processes necessary in the preparation of the whale products for -shipment. But it was purely a summer industry. There was no colony, and -it did not seem as though there would be one, for no man willing to -winter in the place could be found. Vainly were rewards offered to those -who would venture. In the north was the ever-present barrier of ice, -more distant some years than others, but always there to come south and -hold the islands in its grip when the fishery was over, and those who -came early and those who stayed late saw enough of the wintry landscape -to make them doubt if life were possible under such conditions. - -Then the idea, not new to Englishmen, that colonies should be started by -criminals, was acted upon, and the Muscovy Company procured the reprieve -of a batch of prisoners under sentence of death and landed them in -Spitsbergen under promise of a free pardon, a handsome reward, and full -provisions and suitable clothes if they would remain there for a -continuous twelve months. But, as the ship that brought them was -preparing to return to London, "they conceived such a horror and inward -fear in their hearts" that they besought the captain to take them back -that they might be hanged rather than perish amid such desolation; and -the captain "being a pitiful and a merciful gentleman, would not by -force constrain them to stay," and brought them home again, when the -company—who could do no less—procured them a pardon. One captain—of a -different disposition—had left nine men behind him, all of whom perished -miserably; and another, in 1630, left eight others, apparently through -causes beyond his control, whose adventure was to form one of the most -interesting episodes in Arctic story. - -It was on the 15th of August in that year that the _Salutation_ sent -Edward Pellham and his seven companions ashore to kill reindeer for the -ship's provisions on her voyage home. Taking with them two dogs, a -snap-hance, two lances, and a tinder-box, they landed near Black Point, -between Green Harbour and Bell Sound, and, "laying fourteen tall and -nimble deer along," camped for the night. During the night the weather -changed and brought in the ice between the shore and the ship, and in -the morning the ship had gone. The boat's crew made for Green Harbour, -thinking she would put in there to pick them up, but she failed to -appear, being due to leave the country in three days, and after a -fruitless attempt to catch her at Bell Sound, they eventually took up -their quarters there on the 3rd of September. - -Here was one of the so-called tents of the whale-fishers. "This," says -Pellham, "which we call the tent, was a kind of house built of timber -and boards very substantially, and covered with Flemish tiles, by the -men of which nation it had in the time of their trading thither been -built. Four-score foot long it is and in breadth fifty. The use of it -was for the coopers, employed for the service of the company, to work, -lodge, and live in, all the while they make casks for the putting up of -the train oil." As this was too large for their comfort, they very -sensibly built another within it. "Taking down another lesser tent -therefore (built for the landmen hard by the other, wherein they lay -whilst they made their oil), from thence we fetched our materials. That -tent furnished us with one hundred and fifty deal boards, besides posts -or stanchions and rafters. From three chimneys of the furnaces wherein -they used to boil their oil, we brought a thousand bricks: there also -found we three hogsheads of very fine lime, of which stuff we also -fetched another hogshead from Bottle Cove, on the other side of the -sound, some three leagues distant. Mingling this lime with the sand of -the sea-shore, we made very excellent good morter for the laying of our -bricks: falling to work thereon, the weather was so extreme cold as that -we were fain to make two fires to keep our morter from freezing. William -Fakely and myself, undertaking the masonry, began to raise a wall of one -brick thickness against the inner planks of the side of the tent. Whilst -we were laying of these bricks, the rest of our company were otherwise -employed every one of them: some in taking them down, others in making -of them clean and in bringing them in baskets into the tent. Some in -making morter, and hewing of boards to build the other side withal, and -two others all the while in flaying of our venison. And thus, having -built the two outermost sides of the tent with bricks and morter, and -our bricks now almost spent, we were enforced to build the two other -sides with boards; and that in this manner. First we nailed our deal -boards on one side of the post or stanchion to the thickness of one -foot: and on the other side in like manner: and so filling up the hollow -place with sand, it became so tight and warm as not the least breath of -air could possibly annoy us. Our chimney's vent was into the greater -tent, being the breadth of one deal board and four foot long. The length -of this our tent was twenty foot and the breadth sixteen; the height -ten; our ceiling being deal boards five or six times double, the middle -of one joining so close to the shut of the other that no wind could -possibly get between. As for our door, besides our making it so close as -possibly it could shut; we lined it moreover with a bed that we found -lying there, which came over both the opening and the shutting of it. As -for windows, we made none at all, so that our light we brought in -through the greater tent, by removing two or three tiles in the eaves, -which light came to us through the vent of our chimney. Our next work -was to set up four cabins, billeting ourselves two and two in a cabin. -Our beds were the deer skins dried, which we found to be extraordinary -warm, and a very comfortable kind of lodging to us in our distress." - -For fuel they knocked to pieces seven old boats left ashore by the -ships, storing the wood over the beams of the tent so as to make a sort -of floor protecting the interior from snow driven in under the tiles, -and, in addition, they broke up a number of empty casks. To make the -wood last as long as possible they hit upon a device for keeping the -fire in—"when we raked up our fire at night, with a good quantity of -ashes and of embers, we put into the midst of it a piece of elm wood, -where, after it had lain sixteen hours, we at our opening of it found -great store of fire upon it, whereupon we made a common practice of it -ever after: it never went out in eight months together, or thereabouts." - -Upon the 12th of September a small quantity of drift ice came into the -sound, on a piece of which they found two walruses asleep, when "William -Fakely being ready with his harping iron, heaved it so strongly into the -old one that he quite disturbed her of her rest: after which, she, -receiving five or six thrusts with our lances, fell into a sounder sleep -of death." The young one, refusing to leave her mother, was also killed; -and a week afterwards another walrus fell a victim; but even with these -the store of provisions was inadequate. To make the food last, they put -themselves on an allowance of one good meal a day, except on Wednesdays -and Fridays which were fasting days devoted to whale sundries—"a very -loathsome meat," says Pellham, in brackets—later on, for four days in -the week they fed upon "the unsavoury and mouldy fritters, and the other -three we feasted it with bear and venison." "But," continues the -narrative, "as if it were not enough for us to want meat, we now began -to want light also; all our meals proved suppers now, for little light -could we see; even the glorious sun (as if unwilling to behold our -miseries) masking his lovely face from us, under the sable veil of -coal-black night."But they were equal to the emergency. "At the -beginning of this darksome, irksome time, we sought some means of -preserving light amongst us; finding therefore a piece of sheet lead -over a seam of one of the coolers, that we ripped off and made three -lamps of it, which, maintaining with oil that we found in the coopers' -tent, and rope-yarn serving us instead of candle-wicks, we kept them -continually burning." - -Cheerful and resourceful as they were, their fits of depression were not -infrequent. "Our extremities being so many, made us sometimes in -impatient speeches to break forth against the causers of our miseries; -but then again, our consciences telling us of our own evil deservings, -we took it either for a punishment upon us for our former wicked lives; -or else for an example of God's mercy in our wonderful deliverance: -humbling ourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, we cast down -ourselves before him in prayer, two or three times a day, which course -we constantly held all the time of our misery." - -Their prospects got worse, but they never lost a little hope. "The new -year now began: as the days began to lengthen, so the cold began to -strengthen; which cold came at last to that extremity, as that it would -raise blisters on our flesh, as if we had been burnt with fire, and if -we touched iron at any time it would stick to our fingers like -bird-lime: sometimes if we went but out of doors to fetch in a little -water, the cold would nip us in such a sort that it made us as sore as -if we had been beaten in some cruel manner." - -Provisions were running low; the men began to talk of famine, and the -outlook became daily gloomier until the 3rd of February. "This proved a -marvellous cold day; yet a fair and clear one; about the middle whereof, -all clouds now quite dispersed and night's sable curtain drawn, Aurora -with her golden face smiled once again upon us, at her rising out of her -bed; for now the glorious sun with his glittering beams began to gild -the highest tops of the lofty mountains. The brightness of the sun and -the whiteness of the snow, both together, were such as that it was able -to revive even a dying spirit. But to make a new addition to our new -joy, we might perceive two bears (a she one with her cub) now coming -towards our tent; whereupon we, straight arming ourselves with our -lances, issued out of the tent to await her coming. She soon cast her -greedy eyes upon us, and with full hopes of devouring us she made the -more haste unto us; but with our hearty lances we gave her such a -welcome as that she fell down and biting the very snow for anger." - -Then more bears came to be eaten; then the birds began to arrive, and -the foxes to come out of their winter earths to be trapped to the number -of fifty; then the reindeer returned; and then, on the 25th May, two -ships of Hull came into the sound from which a boat's crew landing -unperceived came close up to the tent and shouted "Hey!" And Ayers, the -only man at the moment in the outer tent, shouted "Ho!"—and Pellham and -his shipmates had proved it to be possible to live through a winter in -Spitsbergen. - - - - - CHAPTER II - SPITSBERGEN - - (_continued_) - - The summer town of Smeerenberg—Himkoff winters in North East - Land—Phipps reaches 80° 48´—Scoresby the elder reaches 81° - 30´—Scoresby the younger—Voyage of the _Dorothea_ and _Trent_ - under Buchan and Franklin—Parry reaches 82° 45´—Torell and - Nordenskiöld—Carlsen sails round Spitsbergen—Swedish North Polar - expedition under Nordenskiöld—Lamont—The Diana coal mine—Leigh - Smith—Conway. - - -This wintering of the _Salutation_ men occurred when the Spitsbergen -fisheries were most flourishing, the prosperity continuing for seven -more years. So lucrative was the trade that on Amsterdam Island under -Hakluyt Headland, within fifteen miles of 80° north latitude, about as -far from the North Pole as St. Malo is from John o' Groat's, there -sprang up as a summer resort the Dutch village of Smeerenberg. Such was -the bustle produced by the yearly visit of two or three hundred -double-manned vessels, containing from twelve thousand to eighteen -thousand men, that this village of the farthest north was as busy as a -manufacturing town. The incitement of prices proportionate to the -latitude attracted hundreds of annual settlers, who throve on the sale -of brandy, wine, tobacco, and sundries to the whale-fishers in shops of -all varieties, including bakehouses, where the blowing of a horn let the -sailors know that the bread had just been drawn hot from the oven. In -fact, hot rolls and every delicacy could be had in Smeerenberg, which -the Dutch averred was as flourishing as Batavia, founded by them a few -years before. And when winter was just about due every man—and -woman—went back to Holland. But the life of Smeerenberg was a short and -a merry one, for in 1640 the shore fisheries were failing, and a year or -so afterwards the lingerers of its last season left it for good, -clearing out from its houses of brick and wood, demolishing its -furnaces, removing its copper cauldrons and coolers and casks and -everything that could be taken away, and leaving it in desolation to be -occupied in the next and subsequent summers by polar bears. - -Like all seaside resorts it had its rival. Close by is the -Cookery-of-Haarlem, abandoned at the same time, but rather more -hurriedly. When Martens went there on the 15th of July, 1671, he found -four houses still standing, in one of which were "several barrels or -kardels that were quite decayed, the ice standing in the same shape the -vessels had been made of: an anvil, smith's tongs, and other tools -belonging to the cookery, were frozen up in the ice; the kettle was -still standing as it was set, and the wooden troughs stood by it." -Behind these houses "are high mountains," he continues, "if one climbeth -upon these, as we do on others, and doth not mark every step with chalk, -one doth not know how to get down again: when you go up you think it to -be very easy to be down; but when you descend it is very difficult and -dangerous, so that many have fallen and lost their lives." Absurd as -this chalking of the steps may seem, there have been many who have taken -the hint from the careful Martens when climbing in Spitsbergen, and many -who have regretted not having done so. - -In ordinary summers the west side of Spitsbergen is clear of ice, not so -the eastern side, the difference being due to the Gulf Stream, which, -though evidently failing, is traceable along the coast round Hakluyt -Headland and up to the ice barrier. In addition to this there is the -general cause, whatever it may be, which makes the western coasts of all -Arctic lands, isolated or not, warmer than the eastern. Greenland, for -instance, is more approachable in summer from Davis Strait than from the -Greenland Sea, Novaya Zemlya from Barents Sea than from Kara Sea, and so -on with all the islands and peninsulas of Asia and America. Hence all -this whaling was confined practically to the western harbours of West -Spitsbergen, the largest of the group of islands. The next largest, -North East Land, was never much visited except from Hinlopen Strait, -though the Russians from time to time took some interest in the north -and east harbours, and would have taken more, for it abounded in -reindeer, if the ice had not made the landing an enterprise of some -difficulty. - -On the east coast of North East Land, in 1743, a Russian whaler was -caught in the pack, and the mate, Alexis Himkoff, remembering that a -house had been built there some years before, went on shore with his -godson, Ivan Himkoff, and two sailors, Scharapoff and Weregin, in search -of it, in case the ship should have to be abandoned. They found the -house, but, on returning to the shore next morning, could see nothing of -the ship, which had apparently been carried away and crushed in the ice. -They had brought with them a musket, a powder-horn with twelve charges -of powder, twelve bullets, an axe, a small kettle, a bag with about -twenty pounds of flour, a knife, a tinder-box and tinder, a bladder of -tobacco, and every man had his pipe. That was their outfit. - -The house was thirty-six feet in length, and eighteen in height and -breadth. It contained a small antechamber about twelve feet broad, which -had two doors, one to close it from the outer air, the other admitting -to the inner room in which was a Russian stove, a kind of oven without a -chimney, serving at will for heating, for baking, or for sleeping on. -Realising that they had a long stay before them, they began by shooting -twelve reindeer, one for each bullet. They then repaired the house, -stopping up all the crevices with moss; and they then laid in a store of -fuel from the driftwood, there being no trees on the island. On the -beach they found some boards with nails in them, and a long iron hook -and a few other pieces of old iron. And also there was a root of a fir -tree in shape not unlike a bow. Those were the materials they had to -make the best of. - -A large stone served for an anvil, a pair of deer horns did duty for -tongs, and with these and the fire, the iron hook was made into a -hammer; and then two of the nails were shaped into spear-heads, which -were tied to sticks from the driftwood with strips of deerskin. With -these weapons they began by killing a bear, whose flesh they ate, whose -skin they kept, and whose tendons they made into thread and a string for -the bow formed out of the root of the fir tree. More nails were forged -into arrow-heads, tied with sinew on to light sticks cut with the knife, -the shafts being feathered from the feathers of seafowl. With these -weapons they shot, before they had finished, two hundred and fifty -reindeer, and they kept the skins, as they did also those of a large -number of blue and white foxes, as we shall see in the sequel. In their -own protection they killed nine bears, the only one they deliberately -attacked being the first. - -To be sure of keeping their fire alight they modelled a lamp out of -clay, which they filled with deer-fat, with twisted linen for a wick; -but the clay was too porous, the fat ran through it; so they made -another lamp of the same stuff, dried it in the air, heated it red hot, -and cooled it in a sort of thin starch made of flour and water, -strengthening the pottery by pasting linen rags over it. The result was -so successful that they made a second lamp as a reserve. Some wreckage -gave them a little cordage and a quantity of oakum, which came in for -lamp-wicks. The lamp, like the sacred fire, was never allowed to go out. -To make themselves clothes, they soaked skins in fresh water till the -hair could be pulled off easily, and rubbed them well, and then rubbed -deer fat into them until they were pliant and supple. Some of the skins -they prepared as furs. Out of nails they, after many failures, made awls -and needles, getting the eyes by piercing the heads with the point of -the knife, and smoothing and pointing them by rounding and whetting them -on a stone. - -For six years they lived in this desert place. Then one of them, -Weregin, died of scurvy, and their gloomy forebodings as to which was to -be taken next were broken in upon by their sighting a ship, to which -they signalled with a flag made of deerskin. The signal was seen and -they were rescued; and they took back to Archangel two thousand pounds -weight of reindeer fat, their bales of skins and furs, their bow and -arrows and spears, and in short everything they possessed. And they -arrived there on the 28th of September, 1749, comfortably off from the -value of the goods they brought with them—the heroes of one of the very -best of true desert island stories. - -Like most Russians they do not seem to have suffered much from the cold -or to have been inconvenienced by the summer heat, which is also -considerable. In 1773, on the 13th of June, when Phipps and Lutwidge -anchored in Fair Haven, round by Amsterdam Island, they found the -thermometer reach 58½° at noon and descend no lower than 51° at -midnight, and on the 16th it rose in the sun to 89½° till a light breeze -made it fall almost suddenly ten degrees. This was the expedition sent -out to the North Pole, mainly at the instigation of Daines Barrington, -Gilbert White's friend. The ships were the _Racehorse_ and _Carcass_; -and, as every one knows, or ought to know, as midshipman with Captain -Lutwidge went Horatio Nelson, then a boy of fourteen, who was to figure -largely in the world, though on this occasion he did nothing remarkable -beyond attacking a polar bear, whose skin he thought would make a nice -present for his father, and bringing his boat to the rescue when one of -the _Racehorse_ boats was attacked by walruses. For another thing the -expedition is memorable, that being that the useful apparatus for the -distillation of fresh water from sea water, known to every seafarer, was -first used on this voyage, Dr. Irving, its inventor, being the surgeon -of the _Racehorse_. Another item to be noted is that Phipps had with him -a Cavendish thermometer, which he tried the day after he crossed the -Arctic Circle, and found that at a depth of 780 fathoms the temperature -was 26°, while at the surface it was 48°. - -Phipps did all he could to go north, and, in longitude 14° 59´ east, -reached 80° 48', the nearest to the Pole up to then, but he was foiled -by the ice barrier, which he tried to penetrate again and again. He got -his ships caught in the ice and took to his boats, thinking he would -have to abandon them, when fortunately the pack drifted south, and the -vessels, clearing themselves under sail, caught the boats up and took -them on board. Then he went along the edge of the ice westward, and, -finding no opening, gave the venture up and sailed for home. - -The next to do good work within this area was William Scoresby the -elder, whose only equal as a whale-fisher was his son. To him we owe the -invention of the crow's nest, that cylindrical frame covered with -canvas, entrance to which is given by a trap-hatch in the base, reached -by a Jacob's ladder from the topmast crosstrees, the conning-tower, so -to speak, carried since by every ship on Arctic service. He was also the -inventor of the ice-drill and many another implement and device used in -Polar navigation; and he it was who sloped off his fore and main courses -to come inboard to a boom fitted to the foot, used by every whaler, by -which, in fact, you may know them. He also, long before the _America_, -discovered the advantage of flat sails, and, in order to get his weights -well down, he filled his casks with water as ballast and packed them -with shingle, so that, instead of going out light, he was in the best of -trim, with a power of beating to windward that took him to the fishing -ground in double quick time and further into the ice, when he chose, -than any of his competitors. - -[Illustration: WHALERS AMONG ICEBERGS] - -Out in the _Resolution_ in 1806 he saw from his crow's nest, in which he -often spent a dozen hours at a stretch, that below the ice-blink—the -white line in the sky which betokens the presence of ice—there was a -blue-grey streak denoting open water, and that the motion of the sea -around the ship must be due to a swell, which could only come from open -water to the northward. On the 13th of May he started for this. By -sawing the ice, hammering at it, dropping his boats on to it from the -bow, sallying the ship—that is, rolling her by running the crew -backwards and forwards across her deck—and, in fact, using every means -he could think of, he passed the barrier in the eightieth parallel, and, -on the 24th of June, attained 81° 30´, the farthest north ever reached -by a sailing vessel in these seas. On that day there was not a ship -within three hundred and fifty miles of the _Resolution_. The bold -venture proved a thorough success; in thirty-two days he filled up with -twenty-four whales, two seals, two walruses, and a narwhal—one of the -most profitable of his thirty voyages. - -In this voyage the chief officer was his son, William Scoresby the -younger, whose _Arctic Regions_ is the best book ever written on the -northern seas. Sent by his father to Edinburgh University where he -studied almost every branch of natural and physical science, he was -thoroughly equipped for his task, and his practical experience as a -whaling captain and trained observer stood him in such stead that his -book is still the basis of all scientific Polar research. His -description of the Spitsbergen coast as seen from a ship is as faithful -to-day as when he wrote it. "Spitsbergen and its islands, with some -other countries within the Arctic Circle, exhibit a kind of scenery -which is altogether novel. The principal objects which strike the eye -are innumerable mountainous peaks, ridges, precipices, or needles, -rising immediately out of the sea to an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet, -the colour of which, at a moderate distance, appears to be blackish -shades of brown, green, grey and purple; snow or ice, in striæ or -patches, occupying the various clefts and hollows in the sides of the -hills, capping some of the mountain summits, and filling with extended -beds the most considerable valleys; and ice of the glacier form, -occurring at intervals all along the coast, in particular situations as -already described, in prodigious accumulations. The glistening or -vitreous appearance of the icy precipices; the purity, whiteness, and -beauty of the sloping expanse formed by their snowy surfaces; the gloomy -shade presented by the adjoining or intermixed mountains and rocks, -perpetually covered with a mourning veil of black lichens, with the -sudden transitions into a robe of purest white, where patches or beds of -snow occur, present a variety and extent of contrast altogether -peculiar; which, when enlightened by the occasional ethereal brilliancy -of the Polar sky, and harmonised in its serenity with the calmness of -the ocean, constitute a picture both novel and magnificent. There is, -indeed, a kind of majesty, not to be conveyed in words, in these -extraordinary accumulations of snow and ice in the valleys, and in the -rocks above rocks and peaks above peaks, in the mountain groups, seen -rising above the ordinary elevation of the clouds, and terminating -occasionally in crests of snow, especially when you approach the shore -under the shelter of the impenetrable density of a summer fog; in which -case the fog sometimes disperses like the drawing of a curtain, when the -strong contrast of light and shade, heightened by a cloudless atmosphere -and powerful sun, bursts on the senses in a brilliant exhibition -resembling the production of magic." - -In 1818 there went out the first British expedition prepared to winter -in the north. The vessels were two whalers bought into the navy, the -_Dorothea_ and _Trent_, the first under the command of David Buchan, the -other under that of John Franklin. Neither officer had been in the -Arctic region before, but Buchan had done excellent service in surveying -Newfoundland, and Franklin had been marked for special duty owing to his -work in Australian seas under his cousin, Matthew Flinders, and for the -manner in which on his way home he had acted as signal officer to -Nathaniel Dance in that ever-memorable victory off the Straits of -Malacca, when the Indiamen defeated and pursued a French fleet under -Admiral Linois. Dance's report gave Franklin a further chance of -distinction, for it led to his appointment to the _Bellerophon_, whose -signal officer he was during the battle of Trafalgar. - -They were instructed to proceed to the North Pole, thence to continue on -to Bering Strait direct, or by the best route they could find, to make -their way to the Sandwich Islands or New Albion, and thence to come back -through Bering Strait eastward, keeping in sight and approaching the -coast of America whenever the position of the ice permitted them so to -do. A nice little programme. But they started too early in a bad season; -they did not get so far north as Phipps; they made accurate surveys and -other observations; in exploration they did little; and they had many -adventures. - -As they ranged along the western side of Spitsbergen the weather was -severe. The snow fell in heavy showers, and several tons' weight of ice -accumulated about the sides of the _Trent_, and formed a complete casing -to the planks, which received an additional layer at each plunge of the -vessel. So great, indeed, was the accumulation about the bows, that they -were obliged to cut it away repeatedly with axes to relieve the bowsprit -from the enormous weight that was attached to it: and the ropes were so -thickly covered with ice that it was necessary to beat them with large -sticks to keep them in a state of readiness. In the gale the ships -parted company, but they met again at the rendezvous in Magdalena Bay. - -[Illustration: SIR JOHN FRANKLIN] - -Later on, off Cloven Cliff, there was a walrus fight begun by the seamen -and continued by the walruses when they found themselves more at home in -the water than on the ice. They rose in numbers about the boats, rushing -at them, snorting with rage, endeavouring to upset them or stave them in -by hooking their tusks on the gunwales, or butting at them with their -heads. "It was the opinion of our people," says Beechey, "that in this -assault the walruses were led on by one animal in particular, a much -larger and more formidable beast than any of the others; and they -directed their efforts more particularly towards him, but he withstood -all the blows of their tomahawks without flinching, and his tough hide -resisted the entry of the whale lances, which were, unfortunately, not -very sharp, and soon bent double. The herd was so numerous, and their -attacks so incessant, that there was not time to load a musket, which, -indeed, was the only effectual mode of seriously injuring them. The -purser, fortunately, had his gun loaded, and the whole now being nearly -exhausted with chopping and sticking at their assailants, he snatched it -up, and, thrusting the muzzle down the throat of the leader, fired into -him. The wound proved mortal, and the animal fell back amongst his -companions, who immediately desisted from their attack, assembled round -him, and in a moment quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as they -could with their leader, whom they actually bore up with their tusks and -assiduously preserved from sinking." - -On one occasion Franklin and Beechey, when out in a boat together, -witnessed the launch of an iceberg. They had approached the end of a -glacier and were trying to search into the recess of a deep cavern at -its foot when they heard a report as if of a cannon, and, turning to the -quarter whence it proceeded, perceived an immense piece of the front of -the cliff of ice gliding down from a height of two hundred feet at least -into the sea, and dispersing the water in every direction, accompanied -by a loud grinding noise, and followed by a quantity of water, which, -lodged in the fissures, made its escape in numberless small cataracts -over the front of the glacier. They kept the boat's head in the -direction of the sea and thus escaped disaster, for the disturbance -occasioned by the plunge of this enormous fragment caused a succession -of rollers, which swept over the surface of the bay, making its shores -resound as it travelled along it, and at a distance of four miles was so -considerable that it became necessary to right the _Dorothea_, which was -then careening, by instantly releasing the tackles which confined her. -The piece that had been disengaged wholly disappeared under water, and -nothing was seen but a violent boiling of the sea and a shooting up of -clouds of spray like that which occurs at the foot of a great cataract. -After a short time it reappeared, raising its head full a hundred feet -above the surface, with water pouring down from all parts of it; and -then, labouring as if doubtful which way it should fall, it rolled over, -and, after rocking about for some minutes, became settled. It was nearly -a quarter of a mile round and floated sixty feet out of the water, and -making a fair allowance for its inequalities, was computed to weigh -421,600 tons. - -[Illustration: TRACK OF H.M.S. "DOROTHEA" AND "TRENT"] - -There were frequent landings, often with difficulties in the return, due -generally to attempts at making a short cut to the shore or across the -ice. Of these short cuts the very shortest was that made by one of the -sailors named Spinks, who was out with a party in pursuit of reindeer. -The ardour of the chase had led them beyond the prescribed limits, and -when the signal was made for their return to the boat some of them were -upon the top of a hill. Spinks, an active and zealous fellow, anxious to -be first at his post, thought he would outstrip his comrades by -descending the snow, which was banked against the mountain at an angle -of about 40° with the horizon, and rested against a small glacier on the -left. The height was about two thousand feet, and in the event of his -foot slipping there was nothing to impede his progress until he reached -the beach, either by the slope or the more terrific descent of the face -of the glacier. He began his career by digging his heels into the snow, -the surface of which was rather hard. At first he got on very well, but -presently his foot slipped, or the snow was too hard for his heel to -make an impression, and he increased in speed, keeping his balance, -however, by means of his hands. In a very short time his descent was -fearfully quick; the fine snow flew about him like dust, and there -seemed but little chance of his reaching the bottom in safety, -especially as his course was taking him in the direction of the glacier. -For a moment he was lost sight of behind a crag of the mountain, and it -was thought he had gone over the glacier, but with great presence of -mind and dexterity, "by holding water first with one hand and then the -other," to use his own expression, he contrived to escape the danger, -and, like a skilful pilot, steered into a place of refuge amid a bed of -soft snow recently drifted against the hill. When he extricated himself -from the depths into which he had been plunged he had to hold together -his tattered clothes, for he had worn away two pairs of trousers and -something more. That was all his damage, and we shall meet with him -again in the west out with Franklin and Captain Back. - -In the morning of the 30th of July the ships found themselves caught in -a gale with the ice close to leeward. The only way of escaping -destruction seemed to be by taking refuge in the pack. It was a -desperate expedient rarely resorted to by whalers and only in extreme -cases. In the _Trent_ a cable was cut up into thirty-foot lengths, and -these, with plates of iron four feet square, supplied as fenders, and -some walrus hides, were hung around her, mainly about her bows; the -masts were secured with extra ropes, and the hatches were battened and -nailed down. When a few fathoms from the ice those on board searched -with anxiety for an opening in the pack, but saw nothing but an unbroken -line of furious breakers with huge masses heaving and plunging with the -waves and dashing together with a violence that nothing but a solid body -seemed likely to withstand; and the noise was so great that the orders -to the crew could with difficulty be heard. At one moment the sea was -bursting upon the ice blocks and burying them deep beneath its wave, and -the next, as the buoyancy brought them up again, the water was pouring -in foaming cataracts over their edges, the masses rocking and labouring -in their bed, grinding and striving with each other until one was either -split with the shock or lifted on to the top of its neighbour. Far as -the eye could reach the turmoil stretched, and overhead was the -clearness of a calm and silvery atmosphere bounded by a dark line of -storm cloud lowering over the masts as if to mark the confines within -which no effort would avail. - -"At this instant," says Beechey, "when we were about to put the strength -of our little vessel in competition with that of the great icy -continent, and when it seemed almost presumption to reckon on the -possibility of her surviving the unequal conflict, it was gratifying in -the extreme to observe in all our crew the greatest calmness and -resolution. If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried it was -assuredly not less so than on this occasion; and I will not conceal the -pride I felt in witnessing the bold and decisive tone in which the -orders were issued by the commander of our little vessel, and the -promptitude and steadiness with which they were executed by the crew." - -The brig was steered bow on to the ice. Every man instinctively gripped -his hold, and with his eyes fixed on the masts awaited the moment of -concussion. In an instant they all lost their footing, the masts bent -with the shock, and the timbers cracked below; the vessel staggered and -seemed to recoil, when the next wave, curling up under her counter, -drove her about her own length within the edge of the ice, where she -gave a roll and was thrown broadside to the wind by the succeeding wave -which beat furiously against her stern, bringing her lee in touch with -the main mass and leaving her weather side exposed to a floe about twice -her size. Battered on all sides, tossed from fragment to fragment, -nothing could be done but await the issue, for the men could hardly keep -their feet, the motion being so great that the ship's bell, which in the -heaviest gale had never struck of itself, now tolled so continuously -that it had to be muffled. - -After a time an effort was made to put the vessel before the wind and -drive her further into the pack. Some of the men gained the -fore-topsail-yard and let a reef out of the sail, and the jib was -dragged half up the stay by the windlass. The brig swung into position, -and, aided by a mass under her stern, split the block, fourteen feet -thick, which had barred her way, and made a passage for herself into -comparative safety; and after some four hours the gale moderated. -Strained and leaking the _Trent_ had suffered much, but the _Dorothea_ -had been damaged more; and both returned to Fair Haven, where it was -found hopeless to continue the voyage, and thence, when the ships had -been temporarily repaired, they sailed for England. The expedition had -not done much, but it had given their Arctic schooling to Franklin, -Beechey, and Back. - -In May, 1827, Parry, in the _Hecla_, was forced to run into the ice, but -not quite in the same way as Buchan did. He was beset for three weeks, -and then, getting clear, proceeded to the Seven Islands to the north of -Spitsbergen, on one of which, Walden, he placed a reserve of provisions; -the ship, after reaching 81° 5´, going to Treurenberg Bay, in Hinlopen -Strait, to await his return. - -[Illustration: PARRY CAMPED ON THE ICE] - -From here he made his dash for the Pole. He had with him two boats of -his own design, seven feet in beam, twenty in length. On each side of -the keel was a strong runner, shod with steel, upon which the boat stood -upright on the ice. They were so built that they would have floated as -bags had they been stove in. On ash and hickory timbers, an inch by an -inch and a half thick, placed a foot apart, with a half-timber of -smaller size between each, was stretched a casing of waterproof canvas -tarred on the outer side and protected by a skin of fir three-sixteenths -of an inch thick, over this came a sheet of stout felt, and over all a -skin of oak of the same thickness as the fir, each boat weighing about -fourteen hundredweight—that is the hull, as launched. One of these boats -was named the _Enterprise_, the other the _Endeavour_. They were -intended to be hauled by reindeer, but the state of the ice rendered -this impracticable and the men did the work themselves. Parry took -command of the _Enterprise_, the other being in charge of Lieutenant -James Clark Ross; and, altogether, officers and men numbered -twenty-eight. - -From Little Table Island, where they left a reserve as they had done at -Walden, they started for the north—two heavy boats laden with food for -seventy days and clothing for twenty-eight men, with a compact equipment -including light sledges, travelling in a sea crowded or covered with ice -in every form, large and small, over which they were dragged up and down -hummocks, round and among crags and ridges, along surfaces of every kind -of ruggedness, of every slope and irregularity, the few flat stretches -broken with patches of sharp crystals or waist-deep snow; through lanes -and pools of water with frequent ferryings and transhipments, in -sunshine and fog, and, strange to say, frequently in pouring rain. They -travelled by night and rested by day, though, of course, there was -daylight all the time. "The advantages of this plan," says Parry, "which -was occasionally deranged by circumstances, consisted, first in our -avoiding the intense and oppressive glare from the snow during the time -of the sun's greatest altitude, so as to prevent in some degree the -painful inflammation in the eyes called snow-blindness which is common -in all snowy countries. We also thus enjoyed greater warmth during the -hours of rest and had a better chance of drying our clothes; besides -which no small advantage was derived from the snow being harder at night -for travelling. When we rose in the evening we commenced our day by -prayers, after which we took off our sleeping dresses and put on those -for travelling, the former being made of camlet lined with racoon skin, -and the latter of strong blue, box cloth. We made a point of always -putting on the same stockings and boots for travelling in, whether they -had dried during the day or not, and I believe it was only in five or -six instances that they were not either still wet or hard frozen." When -halted for rest the boats were placed alongside each other, with their -sterns to the wind, the snow or wet cleared out of them, and the sails, -held up by the bamboo masts and three paddles, were placed over them as -awnings with the entrance at the bow. - -Progress was not great, sometimes fifty yards an hour, occasionally -twelve miles a day, that is on the ice, for soon it was apparent that -the distance gained by reckoning was greater than that given by -observation, and Parry realised to his dismay that the pack was drifting -south while he was going north. But he kept on till on the 21st of July -he reached 82° 45´, which remained the farthest north for forty-nine -years. - -[Illustration: PARRY'S BOATS AMONG THE HUMMOCKS] - -During the last few days he had been drifting south in the day almost as -far as he had advanced north in the night, and, having used up half his -provisions, he reluctantly abandoned the struggle as hopeless. "As we -travelled," he says, "by far the greater part of our distance on the -ice, three, and not infrequently, five times over, we may safely -multiply the road by 2½; so that our whole distance, on a very moderate -calculation, amounted to five hundred and eighty geographical miles, or -six hundred and sixty-eight statute miles; being nearly sufficient to -have reached the Pole in a direct line." - -In 1858 a Swedish expedition under Otto Torell started from Hammerfest -for Spitsbergen. He was accompanied by A. Quennerstedt and Adolf Erik -Nordenskiöld. They explored Horn Sound, Bell Sound, and Green Harbour. -In Bell Sound they dredged with great success for mollusca; they made a -botanical collection, chiefly of mosses and lichens, found tertiary -plant fossils, and, in the North Harbour, carboniferous limestone beds -with the tertiary plant-bearing strata above them—in short, Nordenskiöld -entered upon his long and fruitful study of Spitsbergen geology. Three -years afterwards Torell took out another expedition, Nordenskiöld going -with him, which was to explore the northern coast and then make for the -far north; but the ice conditions kept them in Treurenberg Bay, where -they visited Hecla Cove and found Parry's flagstaff. In the course of -their journeys they noticed in Cross Bay the first known Spitsbergen -fern, _Cystopteris fragilis_; by the side of a freshwater lake in Wijde -Bay an Alpine char was picked up; and, at Shoal Point, Torell discovered -in a mass of driftwood a specimen of the unmistakable Entada bean, two -and a quarter inches across, brought there from the West Indies by the -Gulf Stream, as other specimens have been drifted to European shores. - -In 1864, the year that Elling Carlsen found the navigation so open that -he passed the Northern Gate and sailed round Spitsbergen, Nordenskiöld, -at the head of a small expedition, was at work in Ice Fjord, and, unable -to go north on account of the ice, rounded South Cape, entered Stor -Fjord, visited Edge's Land and Barents Land, and from the summit of -White Mountain, near Unicorn Bay, rediscovered the west coast of the -island reported by Edge two hundred and fifty years before. In 1868, as -leader of the Swedish North Polar Expedition in the _Sofia_, he reached -81° 42´, in 17° 30´ east, the highest latitude then reached by a steam -vessel, and his farthest north; his next Polar venture, four years -afterwards, in the _Polhem_, ending in his having to winter in Mossel -Bay, where his generous endeavour to feed one hundred and one extra men, -who were ice-bound, on provisions intended for his own twenty-four, -would have ended in disaster had he not been relieved by Leigh Smith in -the _Diana_. - -The _Diana_ was the steam yacht built for James Lamont, in which, like -Leigh Smith, he cruised for several seasons in the Arctic seas, -combining sport with exploration in a truly admirable way. To these two -yachtsmen we owe much of our knowledge of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, -and Franz Josef Land, but we can only give them passing mention here. We -must, however, find room for Lamont's useful find of the coal mine in -Advent Bay, from which he filled up the _Diana's_ bunkers. "When I paid -a visit to the coal mine," he says, "I found it quite a busy scene for a -quiet Arctic shore. The engineer and fireman directed the blasting, my -English hands quarried, while the Norwegians carried the sacks down the -hill. The old mate, the many-sidedness of whose character I have so much -valued on my various voyages, was digging away with the rest, though I -am sorry that in the sketch his weather-beaten face is turned away. All -the rest are portraits, and the reader will notice that Arctic work is -not done in the attractive uniforms known to Cowes and Ryde. The -coal-bed was about three feet thick, and lay very horizontally between -two layers of soft, mud-coloured limestone. It was harder to obtain than -I anticipated, because saturated, through all the cracks and -interstices, with water which had frozen into ice more difficult to -break through than the coal itself, thereby rendering these fissures -worse than useless in quarrying. This is tertiary coal, and is of fair -quality, but contains a good deal of sulphur. When we began to burn it, -so much water and ice was unavoidably mixed with it that the engineers -had to let it drain on deck in the hot sun and then mix it with an equal -bulk of Scotch coal. Consumed in this way the ten tons obtained in three -days was a useful addition to the fast-dwindling stock on board." - -While Nordenskiöld was at Mossel Bay he attempted a journey to the -north, but was stopped by the ice at Seven Islands, and returned round -North East Land. It took him five days to pass across the twenty-three -miles between Phipps Island and Cape Platen over pyramids of angular ice -up to thirty feet high. On the coast, which he found extending, as Leigh -Smith had reported, much further to the east than was shown on the -charts, he met with the inland ice ending in precipices from two -thousand to three thousand feet high. Ascending this ice they had -scarcely gone a quarter of a mile before one of the men disappeared at a -place where the surface was level, and so instantaneously that he could -not even give a cry for help. When they looked into the hole they found -him hanging on to the drag-line, to which he was fastened with reindeer -harness, over a deep abyss. Had his arms slipped out of the harness, a -single belt, he would have been lost. Along the level surface every puff -of wind drove a stream of fine snow-dust, which, from the ease with -which it penetrated everywhere, was as the fine sand of the desert to -the travellers in the Sahara. By means of this fine snow-dust, steadily -driven forward by the wind, the upper part of the glacier—which did not -consist of ice, but of hard packed blinding white snow—was glazed and -polished so that it seemed to be a faultless, spotless floor of white -marble, or rather a white satin carpet. Examination showed that the -snow, at a depth of four to six feet, passed into ice, being changed -first into a stratum of ice crystals, partly large and perfect, then to -a crystalline mass of ice, and finally to hard glacier ice, in which -could still be observed numerous air cavities compressed by the -overlying weight; and, when, as the surface thaws, the pressure of the -enclosed air exceeds that of the superincumbent weight, these cavities -break up with the peculiar cracking sound heard in summer from the -glacier ice that floats about in the fjords. Occasionally broad channels -were crossed, of which the only way to ascertain the depth was to lower -a man into them, and frequently he had to be hoisted up again without -having reached the bottom; such danger areas causing so circuitous a -route that much progress was impossible. - -Prior to the explorations of Sir Martin Conway in 1896, it was supposed -that this inland ice extended over all the islands of the group, an area -exceeding twenty thousand square miles. He, however, proved that so far -as West Spitsbergen was concerned, this was not the case. Crossing it he -found much of the interior a complex of mountains and valleys, amongst -which were many glaciers, as in Central Europe, but with no continuous -covering of ice, each glacier being a separate unit with its own -drainage system and catchment area, the valleys boggy and relatively -fertile, the hillsides bare of snow in summer up to more than a thousand -feet above sea-level. In the rise of the country from the sea it seems -to have come up as a plain which did not reach the level of perpetual -snow, so that as it rose it was cut down into valleys in the usual way -by the agency of water pouring off from the plateau over its edge down a -frost-split rock-face, the valleys gently sloped, the head necessarily -steep owing to the face of the cliff being stripped off as the -waterfalls cut their way back. - -Since Nordenskiöld's first expedition we have learnt much of the geology -and physical features of Spitsbergen; and we hear no more of the poverty -of its flora and fauna. Now it has become a summer tourist resort we are -yearly increasing our knowledge of this land of no thunderstorms, for -centuries the largest uninhabited area on the globe, the only -considerable stretch on which there is no trace of human occupation -before its discovery by the moderns in 1596, when it was found by -Barents and his companions. - - - - - CHAPTER III - NOVAYA ZEMLYA - - Van Heemskerck and Barents reach Ice Haven—The ship in the ice—The - first crew to winter in the Arctic—The house the Dutch built—The - bears—The foxes—Intense cold—Twelfth Eve rejoicings—Preparations - for departure—Death of Barents—The boat voyage—Meeting with - Rijp—Admiral Jacob Van Heemskerck—Carlsen at Ice Haven—Finds the - house as described by De Veer—The relics at the Hague—Gardiner - finds the powder-flask—Gundersen finds the translation of the - voyage of Pet and Jackman—Second voyage of Hudson—His third - voyage—De Vlamingh—Russian explorers. - - -We left Barents parting company with Rijp at Bear Island, Rijp bound -northwards. Barents, taking his vessel eastwards, struck Novaya Zemlya -at Loms Bay, near Cross Bay, and bearing north-eastwards reached the -Orange Islands and rounded Cape Mauritius. Steering south he got down -into Ice Haven, where at length, says De Veer, "the ice began to drive -with such force that we were enclosed round about therewith, and yet we -sought all the means we could to get out, but it was all in vain: and at -that time we had like to have lost three men that were upon the ice to -make way for the ship, if the ice had held the course it went; but as we -drove back again, and the ice also whereon our men stood, they being -nimble, as the ship drove by them, one of them caught hold of the beak -head, another upon the shrouds, and the third upon the mainbrace that -hung out behind, and so by great adventure by the hold they took they -got into the ship again, for which they thanked God with all their -hearts." The same evening, that of the 26th of August, 1596, they -reached the west of Ice Haven—now known as Barents Bay—where they were -forced to remain, being the first crew on record to spend a winter in -the Arctic regions and survive to tell the story. - -To begin with, the ice gathered round the ship and lifted her bow four -feet out of the water. Endeavouring to right her by clearing the ice -away, Barents was on his knees measuring the height she had to fall when -the ice broke with "such a noise and so great a crack that they thought -verily they were all cast away." As she lay upright again they tried in -vain with crowbars and other tools to break off the piled-up ice, and -next day in a heavy snow the pressure became such that the whole ship -was borne up and so squeezed that "all that was both about and in it -began to crack, so that it seemed to burst in a hundred pieces, which -was most fearful both to see and hear, and made all the hair of our -heads to rise upright with fear." The grip continuing, the vessel was -driven up four or five feet and the rudder squeezed off, which was -replaced by a new one, when she sank back into the water a few hours -afterwards owing to the ice drifting clear for a while. Thus matters -went on for a little time, the ship being alternately lifted and -released. - -[Illustration: HOW OUR SHIP STUCK FAST IN THE ICE] - -On the 11th of September, as there was no hope of escape, it was decided -to build a house wherein to spend the winter, and in seeking for a -suitable position, a mass of driftwood—"trees, roots and all"—was -discovered, "driven ashore from Tartaria, Muscovia, or elsewhere," for -there were no trees growing on the land, "wherewith," says De Veer, "we -were much comforted, being in good hope that God would show us some -further favour; for that wood served us not only to build our house, but -also to burn and serve us all the winter long; otherwise without all -doubt we had died there miserably with extreme cold." - -The timber was collected and piled up in heaps that it might not be -hidden under the snow, and two sledges were made on which to drag it to -the site of the house. This was heavy work in which all took part, four -of them in turn remaining by the ship, there being thirteen men to each -party, five to each sledge, with three to help and lift the wood behind -"to make us draw the better and with more ease," and at the end of the -first week of it the carpenter died, so that only sixteen were left. But -the wood was brought along day after day, some to build with, some for -fuel; and the house was built, the frost so hard at times that "as we -put a nail into our mouths, as carpenters do, there would ice hang -thereon when we took it out again and made the blood follow"; and when a -great fire was made to soften the ground, in order that earth might be -dug to shovel round the house, "it was all lost labour for the earth was -so hard and frozen so deep that we could not thaw it, and it would have -cost us too much wood." - -The house was roofed with deals obtained by breaking up the lower deck -of the fore part of the ship, and, to make it weather-tight, it was -covered with a sail on which afterwards shingle was spread to keep it -from being blown off; and the materials of the cabin yielded the wood -for the door. Inside, the house was made as comfortable as possible, as -shown in the illustration given in De Veer's book in 1598. Low shelves, -with partitions between, along the side served for sleeping places; a -cask on end with a square hole like a window in the upper half was -frequently used as a bath; a striking clock and a time-glass marked the -passing of the hours; the large fire in the centre with its frame and -trivet and spit and copper pots and other kitchen utensils served for -warmth and cooking; and over the fire hung a large lamp beneath the -chimney, which terminated outside in a cask giving it the appearance of -a crow's nest ashore. - -While the house was building, and as long as the sun was above the -horizon, there was much trouble with the bears, whose daily visits were -always productive of excitement. On the 26th of October, for instance, -the day after all the crew first slept in the house, when the men had -loaded the last sledge and stood in the track-ropes ready to draw it to -the house, Van Heemskerck caught sight of three coming towards them from -behind the ship. The men jumped out of the track-ropes, and as -fortunately two halberds lay upon the sledge, Van Heemskerck took one -and De Veer the other, while the rest ran to the ship, "and as they ran -one of them fell into a crevice in the ice, which grieved us much, for -we thought the bears would have run unto him to devour him," but they -made straight after the others instead. "Meantime we and the man that -fell into the cleft of ice took our advantage and got into the ship on -the other side; which the bears perceiving, they came fiercely towards -us that had no arms to defend us withal but only the two halberds, gave -them work to do by throwing billets of firewood and other things at -them, and every time we threw they ran after them as a dog does at a -stone that has been cast at him. Meantime we sent a man down into the -caboose to strike fire and another to fetch pikes; but we could get no -fire, and so we had no means to shoot"—their firearms being matchlocks. -"At the last as the bears came fiercely upon us we struck one of them -with a halberd on the snout, wherewith she gave back when she felt -herself hurt and went away, which the other two, that were not so large -as she, perceiving, ran away." - -When the bears had gone and the long night set in, their place was taken -by the white foxes, many of these being caught in traps and furnishing -skins for clothes and flesh for meat—"not unlike that of the -rabbit"—that was "as grateful as venison." The 19th of November was a -great day. A chest of linen was opened and divided among the men for -shirts, "for they had need of them." Next day they washed their shirts, -having evidently made the new ones in a hurry, and, says De Veer, "it -was so cold that when we had washed and wrung them they presently froze -so stiff (out of the warm water) that although we laid them by a great -fire the side that lay next the fire thawed, but the other side was hard -frozen, so that we should sooner have torn them in sunder than have -opened them, whereby we were forced to put them into the boiling water -again to thaw them, it was so exceeding cold." - -On the 3rd of December and the two following days it was so cold that as -the men lay in their bunks they could hear the ice cracking in the sea -two miles away, and thought that icebergs were breaking on each other; -and as they had not so great a fire as usual owing to the smoke "it -froze so sore within the house that the walls and the roof thereof were -frozen two fingers thick with ice, even in the bunks in which we lay. -All those three days while we could not go out by reason of the foul -weather we set up the sandglass of twelve hours, and when it was run out -we set it up again, still watching it lest we should miss our time. For -the cold was so great that our clock was frozen and would not go, -although we hung more weight on it than before." - -The snow fell until it was so deep round the house that on Christmas Day -they heard foxes running over the roof; and the last day of the year was -so cold that "the fire almost cast no heat, for as we put our feet to -the fire we burnt our hose before we could feel the heat, so that we had -work enough to do to patch our hose." On the 4th of January, "to know -where the wind blew we thrust a half pike out of the chimney with a -little cloth or feather upon it; but we had to look at it immediately -the wind caught it, for as soon as we thrust it out it was frozen as -hard as a piece of wood and could not go about or stir with the wind, so -that we said to one another how fearfully cold it must be out of doors." - -Next day, being Twelfth Eve, on which foreigners, according to the old -practice, hold the festivities now customary in England on the following -day, the men asked Van Heemskerck that they might enjoy themselves, "and -so that night we made merry and drank to the three kings. And therewith -we had two pounds of meal, which we had taken to make paste for the -cartridges wherewith, of which we now made pancakes with oil, and to -every man a white biscuit, which we sopped in wine. And so supposing -that we were in our own country and amongst our friends it comforted us -as well as if we had made a great banquet in our own house. And we also -distributed tickets, and our gunner was king of Nova Zembla, which is at -least eight hundred miles long and lieth between two seas." - -In time the sun reappeared—as also the bears—and the rigours of the -winter relaxing, the men, on the 9th of May, applied to Barents asking -him to speak to Van Heemskerck with a view to preparing for departure. -This, after two other appeals, he did on the 15th of May, Van -Heemskerck's answer being that, if the ship were not free by the end of -the month, he would get ready to go away in the boats. The two boats, -or, to be exact, the boat and the herring skute, were then repaired and -made suitable for a long sea voyage, and on the 13th of June were in -proper condition with all their stores ready. Then Van Heemskerck, -"seeing that it was open water and a good west wind, came back to the -house again, and there he spake unto Willem Barents (that had been long -sick) and showed him that he thought it good (seeing it was a fit time) -to go from thence, and they then resolved jointly with the ship's -company to take the boat and the skute down to the water side, and in -the name of God to begin our voyage to sail from Nova Zembla. Then -Willem Barents wrote a letter, which he put into a powder flask and -hanged it up in the chimney, showing how we came out of Holland to sail -to the kingdom of China, and what had happened to us." Then Barents was -taken down to the shore on a sledge and put into one boat, the other -sick man, Andriesz, being placed in the other, and "with a -west-north-west wind and an indifferent open water" they set sail on a -voyage of over fifteen hundred miles among the ice, over the ice, and -through the sea. - -Barents, though they little suspected it, had but a few days to live. As -they passed the northernmost cape of Novaya Zemlya, "Gerrit," he said to -De Veer, "if we are near the Ice Point, just lift me up again. I must -see that point once more." They were amongst the ice floes again; soon -they had to make fast to one; and then they became shut in and forced to -stay there. Next day their only means of safety lay in hauling their -boats up on to a floe, taking the sick men out on to the ice and putting -the clothes and other things under them; but after mending the boats, -which had been much bruised and crushed, they drifted into a little open -water and got afloat. On the 20th of June, about eight in the morning it -became evident that Andriesz was nearing his end. "Methinks," said -Barents, in the other boat, when he heard of it, "with me too it will -not last long." But still his companions did not realise how ill he was, -and talked on unconcernedly. Then he looked at the little chart which De -Veer had made of the voyage. Putting it down, he said, "Gerrit, give me -something to drink." And no sooner did he drink than he suddenly died. -Thus passed away their chief guide and only pilot, than whom none better -ever sailed the northern seas. - -[Illustration: HOW WE NEARLY GOT INTO TROUBLE WITH THE SEA-HORSES] - -Working their way down the west coast of the long island, putting in -every now and then in search of birds and eggs, constantly in peril from -the floating ice and the bears, they slowly came south. When passing -Admiralty Peninsula they had to deal with a danger of their own causing. -They sighted about two hundred walruses upon one of the floes. Sailing -close to them they drove them off, "which," says De Veer, "had almost -cost us dear, for they, being mighty strong sea monsters, swam towards -us round about our boats with a great noise as if they would have -devoured us; but we escaped from them by reason that we had a good gale -of wind, yet it was not wisely done of us to waken sleeping wolves." - -Day by day De Veer tells the story of that adventurous voyage, with its -long succession of dangers and disappointments, until they reached the -mainland and sent the Lapland messenger to Kola, who returned with a -letter from Jan Corneliszoon Rijp, who at first they could not believe -was the old friend from whom they had parted at Bear Island; and more -briefly he continues the story until Amsterdam was reached on the 1st of -November, when the survivors, in the same clothes they wore in their -winter quarters, fur caps and white fox-skins, walked up to the house of -Pieter Hasselaer to report themselves on arrival and received the hearty -welcome they deserved. - -Though Van Heemskerck had failed to make the passage to the east by way -of the north, he was perhaps destined for greater fame on the far less -rigorous route. Like Nelson he went on an Arctic expedition that failed, -and then secured a place in history by a sea-fight in Spanish waters, -for which his countrymen will never forget him. He it was who as -Vice-Admiral of Holland fought the Spanish fleet at Gibraltar in the -decisive battle of the 25th of April, 1607, in which with his twenty-six -vessels he attacked Juan Alvarez Davila's twenty ships and ten galleons. -Early in the struggle he had his leg swept off by a cannon shot, but he -remained on deck till he died, gaining the complete victory which -rendered his countrymen free from hindrance on the road to the Indies -round the Cape of Good Hope, of which for so many years they made such -profitable use. It is customary to give all the credit of the Arctic -voyage to Barents on the ground that his captain was no sailor, but -Holland knows no better sailor than Jacob Van Heemskerck of Gibraltar -Bay. - -On the 9th of September, 1871, Captain Elling Carlsen, sailing in the -Barents Sea, which he had entered round Icy Cape, landed in Ice Haven -and found the house just as De Veer had described it. There it had stood -in cold storage for 274 years, never having been entered by human foot -since Van Heemskerck had shut the door. The bunks, the table, the bath, -the clock, in short everything, all in order, as the orderly Dutchmen -had left it. Never did a voyage book receive such ample verification; -never did the description of an island home stand the test better. - -Carlsen, to begin with, knew nothing of De Veer or Barents, but he set -to work in a conscientious way and recorded the results like a true -archæologist. "Thursday, 14th," he wrote in his log, "Calm with clear -sky. Four o'clock in the morning we went ashore further to investigate -the wintering place. On digging we found again several objects, such as -drumsticks, a hilt of a sword, and spears. Altogether it seemed that the -people had been equipped in a warlike manner, but nothing was found -which could indicate the presence of human remains. On the beach we -found pieces of wood which had formerly belonged to some part of a ship, -for which reason I believe that a vessel has been wrecked there, the -crew of which built the house with the materials of the wreck and -afterwards betook themselves to boats." - -Bringing away a very large number of articles, he resumed his voyage and -landed at Hammerfest, where Mr. E. C. Lister Kay, who happened to be -there on a yachting trip, bought them, thinking they would be -repurchased from him, at the price he gave, for one of our own museums. -In this he was disappointed, and the collection was taken down to his -house in Dorsetshire, where Count Bylandt, the Dutch Ambassador, -happening to hear of it, called and bought it for his Government, who -placed it at the Hague in a room, the exact imitation of that in Novaya -Zemlya. - -In July, 1876, Mr. Charles Gardiner, another English yachtsman, when on -a cruise in the _Glow-worm_ in Barents Sea, made a call at the house and -brought away many other relics, which he presented to the Dutch, to be -added to those at the Hague; and among them was the powder-flask hung in -the chimney, containing the paper mentioned by De Veer. The previous -August Captain Gundersen had been there in the Norwegian schooner -_Regina_. In one of the chests he found two charts and what he described -as Barents's Journal. The journal proved to be a manuscript Dutch -translation of the story of the voyage in 1580 of Arthur Pet and Charles -Jackman. - -In 1608, eleven years after Barents died, Henry Hudson, in the Muscovy -Company's service, was sent to China by the north-east. He sailed on the -22nd of April from St. Katharine's, near the Tower of London, and on the -3rd of June passed the North Cape on his way to Novaya Zemlya, which he -reached near Cape Britwin twenty-three days afterwards. For some -considerable distance he had skirted the ice pack, vainly endeavouring -to get through to the northward and enter the Kara Sea round the Orange -Islands. - -This being impracticable he ranged southwards looking for a passage -through at Kostin Shar, which in the Dutch map he had with him was -marked as a strait and proved to be a bay. Had he been able to go a -little further north than Cape Britwin he might have found that -Matyushin Shar, like a rift in the rocks, divides the long island in -half, though at that early season the ice would have probably been -blocking it. From Kostin or thereabouts he departed for home, his voyage -failing almost at the outset, owing to his being two months too early. - -While off the coast he sent his boat ashore several times. "Generally," -he says, "all the land of Nova Zembla that we have yet seen is to a -man's eye a pleasant land; much main high land with no snow on it, -looking in some places green, and deer feeding thereon; and the hills -are partly covered with snow and partly bare"—rather a different picture -from that given by De Veer of what it was like in the winter. De Veer, -too, had committed himself to the statement that there were no deer in -the country, but here were Hudson's men frequently coming upon their -traces, and on the 2nd of July reporting that they had seen "a herd of -white deer, ten in a company," bringing on board with them a white lock -of deer's hair in proof thereof. - -On his return Hudson left the service of the Muscovy Company. He went to -Holland, and, early in April, 1609, was sent out by the Amsterdam -Chamber of the Dutch East India Company. On the 5th of May he rounded -the North Cape, making for Novaya Zemlya, and a few days afterwards -reached the ice. Here, according to Dutch accounts, his men mutinied, -but what happened during the trouble is not recorded. Whether it was -really owing to a mutiny, or, as is by no means improbable, to secret -instructions received at his departure, Hudson, on the 14th, made sail -for the North Cape, passed it on the 19th, when he observed a spot on -the sun, and then went off westwards to Newfoundland, making direct -apparently for the mouth of the river now bearing his name, which was -discovered by Verrazano in March, 1524, and surveyed by Gomez in the -following year, and was at the time of Hudson's visit British territory. - -The reason for this astonishing change of route was, perhaps, that on -some of the charts of the period, as on Michael Lock's planisphere, this -river, the Rio de Gamas or Rio Grande of the Spaniards, was made to -communicate with what seems to be intended for Lake Ontario, and this -with the other lakes to the westward was widened out into the waterway -to the South Sea. Thus Hudson drops out of our story at his first -mutiny, for he did not cross the Arctic Circle on his fourth voyage, -when his second mutiny ended his career in the bay that bears his name, -which, like the river and the strait, was indicated on the maps years -before he went there. - -In 1664 Willem de Vlamingh, the Dutch navigator, or—to be cautious—the -namesake of the Dutch navigator, who thirty-one years afterwards found -Dirk Hartog's plate and named Swan River in West Australia after the -black swans, was in these regions and rounded Novaya Zemlya into the -Kara Sea, reaching so far north that if his recorded latitude be correct -he must have sighted the Franz Josef archipelago, and, contrary to the -tendency of Arctic explorers, mistaken land for a bank of mist or a -group of icebergs. After him neither Dutch nor English delay us, the -opening up of this continuation of the Urals being left to the Russians, -who found it first and named it—Novaya Zemlya meaning simply New Land. - -For years it was left to the Samoyeds and the walrus hunters, whose -persistent reports of deposits of silver in its cliffs led to Loschkin's -making his way round it and spending two winters on its east coast. In -1768 Rosmysslof, also on silver bent, wintered in Matyushin Shar, that -wonderful waterway, ninety fathoms deep, bounded by high hills and -precipitous cliffs, winding so sharply that ships have been into it for -a dozen miles or so and seeing no passage ahead have come out again to -seek it elsewhere. In 1807 came Pospeloff, with Ludlow the mining -engineer, to settle the silver question once for all, and settle it they -did by showing that everywhere the so-called silver was either talc or -mica, and naming Silver Bay ironically in memory thereof. Fourteen years -afterwards Lütke surveyed the west coast, continuing during the next -three summers; and in 1832 Pachtussoff arrived to undergo in the course -of his really admirable work the hardships and privations of which he -died. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - FRANZ JOSEF LAND - - Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872—The voyage as planned—The drift - of the _Tegetthoff_—The polyglot crew—Discovery of Franz Josef - Land—Payer's description of an aurora—The sledge journeys—Crown - Prince Rudolf Land—Cape Fligely reached—Abandonment of the - _Tegetthoff_—The boat voyage to Cape Britwin—Leigh Smith's - expeditions—Loss of the _Eira_—The retreat in the boats—Jackson in - Franz Josef Land—His excellent survey work—The Italian expedition - under the Duke of the Abruzzi—Cagni attempts to reach the Pole and - is stopped at 86° 34´—The return journey. - - -In 1871 Weyprecht and Payer were out in the cutter _Isbjörn_, pioneering -for their intended voyage to the eastward, which started next year in -the _Tegetthoff_, the famous Austro-Hungarian attempt of 1872 which may -be described as an unintentional voyage of unexpected discovery. The -amount of credit due to a man who starts to find one thing and lights -upon another has always been a contentious matter, and this expedition -afforded an extreme case for such speculations. The plan was to go -east-north-east, the wintering places being undetermined, though they -might be Cape Chelyuskin, the New Siberian Islands, or any land that -might be discovered; and a return to Europe through Bering Strait lay -among the possibilities of the venture, as an endeavour was to be made -to reach the coast of Siberia in boats and penetrate south down one of -the large rivers of Northern Asia. What happened was that during the -afternoon of the 20th of August, when off the north-west coast of Novaya -Zemlya in 76° 22´ north, 63° 3´ east, the ship was run into an ice-hole -and made fast to a floe, and during the night the ice, instead of -parting asunder, closed in and imprisoned her, so that she never steamed -or sailed again. In the ice and on the ice she lay perfectly helpless, -drifting with the floe, and still in its grip when she was abandoned by -her crew on the 20th of May, two years afterwards. - -It was a wonderful drift. North-easterly in the main to begin with, then -north-westerly, then easterly to about 73°, then north, then west, in -and out and roundabout, till they reached much the same longitude as -they started from and then with a general tendency to the northward. -Autumn passed away; the Polar night set in; and still they drifted -ice-bound—a miscellaneous company representative of the polyglot empire; -"on board the _Tegetthoff_," says Payer, "are heard all the languages of -our country, German, Italian, Slavonic, and Hungarian; Italian is, -however, the language in which all orders are given," to which we should -add the Norwegian of Olaf Carlsen, the ice-master. During the winter -there was enough of occupation and amusement, though private theatricals -were impossible, as they would have had to be given in four languages to -be intelligible to the audience. - -The short summer came and went, and August had almost gone when—it was -on the 30th, in 79° 43´—there came a surprise. The rays of the sun were -fitfully breaking through the gloom when suddenly the gliding mists -rolled up like a curtain, revealing in the north-west the outlines of a -rocky coast, which in a few minutes grew into a radiant Alpine land. The -shore, however, was unattainable, as a rush over the icefield soon -showed, but from the edge of the fissure that barred any further -progress they could make out its hills and glaciers and imagine the -green pastures of its valleys. They called it Kaiser Franz Josef's Land, -and along it they drifted during September till its outlines faded as -the wind began to drive the floe to the south. But at the end of the -month the direction of the floe changed to the north-west, taking the -_Tegetthoff_ up to 79° 58´, her highest north, near enough to one of the -islands for an effort to be made to land. Six started from the ship over -the grinding, groaning, broken walls of ice, and when they were out of -sight of the ship a mist settled down which cut them off from the sight -of land and then so closely enwrapped them that they could see nothing. -Advance they found hopeless, and as they returned they lost their way -and were saved by the sagacity of a dog they had with them. All through -October the drift continued, and it was not until forenoon of the 1st of -November, two months after sighting the country, that they managed to -get ashore. This was on Wilczek Island in the same longitude as -Admiralty Peninsula in Novaya Zemlya, and in the same latitude as Mossel -Bay in Spitsbergen. - -The sun had retired for the winter nine days before, and it was by the -light of the moon that they first explored the unknown country. Little -could be done, and, as it was much too late for attempting to shift from -the ship to the shore, the winter had to be spent on board as the other -had been. Through this winter, as before, the auroral displays were -remarkable, and they are excellently described by Payer. Of one of them, -he says: "It is now eight o'clock at night, the hour of the greatest -intensity of the northern lights. For a moment some bundles of rays only -are to be seen in the sky. In the south a faint, scarcely observable, -band lies close to the horizon. All at once it rises rapidly and spreads -east and west. The waves of light begin to dart and shoot; some rays -mount towards the zenith. For a short time it remains stationary, then -suddenly springs to life. The waves of light drive violently from east -to west; the edges assume a deep red and green colour and dance up and -down. The rays shoot up more rapidly; they become shorter; all rise -together and approach nearer and nearer to the magnetic Pole. It looks -as if there were a race among the rays, and that each aspired to reach -the Pole first. And now the point is reached, and they shoot out on -every side, to the north and the south, to the east and the west. Do the -rays shoot from above downwards, or from below upwards? Who can -distinguish? From the centre issues a sea of flames. Is that sea red, -white, or green? Who can say?—it is all three colours at the same -moment. The rays reach almost to the horizon; the whole sky is in -flames. Nature displays before us such an exhibition of fireworks as -transcends the powers of imagination to conceive. Involuntarily we -listen; such a spectacle must, we think, be accompanied with sound. But -unbroken stillness prevails, not the least sound strikes on the ear. -Once more it becomes clear over the ice, and the whole phenomenon has -disappeared with the same inconceivable rapidity with which it came, and -gloomy night has again stretched her dark veil over everything. This was -the aurora of the coming storm—the aurora in its fullest splendour." - -Sledging was begun in March, Hall Island being first visited, and, on -the 26th, Payer, with six men, started on his main journey up Austria -Sound, reaching Hohenlohe Island, where three men were left, and then -proceeding further north to Crown Prince Rudolf Land. Off the southern -promontory of this were innumerable icebergs, up to two hundred feet in -height, cracking and snapping in the sunshine. The Middendorf Glacier, -with an enormous sea-wall, ran towards the north-west; layers of snow -and rents in the sea-ice, caused by icebergs falling in, filled the -intervening space. Into these fissures Payer and his men were -continually falling, drenching their canvas boots and clothes with -sea-water. One of the men was sent on ahead to find a path by which the -glacier might be climbed, and discovering a fairly open road the summit -was gained across many crevasses bridged with snow, three of those at -the lower part needing but a slight movement to detach the severed -portions and form them into bergs. - -While resting on the glacier looking down on the semicircular terminal -precipice and the gleaming host of bergs which filled the indentations -of the coast, one of the men reported that his foot was swollen and -ulcerated, and he had to be sent back to Hohenlohe Island. Just as the -others were setting off, the snow gave way beneath the sledge, and down -fell Zaninovich, the dogs and the sledge, while Payer was dragged -backwards by the rope. The fall was arrested at a depth of thirty feet -by the sledge sticking fast between the sides of the crevasse. Payer, on -his face, the rope attaching him to the sledge tightly strained and -cutting into the snow, shouted that he would sever the rope, but -Zaninovich implored him not to do so as the sledge would then turn over -and he would be killed; hearing, however, from Orel, that the man was -lying on a ledge of snow with precipices all around him and that the -dogs were still fast to the traces, Payer cut the rope, and the sledge -made a short turn and stuck fast again. Then, telling Zaninovich that he -must contrive to keep himself from freezing for four hours, Payer and -Orel set off to run the six miles back to Hohenlohe Island. Payer, as he -went on ahead, threw off his bird-skin clothes, his boots and his -gloves, and ran in his stockings through the snow. In an hour he reached -the camp, and leaving it unattended they all set off to the rescue with -a rope and a pole. Picking up his clothes on the way, Payer and his men -reached the crevasse; one of the party was let down by the rope, and -finally Zaninovich and the sledge and dogs were brought from their -dangerous position four hours and a half after their fall. - -The advance was then resumed along the west coast of Crown Prince Rudolf -Land round the imposing headland they named Cape Auk—the rocky cliffs -being covered with little auks and other seabirds, enormous flocks -flying up and filling the air, the whole region seeming to be alive with -their incessant whirring—and following the line of Teplitz Bay, Payer -mounted one of the bergs detached from a glacier and saw open water with -ice bounding it on the horizon. As the sheet over which their course lay -became thinner, and threatened to give way beneath them, they had to -open up a track among the hummocks by pick and shovel; and when this -failed they had to unload the sledge and carry the things separately. At -Cape Saulen they camped for the night in the fissure of a glacier into -which they had to drag their baggage by a long rope; and next day—the -12th of April, 1874—they went on again and reached Cape Fligely, in 81° -50´ 43˝, their farthest north. - -With great difficulty they made their way back to the ship, a long, -toilsome journey through snow and sludge, with open water in places -where there had been ice, which made them fear the _Tegetthoff_ might -have drifted away again. The imminent danger of starvation was ended by -their reaching their depot on Schonau Island, whence Payer went on for -the remaining twenty-five miles alone with the dog-sledge, the two dogs -giving much trouble until they struck the old sledge track almost -obliterated by snow, when they raised their heads, stuck their tails in -the air, and broke into a run. Halting on an iceberg for a meal, the -berg capsized, and in a moment Payer was begirt by fissures, -water-pools, and rolling blocks of ice, from which he managed to escape. -When he turned into the narrow passage between Salm and Wilczek Islands, -Orgel Cape, visible at a great distance, was the only dark spot on the -scene. At once the dogs made for it, and about midnight he arrived -there. With an anxious heart he began the ascent; a barren stony plateau -confronted him; with every advancing step, made with increasing -difficulty, the land gradually disappeared and the horizon of the frozen -sea expanded before him; no ship was to be seen, no trace of man for -thousands of miles except a cairn with the fragments of a flag -fluttering in the wind, and a grave half covered with snow. Still he -climbed, and suddenly three masts emerged. He had found the ship; there -she lay about three miles off, appearing on the frozen ocean no bigger -than a fly, the icebergs and drifts around her having hidden her amongst -them. He held the heads of the dogs towards her and pointed with his arm -to where she lay; and they saw her, and away they went, to find all but -the watch asleep. - -After another sledge journey north-westwards to Mount Brunn, from which -Richthofen Peak was sighted, preparations were made for abandoning the -ship and returning home. The three boats left the _Tegetthoff_ on the -20th of May, but so slow was the progress over the difficult route that -at the end of every day in the first week it was possible for Payer to -go back to her on the dog-sledge to replenish the stores which had been -consumed; and at the end of two months of indescribable effort the -distance between the boats and the ship was not more than eight statute -miles. The heights of Wilczek Land were still distinctly visible and its -lines of rocks shone with mocking brilliance in the ever-growing -daylight. All things appeared to promise that after a long struggle with -the ice there remained for the expedition but a despairing return to the -ship and a third winter there with the frozen ocean for their grave. - -In the middle of July the fissures which had been opening out around -them became wider and longer, progress reaching some four miles a day; -then the north wind blew and the icefield commenced to drift to the -south, to drift again north-east when the wind changed. Backwards and -forwards, amid every variety of weather, including heavy rain, the pack -ice moved until it changed to drift ice, and, on the 15th of August, the -much-tried company got afloat at last in open water and laid their -course for Novaya Zemlya, where they fell in with two Russian schooners -off Cape Britwin. - -The next to visit Franz Josef Land was Leigh Smith, whom we met with in -the Spitsbergen seas. Building the _Eira_ especially for Arctic service, -he started in 1880, the year she was launched, on a cruise to Greenland -and thence eastwards, which took him to the west and north-west of the -ground gone over by the Austrians. He surveyed the whole coast from 42° -east to the most westerly point seen by Payer, and sorted it out into -several islands, but found no trace of the _Tegetthoff_, for where she -had been left was open water. Encouraged by the success of his visit, in -which the observations and collections were unusually good, he returned -in the _Eira_ the following year to meet with much more unfavourable ice -conditions. Finding it impossible to get westward of Barents Hook the -_Eira_ was, on the 15th of August, made fast to the land floe off Cape -Flora, and six days afterwards she was nipped and stove by the ice and -slowly sank in eleven fathoms of water. As she settled down the steam -winch was set to work, and by its means half a dozen casks of flour and -about three hundredweight of bread were saved from the main hold; and -when nothing more could be got from the lower deck the stores in the -after cabin were attacked, and within the two hours from the discovery -of the leak to the disappearance of the ship, all these provisions and -the boats and clothes were safe on the ice; and the sails were cut away, -and with them and some oars a tent was erected in which all the company, -twenty-five in number, took shelter. - -A move was made next day to the land. On Cape Flora a house was built -mainly of earth and stones, covered with sails, in which the winter was -passed. Fortunately the district abounds with bears and walruses, and -the meat from these, boiled with vegetables, and served out three times -a day into twenty-five plates made out of old provision tins, proved the -right sort of fare to keep every one in excellent health. Thanks in a -great measure to Bob, the retriever, the larder was kept full; but there -being a shortness of coal, recourse for fuel had to be made to rope and -blubber, so that no one could mistake the time when the cooking was on. -In fact, the odour and the smoke were of great interest to the bears, -who lingered about intending to pay surprise visits, and the dog had -always to be sent in front of those leaving the house. One day when out -on his own account, Bob discovered a school of walruses on the ice and -reported the matter in his own fashion, whereupon several of these were -shot, and after an exciting chase five were secured. In January he found -another school, of which three were bagged and stowed alongside the -house, although the thermometer stood at forty below zero. On another -occasion he managed to tempt a bear up to the front door, where it was -promptly tumbled over, to his evident satisfaction. - -During the winter the party killed twenty-nine walruses and three dozen -bears. Once, when only a fortnight's meat was left, and things began to -look serious, no less than eight bears were killed in two weeks. At the -end of April the birds returned, and in June the ice was cleared away by -a gale and walruses were seen swimming on the water in hundreds. Never -did a wintering party meet with better fortune, and never was one better -managed. - -On the 21st of June they started from Cape Flora in four boats, six men -each in three of them, seven in the other, to reach the open sea, -leaving in the house six bottles of champagne in case any person might -look in, besides a few other things, and blocking up the door to keep -out the bears. Before the boats reached the ice they crossed eighty -miles of water, and then six weeks' hard labour began, zigzagging -through channels, hauling over hummocky floes, sailing through pools, -halting for days on a floe with no water in sight, but never doubting -that a clearance would come. On leaving the ice they steered for Novaya -Zemlya, at first in a gentle breeze, which rapidly increased to a gale -in a heavy thunderstorm, so that the boats, with their sails of -tablecloth and shirt-tail, had to be carefully handled as they scudded -before it at such a pace that within twenty-four hours of leaving the -ice they were drawn up all safe on the beach at the entrance of -Matyushin Shar. Next morning the Dutch exploring schooner, _Willem -Barents_, was descried coming out of the strait, and before the schooner -was reached by the boats there came round the point the _Hope_, which -Sir Allen Young, of the _Pandora_, had brought out as a rescue ship for -them. They had been driven by the gale to the very spot on the very day -they could be best relieved. - -From the reports of Weyprecht and Payer it appeared that the north-east -of Franz Josef Land would make an excellent base for a start for the -North Pole, and Leigh Smith was led to the same view by his visit to -Alexandra Land, but along the south he had made so many changes in -Payer's map that a further examination of the region was evidently -desirable. To effect this by a careful survey of the coasts, Frederick -G. Jackson landed near Cape Flora on the 7th of September, 1894, and -began his residence of a thousand days. Setting to work in a -businesslike way, and recording his progress in similar style, he -disintegrated the land masses into a group of some fifty size-able -islands, through which run two main waterways, his British Channel and -Payer's Austria Sound, both opening out northwards into Queen Victoria -Sea; Crown Prince Rudolf Land being a large island at the northern -entrance of Austria Sound, Wilczek Land at its southern entrance being -about twice its size. He defined the coast-lines for over eighty miles -of latitude, extending to fifteen degrees of longitude as far west as -the most westerly headland, Cape Mary Harmsworth, and so cutting up -Franz Josef Land that not even an island now bears the name, which is -used only as that of the archipelago. Never in Arctic exploration was -work rendered more evident than in the difference between the map as -Jackson found it and as he left it. - -The _Windward_, with the expedition on board, sighted the land on the -25th of August, but, stopped by intervening ice, could not reach the -coast until a fortnight afterwards, the landing taking place at Cape -Flora, close to Leigh Smith's house, which was found with the roof off. -Not far away Jackson established his headquarters, quite a little -settlement, though the expedition consisted of only eight men. Just as -Leigh Smith found no remains of the _Tegetthoff_, so Jackson found no -trace of the _Eira_. It had been intended that the _Windward_ should -return after putting the party ashore, but, shut in by the ice, she had -to remain during the first winter, getting away safely next year, to -return in 1896 and take away Nansen, who, as we shall see further on, -ended his long land journey here. On her 1897 trip she departed with the -members of the expedition all well, so that neither ship nor man was -lost, the only serious casualties being among the dogs and the Russian -ponies which did such excellent service. - -Two years afterwards, in July, 1899, the deserted settlement was visited -by the Duke of the Abruzzi, in his expedition in the _Stella Polare_, on -his way to the north, a few days before he met with his short -imprisonment in the ice in British Channel. His was a successful run all -the same, for he was in 82° 4´, to the northward of Crown Prince Rudolf -Land, or, as it is now called, Prince Rudolf Island, twenty-seven days -out from Archangel. Passing Cape Fligely—the latitude of which was -afterwards found to be sixteen miles south of the 82° 5´ Payer had made -it—and rounding Cape Auk, the _Stella Polare_ went into winter quarters -in Teplitz Bay, whence Captain Umberto Cagni started, on the 11th of -March, 1900, for his forty-five days' march towards the North Pole. - -It was a great disappointment to the Duke to have to stay with the ship -instead of leading this well-equipped and thoroughly organised sledge -attempt, but owing to an accident two of his fingers had been so -severely frost-bitten that they had to be amputated, and, unless a -second winter was to be spent in the ice, a start was imperative before -he could recover from the operation. Thus all he could do was to assist -at the first encounter of the sledges with the pressure ridges and wish -Cagni the longest possible journey and a safe return. There was every -appearance of the journey being a difficult one, for on the first day a -stoppage had to be made every quarter of a mile or thereabouts for a -road to be cut through the ridges with ice-axes, while next day a new -hindrance was experienced in the young ice in the channels being too -thin at times to support the sledges, one of which began to sink and was -only extricated with difficulty, so that only one sledge could be -allowed on such ice at a time. - -On the 13th of March the auxiliary sledge was sent back, thus reducing -the caravan to a dozen sledges and ninety-eight dogs, which in a long -line passed over a vast plain covered with great rugged blocks of ice, -as though they had been thrown down confusedly by a giant's hand to bar -the way. The wind was north-east, the cold intense, fifty below zero, -not to be particular to a degree or so, for, as Cagni says, when the -temperature is below twenty-two, and it is impossible to use a screen or -a magnifying glass, the mere fact of approaching to read the scale on an -unmounted thermometer sends it up a couple of degrees, and when the -temperature is below fifty-eight an approach makes a difference of three -or four degrees. So cold was it that the sleeping bags were as hard as -wood, and the men got into them after much effort, not to sleep but to -feel their teeth chattering for hours, the only warm parts of the body -being the feet clad in long woollen stockings. "There are patches of ice -on our knees," says Cagni, "like horses' knee-caps, and we have others, -both large and small, sometimes thick enough to be scraped off with a -knife, everywhere, but especially on our cheeks and backs and in all -places where the perspiration has oozed through." - -Amid such surroundings the camp must have seemed somewhat out of place. -When a suitable site was chosen the first sledge was stopped, and near -it the three other sledges of the third detachment were drawn up at a -distance of about ten feet from each other. The sledges of the second -detachment as they came up formed a second line, those of the third -forming another. The tents were pitched between two sledges, generally -those in the centre, the guy ropes being fastened to the sledge runners, -those at the ends to an ice-axe stuck in the ice. The sleeping bags were -then unpacked, the cooking stoves taken out of the boats, and everything -arranged under the tent. The thin steel wire ropes to which the dogs -were tethered, when unharnessed, were stretched between the sledges away -from the tents. While the men were taking the dogs out of the harness, -which always remained attached to the traces on the sledges, and -tethering them to the steel ropes, one of the guides took a chosen -victim to some distance from the camp, and felled it with a blow from an -ice-axe, then opened it, skinned it quickly, divided it up into ten -shares and distributed these to the dogs, already destined to undergo -the same fate, these being the weakest and most ailing—in short, this -was the elimination of the unfit. - -On the 22nd of March the first detachment began its return journey; it -consisted of Lieutenant Querini and two men, and it was never heard of -again. The way northwards continued extremely difficult, with channels -and ridges plentiful and the road so rough that the sledges began to -break up in the bows and runners, some at last so badly that their -fragments had to be used to repair the others with. On the 31st the -second detachment was sent back, consisting of the doctor and two men, -and it got safely to the ship. The third detachment, consisting of Cagni -with two Courmayeur guides—Petigax and Fenoillet—and a sailor, Canepa, -all four Italians, made the final effort. That day they were on level -ice and covered seventeen miles, but at night a snowstorm came on and -there was trouble. After a rest they pressed forward in rapid marches -amid bad weather over the drifting fields. On the 12th of April while -raising camp a strong pressure piled up within a hundred yards of them a -wall from thirty-six to forty-five feet high, the highest ridge they had -seen. Enormous blocks rolled down towards them with loud crashes after -being thrown up by other blocks, lifted to the brow of the ridge and -rolled over in their turn, raising a cloud of ice-dust in their fall, -the loud continual creaking of the pressure drowned by the booming of -the cascade which shook the ice for yards around. These ridges were -constantly forming, most of them remaining, some of them subsiding as -the edges drifted apart, and the channels thus caused were even more -difficult to deal with, some having to be passed over thin ice, some -ferried over on small floes. But they did not cross the track all along, -and during the last few days the travelling was easy. - -On the 24th of April the long journey reached its end. "At ten minutes -past twelve," says Cagni, "we are on our way to the north. The ice is -like that of yesterday, level and smooth, and, later on, undulating. At -first the dogs are not very willing to pull, but encouraged by our -shouts and a few strokes, they advance at a rapid pace, which they keep -up during the whole march. At five we meet with a large pressure ridge, -which almost surprises us, as it seems to us a century since we have -seen any; we lost a quarter of an hour in preparing a passage through -and crossing it. Beyond it the aspect of the ice changes; the -undulations are more strongly marked, and large blocks and small ridges -indicate recent pressure, but luckily they do not stop us or obstruct -our way. Soon after six we come upon a large channel running from east -to west; we must stop. Beyond the channel is a vast expanse of new ice, -much broken up and traversed by many other channels. Even if I were not -prevented from doing so, I would now think twice before risking myself -in the midst of them. If we did push forward on that ice, even for half -a day, we would gain very few miles and besides run the risk of losing a -sledge. The dogs are very tired, and we too feel the effects of -yesterday's strain. I therefore consider that it is more prudent to stop -here, and both the guides are of the same opinion. The sun is unclouded. -I bring out the sextant and take altitudes of the sun to calculate the -longitude (65° 19´ 45˝ E.) while Fenoillet and Canepa put the sledges in -order and pitch the tent in a sort of small amphitheatre of hillocks -which shelter us from the north wind. On that farthest to the north, -which is almost touched by the water of the channel, we plant the staff -from which our flag waves. The air is very clear; between the north-east -and the north-west there stand out distinctly, some sharply pointed, -others rounded, dark or blue and white, often with strange shapes, the -innumerable pinnacles of the great blocks of ice raised up by the -pressure. Farther away again on the bright horizon in a chain from east -to west is a great azure wall which from afar seems insurmountable." The -latitude was 86° 34´. - -The outward journey took forty-five days; the homeward took sixty, and -proved a perilous adventure owing to the drift of the pack to the -westward and its breaking up as the weather became warmer and the -southern boundary was approached. At first there was good promise. The -dogs knew they were going back, and followed the outward track so fast -that the men, failing to keep up with them, for the first time took a -seat on the sledges and were drawn along at four miles an hour. Progress -was rapid for a few days owing to there being now only four sledges and, -in a considerable degree, to the intelligence of the leading dog, -Messicano. Ever since leaving Teplitz Bay this small white dog, with the -intelligent eyes and bushy legs, had held the first place in the leading -sledge because he followed the man at the head of the convoy better than -the others, and now when the guide was behind or on the sledge, -Messicano took the track at a gallop with his nose on the snow, losing -the way now and then, but finding it again, though to the men it was -often invisible. The time came, however, when the old track had to be -left for a better course to the ship, and then difficulties of every -sort had to be overcome, the delays being such that dog after dog had to -be killed to keep away starvation, and it was only with seven of them -and two sledges that Prince Rudolf Island was reached from the westward -on the 23rd of June. "The snow is wet, which is very bad for dragging -the sledges, as it sticks to the runners and tires our dogs exceedingly; -we have still seven, but only three that really pull (three to each -sledge), for Messicano is at the last extremity and can hardly hold up -the trace." Toiling on thus through the fog to Cape Brorok a noise was -heard in the distance like the creaking caused by pressure among ice -floes, and when the fog lifted it was found that the sound was that of -the seabirds on the cliffs. Out on the icefield no signs of life had -been met with beyond the traces of a bear, a seal that vanished, and a -walrus that popped up through thin ice to send Fenoillet scuttling off -on his hands and knees. - -Meanwhile the ship, which had been seriously damaged, had been made -seaworthy. Liberated from her berth by mines of gunpowder and guncotton, -she sailed from Teplitz Bay on the 16th of August, and, after further -unpleasant experiences in the ice, reached Cape Flora, where a call was -made at Jackson's house in the vain hope of news of Querini; and thence, -after more ice complications, Captain Evensen took her to Hammerfest. -Though, as in all Arctic endeavour, conditions were against them, the -employment of a Norwegian crew for the ship and an Italian crew for the -sledges had, under excellent management, worked thoroughly well. - - - - - CHAPTER V - CAPE CHELYUSKIN - - Chelyuskin reaches the cape—The Laptefs—Deschnef's voyage through - Bering Strait—Nordenskiöld's voyages to the Yenesei—The Siberian - tundra—The voyage of the _Vega_—Nordenskiöld rounds Cape - Chelyuskin—Endeavour to reach the Siberian Islands—Liakhoff's - discovery—The _Vega_ passes the Cape North of Captain Cook—Frozen - in within six miles of Cape Serdze Kamen—Completes the North-east - Passage—Nansen's voyage—The _Fram_—Her drift in the ice—Nansen and - Johansen start for the Pole—They reach 86° 13´ 6˝—Their journey to - Frederick Jackson Island—The meeting with Jackson—Sverdrup's - voyage to Spitsbergen. - - -The tundras and shores of Siberia abound with obstacles to exploration, -and yet a third of the threshold of the Polar regions has been surveyed -along their line. No spot remains unvisited on the northern margin of -the Asiatic mainland, the northernmost point of which is Cape Chelyuskin -in 77° 36·8´, so that the Arctic Circle sweeps inland for 770 miles to -the south of it—in other words the cape is practically half-way between -the Circle and the Pole. - -[Illustration: CAPE CHELYUSKIN] - -It was chiefly from the land that the northern coast-line was surveyed -by the Russians, whose Arctic work has been immense and thorough, though -not marked by any striking discoveries. Cape Chelyuskin was first -reached, in May, 1742, by the explorer whose name it bears, after a -sledge journey from the Chatanga, he being at the time second in command -to Khariton Laptef, whose first expedition in 1739 ended in the loss of -his ship three hundred miles from his winter quarters, to which he had -to travel on foot, losing twelve men by cold and exhaustion on the way. -Within the preceding four years the survey of the coast west of it had -been completed in four stages—from Archangel to Yalmal (that is Land's -End); from Yalmal to the Obi; from the Obi to the Yenesei; from the -Yenesei to Cape Sterlegof. In 1735 Pronchistschef, from the Lena, failed -to round Cape Chelyuskin from the east, and returned to the Olenek to -die but two days before his young wife, who was his companion on his -perilous voyage. Two years afterwards Dmitri Laptef began his -explorations east of the Lena which took him to Cape Baranoff, thus -joining up to the discoveries of the sable-hunters made a century -before, including those of Deschnef, who, in 1648, sailed from the -Kolyma to Kamchatka and went through Bering Strait more than thirty -years before Bering was born. Thus the route of the North-east Passage -was known, although no man had travelled the whole way either by land or -sea, before the task was undertaken by Nordenskiöld. - -To begin with, Nordenskiöld made two voyages to the Yenesei. In the -first voyage he left Tromsoe in the _Proeven_ on the 14th of June, 1875, -and reached what he named Dickson Harbour at the mouth of the Yenesei on -the 15th of August. Sending back the _Proeven_, which returned through -Matyushin Shar, he, with Lundstrom the botanist and Stuxberg the -zoologist, and three walrus-hunters, embarked in a boat they had brought -out with them and proceeded up the estuary into the river; and during -the first six hundred miles they landed only twice. On the last day of -the month they caught up a steamer on which they became passengers. - -"We were yet," says Nordenskiöld, "far to the north of the Arctic -Circle, and as many perhaps imagine that the little-known region we were -now travelling through, the Siberian tundra, is a desert wilderness -covered either by ice and snow, or by an exceedingly scanty moss -vegetation, it perhaps may not be out of place to say that this is by no -means the case. On the contrary, we saw snow during our journey up the -Yenesei only at one place, in a deep valley cleft some fathoms in -breadth, and the vegetation, especially on the islands which are -overflowed during the spring floods, is distinguished by a luxuriance to -which I have seldom seen anything comparable. Already had the fertility -of the soil and the immeasurable extent and richness in grass of the -pastures drawn forth from one of our walrus-hunters, a middle-aged man -who is owner of a little patch of ground among the fells of Northern -Norway, a cry of envy at the splendid land our Lord had given the -Russian, and of astonishment that no creature pastured, no scythe mowed, -the grass. Daily and hourly we heard the same cry repeated, and even in -louder tones, when some weeks after we came to the grand old forests -between Yeneseisk and Turuchansk, or to the nearly uninhabited plains on -the other side of Krasnojarsk covered with deep black earth, equal -without doubt in fertility to the best parts of Scania, and in extent -surpassing the whole Scandinavian peninsula. This judgment formed on the -spot by a genuine though illiterate agriculturist is not without -interest in forming an idea of the future importance of Siberia." - -In fact, Siberia is particularly rich in mineral and agricultural -wealth, and this voyage, which opened up the route to and from Europe by -the natural outlets to the north, was of such commercial promise that -the explorer received for it the special thanks of the Russian -Government. As, however, there were people who looked upon it as an -exceptional voyage in an exceptional year, Nordenskiöld next season took -another voyage to the river, this time in the _Ymer_, carrying the first -instalment of merchandise so as to begin the trade; and he was followed -in a few weeks by Captain Joseph Wiggins, in the _Thames_, whose -subsequent voyages made the northern route well known. - -Assured by the experience gained in these voyages that the North-east -Passage was possible to a steam vessel of moderate size, Nordenskiöld, -in 1878, was enabled to fit out the _Vega_, and sailed from Tromsoe on -the 31st of July. Three other vessels accompanied her, two bound for the -Yenesei, one for the Lena, the rendezvous being Khabarova. All went -well. On the 9th of August the _Fraser_ and _Express_ proceeded up the -Yenesei to discharge their cargoes and return to Europe in safety; next -day the _Vega_ and _Lena_ left for the eastward, and, after some risky -navigation among islands and through fog, lay for four days in Actinia -Haven, between Taimyr Island and the mainland, vainly waiting for clear -weather. Pushing on through fitful fog they sighted a promontory in the -north-east gleaming in the sunshine, and rounding its western horn -anchored in a bay open to the north and free from ice at the extremity -of Cape Chelyuskin. With the rounding of the most northerly point of the -Old World the first object of the expedition had been attained. The -salute fired in honour of the event having frightened away the only -polar bear who had stood watching the ship from the western horn, some -of the party landed, the botanists to discover that all the plants of -the peninsula had apparently been stopped on the outermost promontory -when trying to migrate further north. The flora was not extensive—a few -luxuriant lichens and twenty-three flowering plants, eight of them -saxifrages, most of them with a tendency to form semi-globular tufts; -the fauna consisted of the bear, a few seals, a walrus, two shoals of -white whales, some ducks and geese, and a number of sandpipers. Not so -long a list as was obtained at other landings, but by no means a bad one -for the half-way house to the Pole. - -After passing the cape the course was laid for the New Siberian Islands, -but ice prevented progress in their direction beyond 77° 45´, the -highest north of the voyage, and the ship had to work her way out by the -route she went in, thus losing a day, which had serious consequences, -though it proved the correctness of Nordenskiöld's theory that the water -delivered by the Siberian rivers is, for a few months, of sufficiently -high temperature to give a clear passage to vessels content to keep near -the coast. On reaching the mouth of the Lena the ships parted company, -Captain Johannsen taking the smaller steamer up the river as intended -and bringing the news of the rounding of Cape Chelyuskin and the promise -of the North-east Passage being accomplished in one season, which was -not destined to be fulfilled. - -Another attempt was then made by the _Vega_ to reach the islands to the -north, but after sighting the two most westerly of the group the shallow -sea was too crowded with rotten ice, and an idea of landing on Liakhoff -Island having to be given up for the same reason, the course was altered -so as to take the ship round Svjatoi Nos (the Holy Cape), where in -April, 1770, Liakhoff had noticed the mighty crowd of reindeer going -south. Justly considering they must have come over the ice from some -northern land, he went back on their tracks in a dog-sledge, discovering -two of the most southerly islands, and obtaining from Catherine the -Second as a reward the monopoly of hunting the foxes and collecting the -ivory there from the fossil mammoths he found in abundance. - -Forced to keep to the channel along the coast, which daily became -narrower, the _Vega_ reached Cape Chelagskoi, and when off this -promontory Nordenskiöld saw the first natives during his voyage. Two -boats built of skin almost exactly similar to the oomiaks, or women's -boats, used by the Eskimos, came out to the ship, the men, women, and -children in them intimating by shouts and gestures that they wished to -come on board. The _Vega_ was brought-to that they might do so, but as -none of the Chukches could speak Russian and none of the Swedes knew -Chukche, the interview was not so satisfactory as expected, though the -universal language of pantomime with presents ensured a favourable -termination. - -On the 12th of September the _Vega_ passed Irkaipii, the Cape North of -Captain Cook, and by rounding it Nordenskiöld joined up with the -westernmost limit of the Arctic discoveries of the great navigator. Cook -tried to weather it in August, 1778, but was turned back by fog and -snow, and thinking it was "not consistent with prudence to make any -further attempts to find a passage into the Atlantic this year in any -direction, so little was the prospect of succeeding," he sailed for -Hawaii, where his intention of making the attempt the ensuing summer -came to nought owing to his death. - -On the 28th of September the _Vega's_ progress for the year was arrested -by her being frozen in for the winter on the eastern side of Kolyuchin -Bay in the northernmost part of Bering Strait, only six miles of ice -barring the way round Cape Serdze Kamen into the open sea. During her -detention of two hundred and sixty-four days the scientific -investigations of many kinds that were undertaken were of lasting -importance, as they had been throughout, and when she was released on -the 18th of July, 1879, to come home by way of Yokohama, the collections -and records she brought with her were simply enormous. No better work -with greater results was done by any Arctic expedition than during this -successful voyage, which was too well managed to have much adventure. -For it Nordenskiöld very justly claimed the reward of twenty-five -thousand guilders offered in 1596 by the States-General of Holland, the -endeavour to win which sent out Van Heemskerck, Barents, and Rijp. - -[Illustration: ADOLF ERIK NORDENSKIÖLD] - -We have seen how the Dutchmen built their house at Ice Haven mainly of -the driftwood from the Siberian rivers. Similar wood from probably the -same source is found on the shores of Greenland and of almost all the -northerly islands of the Arctic Ocean. Further, the Greenland flora -includes a series of Siberian plants apparently from seeds drifted there -by some current. Not only do trees and seeds travel by water from Asia -westward to America; at Godthaab, for instance, on the western coast of -Greenland, there was found a throwing-stick of a shape and ornamentation -used only by the Alaskan Eskimos; and three years after the foundering -of the _Jeannette_ to the north of the New Siberian Islands there were -found on the south-west coast of Greenland a number of articles in the -drift-ice that must have come from the sunken vessel. For these and -other reasons it seemed clear to Fridtjof Nansen that a current flowed -at some point between the Pole and Franz Josef Land from the Siberian -Arctic Sea to the Greenland coast, and so he set to work to organise his -daring expedition to strike this current well to the eastward, trusting -to its mercies to take him to or near the Pole. - -In 1893, when the _Fram_ rounded Cape Chelyuskin, Nansen had found the -Kara Sea almost as open as Nordenskiöld had done, but had met with more -difficulties among the islands off the Taimyr Peninsula. A famous -vessel, the _Fram_, the first of her kind, built specially for the ice -to take her where it listed in the hope that she would drift to -discovery like the _Tegetthoff_, and not to disaster like the -_Jeannette_. The general idea was Nansen's, the carrying out of the idea -was Colin Archer's. As Nansen says: "We must gratefully recognise that -the success of the expedition was in no small degree due to this man." -Plan after plan did he make of the projected ship, model after model did -he prepare and abandon before he was satisfied: and never was a ship -more honestly built. With her double-ended deck plan, with a side of -such curve and slope that under ice pressure she would be lifted instead -of crushed between the floes, and with bow, stern, and keel so rounded -off that she would slip like an eel from the embrace of the ice, she was -of such solidity as to withstand any pressure from any direction. Her -stem of three stout oak beams, one inside the other, was four feet in -thickness, protected with iron; her rudder-post and propeller-post, two -feet across, had on either side a stout oak counter-timber following the -curvature upwards and forming a double stern-post, with the planking -cased with heavy iron plates; and between these timbers was a well for -the screw and another for the rudder, so that each could be hoisted on -deck, the rudder with the help of the capstan coming up in a few -minutes. Her frames, ten inches thick and twenty-one wide, stood close -together, carrying three layers of planking, giving altogether a side of -two feet or more of solid wood, so shored and stayed for strength that -the hold looked like a thicket of balks, joists, and stanchions. With a -length of 128 feet over all, a breadth of thirty-six, a depth of -seventeen, and a displacement of 800 tons, she was quite a -multum-in-parvo engined with a 220 horse-power triple expansion, so -contrived that in case of accident or for any other cause the cylinders -could be used singly or two together. Rigged as a three-masted -fore-and-aft schooner, with the mainmast much higher than the others—it -being unusually high, for the crow's-nest on the main-topmast was 102 -feet above the water—she proved equal to the demands on her, though in -her case strength and warmth had to be thought of before weatherliness -and speed. But her speed was not so poor, for when steaming and sailing -after leaving Cape Chelyuskin on the 10th of September she was doing her -nine knots. - -The day after she had entered the Nordenskiöld Sea came a walrus-hunt, -so graphically described by Nansen that we must find room for an -extract. "It was," he says, "a lovely morning—fine, still weather; the -walruses' guffaw sounded over to us along the clear ice surface. They -were lying crowded together on a floe a little to landward of us, blue -mountains glittering behind them in the sun. At last the harpoons were -sharpened, guns and cartridges ready, and Henriksen, Juell, and I set -off. There seemed to be a slight breeze from the south, so we rowed to -the north side of the floe, to get to leeward of the animals. From time -to time their sentry raised his head, but apparently did not see us. We -advanced slowly, and soon were so near that we had to row very -cautiously. Juell kept us going, while Henriksen was ready in the bow -with a harpoon, and I behind him with a gun. The moment the sentry -raised his head the oars stopped, and we stood motionless; when he sank -it again, a few more strokes brought us nearer. Body to body they lay, -close-packed on a small floe, old and young ones mixed. Enormous masses -of flesh they were. Now and again one of the ladies fanned herself by -moving one of her flippers backwards and forwards over her body; then -she lay quiet again on her back or side. More and more cautiously we -drew near. Whilst I sat ready with the gun, Henriksen took a good grip -of the harpoon shaft, and as the boat touched the floe he rose, and off -flew the harpoon. But it struck too high, glanced off the tough hide, -and skipped over the backs of the animals. Now there was a pretty to do! -Ten or twelve great weird faces glared upon us at once; the colossal -creatures twisted themselves round with incredible celerity, and came -waddling with lifted heads and hollow bellowings to the edge of the ice -where we lay. It was undeniably an imposing sight; but I laid my gun to -my shoulder and fired at one of the biggest heads. The animal staggered -and then fell head foremost into the water. Now a ball into another -head; this creature fell, too, but was able to fling itself into the -sea. And now the whole flock dashed in, and we, as well as they, were -hidden in the spray. It had all happened in a few seconds. But up they -came again immediately round the boat, the one head bigger and uglier -than the other—their young ones close beside them. They stood up in the -water, bellowed and roared till the air trembled, threw themselves -forward towards us, then rose up again, and new bellowings filled the -air. Then they rolled over and disappeared with a splash, then bobbed up -again. The water foamed and boiled for yards around—the ice-world that -had been so still before seemed in a moment to have been transformed -into a raging Bedlam. Any moment we might expect to have a walrus tusk -or two through the boat or to be heaved up or capsized. Something of -this kind was the very least that could happen after such a terrible -commotion. But the hurly-burly went on and nothing came of it." - -The _Fram_ had to follow the coast owing to the thick pack barring the -way across the sea. The mouth of the Chatanga was passed, then that of -the Olenek, and then the influence of the warm water of the Lena being -apparent by the clearance of the floes, the course was laid straight for -the Pole in open water until 77° 44´ was reached, when, checked by the -long compact edge of ice shining through the fog, the route became -north-westerly until they stopped for fear they should get near land, -which was the very thing they wished to avoid; and on the 25th of -September in about 78½° north latitude—north-west of Sannikof Land—they -were frozen in. - -Preparations for wintering began. The rudder was hauled up, the engine -was taken to pieces, each separate part oiled and laid away with the -greatest care—for Amundsen looked after it as if it were his own child—a -carpenter's shop was started in the hold, a smithy arranged first on -deck and then on the ice. But it all had to be replaced, even the engine -put together again, for the pack cleared away for a brief period, to -return, when again the shiftings were made; and when the windmill was -put up to drive the dynamo, the winter installation was in all senses -complete. - -Slowly the _Fram_ drifted in her ice-berth, so slowly that at the end of -twelve months she had moved from point to point only 189 miles, having -returned no further west than the longitude of the Olenek; her highest -north, attained on the 18th of June, being 81° 46´. In the main the -drift was north-westerly, but three times it had boxed the compass in -irregular loops, the only constant thing about it being that, in no -matter what direction she was taken, the bow of the _Fram_ always -pointed south. Of grips she had many, some of the pressures were -enormous, once they were severe enough to suggest measures for her -abandonment, but she survived them all unscathed. Early in the drift it -became apparent that the ice was packing twice and slacking twice in -every twenty-four hours, and in this sea, as afterwards in the Atlantic -area, the influence of the tides, particularly the spring tides, was -unmistakable—as it was expected it would be—though in the deep Polar -basin the wind had more effect; and, in truth, the wind was a factor -throughout in the packing of the ice and in the drift's direction. One -thing was clear, that the current was not taking the _Fram_ across the -North Pole, but about half-way between it and Spitsbergen; and if the -Pole was to be reached some of the expedition must attempt to get there -over the ice. This meant leaving the ship, going north, and returning to -the nearest known land, for, owing to the irregularity of the drift, it -was hopeless to think of again reaching the _Fram_. During the second -winter the route of the ship trended more to the north, and, after a -loop all round in January, she reached 84° 4´ on the 14th of March in -the longitude of Cape Chelyuskin. Here Nansen and Lieutenant F. H. -Johansen, who rather than not join the _Fram_ had shipped in her as -stoker, left the ship with three sledges, two kayaks, and twenty-eight -dogs to go as far northward as they could, their expectation being that -they would reach the Pole in fifty days. Had they remained in the ship -until November they would have saved themselves trouble, for, as matters -turned out, the embarrassing drift took the _Fram_ within eight miles of -the farthest north they attained after twenty-three days of strenuous -endeavour. - -[Illustration: Yours sincerely Fridtjof Nansen.] - -The ice, fairly easy for a few days, soon became terrible in the -difficulties it offered to progress over it, and the continual toil of -hauling and carrying the sledges, and righting them when capsized, soon -told on the two men to such an extent as to tire them out so thoroughly -that sometimes in the evening they fell asleep as they went along. The -cold, too, proved singularly searching and severe. During the course of -the day the damp exhalations of the body little by little became -condensed in their outer garments, which became transformed into suits -of ice-armour, so hard that if they could have been got off they could -have stood by themselves, and they crackled audibly at every movement. -The clothes were so stiff that the sleeve of Nansen's coat rubbed deep -sores in his wrist, one of which got frost-bitten, the wound growing -deeper and deeper and nearly reaching the bone. "How cold we were," says -Nansen, "as we lay there shivering in the bag, waiting for the supper to -be ready! I, who was cook, was obliged to keep myself more or less awake -to see to the culinary operations, and sometimes I succeeded. At last -the supper was ready, was portioned out, and, as always, tasted -delicious. These occasions were the supreme moments of our existence, -moments to which we looked forward all day long. But sometimes we were -so weary that our eyes closed, and we fell asleep with the food on its -way to our mouths. Our hands would fall back inanimate with the spoons -in them and the food fly out on the bag." - -The further they went the worse became the conditions. On the 8th of -April, with ridge after ridge and nothing but rubble to travel over, the -work became so disheartening that Nansen went on ahead on his skis and -from the highest hummocks viewed the state of affairs; and as far as the -horizon, lay a chaos of such character that progress across was -impracticable if he and Johansen were to return alive. Here, then, they -stopped, this being their northernmost limit, 128 miles from the _Fram_, -260 miles from the Pole, latitude 86° 13·6´, longitude 95°. - -To reach this point they had been travelling north-westwards for six -days, the way due north being impassable; but on turning south they -seemed to enter another country; so much did the going improve after the -first mile that in three days they covered over forty miles. They were -making for Petermann Land, which does not exist, or for the -wide-stretching Franz Josef Land, also placed on the maps by Payer, -which Jackson had been cutting up into fragments while the _Fram_ was in -the ice. Further south difficulties thickened ahead of them till the -road became almost as bad as that to the north. Before they reached land -the hundred days they had allowed themselves had increased to more than -half as many again, their dogs had been killed one by one to yield food -for the rest, until only two remained; Nansen was helpless with -rheumatism for two days; and Johansen was nearly killed by a bear. -Through a chain of disasters caused by storms and fogs and snow and the -state of the ice, they threaded their way, sometimes by sledge, -sometimes by kayak, through mazes of open channels, leaping from floe to -floe and ferrying back to get their baggage over, hundreds of yards on -mere brash, dragging the sledges after them in constant fear of their -capsizing into the water. Then the ice gave out and, taking to their -kayaks, they sailed and paddled to what is now known as Frederick -Jackson Island in the north of the Franz Josef Archipelago. - -Here they wintered, quite at a loss at first to know where they were, -owing to their watches having run down during a great effort of -thirty-six hours at a stretch, so that they did not know their -longitude, though they subsequently concluded they must be somewhere on -Franz Josef Land within 140 miles of Eira Harbour. They built a hut and -altogether lived passably well, there being no lack of food, thanks -mainly to the bears, whose visits were embarrassing in their frequency -though the visitors were not unwelcome when they came to stay. - -On the 19th of May they set out for the south, down British Channel, -with their sledges and kayaks, and five days afterwards, when off Cape -M'Clintock, while Johansen was busy lashing the sail and mast securely -to the deck of his kayak to prevent their being blown away, Nansen went -on ahead to look for a camping ground and fell through a crack in the -ice which had been hidden by the snow. He tried to get out, but with his -skis firmly fastened could not pull them up through the rubble of ice -which had fallen into the water on the top of them, and, being harnessed -to the sledge, he could not turn round. Fortunately, as he fell, he had -dug his staff into the ice on the opposite side of the crack, and -holding himself up with its aid, and the arm he had got over the edge of -the ice, he waited patiently for Johansen to come and pull him out. When -he thought a long time had passed and felt the staff giving way and the -water creeping further up his body, he called out but received no -answer; and it was not until the water had reached his chest that -Johansen came and pulled him out. - -For a few days they were storm-bound. On the 3rd of June they started -again down the channel, their whereabouts still a mystery to them, -nothing in the least like it being on their map. Nine days afterwards, -after rounding Cape Barents on Northbrook Island, the kayaks, which had -been left moored to the edge of the ice, got adrift. Nansen, running -down from the hummock, from which he had been looking round, threw off -some of his clothes and sprang into the water. The wind was off the ice, -and the kayaks with their high rigging were moving away as fast as he -could swim. It seemed more than doubtful if he could reach them. But all -their hope was there, all they had was on board; they had not even a -knife with them, and whether he sank or turned back amounted to much the -same thing. When he tired he turned over and swam on his back, and then -he could see Johansen walking restlessly up and down on the ice, unable -to do anything, and having the worst time he ever lived through. But the -wind lulled, and when Nansen turned over he saw he was nearing the -kayaks, and though his limbs were stiffening and losing all feeling, he -put all the strength he could into his strokes, and eventually was able -to reach them. He tried to pull himself up, but was so stiff with cold -that he could not do so. For a moment he thought he was too late; but -after a little he managed to swing one leg up on to the edge of the -sledge, which lay on the deck, and in this way he scrambled on board. -The kayaks were lashed together so as to form a double boat, and the -only way in which, owing to his stiffness, he could paddle them was to -take one or two strokes on one side and then step into the other kayak -and take a few strokes on the other side. The return was consequently -slow, but it was a return, though the ice was reached a long way from -where the drifting had begun. - -Next day but one came another perilous episode. "Towards morning," says -Nansen, "we rowed for some time without seeing any walrus, and now felt -more secure. Just then we saw a solitary rover pop up a little in front -of us. Johansen, who was in front at the time, put in to a sunken ledge -of ice; and although I really thought that this was caution carried to -excess, I was on the point of following his example. I had not gone so -far, however, when suddenly the walrus shot up beside me, threw himself -on to the edge of the kayak, took hold further over the deck with one -flipper, and as it tried to upset me aimed a blow at the kayak with its -tusks. I held on as tightly as possible, so as not to be upset into the -water, and struck at the animal's head with the paddle as hard as I -could. It took hold of the kayak once more and tilted me up so that the -deck was almost under water, then let go and raised itself right up. I -seized my gun, but at the same moment it turned round and disappeared as -quickly as it had come. The whole thing had happened in a moment, and I -was just going to remark to Johansen that we were fortunate in escaping -so easily from that adventure, when I noticed that my legs were wet. I -listened, and now heard the water trickling into the kayak under me. To -turn and run her in on to the sunken ledge of ice was the work of a -moment, but I sank there. The thing was to get out and on to the ice, -the kayak filling all the time. The edge of the ice was high and loose, -but I managed to rise; and Johansen, by tilting the sinking kayak over -to starboard, so that the leak came above the water, managed to bring -her to a place where the ice was low enough to admit of our drawing her -up. All I possessed was floating about inside, soaked through. So here -we lie, with all our worldly goods spread out to dry and a kayak that -must be mended before we can face the walrus again. It is a good big -rent that he has made, at least six inches long; but it is fortunate -that it was no worse." - -The kayak was mended, and, after a long rest, it was past noon on the -17th of June when Nansen turned out to prepare breakfast. After doing so -he went up on a hummock to look around. Flocks of little auks were -flying overhead, and, amid the confused noise of their calls, he heard a -couple of barks from a dog. Thinking he was mistaken he waited for a -time, and then the barking was unmistakable, bark after bark, one of a -deeper tone than the other. He shouted to Johansen, who started up from -the sleeping-bag incredulous. The sound ceased, and, breakfast over, -Nansen went forth to investigate. Soon he came on the footprints of a -dog or wolf, and then, still doubting, he heard a distant yelping that -certainly came not from a wolf. Making his way among the hummocks, he -heard a shout from a human voice, a strange voice—the first for three -years. Running up on to a hummock he shouted with all his might. Back -came a shout in reply; and among the hummocks he caught sight of a dog, -and further off a man walked into view. The man spoke to the dog in -English. Thinking he recognised Jackson, Nansen raised his hat as he met -him, and they shook hands heartily. - -The contrast could not have been greater. One the well-groomed, -civilised European in a check suit and rubber water-boots, the other in -dirty rags black with oil and soot, with long matted hair and shaggy -beard, and a face in which the complexion was undiscernible through the -accumulations which a winter's endeavours, including scrapings with a -knife, had failed to remove. As they talked they had turned to go -inland. Suddenly Jackson stopped, and, looking the new arrival straight -in the face, said— - -"Aren't you Nansen?" - -"Yes, I am." - -"By Jove! I'm damned glad to see you." - -And seizing his hand he shook it again, his whole face beaming with a -smile of welcome and delight at the unexpected meeting; and needless to -say, both Nansen and Johansen received the warmest of welcomes from all -at Elmwood. The _Windward_ was then on her way, and when she arrived the -two Norsemen from the farthest north went in her to Vardoe, where they -landed on the 13th of August. - -Meanwhile the _Fram_ had continued her leisurely drift, north-west, -south-west, north-west, west, then all round the compass, still with her -head pointing south, until on the 15th of November she reached 85° 55·5´ -in longitude 66° 31´, thus giving Captain Otto Sverdrup the honour of -attaining the highest north in a ship. Another winter was passed in her -ice-berth, during which she moved westerly. In February came another -complete triangle in her course, after which she went south-west, and on -the 16th of May turned due south. Then, in the later days of the month -with the southerly drift continuing and open water on ahead, Sverdrup -resolved to set her free by mines, and on the 3rd of June, as a result -of the blastings, she gave a lurch, settled a little deeper at the stern -and moved away from the edge of the ice until the hawsers tautened. But, -though she was afloat, the ice around still kept her captive, and in the -pool she drifted straight towards Spitsbergen. - -Again and again was steam got up and endeavour made to break a way out, -but day after day elapsed, and it was not until the 13th of August that -she passed through the last floes into open water, and her thirty-five -months of imprisonment came to an end. Making for Danes Island in -Spitsbergen, she was there boarded by Andrée, who was then preparing for -his disappearance in the balloon voyage to the Pole. Going on direct to -Skjervoe in Norway, Sverdrup landed at two o'clock in the morning to -wake up the telegraphist, who told him that Nansen had reached Vardoe a -week before and was then at Hammerfest and probably leaving for Tromsoe. -For Tromsoe Sverdrup started, after telegraphing to Nansen. And there, -at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th of August, 1896, Sir George -Baden-Powell's yacht _Otaria_, with Nansen and Johansen on board, glided -alongside the _Fram_, the good little ship looking much weather-beaten -though none the worse for such a task of strength and endurance as had -been set no other in the story of the sea. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - THE LENA DELTA - - Discovery of the Siberian Islands—Hedenström—Anjou and - Wrangell—Migration of reindeer—Animals and plants of the - tundra—The northward migration of the native tribes—The voyage of - the _Jeannette_—Her drift in the pack—Jeannette Island—Henrietta - Island—The ship crushed and sunk—Landing on Bennett Island—The - boat voyage—The boats separate in a storm—De Long lands on the - Lena Delta—Nindemann and Noros in search of assistance—Safety of - the whale-boat—Fate of De Long and his companions—Baron Toll's - discoveries. - - -The Siberian Islands, lying north of the delta of the Lena, answer to -the Parry Islands on the American side, the two groups being separated -by that wide stretch of the Arctic Ocean communicating with the Pacific -through Bering Strait. At first the Asiatic group was officially named -after Liakhoff, then it was called after the unwisely named New Siberia, -but, under any designation, it took half a century to find the different -islands, and considerably more to land on them. - -[Illustration: THE LENA DELTA] - -When Liakhoff discovered the one named after him by the Empress -Catherine, he also went north to Moloi, and he seems to have visited -Kotelnoi to the north-west. In 1775 Chvoinof was sent to survey these -three, but he devoted most of his attention to Liakhoff Island—fifty -miles across—which he found to consist, as reported, of hills of granite -rising from a mass of mammoth bones, sand, and ice, some of the ice -ancient enough to carry a deep covering of moss. Though he stated that -other islands could be made out in the distance, nothing was done to -verify his discoveries, real or imaginary, until thirty years had -passed, when Thaddeus and Stolbovoi were reached. Next year (1806) New -Siberia, to the eastward, was discovered by Sirovatskof, and two years -afterwards Bjelkof was added to the southerly portion of the -archipelago. - -In 1809 Hedenström, assisted by Sannikof, began his series of surveys -extending over all these, and cleared up much of the mystery concerning -them. From Thaddeus, Sannikof sighted, away to the northward, what is -now known as Bennett Island; and, from New Siberia, Hedenström sighted -Henrietta and Jeannette Islands, and set out for them, and would have -reached them had his sledges not been stopped by open water. Like his -predecessors he was astonished at the mammoth remains on Liakhoff -Island. - -According to his account, "these bones or tusks are less large and heavy -the further we advance towards the north, so that it is a rare -occurrence on the islands to meet with a tusk of more than 108 lbs. in -weight, whereas on the continent they are said often to weigh as much as -432 lbs. In quantity, however, these bones increase wonderfully to the -northward, and as Sannikof expresses himself, the whole soil of the -first of the Liakhoff Islands appears to consist of them. For about -eighty years the fur-hunters have every year brought large cargoes from -this island, but as yet there is no sensible diminution of the stock. -The tusks on the islands are also much more fresh and white than those -on the continent. A sandbank on the western side was most productive of -all, and the fur-hunters maintain that when the sea recedes after a long -continuance of easterly winds, a fresh supply of mammoth bones is always -found to have been washed from this bank, proceeding apparently from -some vast store at the bottom of the sea." Besides these multitudinous -remains of the mammoth Hedenström found numerous remains of rhinoceros, -the horn of which was then thought to be a bird's claw three feet long. - -To clear up the wide discrepancies in the maps the Emperor Alexander, in -1820, equipped two expeditions to proceed by land to the northern coast -of Siberia and properly survey it, the work to be carried as far east as -Cape Chelagskoi, whence a sledge party was to start for the north in -search of the inhabited country reported to exist in the Polar Sea in -that direction. One of these expeditions, under Lieutenant P. F. Anjou, -was to commence its operations from the mouth of the Yana; the other, -under Lieutenant Ferdinand Vrangel' (or, as he is generally known -amongst us, Wrangell or Von Wrangell), was to start from the mouth of -the Kolyma, his chief assistant being Midshipman Matiuschkin. Both -parties did good survey work, but neither made any striking discovery. -Anjou reached 76° 36´ to the north of Kotelnoi; Wrangell reached 72° 2´ -(north-east of the Bear Islands, one hundred and seventy-four miles out -on the sea from the great Baranoff rock), beyond which progress was -impossible owing to the thinness of the ice, which was covered with salt -water. - -Wrangell had many perilous experiences. In his fourth journey over the -sea the ice broke up around him and he found himself on a floe with a -labyrinth of water lanes hemming him in on every side and a storm coming -on from the westward. The storm rapidly increased in fury, and the -masses of ice around him were soon dashing against each other and -breaking in all directions. On the floe, which was tossing to and fro on -the waves, he gazed in painful inactivity on the conflict, expecting -every moment to be swallowed up. For three long hours he had remained -unable to move, the mass of ice beneath him holding together, when it -was caught by the storm and hurled against a large field of ice. The -crash was terrific, as it was shattered into little pieces. At that -dreadful moment, when escape seemed impossible, he was saved by the -impulse of self-preservation. Instinctively the party sprang on to the -sledges and urged the dogs to full speed, and as hard as they could -gallop they skimmed across the yielding fragments to the field on which -they had been stranded, and safely reached a stretch of firmer ice, -where the dogs ceased running among the hummocks, conscious that the -danger was past. - -But it is not so much for adventures like this that his account of his -work is of continuing interest as for the abundance of its notes and -reflections on the country and its life and climate. Once, for instance, -when on the Baranicha he was fortunate enough to witness a migration of -reindeer. "I had hardly finished the observation," he says, "when my -whole attention was called to a highly interesting, and to me a -perfectly novel, spectacle. Two large migrating bodies of reindeer -passed us at no great distance. They were descending the hills from the -north-west and crossing the plain on their way to the forests, where -they spend the winter. Both bodies of deer extended further than the eye -could reach, and formed a compact mass, narrowing towards the front. -They moved slowly and majestically along, their broad antlers resembling -a moving wood of leafless trees. Each body was led by a deer of unusual -size, which my guides assured me was always a female. One of the herds -was stealthily followed by a wolf, who was apparently watching for an -opportunity of seizing any one of the younger and weaker deer which -might fall behind the rest, but on seeing us he made off in another -direction. The other column was followed at some distance by a large -black bear, who, however, appeared only intent on digging out a mouse's -nest every now and then, so much so that he took no notice of us. We had -great difficulty in restraining our two dogs, but happily succeeded in -doing so; their barking, or any sound or motion on our part, might have -alarmed the deer, and by turning them from their course, have proved a -terrible misfortune to the hunters, who were awaiting their passage, on -which they are entirely dependent for support. We remained for two hours -whilst the herds of deer were passing by, and then resumed our march." - -The way in which the deer are dealt with by the hunters was seen by -Matiuschkin when despatched by Wrangell to survey the Anyui. "The true -harvest, which we arrived just in time to see, is in August or -September, when the reindeer are returning from the plains to the -forests. They are then healthy and well fed, the venison is excellent, -and as they have just acquired their winter coats the fur is thick and -warm. The difference of the quality of the skins at the two seasons is -such, that whilst an autumn skin is valued at five or six roubles, a -spring one will only fetch one or one and a half roubles. In good years -the migrating body of reindeer consists of many thousands; and though -they are divided into herds of two or three hundred each, yet the herds -keep so near together as to form only one immense mass, which is -sometimes from thirty to seventy miles in breadth. They always follow -the same route, and in crossing the river near Plotbischtsche, they -choose a place where a dry valley leads down to the stream on one side, -and a flat sandy shore facilitates their landing on the other side. As -each separate herd approaches the river, the deer draw more closely -together, and the largest and strongest takes the lead. He advances, -closely followed by a few of the others, with head erect, and apparently -intent on examining the locality. When he has satisfied himself, he -enters the river, the rest of the herd crowd after him, and in a few -minutes the surface is covered with them. Then the hunters, who have -been concealed to leeward, rush in their light canoes from their -hiding-places, surround the deer, and delay their passage, whilst two or -three chosen men armed with short spears dash into the middle of the -herd and despatch large numbers in an incredibly short time; or at least -wound them so, that, if they reach the bank, it is only to fall into the -hands of the women and children. The office of the spearman is a very -dangerous one. It is no easy thing to keep the light boat afloat among -the dense crowd of swimming deer, which, moreover, make considerable -resistance; the males with their horns, teeth, and hind legs, whilst the -females try to overset the boat by getting their fore-feet over the -gunwale; if they succeed in this the hunter is lost, for it is hardly -possible that he should extricate himself from the throng; but the skill -of these people is so great that accidents very rarely occur. A good -hunter may kill a hundred or more in less than half an hour. When the -herd is large, and gets into disorder, it often happens that their -antlers become entangled with each other; they are then unable to defend -themselves, and the business is much easier. Meanwhile the rest of the -boats pick up the slain and fasten them together with thongs, and every -one is allowed to keep what he lays hold of in this manner. It might -seem that in this way nothing would be left to requite the spearmen for -their skill, and the danger they have encountered; but whilst everything -taken in the river is the property of whoever secures it, the wounded -animals which reach the bank before they fall, belong to the spearman -who wounded them. The skill and experience of these men are such that in -the thickest of the conflict, when every energy is taxed to the -uttermost, and their life is every moment at stake, they have sufficient -presence of mind to contrive to measure the force of their blows so as -to kill the smallest animals outright, but only to wound the larger and -finer ones, so that they may be just able to reach the bank. Such -proceeding is not sanctioned by the general voice, but it seems -nevertheless to be almost always practised. The whole scene is of a most -singular and curious character, and quite indescribable. The throng of -thousands of swimming reindeer, the sound produced by the striking -together of their antlers, the swift canoes dashing in amongst them, the -terror of the frightened animals, the danger of the hunters, the shouts -of warning advice or applause from their friends, the blood-stained -water, and all the accompanying circumstances, form a whole which no one -can picture to himself without having witnessed the scene." - -[Illustration: REINDEER] - -The tundra has no more characteristic animal than the reindeer. Over the -mossy hillocks and the matted tops of the dwarf birches he runs, or -through the rivers and lakes he swims, with his broad-hoofed, spade-like -feet never at a loss to find a footing. In the long winter he is -protected by his thick skin against the influence of the cold, and is -seldom at starvation point, as he digs for food in the deepest snow, and -is by no means particular what he eats; and in the short summer he is in -luxurious ease, for the tundra, as we have seen, is not always as bad as -it is painted. In exposed places near the coast it is little else than -gravel beds interspersed with patches of peat and clay, with scarcely a -rush or a sedge to break the monotony, but by far the greater part of it -is a gently undulating plain, broken up by lakes, rivers, swamps, and -bogs; the lakes with patches of green water-plants, the rivers flowing -between sedges and rushes, the swamps the breeding haunts of ruffs and -phalaropes, the bogs dotted with the white fluffy seeds of the -cotton-grass. Almost everywhere the birds are in noticeable numbers, -among the commonest being the golden plover (who wears the tundra -colours), the bluethroat, the fieldfare, the whooper swan, and the ducks -and divers—particularly the divers—and, among the birds of prey, the -falcons and the rough-legged buzzards, which, with the owls, find such -abundant provision in the lemmings that migrate in myriads compared with -which the reindeer troops are insignificant. - -"The groundwork of all this variegated scenery," says Seebohm, "is more -beautiful and varied still—lichens and mosses of almost every -conceivable colour, from the cream-coloured reindeer-moss to the -scarlet-cupped trumpet-moss, interspersed with a brilliant alpine flora, -gentians, anemones, saxifrages, and hundreds of plants, each a picture -in itself, the tall aconites, both the blue and yellow species, the -beautiful cloudberry, with its gay white blossom and amber fruit, the -fragrant _Ledum palustre_ and the delicate pink _Andromeda polifolia_. -In the sheltered valleys and deep water-courses a few stunted birches, -and sometimes large patches of willow scrub, survive the long severe -winter, and serve as cover for willow-grouse or ptarmigan. The Lapland -bunting and red-throated pipit are everywhere to be seen, and certain -favoured places are the breeding-grounds of plovers and sandpipers of -many species. So far from meriting the name of Barren Ground, the tundra -is for the most part a veritable paradise in summer. But it has one -almost fatal drawback—it swarms with mosquitoes." - -[Illustration: OSTIAK MAN] - -[Illustration: SAMOYED MAN] - -The beauty of the tundra is, however, transient and skin deep; it is -only such plants as can live in the soil that thaws that survive. -Wherever the ground is dug into, ice is sure to be reached; in fact, it -may be said that ice is one of the rocks of the subsoil, and in some -places these strata of ice that never melts have been found to be three -hundred feet thick—ice that has remained in block since the mammoths got -into cold storage in it ages ago, for otherwise they would not have -lasted intact in skin and flesh as many have done, like the very first -discovered in a complete state, that chipped out by Adams in 1807. - -In such a climate, whose winter terrors are only too prominent, all -along the north of Siberia live the ancient peoples driven towards the -sea by those mighty movements from the land of the Turk and Mongol -which, north and south, east and west, flooded Europe and Asia with -invaders—Ostiaks and Samoyeds west of Chelyuskin; Yakuts, Chukches, and -others to the east of it, the descriptions of whose unpleasant manners -and customs appear to be written with a view to showing how curiously -local are the laws of health. One may well ask, as Wrangell did, why -they should remain in so dreary a region and take life so contentedly. -And the answer may be that they might go further north and fare worse, -as their predecessors in the eastern section would seem to have done. -Once, according to the legend, there were more hearths of the Omoki on -the shores of the Kolyma than there are stars in the clear sky, and -these Omoki, or some other departed race, appear to have left as their -traces the remains of the timber forts and the tumuli that are found on -the coast, especially near the Indiyirka, and the huts of earth and -stones and bones found all along from Chelagskoi to the straits, similar -remains of a departed people now existing in the Parry Islands, over a -thousand miles away. According to another legend of more recent date, -there was an intervening land, the land that Wrangell went to seek and -the _Jeannette_ went to winter at, and the supposed site of which she -drifted through, in her last and longest imprisonment in the ice. - -The _Jeannette_ was the old _Pandora_, bought from Sir Allen Young by -James Gordon Bennett, and accepted by and fitted out, officered, and -manned under the orders of the Navy Department of the United States, her -commander being Lieutenant George Washington De Long. She left San -Francisco on the 8th of July, 1879, and two months afterwards had been -run into the pack and was fast in the ice off Herald Island, drifting to -her doom. Her route, in the main, was north-westerly, with many -complicated loops, at first at the rate of half a mile a day, then at -two miles, then at three, showing that the current from Bering Strait -had been reinforced by some other current as she went further west, and, -from its direction, there seemed to be land to the northward which was -never sighted. - -Wrangell Land, passed to the south, proved to be not a continent but a -small island. No other land was seen for a monotonous twenty months, and -then, in May, 1881, the ship drifted, stern first, past that sighted by -Hedenström from New Siberia, which was found to consist of two islands, -to be henceforth known as Jeannette and Henrietta. On the 12th of June, -in latitude 77° 14´ 57˝, the _Jeannette_ was crushed and sank, her fore -yardarms breaking upwards as she slipped down through the rift in the -pack, and a start was made for the Siberian Islands over the ice; but -the drift had taken the party to 77° 36´, before they got on their -proper course, and after a most laborious journey, lasting up to the -28th of July, they were safe ashore on the land sighted by Sannikof from -Thaddeus, which De Long named Bennett Island. - -Bennett Island was left on the 7th of August, the party of thirty-three -being in three boats, thirteen under De Long in the first cutter, ten -under Lieutenant Chipp in the much smaller second cutter, and ten, under -Engineer George W. Melville, whose skill and resourcefulness had been -conspicuous throughout, were given the whale-boat, the most suitable of -the three. Sail was made for Thaddeus Island, which was reached in -safety; after a halt of some days it was left on the 31st of August. -Then Kotelnoi Island was reached and rested at; then the boats made for -Semonovski, which was left on the 12th of September. - -The same day a gale came on in which the first cutter had great -difficulty in keeping afloat, the second cutter disappeared never to be -heard of again, and the whale-boat, behaving excellently, went off -before the wind straight for the continent to reach in safety one of the -eastern mouths of the Lena, up which Melville arrived at a Russian -village on the 26th of September. De Long's party ran their boat aground -in shallow water, on the 17th of September, and rafted and waded ashore -to one of the most inhospitable spots on the globe. Heavily laden they -made their way down the dreary delta, toiling through the snow, delayed -by the tributaries which were not frozen over hard enough to bear, -hampered by sickness and disablement, and finally dying one by one of -starvation. - -On the 9th of October De Long sent two of the seamen, Nindemann and -Noros, ahead in search of relief. They had no food but what they could -find, and on the second day out their dinner consisted of a little -willow tea and a burnt boot sole. Next morning they burnt another sole -of a boot, and they spent the day struggling through a morass in -drifting snow, crossing streams of all sizes, and halting for the night -in so high a wind that they were unable to light a fire and took refuge -in a hole in the snow from which they emerged with difficulty in the -morning, owing to the wind having piled up the snow against the opening. -At the end of the third day they reached a deserted hut in which were -some deer bones, which they grilled and tried to eat, and in the morning -a gale was blowing and the wild drifting snow was so thick that they had -to remain where they were and continue their diet of charred bones and -willow tea. - -Next day, Thursday, the 13th of October, they began against a strong -head wind. In the afternoon they sighted a hut on the west bank of the -river. "They had seen one in the morning, but had in vain attempted to -cross the ice to it. Now they tried to reach this, but were turned back -by the brittle ice. They kept it in sight as they moved southward, and -made another attempt to cross the ice, but it broke and they came back. -Then they saw that there was no further progress possible to the -southward on that side of the water, and they returned to the ice. It -broke again, but they kept on. They went in up to their waists, but -managed to pull themselves up on the stronger ice." The wind was blowing -against them and the ice was like glass, so that they were driven back. -They looked about for ice which had been roughened by the ripples -beneath, and finding some they succeeded at length in reaching the other -side, where were two wooden crosses beneath a bank, which rose fifty -feet above them. They pulled themselves up the bank, but when they came -to the hut which they had kept in sight they found it a ruin nearly full -of snow. "While Noros was trying to make a place in it for shelter, -Nindemann saw a black object farther along to the south and went to it. -It was a small peaked hut without a door, but large enough to hold two -men. There were some fresh wood shavings outside the hut and higher up -on the hill two boxes. On going to them Nindemann found them old and -decayed, and he began to break one of them open. When he had ripped off -the top he discovered that there was another box enclosed; breaking into -it he found a dead body, and hastily left it. Doubtless the two crosses -below on the river bank were memorials of the two beings left high up -above the reach of the floods." - -In the small hut they found a sort of floor, the boards of which they -pulled up for firewood, and in a hole beneath was a box in which were a -couple of fish and two fish heads; and, as these were discovered, a -lemming came out of another hole and was promptly caught. On the -lemming, roasted on the ramrod, and the fishes, which were so decayed -that they dropped apart as they were handled, they made their meal for -that day. Next day the snowstorm was so heavy that they were driven back -here after striving in vain to make headway. On the Saturday, still -without food, they rested for the night in a fissure in the river bank, -where as a last resource Nindemann cut a piece off his sealskin trousers -and soaked it in water and burnt it to a crust. Their breakfast -consisted of the remains of this toasted sealskin. During the day they -saw a crow flying across the river and in among the hills, and, as the -crow in these regions is rarely found away from the haunts of men, -Nindemann decided to cross the river in the hope of meeting with either -natives or game on the other side. When darkness came on no shelter was -discoverable, and so, after a meal of more sealskin and hot water, they -went to rest in a hole in the snow. Next day, during which they -recrossed the river, their experiences were similar and the end the -same. - -On Tuesday the 18th, after a terrible day, they came upon a hut with a -pile of wood close by, which proved to be sledges, and these they broke -up, as there was no other firing. Next day as they were struggling on -they reached a place where there were three huts, in one of which was a -half-kayak and in it was some blue mouldy fish; and here, attacked by -dysentery, they remained until the Saturday, unable to go any further. -About noon there was a noise outside like a flock of geese sweeping by. -Nindemann, looking through the crack of the door, saw something moving -which he took to be a reindeer, and was going out with his rifle when -the door opened and a man entered, who promptly fell on his knees when -he caught sight of the gun. Nindemann threw the rifle into a corner and, -trying to make friends with the man by signs, offered him some of the -fish, which the man by an emphatic gesture pronounced not fit to eat. -After some more of the sign language it was clear that the native had no -food with him, and holding up three or four fingers to show that he -would return in so many hours or days he drove off. About six o'clock in -the evening, while they were preparing their fish dinner, the visitor -returned with two other men, one of whom brought in a frozen fish which -he skinned and sliced, and while the sailors were eating it—the first -healthy meal they had had for weeks—the natives invited them to -accompany them, and brought in deerskin coats and boots and finally got -them into the sledges and drove off to the westward for about fifteen -miles. Here there were two tents, and Nindemann was taken into one, -Noros into the other, and both were well looked after, the natives doing -their very best to get them well. - -This was intelligible on both sides, for the language of kindness is -universal, but as the sailors knew not the language of their hosts, and -the natives knew not the language of their guests, the difficulty of -being understood by each other was great, and the delivery of the urgent -message in signs was almost impossible. Nindemann did his best; he -appealed to the man who seemed to be the head of the party, and drawing -in the snow a map of the places where he had been, with every -combination of signs he could think of, he tried to explain what he -wanted. That he succeeded to a certain extent was clear, though he did -not think so at first, for the natives loaded up their sledges, -twenty-seven in number, with reindeer meat and skins and fish, and -struck their tents, and, with over a hundred head of deer harnessed up, -started for the south. At noon, when the deer were resting, the man for -whom the map had been drawn in the snow took Nindemann to where he could -show him a prominent landmark, and asked by signs if that was where he -had left his friends. And on learning by signs that it was further to -the north, he shook his head as if sorry, and resumed his journey to the -south. During the next day they reached Ku Mark Surka, where there were -a number of natives who were much interested in the new-comers, and -again the sailors used every effort to deliver their message. - -Immediately after breakfast on the morning of the 25th, Nindemann began -talking to these people in signs and pantomime. Soon one of them showed -that he had an idea of where the sailors came from, for he spoke to one -of the boys, who ran off and returned with a model of a Yakutsk boat. -Then they gathered round and evidently asked if the ship was anything -like it. And in answer, Nindemann took up some sticks and placed three -of them in the boat to show that his ship had three masts, and then he -fastened smaller sticks across to show that she had yards, which seemed -to surprise them greatly. Then he made a funnel out of wood and put it -in position, and pointed to the fire and smoke to show that she was a -steamer, and then he cut out a propeller with his knife and put it where -the rudder was to show that she was a screw. Continuing his work he soon -chipped out so many small boats to show how many she had; and then, -signing to one of the men to get him two pieces of ice, he showed them -how the ship had been crushed. Pointing to the northward he tried to -tell them that the ship had been crushed up there; and then he put away -the ship and kept only three of the little boats to tell that part of -the story, and in the boats he put so many sticks to represent the -number of men in each. When he had done this one of the men pointed to a -dog that was looking on and asked if the ship had any, whereupon the -sailor counted on his fingers to show there were about forty, and by -pantomime explained that they had been shot. This being evidently -understood, Nindemann drew a chart of the coast-line, and imitating a -gale of wind showed that the boat he came from went to the land at a -certain point and that he knew nothing of the others. Then he went on to -show how they had all left the boat, waded ashore and walked along the -river-bank, and he marked the huts where they had stopped, and then he -indicated where one of the men had died and been buried in the river. -This was understood, for all the audience shook their heads as if to say -how sorry they were. But when he tried to tell them that he had left the -captain two days afterwards and had been so many days on the way to ask -for help, they showed that they either did not or would not understand; -and really it was not easy to make such a matter clear. - -Next day Nindemann made another attempt to get them to understand the -one essential, urgent fact that help was needed, or the men would die; -but no, he could not do it. On the Thursday, despairing of the -hopelessness of his task and the helplessness of his companions, he -broke into tears and groans, and a woman in the hut took pity on him and -spoke earnestly to one of the men, who came and said something about a -commandant. Then the sailor, who had picked up a few words, asked him to -take him to Bulun, to which the man replied by again saying commandant -and holding up five or six fingers. Late in the evening there arrived a -tall Russian, whom Nindemann supposed to be the commandant and addressed -in English, but he was a Russian exile who could not understand him, -though he seemed to know something about the matter, for in what he said -he clearly mentioned Jeannette and Americansk. Nindemann tried him in -German, but at this he shook his head. Then Nindemann showed him the -chart given him by De Long, which the Russian evidently did not -understand, though he said something that sounded like St. Petersburg -and telegrams. While this apparently hopeless conversation was going on -Noros was busy steadily writing out a note that the two sailors had -drawn up, and the tall Russian—who we shall see was really a most -intelligent man—giving over his talk with Nindemann in despair, coolly -picked this up and put it in his pocket, and notwithstanding the protest -of the Americans, walked off with it. In the morning he came in and gave -them to understand that he was going to Bulun, and that they were to -follow, and soon afterwards the natives fitted them out with clothing -and boots and food and sent them off on a sledge. At Bulun they were -taken to the commandant, who, after a little sign language from -Nindemann, showed that he understood, and said something about a -telegram. The sailors jumped at the idea, and one of them dictated to -the other a despatch to the American Minister at St. Petersburg. This -the Russian took, explaining that the captain should have it next day. -Who the captain was the sailors could not make out; but three days -afterwards, that is on the 3rd of November, while Nindemann lay on the -bed and Noros was sitting on the table, a man came in dressed in fur. - -"My God, Mr. Melville!" said Noros, recognising him as soon as he spoke. -"Are you alive? We thought that the whale-boats were all dead!" - -The exile had handed the note to Melville, whom he knew as the captain, -and his difficulty in understanding the sailors had been in their -speaking of one boat while he had only seen the other. The whale-boat -crew had reached a village opposite to where he lived, and he had agreed -to take them to Bulun, and he was on his way there to arrange for their -transport when he heard of the sailors. Like a sensible man he ordered -the men to be sent to Bulun, and had hurried there, made his -arrangements with the commandant and returned to Melville, who, seeing -the urgency of the case as soon as he read the letter, had started at -once, leaving his party to follow. - -Melville, as soon as possible, went off along the track of the two -sailors, who were too weak to go with him, and eventually found the -chronometer and the log-books and other records; but the winter was too -far advanced for him to do more, and he had to return, after a journey -of over six hundred miles, to try again in the spring. Then, accompanied -by Nindemann, he went north, and came upon the bodies of the commander -and those who had perished with him, and three or four feet behind De -Long, as if he had tossed it over his shoulder, lay the journal in which -the last page was but a chronicle of death after death. - -This chapter must conclude with another tragedy. In 1885 Dr. Bunge and -Baron Toll made some important investigations in the neighbourhood of -the mouth of the Yana; and next year Bunge among the fossils of Liakhoff -Island found not only mammoth and rhinoceros, but horse, musk-ox and -deer, and two new species of ox. To these Toll, after discovering that -there were flourishing trees on Kotelnoi in the time of the -mammoth—nearly two hundred miles north of their present limit—added -frozen carcases of musk-ox and rhinoceros, and bones of antelope and -tiger. - -In 1902 Toll, pushing his geological researches further north, reached -Bennett Island, where he collected bones of the mammoth and other recent -mammals, while the main mass of the plateau he identified as of Cambrian -age. These discoveries he included in the record announcing his -intention of leaving for Kotelnoi, which was found in 1904 by the -expedition sent to his relief, for he was never seen alive again. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - BERING STRAIT - - Native stories of the distant continent—The Russians in - Kamchatka—Bering's expedition—The difficulties of his task—Builds - a vessel and reaches Kamchatka—Builds another vessel and discovers - the strait named after him by Captain Cook—His second - expedition—Spangberg's voyage to Japan—Bering reaches the American - coast—His shipwreck and death—The influence of the sea-otter and - the fur-seal on geographical discovery—The Arctic voyage of - Captain Cook—Clerke's voyage—Beechey's voyage—Point Barrow reached - by the barge of the _Blossom_—Kellett's voyage in the - _Herald_—Boat expedition to Hudson Bay—Kellett reaches 72° - 51´—Landing on Herald Island—Kellett sights Wrangell Island—Berry - in the _Rodgers_ explores Wrangell Island—He reaches 73° - 44´—Frederick Whymper and W. H. Dall ascend the Yukon. - - -Rumours of land over against the far corner of Siberia had reached the -Russians for years, and many were the legends of those who had seen -these lands from the cliffs, or had been on the ice to look at them more -closely, or had gone away to them and never come back. There was, for -instance, the old legend of Kraechoj, who believed he had found safe -shelter at Irkaipii from the Chukche vengeance, but the Chukche made his -way into the stronghold and killed Kraechoj's son, whereupon Kraechoj -escaped by letting himself down with thongs to the boat and fled to the -land whose mountains can be seen in clear sunshine from Cape Yakan; and -there he was among his people who had left Asia before him. - -And among the official documents was the statement made by the Chukches -when they went to Anadyrskoi Ostrog to acknowledge the dominion of the -Russians, that "The Noss is full of rocky mountains, and the low grounds -consist of land covered with turf. Opposite to it lies an island, within -sight of it, of no great extent, and void of wood. It is inhabited by -people who have the same aspect as the Chukche, but are quite a -different nation, and speak their own language, though they are not -numerous. It is half a day's voyage with boats from the Noss to the -island. There are no sables on the island, and no other animals but -foxes, wolves, and reindeer. Beyond the island is a large continent that -can be scarcely discerned from it, and that only on clear days; in calm -weather one may row over the sea from the island to the continent, which -is inhabited by a people who in every particular resemble the Chukches. -There are large forests of fir, pine, larch, and cedar trees; great -rivers flow through the country and fall into the sea. The inhabitants -have dwellings and fortified places of abode environed with ramparts of -earth; they live upon wild reindeer and fish; their clothes are made of -sable, fox, and reindeer skins, for sables and foxes are there in great -abundance. The number of men in that country may be twice or three times -as many as that of the Chukches who are often at war with them." That -there was land in sight somewhere seemed clear, but the reports differed -in placing it all the way round from the north to the east. Many were -the vain attempts to reach it from the northward-flowing rivers, and it -was left to be found from the Pacific side. - -[Illustration: BERING STRAIT] - -When Atlassof, in 1697, took the first steps in the conquest of -Kamchatka the Russians were already known to the inhabitants. Long -before him Fedotof and a few comrades had made their way into the -country and intermarried with native women. They had been held in great -honour and almost deified as being evidently of a superior race. For -some time it was supposed that no human hand could hurt them, but this -belief was rudely shattered when two of the demigods quarrelled and -fought, and one wounding the other, the blood flowed. That flow of blood -was fatal, for the natives, judging that they were but ordinary flesh, -took an early opportunity of wiping them out, the name of their leader -being still traceable in that of the Fedotcha River on the banks of -which they had lived. - -The Kamchadales had other tales to tell of visitors from the east and -south, and Atlassof himself discovered on the River Itcha a Japanese who -had been wrecked on the coast two years before, from whom he learnt of -islands innumerable. But there were no ships on the Pacific coast of -Siberia, and nothing in the way of discovery could be done until 1714, -when there arrived at Ochotsk a detachment of sailors and shipwrights -despatched thither overland. According to one of the sailors, Henry -Bush, a Dutchman, the carpenters built a good durable vessel some fifty -feet long which was ready for sea in 1716 when the first voyage was -undertaken. The coast of Kamchatka was made near the River Itcha, and -sailing south they reached the Kompakova, where they wintered and found -the whale that had in its body the harpoon of European workmanship -marked with Roman letters, mentioned by Scoresby. Bush returned to -Ochotsk in July, to be sent in the following year to discover the -Shantar Islands, and next year, 1718, the Kuriles; thus venturing into -the Pacific beyond Cape Lopatka. - -The last of these expeditions was due to the direct order of Peter the -Great, who, knowing nothing of Deschnef, and finding the sea open to the -north, resolved on a voyage in that direction, his holograph -instructions to Admiral Apraxin being: "One or two boats with decks to -be built at Kamchatka, or at any other convenient place, with which -inquiry should be made relative to the northerly coasts, to see whether -they are not contiguous with America, since their termination is not yet -known." Peter died, and the Empress Catherine, carrying out these -instructions in their fullest meaning, began her reign with an order for -the expedition. - -Veit Bering, Dane by birth and sailor by trade, had voyaged to the -Indies, east and west, and, like many other men of enterprise, had -entered the Russian service at Peter's invitation. He had served with -distinction in the Cronstadt fleet in the war against the Swedes, and, -being in good repute for his knowledge of ships and their handling, was -appointed to the command of the most remarkable Arctic enterprise on -record. Just as Nicholas ruled a line and ordered a railway to be built -there, so did Catherine in the same imperial way order an exploring -expedition, and it was done. But it meant building the ship from the -trees of the forest on the coast of the Pacific and carrying the -materials and stores—everything but the timber—right across the Russian -empire in the days when for thousands of miles there were not even -roads. - -[Illustration: THE FACE OF THE FUR SEAL] - -Bering's lieutenants were Martin Spangberg and Alexei Tschirikof. With -them and the rest of the expedition he left St. Petersburg on the 5th of -February, 1725. During that year they got as far as the Ilim, where they -wintered. In the spring of 1726 they sailed down the Lena to Yakutsk, -where they parted company for a time owing to the difficulties of the -route to Ochotsk, the way not being passable in summer with wagons, or -in winter with sledges, on account of the marshes and rocky ground. So -Spangberg set out, working along the rivers Aldan, Maia, and Judoma, -with part of the provisions and heavy naval stores, while Bering -followed overland through uninhabited country with more stores on -horses, and Tschirikof remained to collect still more and follow in the -track of his commander. - -Bering reached Ochotsk first. Spangberg was frozen up in the Judoma, and -thence he walked to Ochotsk with the most necessary materials; but he -suffered so much from hunger on the way that he had to support life by -eating leather bags, straps, and shoes, and did not reach Bering till -the 1st of January, 1727, nearly two years after leaving St. Petersburg. -In the beginning of February he returned to the Judoma and brought away -about half of his lading, the other half being left for a third journey, -which he made from and to Ochotsk on horses. Meanwhile Tschirikof was -toiling along from Yakutsk, and did not arrive to complete the party -until the 30th of July. - -On arrival Bering had to build a vessel to take his most necessary naval -stores and his shipbuilders across the sea of Ochotsk to Bolscheretzkoi, -which, in her, he reached on the 2nd of September. From here he followed -the shipwrights, who went on ahead to fell the trees, taking with them -the provisions and stores, over the backbone of the isthmus and down the -Kamchatka River to the mouth, a distance of some two hundred miles, the -journey being very slow on account of the travelling being by -dog-sledge. In short, it was not until the 4th of April, 1728, that is, -more than three years after leaving St. Petersburg, that it was possible -to put on the stocks the vessel in which the voyage to the north was to -be made. But she took only three months to build, being launched on the -10th of July, when she was named the _Gabriel_. - -Laden with stores for forty men during a year's voyage, she put to sea -ten days afterwards, Bering keeping close to the coast so that he could -map it as he went. On the 10th of August he was off the island of St. -Lawrence, which he so named, as it was the day of that saint. In a day -or two he had passed the East Cape without seeing the American coast, -and had entered the Arctic Circle. And on the 15th he was well through -the strait, out in the Arctic Ocean, in 67° 18´ off Serdze Kamen, a -promontory behind which the coast trended to the west, as the Chukches -had told him it did; and he assumed, and rightly so, though he had not -gone far enough to prove it, that there was no land connection between -Asia and America. Whereupon, as he had in his opinion accomplished his -mission, seeing no need for wintering in those parts, he put the -_Gabriel_ about and was back in the Kamchatka River on the 20th of -September, after a voyage of seven weeks in a vessel that took three -months to build on a spot that took over three years to reach—the plan -of campaign being much the same as that in which a mountain stronghold -is advanced on across a desert, besieged for a few days, and captured by -assault. - -[Illustration: THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS] - -After wintering, Bering went off next year on a voyage due east in -search of reported land, but, after some hundred and thirty miles out, -he was blown back, and, rounding the south end of Kamchatka, put in at -the River Bolschaia; thence he crossed to Ochotsk, whence he started for -St. Petersburg, where he arrived after an absence of five years. -Catherine was dead and another empress reigned in her stead, who was -pleased and satisfied if no one else was, and the 21st of February, -1733, saw him starting again in the same laborious fashion to arrange -other voyages as part of a great scheme for the exploration of Northern -and North-eastern Asia. Some of these expeditions on the north coast -have already been mentioned; Bering's particular task was to send -Spangberg in search of Japan, while he and Tschirikof, in separate -ships, went eastward to America. More stores and provisions went -overland across Siberia than before; Spangberg got again frozen up on -the Judoma and had to continue on foot to Ochotsk, where he found plenty -of food owing to Bering having sent on ahead, in case of any such -trouble, a hundred horses, each of them laden with meal. In June, 1738, -Spangberg, in two newly-built vessels and the _Gabriel_, was off to -Japan, to reach the Kuriles and return to winter in Kamchatka; but next -year he arrived there all well and found to his astonishment that the -Japanese knew as much about maps as he did. He was still more astonished -on his return to be told by those high in office at St. Petersburg that -he could not possibly have been there as they had not got it on their -maps where he said it was, and, consequently, he was to go where he had -been as soon as he could to make sure. He started on this voyage of -verification, but circumstances were against him and he did not reach -there; and his Japanese trip remained discredited until the Russian -geographers knew better. His voyage thither had, however, used such a -stock of provisions that it was two years before the deficiency could be -made up, and it was actually the 4th of September, 1740, seven and a -half years after leaving St. Petersburg, when Bering, in the -specially-built _St. Peter_, and Tschirikof, in her sister the _St. -Paul_, got off outward bound to America. - -In about three weeks they were at Awatcha Bay on the east of Kamchatka, -anchored in the fine harbour named Petropaulovsk after the two ships, -and here they had to stay for the winter, so that they did not leave -Russian territory until the 4th of the following June. A few days out -the ships were separated in a fog and storm, and the _St. Paul_ reached -the American coast first, at Kruzof Island on the western shore of Sitka -Sound. The _St. Peter_ three days afterwards, on the 18th of July, -drifted to the coast more to the northward, at Cape St. Elias near the -mighty mountain of that name. In this neighbourhood amid much fog Bering -stayed six weeks until he was blown out to sea, when, his men beginning -to die from scurvy, he resolved to return to Kamchatka. It was a voyage -of misfortune in a continual downfall, the men in want, misery, and -sickness, continuously at work in the cold and wet, becoming fewer and -fewer, so that there were not enough to work the ship properly. It ended -on one of the Commander Islands by the vessel being lifted by the sea -clear over a reef into calm water. Bering died—the island is named after -him—and the survivors of the crew, building a boat from the materials of -the _St. Peter_, arrived at Petropaulovsk on the 27th of August, -bringing with them a quantity of sea-otter skins, which did more for -discovery in those seas than any imperial expedition. - -[Illustration: DRIVING THE FUR SEAL] - -As the sable had brought about the conquest of Siberia, so did the -sea-otter lead to the seizure of the islands of the Bering Sea and the -coasts of Alaska. Three years after the return of the survivors of the -_St. Peter_, Nevodtsikof wintered on one of the Aleutian Islands, and in -a few years the fur-hunters were at their exterminating work over the -whole chain. In time the fur-seal attracted as much attention, and, with -Pribylov's discovery, in 1786, of its rookeries on the islands named -after him, the trade became of such increasing importance as to endanger -in our time the peace of the world. Every one has heard of the wonderful -haunts and habits of that strange eared seal which seems to have come -from the south through the tropics to breed in the coldest limit of its -range, now almost entirely on the Pribylovs and the Commanders; how it -is pursued in skin boats and every sort of craft, and scared in long -lines to slaughter by clapping of boards and bones and waving of flags -and opening and shutting of gingham umbrellas, until it promises to -become as extinct as Steller's sea-cow or as rare as the sea-otter. - -Following Bering on the way to the north came Captain James Cook, in -H.M.S. _Resolution_, who gave Bering's name to the strait. Cook sighted -Mount St. Elias in May, 1778, and, cruising slowly along the coast with -many discoveries and much accurate surveying, was off, and named, Cape -Prince of Wales, the western extremity of America, on the 9th of August. -He then crossed the strait and plied back until on the 18th he sighted -and named Icy Cape in 70° 29´. Close to the edge of the ice, which was -as compact as a wall, and seemed to be ten or twelve feet high at the -least, he sought persistently for a passage through, but none was to be -found; and after reaching 70° 6´ in 196° 42´ (163° 18´ W.) on the 19th, -he turned westward to the Asiatic coast, along which he went until he -sighted and named Cape North, as already stated. Then, blocked by ice, -east, north, and west, he returned, passing Cape Serdze Kamen (Bering's -farthest) and naming East Cape, confirming Bering's observation that it -was the most easterly point of Asia. - -On Cook's death at Hawaii Captain Charles Clerke, of the accompanying -vessel H.M.S. _Discovery_, took command of the expedition and carried -out Cook's intention of making another effort during the following year. -The ice conditions were, however, worse. The two ships found the ice -block further south, and as impenetrable as before, and Clerke's highest -was 70° 33´ on the American side, on the 19th of July. As it was Cook's -last voyage, so it was Clerke's. He was in a bad way with consumption, -and continued his work in the north, though, under the special -circumstances and being in command, he could at any time have given up -the obviously hopeless attempt and left for a more genial climate, in -which he would at least have had a chance of longer life; but, remaining -at his duty, he died at sea on the 22nd of August, and was buried at -Petropaulovsk. - -[Illustration: FUR SEALS AT SEA] - -Captain Beechey, in H.M.S. _Blossom_, passed through the strait in 1826 -when sent north from the Pacific with a view of meeting with his old -commander, Franklin, then on his second land journey. Beechey took the -ship to Icy Cape, whence on the 17th of August he despatched the barge -under the master, Thomas Elson, to survey the coast to the -north-eastward as far as he could go in three weeks, there and back. -Elson reached his farthest on the 25th at a spit of land jutting out -several miles from the more regular coast-line, the width of the neck -not exceeding a mile and a half, broadest at its extremity, with several -frozen lakes on it, and a village, whose natives proved so troublesome -that it was thought unsafe to land. This was Point Barrow, in 71° 23´ -31˝, longitude 156° 21´ 30˝, the northernmost land on the western half -of the American continent. To the eastward curved a wide bay—named Elson -Bay by Beechey—the shore-line of which joined on to the ice pack that -encircled the horizon. Here he was within a hundred and sixty miles of -where Franklin had turned back a week before. Though Beechey did not -meet Franklin he did most useful work in these parts, for by him the -whole coast was surveyed between Point Barrow and Point Rodney, to the -south of Prince of Wales Cape. - -Franklin was also the cause of the appearance of the next British -expedition in the strait. This was in 1848, Captain Henry Kellett, in -H.M.S. _Herald_, with Commander Thomas Moore in H.M.S. _Plover_, forming -the western detachment of the first series of search expeditions. There -were three detachments, one to follow the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ from the -eastward, another under John Richardson to descend the Mackenzie and -search the northern coast, the other coming in from the west to meet the -ships should they have made the passage. On this duty the _Herald_ and -_Plover_ were hereabouts for three seasons, the _Plover_ wintering, the -_Herald_ going south when the navigation closed. - -In October, 1826, Beechey had buried a barrel of flour for Franklin on -the sandy point of Chamisso Island, ample directions for finding it -being cut and painted on the rock, and to call the attention of the -party to the spot the name of the _Blossom_ was painted on the cliffs of -Puffin Island. When the _Herald_ was at Chamisso Island in 1849 Captain -Kellett searched for this flour and found it. A considerable space was -cleared round the cask, its chimes were freed, and, only adhering to the -sand by the two lower bilge staves, it required the united strength of -two boats' crews, with a parbuckle and a large spar as a lever, to free -it altogether. The sand was frozen so hard that it emitted sparks with -every blow of the pickaxe. The cask itself was perfectly sound and the -hoops good, and out of the 336 lb. of flour which it contained, 175 lb. -were as sweet and well tasted as any he had with him; so good indeed was -it that Captain Kellett gave a dinner party, at which all the pies and -puddings were made of this flour. - -[Illustration: - - THE PARKA OF THE ALASKAN INNUITS - - (THE SHORTER COAT IS THAT WORN BY THE MEN) -] - -After the dinner party, on the 18th of July, the two vessels started for -the north, being joined as soon as they stood from the anchorage by -Robert Shedden in his yacht the _Nancy Dawson_, who at his own -initiative had come up from Hong Kong to join in the search. From -Wainwright Inlet Kellett sent off the boats under Lieutenant Pullen, two -of which made the journey along the northern coast and up the Mackenzie, -their crews thence making their way home eastwards to York Factory. - -When Kellett was about to commence his observations at the inlet he drew -a semicircle on the sand from water's edge to water's edge, and placed -the boats' noses between its points. The natives seemed to understand -the meaning of this line. Not one of them attempted to overstep it, and -they squatted down and remained perfectly quiet and silent. When a -stranger arrived they shouted to him, and he no sooner comprehended the -directions than he crept rather than walked to the boundary, and -squatted among the rest. Afterwards they danced and sang and played -football with the seamen—who stood no chance with them at that game—and -when they had gone off, after all this good behaviour, it was discovered -that they had been picking the pockets of some of the party, one losing -a handkerchief, another a glove, and Commander Moore a box of percussion -caps. - -The boat party had a similar experience, without the pocket-picking. -Reaching Point Barrow they landed to make observations and look about -for traces of the visit of the _Blossom's_ boat, which they did not -find. Their interpreter did not understand the tribe, and recourse was -had to the universal language of signs. "We made a rude model of a -vessel," says Lieutenant Hooper, "and performed sundry antics to signify -what we were in search of, but could elicit no information, and so set -to work at obtaining observations. We concluded that these people must -have been entirely misunderstood. Far from evidencing any disposition to -assail or molest us, they were most docile and well-behaved, agreeably -disappointing us in their conduct. When we arrived on the hillock, all, -big and little, sat down around us, and I amused myself by filling their -pipes, becoming a great favourite immediately in consequence. They had -among them a great many knives, which we feared would influence the -magnet. Mr. Pullen therefore kindly drew off the crowd to a distance, -distributing among them tobacco, beads, snuff, etc., and much to their -credit be it said, there was neither confusion nor contention, each -taking his allotted portion, and seeming delighted with his good -fortune. They took care not to come near the instruments, finding that -we did not like their approach; one or two indeed came towards us, but -retired instantly when laughingly motioned back, and this should be -considered as a display of great forbearance, inasmuch as their -curiosity must have been highly excited. When the observations were -concluded they were allowed to inspect the objects of their wonder; then -fast and thickly to utterance flew their expressions of astonishment at -the—to them—novel and splendid instruments. The trough of quicksilver, -liquid and restless, especially attracted them, pleasure and wonder were -evident at the simple view, but when one or two had permission to take -some from the dish, and found it ever elude the grasp, their -astonishment knew no bounds." - -[Illustration: THE FROZEN YUKON] - -From Wainwright Inlet, which is between Icy Cape and Point Barrow, the -_Herald_ sailed along the pack to the westward, reaching her highest -north, 72° 51´, in 163° 48´, and, on the 17th of August, Kellett landed -on and named Herald Island in 71° 17´ 45˝, a mass of granite towering -nine hundred feet above the sea, under five miles long and three broad, -inhabited mainly by black and white divers and yielding the collector -only four flowering plants. Further to the west he sighted Wrangell -Island, sailed past and named by the American whaling captain, Thomas -Long, in August, 1867. - -In 1881 Wrangell Island was thoroughly explored by another search -expedition, that of Captain Berry in the American ship _Rodgers_, who -was in these parts looking out for traces of the _Jeannette_. He found -it to be, not a continent as some had supposed, but an island forty -miles broad and sixty-six miles long, about thirty miles from Herald -Island and eighty from the Siberian coast; and on it, as on all these -Siberian islands and the coast of Alaska, remains of the mammoth were -found. Examining the ice to the northward, he reached 73° 44´ in 171° -30´, being fifty-three miles further north than Kellett and twenty-four -miles further than Collinson in 1850. Returning from the north to winter -quarters he achieved another Arctic record in his ship being destroyed -by fire in St. Lawrence Bay on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait. - -Opposite this, on the American side, from Cape York downwards the land -trends away to the south-east to Norton Sound, in which are the mouths -of the Yukon, one of the mightiest rivers of the world, its volume being -as great as, or according to some writers greater than, the Mississippi. -In a course of two thousand miles it runs northwards to the Arctic -Circle at the now abandoned trading post of Fort Yukon, where its waters -are reinforced by its tributary, the Rat or Porcupine, coming in from -the north-east, and given their seaward direction to the south-west. Up -this vast waterway in 1866 went Frederick Whymper and William H. Dall. - -Beginning with a sledge journey of a hundred and seventy miles from -Unalachleet, they struck the Yukon on the 10th of November, gliding down -a high steep bank on to it. Hardly a patch of clear ice was to be seen, -the snow covering the whole extent. Accumulations of hummocks had in -many places been forced on the surface before the river had become -thoroughly frozen, and the water was still open, running swiftly in a -few isolated streaks. From bank to bank was not less than a mile, the -stream flowing among several islands. As they sledged up the river the -dreary expanse of snow made them almost forget they were on a sheet of -ice; and, as it winds considerably, their course was often from bank to -bank to cut off corners and bends. Many cliffs abutted on the stream, -and islands of sombre green forest studded it in all directions. - -[Illustration: ASCENDING THE YUKON] - -On the 15th they reached Nulato, six hundred miles from the mouth, where -they spent the winter. Here they found a curious method of fishing -practised all through the season. Early in the winter large piles or -stakes had been driven down into the bed of the river, and to these were -affixed wickerwork traps like eel-pots on a large scale, oblong holes -being kept open over them by frequently breaking the ice. This was cold -work, for the temperature ran low. "In November and December," says -Whymper, "I succeeded in making sketches of the fort and neighbourhood -when the temperature was as low as thirty degrees below zero. It was -done, it need not be said, with difficulty, and often by instalments. -Between every five strokes of the pencil, I ran about to exercise myself -or went into our quarters for warmth. The use of water-colours was of -course impracticable—except when I could keep a pot of warm water on a -small fire by my side—a thing done by me on two or three occasions, when -engaged at a distance from the post. Even inside the house the spaces -near the windows, as well as the floor, were often below freezing point. -Once, forgetful of the fact, I mixed some colours up with water that had -just stood near the oven, and wetting a small brush commenced to apply -it to my drawing block. Before it reached the paper it was covered with -a skin of ice, and simply scratched the surface, and I had to give up -for the time being." - -On the 12th of May the Nulato River broke up and ran out on the top of -the Yukon ice for more than a mile upstream; and in a few days the ice -of the main river was coming down in a steady flow at a rate of five or -six knots, surging into mountains as it met with obstacles, and grinding -and crashing and carrying all before it, whole trees and banks being -swept away on its victorious march, the water rising fourteen feet above -the winter level. On the 26th Whymper and Dall started with two Indians -and a steersman in a skin canoe, the river still full of ice, and -navigation difficult. They had proceeded but a short distance when they -came to bends, round which logs and ice were sweeping at a great rate, -so that it was necessary for a man to stand in the bows of the canoe, -with a pole shod at one end with iron, to push away the masses of ice -and tangle of driftwood. They could often feel the ice and logs rolling -and scraping under the canoe; and it was not the thickness of a plank -between them and destruction, but that of a piece of sealskin a tenth of -an inch thick. - -On the 7th of June they were two hundred and forty miles above Nulato, -at the junction of the Tanana, the furthest point reached by the -Russians, and soon were in a part abounding with moose owing to their -seeking refuge in the stream from the millions of mosquitoes. Here the -Indian hunters were busy, not wasting powder and shot, but manœuvring -round the swimming deer in their birch-bark canoes until they tired the -victim out; and then stealthily approaching, securing it with a stab -from their knives. - -After twenty-six laborious days against the stream they reached Fort -Yukon, the then furthest outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company, six -hundred miles from Nulato, and, of course, managed and victualled from -the east. Here the amount of peltry was astonishing, the fur-room of the -fort containing thousands of marten skins, hanging from the beams, and -huge piles of common furs lying around, together with a considerable -number of foxes, black and silver-grey, and many skins of the wolverine, -thought so much more of by the Indians than by any one else that they -are used as a medium of exchange. All these furs were brought in from -the surrounding districts, far and near, and traded for goods, as widely -distributed, among the native tribes whose representatives gathered at -the fort in such a miscellaneous crowd that perhaps half a dozen -dialects were heard in a morning. - -[Illustration: MOOSE-HUNTING ON THE YUKON] - -In the crowd the busiest and most prominent were the primitive Tananas, -gay with feathers and painted faces, looking like survivals among the -local Kutchins and the Kutchins of the upper river, the Birch River men, -and the Rat River men by whom the skins were brought from the natives of -the northern coast, as were the messages from the Franklin search -parties. Indians were all of these, distinguishable by their wearing the -hyaqua or tooth-shell (_Dentalium entalis_) through the septum of the -nose, while the Mahlemut wears a bone on each side of the mouth, a -practice common with all the Innuit, or Eskimo tribes, from the Alaska -Peninsula to Point Barrow, unless some other form of labret happens to -be the local fashion. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - THE AMERICAN MAINLAND - - The Hudson's Bay Company—Samuel Hearne—His journey down the - Coppermine River—The North West Fur Company—Sir Alexander - Mackenzie—His journey down the Mackenzie—Sir John Franklin's first - land journey—Fort Enterprise—Back's journey to Athabasca—The - rapids of the Coppermine—Point Turnagain reached—The Wilberforce - Falls—The terrible crossing of the Barren Grounds—Franklin's - second land journey—Richardson's voyage to the eastward—Discovers - Wollaston Land and Dolphin and Union Strait—Franklin's voyage to - Return Reef—Back's journey down the Great Fish River—Discovers - Montreal Island and King William Land—The Parry Falls—Sir George - Simpson—Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson—Exploration of the - coast between Return Reef and Point Barrow—Simpson advances beyond - Point Turnagain and discovers Victoria Land and Dease Strait—Their - second voyage down the Coppermine—Discovery of Simpson - Strait—Reach the Great Fish River—Their farthest east—Complete the - survey of the northern coast between Boothia and Bering Strait—The - first to find the North-West Passage. - - -For two elks and two black beavers, paid yearly whensoever the King of -England entered their estate, the Hudson's Bay Company were, in 1670, -presented by Charles II with the northern part of the American mainland, -thus ensuring an ample stretch of British territory along the passage to -the South Sea. But the company soon ceased to be interested in any such -passage, finding quite enough to do in developing the very profitable -fur trade of their vast possessions. With the exception of John Knight's -disastrous voyage to Marble Island in 1719, whatever attempts at -discoveries there may have been were kept quiet for fear of aiding their -rivals the French to the south, who were fostering the trade in the -region of the great lakes; and not until the French dominion ended in -1763 and the Frenchmen's interests were passing to an opposition British -company was any effort made to explore the coast of the Polar Sea. - -[Illustration: MAHLEMUT MAN] - -Owing to Indian reports of rich deposits of native copper and an -abundance of fur-bearing animals, Samuel Hearne, once a midshipman in -the Royal Navy, was sent by the company in 1769 to explore to the west -and north. After a journey of thirteen hundred miles to the west he -found the Coppermine River and the Great Slave Lake, and he traced the -river to its mouth and emerged on the northern shore, being the first -known white man to see the Arctic Ocean between the Boothia Peninsula -and Bering Strait. Among other things he was instructed to discover a -north-west passage, and he certainly did something definite towards it -by showing there was open water so much further west; but, though he -suspected it, he was unable to prove that the northernmost point of the -continent was in the unexplored country between the Coppermine and -Hudson Bay. - -In 1783 the North West Fur Company was formally established, and after a -severe struggle obtained, owing mainly to the efforts of Alexander -Mackenzie, a fair share of the trade in the west of the region -controlled by the Hudson's Bay people. Mackenzie was at Fort Chippewyan, -on Lake Athabasca, and thence he was sent in 1789 on an exploring voyage -to the north. In four birch-bark canoes, one of his party being an -Indian known as English Chief, who had been with Hearne on his journey -to the Coppermine, he started down the Great Slave River into the Great -Slave Lake. After spending twenty days in crossing and exploring this -vast sheet of water, he entered the large river now bearing his name, -and down it amid many dangers and difficulties, overcome by skill, -persuasion, force, good humour or good fortune, he reached the sea on -the 14th of July. He camped on Whale Island, the name being given owing -to one of the men sighting a great many animals in the water, which he -at first supposed to be pieces of ice. "However," says Mackenzie, "I was -awakened to resolve the doubts which had taken place respecting this -extraordinary appearance. I immediately perceived that they were whales; -and having ordered the canoe to be prepared, we embarked in pursuit of -them. It was indeed a very wild and unreflecting enterprise, and it was -a very fortunate circumstance that we failed in our attempt to overtake -them, as a stroke from the tail of one of these enormous fish would have -dashed the canoe to pieces. We may, perhaps, have been indebted to the -foggy weather for our safety, as it prevented us from continuing our -pursuit. Our guide informed us that they are the same kind of fish which -are the principal food of the Eskimos, and they were frequently seen as -large as our canoe. The part of them which appeared above the water was -altogether white, and they were much larger than the largest -porpoise"—being evidently belugas (_Delphinapterus leucas_). - -Satisfied with a short canoe voyage on the sea, he returned to the river -and made his way back to the fort, arriving there in the middle of -September. He had thus proved the existence of the sea twenty degrees -further west than Hearne had done. Three years afterwards he started on -his notable journey to the Pacific at Cape Menzies, facing Princess -Royal Island, being the first white man to cross the Rocky Mountains, -and, as he had reached Fort Chippewyan by way of Montreal, the first to -cross North America above the Gulf of Mexico. - -Another of Hearne's Indians accompanied Franklin on his first land -journey in 1819, the object of which was to explore the coast between -Hearne's farthest and Hudson Bay, thus filling in the gap in which the -assumed northern promontory was to be found. Franklin, who was sent out -by the British Government, had with him, as surgeon and naturalist, Dr., -afterwards Sir, John Richardson, to whom as a boy Robert Burns had lent -Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, a naval surgeon with a distinguished record, -who while on half-pay had studied botany and mineralogy at Edinburgh. -Like another member of the expedition, George Back, who had been with -Franklin in the _Trent_ and _Dorothea_ voyage, he was destined to gain a -great reputation among Arctic explorers. With Back was another -midshipman, Robert Hood, whose fate it was to be murdered by an Iroquois -half-breed who, through want of food, betook himself to cannibalism. - -Landing at York Factory, in Hudson Bay, after an exciting voyage, on the -30th of August, Franklin, disregarding local advice, pushed on across -the continent during the winter, arriving at Fort Chippewyan on the 26th -of March, the losses and trying experiences of the long journey being -mainly due to the rigours of the climate at that time of year; and -thence, in July, the party followed Mackenzie's route to Fort Providence -on Great Slave Lake. Here they were joined by Mr. Wentzel, of the North -West Company. - -Starting for the north on the 2nd of August in four canoes, they were -joined next day at the mouth of the Yellow Knife by a band of Indians, -under a chief named Akaitcho, in seventeen canoes. The Indians were to -guide the party and supply them with food by hunting and fishing on the -way, but game and fish proved scarce—and scarcer owing to the poorness -of the Indian marksmanship—provisions were short and portages long, so -that the journey, which soon led across a series of lakes, was pursued -under toilsome and hazardous conditions until it ended at Winter Lake in -64° 30´, where it became necessary to winter in a log house built by -Wentzel, and named Fort Enterprise. The site was delightful: a hillside -amid trees three feet in diameter at the roots, the view in front -bounded at a distance of three miles by round-backed hills, to the -eastward and westward the Winter and Roundrock Lakes connected by the -Winter River, its banks clothed with pines and ornamented with a -profusion of mosses, lichens, and shrubs. - -[Illustration: WINTER TRAVELLING ON THE GREAT SLAVE LAKE] - -In a few weeks, however, the weather became so severe that, according to -Franklin, the trees froze to their very centres and became as hard as -stones, on which some of the axes were broken daily, until but one was -left. And though at first the reindeer appeared in numbers, their visits -lasted only for a short time, and the party, short of tobacco for the -Canadian voyageurs and of ammunition for the Indians, had so poor an -outlook that it became necessary to accept Back's proposal to return to -the forts and bring on supplies which had not been forwarded as -promised; the failure being due to the journey, unlike the successful -ventures of Hearne and Mackenzie, being pushed on regardless of climatal -conditions, and, in some degree, to the rivalry between the two fur -companies which were amalgamated while the expedition was in progress. - -Back set out accompanied by Wentzel and two Canadians and two Indians -and their wives, crossing lakes frozen just hard enough to bear them, -going wide circuits to avoid those which were open, amid mist and fog -and storm, over rugged, bare country, through dense woods and -snow-covered swamps, rafting across a river with pine branches for -paddles, until Fort Providence was reached. From here he sent back -Belanger with letters and a hundred bullets he procured on loan. -Belanger arrived at Fort Enterprise on the 23rd of October alone; he had -walked constantly for the last six-and-thirty hours through a storm, his -locks were matted with snow, and he was encrusted with ice from head to -foot, so that he was scarcely recognised when he slipped in through the -doorway. - -At Fort Providence Back had to wait until the Great Slave Lake was -frozen over. On the 18th of November he observed two mock moons at equal -distances from the central one, the whole encircled by a halo, the -colour of the inner edge of the large circle a light red inclining to a -faint purple; and two days afterwards two parhelia were observable, with -a halo, the colours of the inner edge of the circle a bright carmine and -red-lake intermingled with a rich yellow forming a purplish orange, the -outer edge being a pale gamboge. On the 7th of December he left, -sledging across the lake before the wind, for the North West fort on -Moose Deer Island, and finding at the Hudson's Bay fort, also on the -island, five packages of belated supplies and two Eskimo interpreters on -their way to Franklin. - -Here he was told that nothing could be spared at Fort Chippewyan, that -goods had never been transported so far in the winter season, that the -same dogs could not go and return, and that from having to walk -constantly on snow-shoes he would suffer a great deal of misery and -fatigue. Nevertheless he undertook the journey in dog-sledges with a -Canadian and an Indian, leaving Wentzel behind. At times the weather was -so cold that they had to run to keep themselves warm, and, owing to the -snow, the feet of the dogs became so raw that an endeavour was made to -fit them with shoes. With legs and ankles so swollen that it was painful -to drag the snow-shoes after him, Back hurried on, reaching Fort -Chippewyan on the 2nd of January to find that he and all Franklin's -party had been reported to have been killed by Eskimos. Here he had to -wait a month, and then, with an instalment of what he wanted, he set out -on his return, arriving at Fort Enterprise on St. Patrick's Day after a -memorable journey of over a thousand miles. - -[Illustration: CROSSING POINT LAKE] - -During his absence he was told that the cold had been so severe that -Hood had found accurate observing difficult owing to the sextant having -changed its error and the glasses lost their parallelism from the -contraction of the brass, a circumstance, combined with the -crystallisation of the mercury of the artificial horizon, that might -account for some of the diversity of results obtained by Arctic -navigators. And Richardson had to tell him of an early discovery that -when fishing and the hands get cold by hauling in the line, the best way -to warm them is to put them in the water; and how the fish had frozen as -they were taken out of the water so that by a blow or two of the hatchet -they were easily split open, leaving the intestines removable in one -lump, and yet that these much-frozen fish retained their vitality so -that he had seen a thawed carp recover so far as to leap about with much -vigour after it had been frozen for thirty-six hours. - -On the 14th of June Fort Enterprise was left, and on the 25th the -expedition began to cross Point Lake on the way to the Coppermine, the -river being reached through Rocknest Lake on the 30th. Down the river -they paddled, taking the rapids as they went—in one place three miles of -them on end. "We were carried along with extraordinary rapidity, -shooting over large stones, upon which a single stroke would have been -destructive to the canoes; and we were also in danger of breaking them, -from the want of the long poles which lie along their bottoms and -equalise their cargoes, as they plunged very much, and on one occasion -the first canoe was almost filled with the waves; but there was no -receding after we had once launched into the stream, and our safety -depended on the skill and dexterity of the bowmen and steersmen." - -There were rapids day by day affording almost every possible chance of -wreck except that due to driftwood; the two worst being one where the -stream descends for three-quarters of a mile in a deep but narrow and -crooked channel which it has cut through the foot of a hill of five -hundred or six hundred feet high, confined between perpendicular cliffs -resembling stone walls varying in height from eighty to a hundred and -fifty feet, on which lies a mass of fine sand; the body of the river -pent within this narrow chasm dashing furiously round the projecting -rocky columns as it discharges itself at the northern extremity in a -sheet of foam. The other being where the river flows between lofty stone -cliffs, reddish clay rocks and shelving banks of white clay, and is full -of shoals. Franklin's people had entered this rapid before they were -aware of it, and the steepness of the cliffs prevented them from -landing, so that they owed their preservation to the swiftness of their -descent. Two waves made a complete breach over the canoes; a third would -probably have filled and overset them, which would have proved fatal to -all on board. This Escape Rapid, as it was named, was, as it were, the -gate into the territory of the Eskimos who were soon met with in small -parties all the way down to the sea. It was passed on the 15th of July; -three days afterwards the Indians bade farewell to the expedition in the -morning, and in the afternoon the canoes were afloat on the Arctic -Ocean. - -[Illustration: KUTCHIN INDIANS] - -From the river mouth Wentzel returned, as arranged, with despatches, -taking with him a number of voyageurs and others, thus reducing the -party to twenty in all in two canoes. In these Franklin, nearly two -years after he had landed in America, went on his voyage to the eastward -to enter at last on the work he had been sent to do. But the survey of -this lofty rocky coast was no easy matter; the sea was rough, the -weather tempestuous, the canoes were lightly built and only suited for -river work, and, in short, it was a most risky enterprise. Tracing the -shore of Coronation Gulf and coasting up and out of Bathurst Inlet, -Franklin reached Point Turnagain in 109° 25´ W., at the entrance of -Dease Strait, on the 16th of August, 1821. Though the voyage had -extended over only six and a half degrees of longitude, he had sailed -555 geographical miles; and then, as his resources did not permit of his -going further or of his returning to the Coppermine, and in his own -words "Our scanty stock of provisions rendering it necessary to make for -a nearer place," he, on the 22nd, turned back to ascend the Hood River. - -Here they soon reached the Wilberforce Falls, beautiful and remarkable, -but not easy of navigation. "In the evening," says Franklin in his -journal, "we encamped at the lower end of a narrow chasm through which -the river flows for upwards of a mile. The walls of this chasm are -upwards of two hundred feet high, quite perpendicular, and in some -places only a few yards apart. The river precipitates itself into it -over a rock forming two magnificent and picturesque falls close to each -other. The upper fall is about sixty feet high, and the lower one at -least one hundred, but perhaps considerably more, for the narrowness of -the chasm into which it fell prevented us from seeing its bottom and we -could merely discern the top of the spray far beneath our feet. The -lower fall is divided into two by an insulated column of rock which -rises about forty feet above it." - -As the river above the falls appeared too rapid and shallow for the -large canoes they were taken to pieces, and two smaller ones built from -their materials. The voyage in these lasted but three days, when the -river was abandoned as trending too far to the west, and the party, -carrying the canoes, proceeded overland to Point Lake on their struggle -of starvation across the Barren Grounds. For days they had nothing to -eat but lichens—species of _Gyrophora_ or _Umbilicaria_ known as -tripe-de-roche—a diet varied with leather, burnt bones and skins, an -occasional ptarmigan, and, once, a musk ox, until they were so weak that -when a herd of reindeer went strolling past they had not strength enough -to shoot at them. - -The tragedy need not be lingered over. Back was again sent for help, -and, finding no stores at Fort Enterprise, was on his way to Fort -Providence when he fell in with Akaitcho, who at once hurried to the -rescue; and on the 14th of July, 1822, Franklin, Richardson, Back, and -Hepburn the seaman, who had behaved as a hero all through, returned to -York Factory after a three years' journey, fraught with peril and -horror, by land and water, of over six thousand three hundred statute -miles. - -After he had been at home a year, Franklin suggested that another -attempt should be made to survey the northern coast while Parry was at -work in search of the North-West Passage. The suggestion was accepted. -Accompanied by Richardson and Back, and by E. N. Kendall as assistant -surveyor—who had been out with Captain Lyon in the same capacity—and by -Thomas Drummond as assistant naturalist, he left Liverpool on the 26th -of February, 1825. - -[Illustration: PREPARING AN ENCAMPMENT ON THE BARREN GROUNDS] - -Taught by experience, the expedition was better managed in every way. -Instead of driving ahead regardless of the season or the trade routine, -the ordinary conditions of local travel were kept in view throughout, -and the results were more in proportion to the effort. Three boats were -specially built at Woolwich on Franklin's design and under Buchan's -superintendence. They were of mahogany with timbers of ash, both ends -alike, steerable by oar or rudder, the largest 26 ft. by 5 ft. 4 ins., -the two others 24 ft. by 4 ft. 10 ins., and with them Colonel Pasley's -portable boat, known as the _Walnut Shell_ from its shape, 9 ft. long -and half as wide, with frames of ash fastened with thongs and covered -with canvas. The canvas was "waterproofed by Mr. Macintosh, of -Glasgow"—the first instance of its use—and for the first time also what -we know as macintosh coats and overalls were issued as part of the -outfit, the process having been patented in 1824. - -The boats and stores were sent on ahead by way of York Factory in 1824, -and Franklin and his party, travelling by New York and the lakes, caught -them up on the Methye River at sunrise on the 29th of June. With them -were several old friends, not the least delighted being the two Eskimo -interpreters, Augustus and Ooligbuck, who were to be of the utmost -importance throughout. On the 8th of August they had got along so well -that they were at the junction of the Bear Lake River with the -Mackenzie. Here Back and Peter Warren Dease of the Hudson's Bay Company, -who had joined the expedition to look after the local arrangements, were -sent off to build a house to winter in on the banks of the Great Bear -Lake, in Keith's Bay, where the river leaves it; Richardson also left to -explore the northern shore of the lake, and Franklin and Kendall -continuing down the Mackenzie reached the sea before the week was out in -less than six months from their departure from Liverpool. And on the 5th -of September they had returned upstream and were at their winter -quarters at the new house on the lake, which Back had named Fort -Franklin, to find that Richardson had been along the northern shore and -noted as being the nearest point to the Coppermine the entrance of the -river he had named after Dease, which was to be of so much service to -him later on. - -During the winter another boat, the _Reliance_, was built on the lines -of the _Lion_, the largest of the Woolwich boats, and leaving Dease to -complete the stores for another comfortable winter, the expedition -started on the 24th of June. At Point Separation, at the head of the -Mackenzie delta, Franklin in the _Lion_ with Back in the _Reliance_—our -old friend Robert Spinks being his coxswain—took the western arm, and -Richardson in the _Dolphin_ and Kendall in the _Union_, carrying the -_Walnut Shell_ with them, took the eastern arm. - -[Illustration: Yours faithfully John Richardson] - -Richardson, with a few more or less threatening encounters with the -Eskimos, ending fairly well owing to Ooligbuck, and in constant danger -of wreck avoided by careful navigation, rounded Cape Bathurst in 70° 36´ -and discovered Wollaston Land, the coast-line of which they left -continuing to the east, when they reached Coronation Gulf and, on the -8th of August, entered the Coppermine, and thus filled in the gap of -nine hundred and two statute miles from Point Separation. Leaving the -_Dolphin_ and _Union_ at Bloody Fall on that river, it being impossible -to take them further, the expedition, carrying the _Walnut Shell_ with -them, proceeded along the banks, but finding they had no use for the -portable boat, owing to the shallowness of the stream, they soon -abandoned it, and in 67° 13´, where the river is nearest to the -north-eastern arm of Great Bear Lake, the Coppermine was left and the -course laid across the Barren Grounds for Dease River. This was reached -three days afterwards, Richardson being met at its mouth by Dease's -people on the 24th of August. - -Franklin had similar experiences with the Eskimos, and was as deeply -indebted to Augustus for his tact and bravery in dealing with them. -Coasting along to the westward, hindered by ice, bad weather and fog, -and tormented by mosquitoes, his progress was much slower than that of -Richardson. Delayed for some days on or about Foggy Island, he had to -give up his intention of reaching Bering Strait, and not knowing that -Elson with the barge of the _Blossom_ had come as far east as Point -Barrow, he gave the name of Cape Beechey to the westernmost headland in -sight, and leaving Return Reef in 148° 52´ on the 18th of August, after -covering six hundred and ten statute miles through parts not previously -discovered, began his voyage back to Fort Franklin, where he arrived on -the 21st of September. Meanwhile Richardson had gone off to explore the -Great Slave Lake, whence Drummond had started on his journey among the -Rockies; and, being unable to get away till another winter had passed, -both Franklin and Richardson landed in England in September, 1827, after -an important and fruitful expedition that had no death-roll. - -Back was again in these regions in 1833 on his expedition in search of -Sir John Ross. Reaching the Great Slave Lake, he built Fort Reliance at -its north-eastern corner and began the long winter there on the 5th of -November. Soon afterwards Akaitcho put in an appearance, and expressed -his intention—which he did his best to fulfil—of being of as much -assistance as he could; and later on Augustus made his way across -country to offer his services, but, either exhausted by suffering and -privation, or caught in a snowstorm, he died alone near the Rivière à -Jean. - -Temperatures ranging from 50 to 70 minus were of frequent occurrence, -and, on one occasion Back, after washing his face within a yard of the -fire, had his hair clotted with ice before he had time to dry it. Every -animal was driven away from the neighbourhood by the cold, except a -solitary raven which swept once round the house and then winged his -flight to the westward. On the 25th of April a messenger arrived at the -fort with the news of the safe return of Sir John Ross to England, but -Back determined to proceed with the journey for exploring purposes, -taking one boat instead of two, and, with Richard King the surgeon, and -eight men, he started for the Great Fish River on the 8th of July. - -[Illustration: BACK'S JOURNEY DOWN THE GREAT FISH RIVER] - -The voyage was a hazardous and adventurous one. For five hundred and -thirty geographical miles the river was found to run through an -iron-ribbed country without a single tree on the whole line of its -banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, most -embarrassing to the navigator, and broken into falls, cascades, and -rapids, to the number of no less than eighty-three, pouring its waters -into the Polar Sea in latitude 67° 11´ and longitude 94° 30´; so that -his explorations on the northern coast were confined to a section -further east than Point Turnagain. - -The expedition met with its greatest danger at Escape Rapid, between -Lake Macdougall and Lake Franklin, on the 25th of July. Here the stream -was broken by a mile of heavy and dangerous rapids. The boat was -lightened, and every care taken to avoid accident; but so overwhelming -was the rush and whirl of the water, that she, and consequently those in -her, were twice in imminent peril of being plunged into one of the gulfs -formed in the rocks and hollows. It was in one of these places, which -are fall, rapid, and eddy within a few yards, that the boat owed its -safety to an unintentional disobedience of the steersman's directions. - -The power of the water so far exceeded whatever had been witnessed on -any of the other rivers that the precautions used elsewhere were weak -and unavailing. McKay, the steersman, was endeavouring to clear a fall -and some sunken rocks on the left, but the man to whom he spoke -misunderstood him, and did exactly the reverse; and then, seeing the -danger, the steersman swept the stern round; instantly the boat was -caught by an eddy to the right, which, snapping an oar, twirled her -irresistibly broadside on; so that for a moment it seemed uncertain -whether the boat was to be hurled into the hollow of the fall, or dashed -stern foremost on the sunken rocks. Of how it happened no account can be -given, but her head swung inshore towards the beach and thereby gave an -opportunity for some of the men to spring into the water and by their -united strength rescue her from her perilous position. Had the man to -whom the first order was given understood and acted on it no human power -could have saved the crew from being buried in the abyss. Nor yet could -any blame be justly attached to the steersman, who had never been so -situated before and whose coolness and self-possession never in this -imminent peril forsook him. At the awful moment of suspense, when one of -the crew with less nerve than his companions began to cry aloud to -Heaven for aid, McKay in a still louder voice exclaimed, "Is this a time -for praying? Pull your starboard oar." Never could a reminder that -_laborare est orare_ have been more opportune. - -On the 1st of August Montreal Island was reached. Nine days afterwards a -log of driftwood, nine feet long and nine inches in diameter, jocularly -described as a piece of the North Pole, was found on the beach, which, -as there are no trees on the Fish River or the Coppermine, Captain Back -was of opinion must have come from the Mackenzie and drifted eastward, -so that he was on the main line of the land. The inference, confirmed by -the appearance of a whale, was correct, but, misled, perhaps, by hilly -islands, he missed the channel through which it had come, blocking it, -in the manner of John Ross, with a range of mountains that does not -exist. Though he reached Mount Barrow and mistook the head of Simpson -Strait for an inlet, thus failing to find one of the north-west -passages, he discovered and named King William Land and sighted Point -Booth at its eastern extremity. An attempt to reach Point Turnagain to -the westward and thus link up with Franklin's farthest east, in which he -might have discovered the passage, proving impracticable owing to the -bogginess of the ground, Back began his return from King William Land in -latitude 68° 13´, longitude 94° 58´, and entered on a wearisome journey -up the river and lakes he had come down, meeting with a party from Fort -Reliance on the 17th of September. - -A week after, when within a couple of days of the fort, on that "small -but abominable river" the Ah-hel-dessy from Artillery Lake, Back -discovered the Anderson Falls. Toiling along over the mountains, every -man with a seventy-five-pound package on his back, he had not proceeded -more than six or seven miles when, observing the spray rising from -another fall, he was induced to visit it and was well consoled for -having left the boat behind. "From the only point," says Back, "at which -the greater part of it was visible, we could distinguish the river -coming sharp round a rock, and falling into an upper basin almost -concealed by intervening rocks; whence it broke in one vast sheet into a -chasm between four and five hundred feet deep, yet in appearance so -narrow that we fancied we could almost step across it. Out of this the -spray rose in misty columns several hundred feet above our heads; but as -it was impossible to see the main fall from the side on which we were, -in the following spring I paid a second visit to it, approaching from -the western bank. The road to it, which I then traversed in snow-shoes, -was fatiguing in the extreme, and scarcely less dangerous; for, to say -nothing of the steep ascents, fissures in the rocks, and deep snow in -the valleys, we had sometimes to creep along the narrow shelves of -precipices slippery with the frozen mist that fell on them. But it was a -sight that well repaid any risk. My first impression was of a strong -resemblance to an iceberg in Smeerenberg Harbour, Spitsbergen. The whole -face of the rocks forming the chasm was entirely coated with blue, -green, and white ice, in thousands of pendent icicles; and there were, -moreover, caverns, fissures, and overhanging ledges in all imaginable -varieties of form, so curious and beautiful as to surpass anything of -which I had ever heard or read. The immediate approaches were extremely -hazardous, nor could we obtain a perfect view of the lower fall, in -consequence of the projection of the western cliffs. At the lowest -position we were able to attain, we were still more than a hundred feet -above the level of the river beneath; and this, instead of being narrow -enough to step across, as it had seemed from the opposite heights, was -found to be at least two hundred feet wide. The colour of the water -varied from a very light to a very dark green; and the spray, which -spread a dimness above, was thrown up in clouds of light grey. Niagara, -Wilberforce Falls on Hood River, the falls of Kakabikka near Lake -Superior, the Swiss or Italian falls—although they may each charm the -eye with dread—are not to be compared to this for splendour of effect. -It was the most imposing spectacle I had ever witnessed; and, as its -berg-like appearance brought to mind associations of another scene, I -bestowed upon it the name of our celebrated navigator, Sir Edward Parry, -and called it Parry's Falls." - -Back, like Franklin, owed much of the success of his expedition to the -cordial help of the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, George, -afterwards Sir George, Simpson. Ever the fastest of travellers in the -north, Simpson had, in 1828, made a 3260-mile canoe voyage from Hudson -Bay to the Pacific, passing the Rockies through canyons previously -untried, and slipping down mountain torrents and through unknown rapids -at such speed that hostile Indians let him pass in sheer amazement; and -all his life he was distinguished for similar energy and celerity. When -it became clear that the British Government had no immediate intention -of completing the survey of the northern coast, Simpson organised an -expedition at the Company's expense to undertake the task, and entrusted -the leadership to Dease, who had done such excellent work for Franklin; -and with Dease he associated his own nephew, Thomas Simpson, in no way -inferior to his uncle in energy, speediness, or decision of character, -being in fact one of our very best explorers, Arctic or otherwise. - -Thomas Simpson, Master of Arts of Aberdeen and a winner of the -Huttonian, began characteristically by starting off to Fort Garry—now -Winnipeg—with a view, as he says, "to refresh and extend my astronomical -practice which had for some years been interrupted by avocations of a -very different nature"; and thence, in the winter, making his way to -Fort Chippewyan, a journey of 1277 miles, joining Dease there more than -a month before he was expected. Two boats were built, light clinker -craft of 24 ft. keel and 6 ft. beam, adapted for shallow navigation by -their small draught, both alike and honoured with the classical names of -the heavenly twins, _Castor_ and _Pollux_, each boat provided with a -small oiled canvas canoe and portable wooden frame. Of one, the -steersman was the redoubtable James McKay—"Pull your starboard oar!"—and -of the other, George Sinclair, Back's bowman; and one of the bowmen was -Felix, who had been with Franklin in 1826. All told, the expedition -numbered fourteen. - -Leaving Fort Chippewyan on the 1st of June, 1837, they reached Bear Lake -River on the 3rd of July, and six days afterwards were out on the sea. -On the 23rd of July they camped at Return Reef, that is to say they had -traversed the whole extent of Franklin's survey in a fortnight, and not -without danger from the ice and losing much time by doubling the floes, -however far they extended seawards. Once Simpson's boat, which was of -course leading, was only saved from destruction by throwing out -everything it contained upon the floating masses. By means of portages -made from one fragment to another, the oars forming the perilous -bridges, and after repeated risks of boats, men, and baggage being -separated by the motion of the ice, they succeeded with much labour in -collecting the whole equipment on one floe, which, being covered with -water, formed a sort of wet dock. There they hauled up the boats, -momentarily liable to be overwhelmed by the turning over of the ice, -three miles from land, with the fog settled round them throughout the -inclement night. - -Continuing westwards along new country, they reached and named Cape -George Simpson (after the Governor) and, a little further on, Boat -Extreme, where, from the coldness of the weather and the interminable -ice, the further advance of the boats appeared to be so hopeless that -Dease agreed to stay in charge of them while Simpson with five men, -including McKay and Felix, pushed ahead for Point Barrow on foot. -Passing McKay Inlet and Sinclair River, named after the two steersmen, -an Eskimo camp was reached, where Simpson exchanged his tin plate for a -platter made out of a mammoth tusk, and borrowed an oomiak which floated -in about half a foot of water. In this useful skin boat the journey was -resumed to Point Barrow, and on the 4th of August the survey completed -between Franklin's farthest and Elson's. - -The winter was passed at the mouth of the Dease River, on Great Bear -Lake, where Fort Confidence had been built ready for the expedition on -its return. On the 6th of June, 1838, a start for the coast was made by -the Coppermine route, that river being reached on the 22nd, and its -descent accomplished, on the spring flood, in nine days. But it was a -bad season, and the navigation was so hampered by ice that no start was -made to the eastward until the 17th of July. At Boathaven, in 109° 20´, -Simpson again left the boats and went ahead with Sinclair and six others -who had not been to Point Barrow. Passing Franklin's farthest at Point -Turnagain, he kept on for a hundred miles along the whole length of -Dease Strait, discovering and naming Victoria Land, reaching Beaufort -River beyond Cape Alexander, and sighting an open sea to the eastward. -From here, in 106° 3´, the return began; and by many devices and the -unfailing skill of McKay and Sinclair, the two boats were taken up the -Coppermine stream, falls and rapids and all, to the nearest point to -Fort Confidence, where they were hauled up in readiness for next year. - -On the 22nd of June, 1839, the boats again left for the sea; and they -were run down to Bloody Fall without a stoppage in eleven hours. Again -there were fourteen all told in them, but this time one of the men was -Ooglibuck, who had come specially from Ungava in Labrador, in the -wonderful time of three months less eight days, to join the expedition -which was to meet with great success and accomplish an Arctic boat -journey of over sixteen hundred statute miles. - -Entirely blocked until the 3rd of July, and hindered by ice difficulties -all the way, the boats did not reach the previous year's farthest until -the 28th of July. On the 11th of August, through an outlet only three -miles wide, they passed into the much-desired eastern sea. "That -glorious sight," says Simpson, after whom the strait is named, "was -first beheld by myself from the top of one of the high limestone -islands, and I had the satisfaction of announcing it to some of the men -who, incited by curiosity, followed me thither. The joyful news was soon -conveyed to Mr. Dease, who was with the boats at the end of the island, -about half a mile off." On the continent and on King William Land, where -Franklin's men were in time coming to perish of starvation, reindeer -were seen browsing on the scanty herbage among the shingle. A terrible -thunderstorm followed, and then, doubling a very sharp point on the -13th, Simpson landed and saw before him a sandy desert. It was Back's -Point Sir C. Ogle that he had at length reached. Away in the distance -was the Great Fish River, and three days afterwards the party were -encamped on Montreal Island, where McKay led the way to the provisions -and gunpowder deposited by Back among the rocks. - -The expedition had performed its allotted task, and the men were -consulted as to whether they would continue for a short distance to the -eastward. To their honour they all assented without a murmur; but the -cruel north-east wind forbade much progress in that direction, and their -farthest east was reached at Castor and Pollux River. From there -immediate return was imperative, as not a day could be spared. And so, -from latitude 68° 28´ 23˝, longitude 94° 14´, they turned back on the -21st of August, leaving the survey of the north coast of the American -mainland practically complete from Bering Strait to Boothia. - -Further, on their return journey they crossed to the southern shore of -King William Land and traced its coast for nearly sixty miles, -discovering and naming Cape Herschel, south-eastward of which, in -Simpson Strait, M'Clintock found the remains of one of Franklin's men. -They thus linked up with what was to be the route of the Franklin -expedition and were the first to find the North-West Passage for the -command of which the territory was given by Charles II to the Hudson's -Bay Company. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - THE PARRY ISLANDS - - John Rae—Wollaston Land and Victoria Strait—Overlaps Franklin's - route—M'Clure discovers Prince of Wales Strait—The North-West - Passage—Banks Land—M'Clure rescued by Bedford Pim—Collinson's - remarkable voyage—In Beaufort Sea—Reaches Banks Strait—Voyage to - Cambridge Bay—On Franklin's route—The North-West Passage sailed - by Amundsen along the track of the _Enterprise_—Sir - John Barrow—Parry's first voyage—Penetrates Lancaster - Sound and discovers the Parry Islands—Stopped by ice in - Banks Strait—The search for Franklin—Sir John Ross—De - Haven—Penny—Austin—Ommanney—Osborn—Belcher—Kellett—M'Clintock—Drift - of the _Resolute_—Sledge work—Sverdrup's discoveries during his - four years in the north. - - -The second to complete a north-west passage by linking up with -Franklin's voyage was Dr. John Rae, an Orkneyman by birth, as energetic -as Thomas Simpson and evidently not inferior to him in stamina, for in -his Arctic journeys he walked a distance equal to that of the -circumference of the earth. In 1846 he had surveyed the Committee Bay -district between Boothia and the Melville Peninsula, reaching it from -Repulse Bay, and in 1848 and 1849 he had been associated with Richardson -in searching for Franklin along the coast from the Mackenzie eastwards. -Next year, while in charge of the Mackenzie district, he was again -requested to lead a Franklin search expedition, and, starting from Fort -Confidence on the 25th of April, was on the sea by the 1st of May. -Crossing over to Wollaston Land, and making westward along the coast on -the 22nd of May, he rounded Cape Baring, just above the seventieth -parallel. Crossing to its continuation, Victoria Land, on a second -journey, he travelled eastward, and, going up Victoria Strait, rounded -Pelly Point, also just above the seventieth parallel, on the 12th of -July, thus practically completing the survey of the southern half of -what Collinson was to prove is one large island. - -[Illustration: Yours very truly W Parry] - -Off Pelly Point, it afterwards appeared, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were -beset in the ice in September, 1846, and fifty miles to the south-east -they had been abandoned in April, 1848; but the only relic found by Rae -on this occasion was the doubtful one—picked up in Parker Bay—of the -butt-end of a flagstaff on which was nailed a piece of white line by two -copper tacks, all three bearing the Government mark. This was the first -to be found of anything that could be thought to be a trace of the -missing ships, a sort of promise of what he was to meet with four years -later; and it is worth noting that, had he not failed in getting across -the strait to King William Land, Rae would in 1850 have probably -discovered Franklin's fate. - -His farthest in these parts was passed in May, 1853, by Captain Richard -Collinson, in his sledge journey to Gateshead Island from H.M.S. -_Enterprise_, then wintering in Cambridge Bay. The _Enterprise_ and -_Investigator_ had been placed under Collinson's command and sent by way -of Cape Horn to search for Franklin from the west, the instructions -being that the ships should not part company; but regardless of this, -Commander Robert Le Mesurier M'Clure, of the _Investigator_, happening -to get through Bering Strait first, declined to wait for his commanding -officer, went off on an expedition on his own account and, by a sledge -journey, joined Parry's track when in search of the North-West Passage. - -Steering north-east from Franklin Bay, M'Clure reached the south of -Parry's Banks Land and followed the coast north-eastwards, discovering -Prince of Wales Strait and making his way rather more than half-way up, -until, near Princess Royal Island in 72° 50´, he was caught in the ice -and imprisoned for the winter. On Trafalgar Day, 1850, M'Clure left the -_Investigator_ on a sledge journey up the strait, and at sunrise on the -26th of October, from Mount Observation in 73° 30´, a hill six hundred -feet above the sea, he looked over Banks Strait and Melville Sound, and -saw the coast of Banks Land terminating about twelve miles further on -and thence trending to the north-west, while Wollaston Land, as it -proved to be, turned eastward on the other side at Peel Point. That -evening Banks Strait was reached at Cape Lord John Russell, and the -North-West Passage by Prince of Wales Strait clearly demonstrated. The -spot was not bare of vegetation, and there were many traces of animals, -for, fortunately for M'Clure, there was no scarcity of game during his -three winterings in Banks Land—reindeer in herds, musk oxen -occasionally, hares in troops, ducks in plenty, ptarmigan almost as -numerous, and bears, wolves, and foxes to feed on them; for instance, -the weights of three items in the bag, 1945 lb. of musk ox, 7716 lb. of -deer, and 1017 lb. of hare, show fairly good shooting. - -Enclosing a record of the visit in a cairn, M'Clure returned to the -ship, from which in the spring three sledge parties were sent -out—Cresswell's to the north-west finding that Banks Land was an island, -Wynniatt's to the north-east reaching Reynolds Point on the north of -Wollaston Land, and Haswell's down Wollaston Land to within forty miles -of where Rae turned back about a week later—this being the only attempt -at searching for Franklin that the expedition undertook after sighting -Nelson Head. Released in July, the _Investigator_ retreated down the -strait and attempted to circumnavigate Banks Land, finding to the west a -coast as precipitous as a wall, the water deep—fifteen fathoms close in, -with the yardarms almost touching the cliffs on one hand and the lofty -ice on the other—and the pack drawing forty feet of water, rising in -rolling hills a hundred feet from base to summit. On shore the hills -were as remarkable. Many of them were peaked and isolated by precipitous -gorges, about three hundred feet deep. And all the way up them were -numbers of fallen trees, in many places in layers, some protruding -twelve or fourteen feet, one of these trunks measuring nineteen inches -in diameter. Says M'Clure: "I entered a ravine some miles inland, and -found the north side of it, for a depth of forty feet from the surface, -composed of one mass of wood similar to what I had before seen. The -whole depth of the ravine was about two hundred feet. The ground around -the wood or trees was formed of sand and shingle; some of the wood was -petrified, the remainder very rotten and worthless even for burning." -And this forest bed is on the shore of the Beaufort Sea in 74° north -latitude, a similar one being in Prince Patrick Island, on the other -side of Banks Strait. - -After one or two narrow escapes the _Investigator_ entered her last home -at the Bay of Mercy, well within the strait, near Cape Hamilton, the -most prominent of the three capes discovered from the Dundas Peninsula -by Parry's lieutenant, Beechey, thirty-one years before. The winter -passed, and on the 11th of April M'Clure left the ship on a sledge -journey across to Parry's old quarters at Winter Harbour, which were -reached on the 28th, to find nothing but a notice of M'Clintock's having -been there in the previous June. Noticing Parry's inscription rock, -M'Clure judiciously left on it a statement that the _Investigator_ was -in want of relief at Mercy Bay. But all through that year no news from -the outside came to Banks Land, and matters became serious owing to the -appearance of scurvy, notwithstanding the abundance of fresh meat, for -even in January a herd of reindeer trotted by. - -[Illustration: THE PARRY ISLANDS] - -Another winter went wearily, each month with a gloomier outlook than the -last, and on the 5th of April the first of the scurvy patients died. -Next morning M'Clure and Haswell were walking near the ship discussing -how they could dig a grave in the frozen ground, when they noticed a man -hurriedly approaching from the entrance of the bay, throwing up his arms -and shouting at the top of his voice, his face as black as ebony. When -he came within talking range the dark-faced stranger called out, "I am -Lieutenant Pim, late of the _Herald_ and now in the _Resolute_; Captain -Kellett is in her at Dealy Island." And soon the dog-sledge with two men -came into view. Pim's arrival was most fortunate for the sufferers, for -the captain, as a desperate resource, was—in spite of the doctor's -protests—just about to send off two sledge parties of the invalids to -take their chance of escaping somehow, as there was no hope of their -recovery in the ship; and on examination by the doctor of the -_Resolute_, it was found that every man of the crew was more or less -affected by the disease. So the ship was abandoned in Mercy Bay, and the -officers and crew, crossing to the _Resolute_, reached England by way of -Hudson Strait. - -Collinson's was the most remarkable voyage ever accomplished by a -sailing-ship in the Arctic regions. It lasted from 1850 to 1855—five -years and a hundred and sixteen days—all the way out across the Atlantic -and Pacific and home again in safety, traversing a hundred and -twenty-eight degrees of longitude in the Arctic sea, coming nearest at -the time to completing the north-west passage by ship (up Prince of -Wales Strait), finding two north-west passages by sledge (one joining -with Parry's discoveries across Banks Strait, the other with Franklin's -up Victoria Strait), and approaching nearer than any other naval -expedition to the great discovery by travelling up Franklin's route for -some distance, and passing within thirty miles of the spot where the -vessels he was in search of had been abandoned, though unfortunately, -like Rae, he was on the west side of the waterway instead of the east. - -Passing Bering Strait in July, 1850, the _Enterprise_ went north from -Wainwright Inlet into the Beaufort Sea, until she was stopped by the -heavy pack. Trying east, to join with Parry's farthest, and then west, -she arrived, on the 28th of August, at 73° 23´ in 164°, and here she -turned south after having sailed over eleven thousand miles without -having to reef her topsails, an unprecedented run of distance and fine -weather combined. Returning in 1851 from wintering at Hong Kong, -Collinson, with a southerly wind "too precious to be wasted," made his -way up Prince of Wales Strait, knowing nothing of the visit of the -_Investigator_, to find ice blocking his way just at the northern -outlet, his furthest north, by ship, 73° 30´, forty miles beyond -M'Clure's winter quarters, as given in the record he found in one of the -cairns. - -Unable to round the corner into Banks Strait owing to the ice block, -Collinson returned down Prince of Wales Strait and followed the track of -the _Investigator_ half-way up the west coast of Banks Land, though he -had found nothing to indicate she had gone in that direction. Finding -the ice conditions dangerous, he retraced his route along the coast and -went into comfortable winter quarters in Walker Bay, at the entrance of -Prince of Wales Strait. By the end of November the natives fishing for -salmon-trout had cleared off, as also had the reindeer, hares, and -ptarmigan and other birds, and on the 17th of March the ravens, which -had been the last to leave, were the first to return. In April sledge -parties went out, one of which under Lieutenant Parkes crossed the route -of the _Hecla_ along the strait and reached Melville Island at Cape -Providence on the way to Winter Harbour, short of which, within sight of -Point Hearne, Parkes began his homeward journey, owing to his taking the -tracks of sledges and barking of dogs as indicating the presence, not of -M'Clure as it did, but of Eskimos, with whom, being without weapons, he -was unable to cope. - -Released on the 5th of August, the _Enterprise_ proceeded to sea, -coasting along past Rae's farthest and Cape Baring, and so, where no -ship had been, through Coronation Gulf to Cambridge Bay. Here the winter -of 1852-3 was spent, and hence the sledges went up Victoria Strait. At -Finlayson Islands, what seemed to be a piece of a companion-door was -found among the driftwood, which might have been a relic of the lost -ships; but that was all. During the return along the northern coast the -_Enterprise_ was beset in Camden Bay, and here the third winter was -passed, release not coming until the end of the following July, and -Bering Strait not being reached until the 21st of August after a voyage, -like that of the _Vega_, too well managed to yield much adventure. Like -all the other Arctic voyages of this period, it failed in the one object -it was undertaken to achieve; but in days to come the first ship to sail -the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was to follow Collinson -from Cambridge Bay along the route laboriously completed by the -surveyors of the mainland from James Cook to Dease and Simpson. - -M'Clure claimed and—to have done with the matter—obtained the reward of -£10,000 for discovering the North-West Passage through Prince of Wales -Strait, though he sailed only half-way up it and, in attempting to get -round to Parry's farthest, lost his ship and started sledging on the -west side of the pack; while Collinson took his ship much nearer to -Parry's course on the east side; and Franklin, by linking up with Dease -and Simpson over the ice by way of Victoria Strait, had previously found -another of the possible passages, as shown by Collinson's voyage to -Cambridge Bay. But surely what was done by M'Clure, and by Collinson in -his northerly cruise, was to see where ships could pass when there was -no ice in the way, which was no more than had been done by Parry, who -had taken his ship within sight of both their farthest, and would have -sailed into the Beaufort Sea had not the pack forbidden it. It was -Parry, in fact, who discovered the main road, the route by Prince of -Wales Strait, like that by Peel Sound taken by Franklin and successfully -accomplished by Amundsen, being only one of the many by-roads leading -off along his course. - -His famous voyage to Melville Island was due to the influence of Sir -John Barrow. Barrow, to whom more than any other man this country owes -its position in Arctic story, was born in a small thatched cottage at -Dragley Beck, near Ulverston, in North Lancashire, in 1764, and, in a -remarkable course of promotion by merit, became second secretary of the -Admiralty for forty years under twelve or thirteen different naval -administrations, Whig and Tory; being so unmistakably the right man in -the right place that he was only dispensed with once—on a change of -First Lords—and then was reinstated the next year. When he was seventeen -he was given the opportunity of a voyage in a Greenland whaler, which he -accepted, and that was his only Arctic experience; but even when with -Macartney in China and South Africa, he kept up his interest in the -north, and in 1817, when at the Admiralty, proposed to Lord Melville his -plan for two voyages of discovery, one to the north and the other to the -north-west, which opened the new era of Polar exploration. - -[Illustration: Yours very truly John Barrow] - -The voyage to the north was that of Buchan and Franklin in the -_Dorothea_ and _Trent_; that to the north-west was undertaken by John -Ross in the _Isabella_ and William Edward Parry in the _Alexander_. Of -this we need only say here that on their return from the north of Baffin -Bay, Ross and Parry coasted down the west side and sailed into Lancaster -Sound for a considerable distance until Ross—who seems to have had the -mountain-finding eye and an unenviable gift for missing straits—declared -that it ended in a range of mountains which he appropriately named -Croker's; and, that there should be no mistake about them, he gave a -very pretty picture of them as a full-page plate in his book. Parry, -however, saw no mountains and took the liberty of saying so to Barrow -when he reported himself at the Admiralty, the result being the despatch -of Parry's expedition in the _Hecla_ and _Griper_ which left Yarmouth on -the 12th of May, 1819, and, for the first time after leaving the coast -of Norfolk, dropped anchor in the bay named after them in Melville -Island, on the 5th of September. - -Parry, before his voyage in the _Alexander_, had had Arctic experience -while lieutenant of the _Alexandria_ frigate engaged in protecting the -Spitsbergen whale fisheries, and knew thoroughly what he was about. For -instance, he worked his crews in three watches, and had both his vessels -rigged as barques as the most convenient rig among ice, though the -_Griper_, a strong, slow gunboat, was rather too small to be so treated, -being only about half the tonnage of the _Hecla_, whose measurement was -under four hundred. Had she been a little speedier more work might have -been done; but what was done was magnificent. - -Entering Lancaster Sound, Parry found a strait not blocked by mountains -but thirty miles broad leading into a region up to then unknown, -except—so it is said—to the Norsemen. On the 12th of August Prince -Regent Inlet was discovered and named, it being George IV's birthday. -Then North Somerset was sighted and the course laid across Barrow Strait -to North Devon and its south-western peninsula known as Beechey Island; -then Wellington Channel was descried, and then Cornwallis Island. -Griffith Island was discovered on the 23rd of August, Bathurst Island on -the 25th, Byam Martin Island on the 27th, where Sabine, the astronomer -of the expedition, found they had passed north of the magnetic north -pole. Then the south side of Melville Island was coasted along, Dealy -Island being found on the 4th of September at noon, and, at a quarter -past nine at night, just after passing Bounty Cape (named in honour of -the event), the _Hecla_ crossed the 110th meridian west, and became -entitled to the Government grant of £5000 for doing so—which Parry -shared between the ships. - -[Illustration: H.M.S. "HECLA" AND "GRIPER" IN WINTER HARBOUR] - -Soon the ice became difficult and the ships had to anchor, but, the -conditions improving, the westerly voyage was resumed. Cape Providence -was passed and Cape Hay sighted, but the ships could get no further than -about half-way between these capes, and they had to return to Winter -Harbour, where, on the 26th of September, they were warped to their -quarters through a channel cut in the ice. The _Hecla_, sending down all -her upper masts except the main topmast, and the _Griper_, housing her -fore and main topmasts, used the spars to support a roof which -completely enclosed their upper decks and made them both snug for the -winter, which did not seem so long owing to the efforts of the officers -to keep every one amused and on the move. Parry, a host in himself, was -well seconded by his lieutenant, Beechey, late of the _Trent_, James -Clark Ross, one of his midshipmen, Captain Sabine, and Lieutenant -Liddon, the commander of the _Griper_, who was almost disabled with -rheumatism, and Lieutenant Hoppner, also of the _Griper_. A couple of -books of plays on board proved a real treasure; owing to them the Royal -Arctic Theatre was started, the pioneer of so many amateur theatrical -ventures in the Polar seas, and the _North Georgia Gazette_ and _Winter -Chronicle_ came into existence, the first of ship newspapers. On -Christmas Day there was a dinner of roast beef which had been on board -since May, the condition of which, as Parry said, was an excellent -testimony to the antiseptic properties of a cold atmosphere; and the -food generally was good and abundant, and the management and supplies -far better than on many subsequent expeditions. In the spring, game was -found in fair quantity, nearly four thousand pounds of musk ox, deer, -hares, geese, ducks, and ptarmigan being brought on board. - -In May the vessels were afloat again, though ice-bound, and, in June, -walking, not sledging, journeys were organised, the furthest points -reached being Cape Fisher to the north and Cape Hoppner to the west. On -the 1st of August the vessels moved out of the bay to the westward, and -six days afterwards Beechey called attention to the land with the three -capes already mentioned. "The land," says Parry, "which extends beyond -the 117th degree of west longitude, and is the most western yet -discovered in the Polar Sea to the north of the American continent, was -honoured with the name of Banks Land out of respect to the late -venerable and worthy President of the Royal Society." - -On the 16th Cape Dundas was named, but progress was impossible. For a -week Parry made every endeavour to pass, but the floes, forty to fifty -feet thick, heaped up by the tides from the east and the west so as to -form a wide-stretching landscape of hill and dale, barred the way right -across Banks Strait; and no further west could be attained than 113° 46´ -43·5˝, in latitude 74° 26´ 25˝. Thence Parry returned, hoping to get -through on another voyage, and bidding farewell to the North Georgian -Islands, as he called them, or the Parry Islands, as we now know them, -he came home by the way he went out, through Lancaster Sound. Needless -to say, the very next season the whalers followed on Parry's track, and -Lancaster Sound became the highway to a very profitable fishing-ground. - -[Illustration: PARRY'S DISCOVERIES ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE] - -Among the Parry Islands in 1851 were several vessels in search of -Franklin. Sir John Ross, aged seventy-four, was there in the -schooner-yacht _Felix_ on a private expedition chiefly memorable for the -story of his having sent off a carrier pigeon from his winter quarters -at Cornwallis Island, which reached his home—North-West Castle, -Stranraer, Wigtownshire—three thousand miles away, in five days. Lady -Franklin's vessel, the _Prince Albert_, was there, with Captain Forsyth -and Parker Snow on board, an old fruit schooner, and therefore the -speediest sailing-craft among the crowd. The Grinnell expedition of the -two American brigs, _Advance_ and _Racer_, under De Haven, was also -there, to drift afterwards up Wellington Channel and down again back -into Baffin Bay; as was a British Government expedition of the two -whaling brigs, _Lady Franklin_ and _Sophia_, under Captain William -Penny, who was to discover the sea open north of Wellington Channel. In -addition to these was the British squadron under Captain Horatio Austin -in H.M.S. _Resolute_, with H.M.S. _Assistance_, Captain Erasmus -Ommanney, and the old Cattle Conveyance Company's boats known as H.M.S. -_Intrepid_, Lieutenant Cator, and H.M.S. _Pioneer_, Lieutenant Sherard -Osborn, these two being screw steamers used as tenders, which proved of -great value as tugs and ice-breakers. - -On the 23rd of August Captain Ommanney found Franklin's winter quarters -on Beechey Island, and four days afterwards Captain Penny came upon the -gravestones marking where the three men, two of the _Erebus_ and one of -the _Terror_, had been buried in 1846, though nothing was discoverable -of the route intended to be taken by the ships. The news was important, -and the _Prince Albert_, acting as despatch vessel, was immediately sent -home with it, to return next year with Kennedy and Bellot to make a -discovery of her own. Soon Captain Austin's four ships departed, also to -return in the following year, Sir Edward Belcher, in the _Assistance_, -being then in command, Kellett being in the _Resolute_, M'Clintock in -the _Intrepid_, and Sherard Osborn again in the _Pioneer_. Belcher's -attempt ended in his abandoning his vessels in the ice; one of them, the -_Resolute_, as though in mute protest, drifting from 74° 41´ for a -thousand miles, to be picked up by Buddington off Cape Dyer in Baffin -Bay, bought from him by the American Government and presented to Great -Britain, refitted as she used to be, as a much-appreciated token of -goodwill. - -The great feature of these years was the wonderful sledge work; by it -mainly the northern coasts of the islands discovered by Parry were -surveyed and other islands added to the archipelago, including the -westernmost, Prince Patrick, named after the Duke of Connaught, who was -at first known as Prince Patrick instead of Prince Arthur. The sledges -fitted out by Austin traversed 1500 miles of coast-line, 850 of which -were new, the routes radiating between Osborn's 72° 18´ and Bradford's -76° 25´, M'Clintock going farthest, 760 miles, to 114° 20´ in 74° 38´. -Those next year from Kellett at Dealy Island covered 8558 miles, -radiating from Pim's 74° 6´ (to rescue M'Clure) to M'Clintock's 77° 23´, -a run to 118° 20´ and back of 1401 miles, while Mecham reached 120° 30´ -on a trip of 1163 miles; and Belcher from his winter quarters in -Northumberland Sound, in 76° 52´, aided by Richards and Osborn, was -almost as busy further north. - -Thus practically the whole belt of land and sea westward between and -including Lancaster Sound and Jones Sound as far as 120° was searched -and mapped, the most northerly of the Parry Islands known up to then -being Finlay Island, North Cornwall, and Graham Island. But in 1898 -Captain Otto Sverdrup went up Smith Sound in his old ship the _Fram_ on -an endeavour to sail round the north coast of Greenland from west to -east. He had to winter in Rice Strait, near Pim Island, and finding, to -put it sportingly, that he was to a certain extent trespassing on -Peary's preserves, decided to devote his attention to the unknown region -approachable through Jones Sound. In 1899, therefore, he took the _Fram_ -up the sound, and, failing to pass through Cardigan Strait, spent the -three following years among the fiords at the north-western end. - -From here he sent his sledge and ski parties far and wide, west and -south and north over an approximate area of a hundred thousand square -miles. Long stretches of coast-fine were explored and named, in a few -cases unnecessarily, though, strange to say, the unnecessary names were -all royal ones, King Oscar Land being the west of Ellesmere Land, Crown -Prince Gustav Sea and Prince Gustav Adolf Sea being the Polar Ocean, and -King Christian Land being simply Finlay Island. Separated from Finlay -Island by Danish Sound and from North Cornwall by Hendriksen Sound, he -found two large islands, which—just as John Ross named Boothia after his -principal patron, the distiller—Sverdrup named Ellef Ringnes and Amund -Ringnes after two of his supporters, the brewers; his other discovery, -Axel Heiberg Land—which seems to be Peary's Jesup Land sighted in -1898—to the west and north-west of these, being so called after his -other munificent patron. - -His farthest south was Beechey Island, his farthest west Cape Isachsen -in Ellef Ringnes Land, his farthest north Lands Lokk in Grant Land, in -latitude 81° 40´ and longitude about 92°, within sixty miles of -Aldrich's farthest along the north-eastern coast, the gap afterwards -traversed by Peary. Within these limits the amount of coast detail -filled in was remarkable. Owing to the favourable condition of the ice -and the excellent management in all ways, the sledges frequently did -their fifteen miles and more a day. Though the expedition lost its -doctor during the first winter, there was little trouble as regards -health; and game was in plenty right up to the far north where Hare -Fiord tells of hares in hundreds. - -With hunting episodes the story is pleasantly varied, one in particular -being so graphically described by Sverdrup that as a sample we may be -forgiven a rather long quotation. "The bear," says Sverdrup, "was -determined to go up a difficult stony valley a little north of our tent, -and, try as the dogs would to prevent it, up the valley it went. Schei -and I ran full speed northward along the ice-foot, and soon heard that -the dogs had brought it to bay. We made a short cut across some hills of -grit, and, when we reached the top of one of them, saw the bear on the -other side of the valley, sitting on a hill-top, which fell almost sheer -away. But on the north side it was accessible, and here it was probably -that the bear had climbed it. There sat the king of the icefields -enthroned on a kind of pedestal, and the whole staff of yelping dogs -standing at a respectful distance. I tried a couple of shots, but -overrated the distance, and the bullets went over the bear's head. I -then told Schei to go and shoot it whilst I looked on at the further -development of the drama. The bear's position was a first-rate one. It -had taken its stand on a little plateau high up on a mountain crag; this -little ledge was reached by a bridge not more than a good yard in width, -and there stood the bear, like Sven Dufva, ready with his sledgehammer -to fell the first being that should venture across. His majesty was not -visible to Schei until he came within a few feet of him, but then it was -not long before a shot was heard. The bear sank together, and a few -seconds afterwards all the dogs had thrown themselves on to it. They -tugged and pulled at the bear's coat, tearing tufts of hair out of it, -and before we knew what they were doing, had dragged the body to the -edge of the plateau, where it shot out over the precipice. The dogs -stood amazed, gazing down into the depths where the bear was falling -swiftly through the air—but not alone, for on it as large as life were -two dogs which had clung so fast to its hair, that they now stood -planted head to head, and bit themselves still faster to it in order to -keep their balance. I was breathless as I watched this unexpected -journey through the air. The next moment the bear in its perpendicular -fall would reach the projecting point of rock, and my poor dogs!—it was -a cruel revenge the bear was taking on them. I should now have only -three dogs left in my team. The bear's body dashed violently against the -rock, turned a somersault out from the mountain wall and fell still -further, until, after falling a height of altogether at least a hundred -feet, it reached the slopes by the river, and was shot by the impetus -right across the river-ice and a good way up the other side. And the -dogs? When the bear dashed against the mountain they sprang up like -rubber balls, described a large curve, and with stiffened legs continued -the journey on their own account, falling with a loud thud on to the -hardly packed snow at the bottom of the valley. But they were on their -legs again in a moment, and set off as fast as they could go across the -river after the bear. Not many minutes afterwards the whole pack came -running up, but when they were driven away from the carcase, they lay -down again to await their turn. I hurried back to camp to fetch the dog -harness; we put a lanyard through the nose of the mighty fallen, and set -off. The dogs knew well enough that this meant food for them, and the -nearer we came to camp the harder they pulled. In fact, I had to sit on -the carcase to keep them back, and, jolting backwards and forwards, on -this new kind of conveyance I made my entrance into camp, in the light -spring night." But bears were few, compared with the musk oxen, which, -with the reindeer and hares, and with the wolves and foxes, and stoats -and lemmings, seals and walruses, narwhals and white whales, represented -the Arctic mammalia. - -The most singular experience met with was perhaps the sledge journey -through the ice tunnel on the return across the Simmons Peninsula in -1900. Descending a valley which became narrower and narrower Sverdrup -and Fosheim began to think it was going to end in a canyon, but without -any warning they were stopped by a high wall of ice, perpendicular and -inaccessible to any one without wings. Looking about, Sverdrup found a -large hole which proved to be the beginning of a tunnel through the -glacier. Through this lofty vault they sped. From the roof hung -threateningly above their heads gigantic blocks of ice, seamed and cleft -and glittering sinisterly; and all around were icicles like steel-bright -spears and lances piercing downwards on them. Along the walls were caves -after caves, with pillars in rows like giants in rank; and over all -shone a ghostly whitish light which became bluish as they went. "I dared -not speak," says Sverdrup. "It seemed to me that in doing so I should be -committing a deed of desecration; I felt like one who has impiously -broken into something sacred which Nature had wished to keep closed to -every mortal eye. I felt mean and contemptible as I drove through all -this purity. The sledges jolted from block to block, awakening -thunderous echoes in their passage: and it seemed as if all the spirits -of the ice had been aroused and called to arms against the intruders on -their church-like peace." - - - - - CHAPTER X - BOOTHIA - - Christopher Middleton—Wager River—Repulse Bay—Parry's second - north-west voyage—Melville Peninsula—Fury and Hecla Strait—John - Ross's second Arctic voyage—Introduces steam navigation into the - Arctic regions—The whaler _John_—Ross misses the North-West - Passage—Snow houses—Eskimo geographers—James Clark Ross finds the - Magnetic North Pole—Lyon in the _Griper_—Back in the - _Terror_—Rae's journey round Committee Bay—Sir John Franklin's - last voyage—Kennedy and Bellot—Discovery of Bellot Strait—Rae's - journey in 1854—His Franklin discoveries—M'Clintock's voyage in - the _Fox_—Lady Franklin's instructions—Captain Charles - Hall—Frederick Schwatka—Amundsen accomplishes the North-West - Passage. - - -In July, 1742, Christopher Middleton, working northwards in Hudson Bay -from Fort Churchill, made his way up Rowe's Welcome and entered a deep -inlet apparently leading to the South Sea. Middleton—who gained his -Fellowship of the Royal Society for his variation observations at Fort -Churchill, and was the first to practise the modern method of finding -longitude by eight or ten different altitudes of the sun or stars when -near the prime vertical—spent eighteen days in the inlet observing the -tides, and then came to the conclusion that it was an estuary; and he -named it Wager River after Sir Charles Wager, who was First Lord of the -Admiralty when he began his voyage. Proceeding north, he reached his -Repulse Bay, and at the north-east end of it saw Frozen Strait, as he -called it, stretching away along the north of Southampton Island towards -Cape Comfort. Here, also from tidal observations, he satisfied himself -that Repulse Bay afforded no passage to the westward and that Frozen -Strait led into Fox Channel. - -[Illustration: AN IGLOOLIK ESKIMO CARRYING HIS KAYAK] - -His opinions were disputed by those who only knew the coast from his -chart, and two vessels were sent out to prove he was wrong. The reports -of the captains of these—there is no need to mention their names—were -embarrassing. Neither had been to Repulse Bay, but both had been to -Wager River, and they agreed that it was unmistakably a river and not a -strait; but in every other respect, even in naming the places they had -seen, they were at variance. Thus the matter was left in sufficient -doubt to encourage some people in believing in a north-west passage -through Repulse Bay, just at the Arctic Circle, and to seek this, Parry, -on his return from Melville Island, was despatched on his second voyage. - -This time the _Hecla_ was commanded by George Francis Lyon—the North -African traveller—Parry being in the _Fury_, a sister ship; both -vessels, at Parry's suggestion, being exactly alike so that their gear -and fittings were interchangeable. They sailed from the Little Nore on -the 8th of May, 1821, and going direct up Frozen Strait, with much -trouble from the ice, ran into Repulse Bay on the 22nd of August. Here -after a careful examination it was ascertained beyond a doubt that no -passage existed through to the westward. "Thus," says Lyon, "the -veracity of poor Middleton, as far as regards this bay at least, was now -at length established; and in looking down the strait we had passed, he -was fully justified in calling it a frozen strait. We were now -indisputably on our scene of future action, the coast of America; and it -only remained for us to follow minutely the line of shore in -continuation from Repulse Bay." - -During a stay at Gore Bay red snow was brought off to the _Fury_, its -colour being much fainter than that found in the _Isabella_ voyage at -Crimson Cliffs in Greenland; "the appearance of the mass was not unlike -what is called raspberry ice, in a far better climate, where cold is -made subservient to luxury." The colouring of this is due to one of the -Algæ, _Protococcus nivalis_, and not as Peter Paterson said in -1671—ninety years before De Saussure—to the rocks being "full of white, -red, and yellow veins, like marble; upon any alteration of the weather, -these stones sweat, which, together with the rains, tinges the snow -red." The day on which this snow was found, the 30th of August, was so -warm that the party were glad to pull off their coats and waistcoats. -"The valleys were fertile in grasses and moss; and the fineness of the -weather had drawn forth a number of butterflies, spiders, and other -insects, which would, by their gay colours and active motions, have -almost deceived us into an idea that we were not in the Arctic regions, -had not the Frozen Strait, filled with huge masses of moving ice, -reminded us but too forcibly, that we were in the most dangerous of -them." - -[Illustration: PARRY'S FARTHEST ON HIS THIRD VOYAGE] - -Early in October the ships took up their quarters at Winter Island on -the coast of Melville Peninsula in 66° 32´, and there, during the -cordial intercourse with the Eskimos, Parry heard of the way through -further north which led him on his release in the following July to -discover Fury and Hecla Strait, along which the ships passed to find -their progress blocked by the ice just beyond its entrance into Regent -Inlet. Returning through the strait, they reached the island of Igloolik -at the eastern entrance, and there they passed the winter, Igloolik -being an important Eskimo settlement, with four fixed places of -residence on it, to which as the season changes the natives move in -rotation. From this island, as the health of the men did not permit of -his venturing to spend another winter in the ice, Parry retraced his -route and returned to England. - -The ships dropped anchor in the Thames on Trafalgar Day, 1823. Next -year, on the 19th of May, they were off again to the north to seek a -passage to the west down Prince Regent Inlet, Parry in the _Hecla_, -Hoppner in the _Fury_. It was a bad season. The ships were late in -leaving Baffin Bay and were hindered by new ice in Lancaster Sound. So -far from reaching the strait discovered two years before, they could get -no further south than Port Bowen, in 73° 12´, where they spent the -winter in a singularly barren part of Cockburn Land. Starting in July -they went down to Cresswell Bay, the ships being forced by the weather -and the ice to work—as is not unusual under such circumstances—in almost -every possible direction within every mile, their track—as shown in the -illustration—being most complicated. The end of it all was that the -_Fury_ was wrecked and her stores carefully taken out and left, on what -was named Fury Beach, for the use of future callers in want of them. And -the _Hecla_ came home alone. - -Four years afterwards Captain John Ross, anxious for further work in the -north, started in search of the passage by the same route. After some -years of effort he had succeeded in organising an expedition, the -expenses of which to the amount of over £17,000 were borne by Felix -Booth, with the exception of over £2000 added by Ross himself. It was a -memorable voyage in many respects, and for one thing in particular that -is frequently passed unnoticed. This was the introduction of steam into -Arctic navigation. The _Victory_ was an old Isle of Man packet-boat of -eighty-five tons, which, by raising her sides five feet, Ross increased -to one hundred and fifty tons. Taking out her old paddles, he replaced -them with a pair of Robertson's patents, hoistable out of water in a -minute, so as to clear the ice. The engine was also a patent, by -Braithwaite and Ericsson, who built the Novelty that appeared at -Rainhill. But neither Braithwaite nor Ericsson was any happier in this -production. Its great feature was the doing away with the funnel, no -flue being required owing to the fires being kept going by artificial -draught derived from two bellows of unequal sizes—"the bellows draught," -in fact, like that of the Novelty which broke down in the great -locomotive contest won by the Rocket. Had not Ross been a man of -enterprise he would never have ventured to sea with such an experimental -arrangement; but he did, and he suffered for it. - -[Illustration: THE "VICTORY"] - -The "execrable machinery," as he inadequately called it, went wrong from -the first. On the way from Galleons Reach to Woolwich, part of it became -displaced, causing a delay for repairs. At Woolwich, Sir Byam Martin, -the Comptroller of the Navy, and Sir John Franklin went on board and -said uncomplimentary things about it, as also did the Duke of Orleans -(afterwards King Louis Philippe) and the Duke of Chartres, though the -Frenchmen were more gentle in their phrases. From Woolwich to Margate -this remarkable engine, aided by the sails, took the _Victory_ in just -over twelve hours, the boiler leaking so much that the additional -forcing pump had to be kept working by hand all the time. Passing the -Lizard, the piston-rod was found to be so much worn on one side by -friction against the guide-wheels that a piece of iron had to be brazed -on to it. Then the keys of the main shaft broke and the substitutes made -on board broke one after the other. "The boilers also continued to leak, -though we had put dung and potatoes in them by Mr. Ericsson's -directions." The air-pump drew quantities of water; the feeding pump was -insufficient to supply the boiler. The big bellows nearly wore out; so -did the small one. Off the Mull of Galloway the stoker fell into the -machinery and had his arm crushed and nearly severed above the elbow. -Then the teeth of the fly-wheel of the small bellows were shorn off, and -the boiler joints gave way, and the water, or rather the potato soup, -flowed out of the furnace doors and put out the fire. - -Enough has been said to show the difficulties under which Ross first -used steam on a voyage to the northern seas. The list of damages need -not be continued. Every constituent part of the apparatus gave way in -turn; and when the _Victory_ became imprisoned for the winter, and the -engineering staff had some time on their hands, they employed it in -taking what was left of the installation, piece by piece, out of the -ship, laying it on the ice, and leaving it there. - -Ross was to be accompanied by the whaler _John_, but the men mutinied -and refused to start, so that he went on from Loch Ryan alone. The -following year the crew of the _John_, then on a whaling voyage in -Baffin Bay, again mutinied, killed the master, put the mate adrift in a -boat in the manner of Henry Hudson, and lost the ship on the western -coast, where most of them were drowned. - -With the _Krusenstern_, a boat of eighteen tons, in tow, Ross crossed -the Atlantic, sighting Sanderson's Hope on the 29th of July, having left -Scotland six weeks before. Early in August he sailed through Lancaster -Sound, and, taking the opportunity of removing his Croker's Mountains to -the north-east corner of North Somerset, went down Prince Regent Inlet -to Fury Beach. After completing his provisions for twenty-seven months -from the stores left behind by Parry, he crossed Cresswell Bay, passed -Cape Garry, Parry's farthest south, on the 15th of August, and next day, -Sunday, "I went on shore," he says, "with all the officers, to take -formal possession of the new-discovered land; and at one o'clock, being -a few minutes after seven in London, the colours were displayed with the -usual ceremony, and the health of the King drunk, together with that of -the founder of our expedition, after whom the land was named." - -[Illustration: NORTH HENDON] - -"From the highest part of this land, which was upwards of a hundred feet -above the level of the sea," he continues, "we had a good view of the -bay and the adjoining shores, and had the satisfaction to find that the -ice was in motion and fast clearing away. We therefore resolved to wait -patiently till we could see an opening; and proceeded to the northern -quarter of this spot to make some observations on the dip of the -magnetic needle.... To this place I gave the name Brown Island, after -the amiable sister of Mr. Booth; the inlet was named Brentford Bay, and -the islands Grimble Islands." And in his book is a beautiful steel -engraving by W. Chevalier, "Taking Possession. Cape Hussard, Grimble -Isle, Brentford Bay, Brown's Island." In short, Ross found the place, -landed on it, took possession of it, named it and sketched it. "The -sketches from which the drawings were made were taken by Mr. Ronald's -invaluable perspective instrument, and therefore _must_ be true -delineations." - -And Ross passed on, apparently quite pleased with himself. But the Fates -had again been against him, for this was the very North-West Passage he -had come specially to find; the bay, as Kennedy was to show, being the -entrance to Bellot Strait in which the _Fox_ was to winter when on the -Franklin search. He had blundered along from the island of North -Somerset to the mainland of America, and passed unheeded its -northernmost point, which M'Clintock was to name Cape Murchison. - -Working down the coast of the newly-named Boothia, the _Victory_ reached -Felix Harbour, and there she wintered. No Eskimos were seen until the -9th of January, when thirty-one came to the ship and were invited on -board, a return visit being paid next day to their village, which Ross -named North Hendon. As this was a typical Eskimo snow camp we may as -well copy his picture and quote his description. - -"The village soon appeared, consisting of twelve snow huts, erected at -the bottom of a little bight on the shore, about two miles and a half -from the ship. They had the appearance of inverted basins, and were -placed without any order; each of them having a long crooked appendage, -in which was the passage, at the entrance of which were the women, with -the female children and the infants. We were soon invited to visit -these, for whom we had prepared presents of glass beads and needles; a -distribution of which soon drove away the timidity which they had -displayed at our first appearance. The passage, always long, and -generally crooked, led to the principal apartment, which was a circular -dome, being ten feet in diameter when intended for one family, and an -oval of fifteen by ten where it lodged two. Opposite the doorway there -was a bank of snow, occupying nearly a third of the breadth of the area, -about two feet and a half high, level at the top, and covered by various -skins, forming the general bed or sleeping place for the whole. At the -end of this sat the mistress of the house, opposite to the lamp, which, -being of moss and oil, as is the universal custom in these regions, gave -a sufficient flame to supply both light and heat; so that the apartment -was perfectly comfortable. Over the lamp was the cooking dish of stone, -containing the flesh of deer and of seals, with oil; and of such -provision there seemed no want. Everything else, dresses, implements, as -well as provisions, lay about in unspeakable confusion, showing that -order, at least, was not in the class of their virtues. It was much more -interesting to us to find, that among this disorder there were some -fresh salmon; since, when they could find this fish, we were sure that -it would also furnish us with supplies which we could not too much -multiply. On inquiry, we were informed that they were abundant; and we -had, therefore, the prospect of a new amusement, as well as of a -valuable market at the mere price of our labour." - -[Illustration: ESKIMO LISTENING AT A SEAL-HOLE] - -A few weeks later Ross was to see how these houses were built. "Four -families," he says, "comprising fifteen persons, passed the ship to -erect new huts about half a mile to the southward. They had four -heavy-laden sledges, drawn each by two or three dogs, but proceeded very -slowly. We went after them to see the process of building the snow -house, and were surprised at their dexterity; one man having closed in -his roof within forty-five minutes. A tent is scarcely pitched sooner -than a house is here built. The whole process is worth describing. -Having ascertained, by the rod used in examining seal holes, whether the -snow is sufficiently deep and solid, they level the intended spot by a -wooden shovel, leaving beneath a solid mass of snow not less than three -feet thick. Commencing then in the centre of the intended circle, which -is ten feet or more in diameter, different wedge-shaped blocks are cut -out, about two feet long, and a foot thick at the outer part; then -trimming them accurately by the knife, they proceed upwards until the -courses, gradually inclining inwards, terminate in a perfect dome. The -door being cut out from the inside before it is quite closed serves to -supply the upper materials. In the meantime the women are employed in -stuffing the joints with snow, and the boys in constructing kennels for -the dogs. The laying the snow sofa with skins and the insertion of the -ice window complete the work; the passage only remaining to be added, as -it is after the house is finished, together with some smaller huts for -stores"—the design being similar to that of the yurts of the Eskimos of -the north, with a change of material, snow for stone, and ice instead of -seal-gut for the window over the entrance. - -Making friends with the Eskimos, and gaining a great reputation by the -carpenter fitting one of them with a wooden leg, Ross obtained much -valuable information from them, particularly as to the geography of the -district. Like all Arctic men, he was impressed by their quickness in -understanding maps and their skill in drawing them upon anything, snow, -paper, or otherwise, that lay handy. One of them, Ikmallik, drew in the -ship's cabin a map, which he reprints in his book, showing the -coast-line of the country south of the _Victory's_ quarters, with the -capes, inlets, and islands, giving the isthmus of Boothia and Committee -Bay, and Repulse Bay on the other side of the Melville Peninsula, which -is really wonderful, for neither the Eskimo, nor Ross, had anything to -copy from, it being nearly twenty years before Rae's exploration; and -the one thing it clearly demonstrated was that there was no waterway to -the westward, south of Felix Harbour. - -Ross owed much to Ikmallik, and really a good deal of the time of the -expedition was spent in confirming the statements of that well-informed -man. The west coast of Boothia was surveyed down to Bulow Bay; the east -side from Cape Nicholas down to Cape Porter, including the crossing of -the upper part of James Ross Strait, the discovery of Matty Island and -the north-east coast of King William Land from Cape Landon, opposite -Cape Porter—where Ross, as usual, missed a strait—westward to capes -Franklin and Jane Franklin, within sight of which in the days that were -coming, by one of those remarkable coincidences so frequent in the -north, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were to meet their fate. - -The one conspicuous triumph of the expedition was the journey of James -Ross to the site of the Magnetic North Pole, which he found on the -western coast of Boothia on the 1st of June, 1831. In the younger Ross's -own words, "the land at this place is very low near the coast, but it -rises into ridges of fifty or sixty feet high about a mile inland. We -could have wished that a place so important had possessed more of mark -or note. It was scarcely censurable to regret that there was not a -mountain to indicate a spot to which so much of interest must ever be -attached; and I could even have pardoned any one among us who had been -so romantic or absurd as to expect that the magnetic pole was an object -as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad, that it -even was a mountain of iron, or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc. But -Nature had here erected no monument to denote the spot which she had -chosen as the centre of one of her great and dark powers; and where we -could do little ourselves towards this end, it was our business to -submit, and to be content in noting by mathematical numbers and signs, -as with things of far more importance in the terrestrial system, what we -could but ill distinguish in any other manner.... We fixed the British -flag on the spot and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its -adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William the -Fourth. We had abundance of materials for building, in the fragments of -limestone that covered the beach; and we therefore erected a cairn of -some magnitude, under which we buried a canister containing a record of -the interesting fact; only regretting that we had not the means of -constructing a pyramid of more importance and of strength sufficient to -withstand the assaults of time and of the Eskimos. Had it been a pyramid -as large as that of Cheops, I am not quite sure that it would have done -more than satisfy our ambition, under the feelings of that exciting day. -The latitude of this spot is 70° 5´ 17˝, and its longitude 96° 46´ 45˝ -west." - -The _Victory_ in the short summer of 1830 sailed a few miles further -south and spent the winter in Victoria Harbour, to be there abandoned in -May, 1832. Ross in his boats made for Fury Beach, where, at Somerset -House, as he called it, he passed the following winter. On the 26th of -August, 1833, when in his boats off the eastern mouth of Lancaster -Sound, he was picked up by the _Isabella_, his old ship, and in her he -reached the Humber in October of that year after four successive winters -in the ice, having been enabled to make so long a stay by his fortunate -find of the stores left by Parry. - -[Illustration: H.M.S. "TERROR" LIFTED BY ICE] - -In 1824 Captain Lyon was sent out in the _Griper_ to winter at Repulse -Bay, and thence crossing the isthmus described by the Eskimos continue -along to Franklin's Point Turnagain; but the _Griper_ was nearly wrecked -in Rowe's Welcome and did not reach Wager River. The discoveries of Ross -led to the renewal of this attempt by Captain Back in the _Terror_ in -1836. He was to go to Wager River or Repulse Bay, and then make his way -into Prince Regent Inlet, and so west; but he became imprisoned in the -ice off Cape Comfort during one of the severest winters known. Drifting -up Frozen Strait amid most perilous experiences, the ship, lifted high -above sea-level by pressure, lay at times almost horizontal. Once "they -beheld," he says, "the strange and appalling spectacle of what may be -fitly termed a submerged berg, fixed low down, with one end to the -ship's side, while the other, with the purchase of a long lever -advantageously placed at a right angle with the keel, was slowly rising -towards the surface. Meanwhile, those who happened to be below, finding -everything falling, rushed or clambered on deck, where they saw the ship -on her beam-ends, with the lee boats touching the water, and felt that a -few moments only trembled between them and eternity." - -Day after day the _Terror_ defied the persistent effort of the ice to -smash her, but suffering much in almost every timber she withstood it -sufficiently to keep together. For four months she was entirely out of -water, and when at last she was free, Back wrapped her up as best he -could, and brought her home with the water pouring into her so that the -men were so wearied out that they could hardly have continued at the -pumps another day; and he ran her ashore in Lough Swilly only just in -time. Upwards of twenty feet of her keel, together with ten feet of the -stern-post, were driven over more than three and a half feet on one -side, leaving a frightful opening astern for the free ingress of water. -The forefoot was entirely gone; numbers of bolts were either loosened or -broken; and when, besides this, the strained and twisted state of the -ship's frame was considered, there was not one on board who did not -express astonishment that they had ever floated across the Atlantic. - -The next attempt to complete the coast of the American mainland was made -from the land, and at the cost of the Hudson's Bay Company. Really it -was the expedition proposed by Simpson some five years before, of which -he would have been the leader had he not been shot; and it was entrusted -to the capable hands of Dr. John Rae. - -After wintering at York Factory, Rae reached Repulse Bay with two boats, -the _Magnet_ and _North Pole_, on the 25th of July, 1846, and in his -usual style started immediately across the chain of lakes and portages -which make up the isthmus that now bears his name, launching his boats -in the tidal water of Committee Bay on the 1st of August. Stopped by ice -on the west side and then on the east he returned to Repulse Bay, where -he built Fort Hope of stones and roofed it with sails, and lived in it -through the winter on what he could shoot and catch, for many weeks -venturing on only one meal a day. Outside the men kept themselves warm -chiefly by building snow houses and playing football; inside, as the -only fuel used was for cooking, the only thing they could do was to wrap -themselves in furs, and trust to their natural heat in a temperature -that ranged about zero. - -[Illustration: FRACTURED STERN-POST OF H.M.S. "TERROR"] - -In April, with a couple of sledges, eight dogs, and five men, he crossed -the isthmus again and went straightaway up the east side of Boothia to -Ross's farthest south, thus completing that coast-line. Back he went to -Fort Hope after a trip of nearly six hundred miles, to start again on -the 12th of May up the west coast of the Melville Peninsula to Cape -Ellice, which Parry had sighted from the strait on that side. And he was -back once more at Fort Hope on the 9th of June. Thus the survey of the -northern coast was complete with the exception of the gap between the -Boothia isthmus, on the west side, and Castor and Pollux River of Dease -and Simpson, which Rae in another famous effort from Repulse Bay was to -link up later on. - -When Rae reached Lord Mayor's Bay on the east coast of Boothia, -Franklin, with the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, was off its west coast in the -same latitude. This was the reappearance of the _Terror_ in the north. -After Back's voyage she had been repaired to sail with the _Erebus_, -under Sir James Clark Ross, when he discovered the South Magnetic Pole; -and on their return the barques had been thoroughly overhauled and -fitted with auxiliary screws, the first time that the screw propeller -was used in Arctic work. Franklin was in the _Erebus_, the _Terror_ -being commanded by Francis R. M. Crozier as she had been in the -Antarctic voyage. Crozier was one of Parry's men, he having been in the -_Fury_ in 1821 and in the _Hecla_ on her two subsequent expeditions. - -The ships left England on the 19th of May, 1845, and were last seen and -spoken with on the 26th of July in Melville Bay on their way to -Lancaster Sound. According to information gained during the long series -of searches, they passed through the sound and went north for about a -hundred and fifty miles, to 77°, up Wellington Channel into Penny -Strait—the first time the passage had been made. Returning down the west -side of Cornwallis Island, discovering the strait between it and -Bathurst Island, they wintered at Beechey Island, where three of the men -died and were buried; and where the most significant relic was about -seven hundred tins of preserved meat that seemed to have been condemned -as bad, just as the stock of similar stuff had in the same year been -condemned and thrown overboard at Portsmouth. - -Leaving Beechey Island in 1846, they went south down Peel Sound, being -the first to pass through it, and Franklin Strait—another new -discovery—to within twelve miles of Cape Felix in King William Land, -where, on the 12th of September, they were beset about half-way between -Cape Adelaide in Boothia and Pelly Point in Victoria Land. Hereabouts -the second winter was passed, and on the 24th of May a party under -Lieutenant Gore crossed the ice to Point Victory, probably on a journey -to examine the unknown coast between there and Cape Herschel. On the -11th of June, 1847, Sir John Franklin died. The ships drifted a short -distance during their imprisonment in the ice, and the third winter was -passed some twenty miles further south down Victoria Strait, where, on -the 22nd of April, 1848, when fifteen miles north-north-west of Point -Victory, they were abandoned, and the officers and crews, a hundred and -five in all, under Crozier's command, started for Back's Great Fish -River, some of them completing the first North-West Passage in crossing -Simpson Strait and reaching Montreal Island. - -The first undoubted traces of the lost expedition were those discovered -at Beechey Island, the news reaching England in the _Prince Albert_ in -the autumn of 1850. As soon as the winter was over this excellent little -schooner was again sent out by Lady Franklin under the command of -Captain William Kennedy, who took with him as a volunteer Lieutenant -Joseph René Bellot of the French navy, and also John Hepburn, who had -been with Franklin on the land journey in 1819. Kennedy wintered at -Batty Bay in North Somerset, and during a remarkable sledge journey, in -which he made the circuit of the island, he and Bellot reached Brentford -Bay, and, on the 21st of April, 1852, discovered the strait named after -the gallant Frenchman. But he found no traces of the expedition through -turning to the north and crossing to Prince of Wales Island, instead of -going to the south at the western mouth of the strait. He had, however, -discovered the termination of Boothia, the north point of the American -continent which men had been seeking for three centuries. - -To the southern end of Boothia came the indefatigable Rae. That cheery -hero of the north left Repulse Bay on the 31st of March, 1854, to -complete the Hudson's Bay Company's survey. On the 20th of April he met -a young Eskimo in Pelly Bay, who told him the fate of the _Erebus_ and -_Terror_, and from him and his people Rae obtained a number of small -articles, forks and spoons and so forth, which had undoubtedly come from -the ships, one of which had been crushed in the ice, the other sinking -after drifting further south. - -Rae was not the man to return until he had attacked the work he had set -out to do, and he continued his surveying with his customary accuracy, -despatch, and general alertness, striking across the peninsula, -discovering the Murchison River, reaching Simpson's farthest at Castor -and Pollux River, and thence proving the insularity of King William Land -by travelling up the east coast of the strait now named after him—and he -was back again in August. He had almost finished the survey of the -northern coast-line; and he had ascertained how and where Franklin's -voyage had ended, for which discovery the British Government gave him -the reward of £10,000, letting it be understood that so far as they were -concerned the Franklin searches were at an end. - -But Lady Franklin thought one more effort should be made to unravel the -mystery of her husband's fate, and there were many who thought the same. -Helped to a certain extent by a public subscription, she organised -another expedition. The steam-yacht _Fox_ was bought from the executors -of Sir Richard Sutton and altered for Arctic work by her builders, the -Halls of Aberdeen clipper fame. As leader went Captain, afterwards Sir, -Frederick Leopold M'Clintock, who had done such brilliant sledge-work in -the north; like his second in command, Lieutenant W. R. Hobson, he gave -his services gratuitously, as also did Dr. David Walker and Captain, -afterwards Sir, Allen Young, then of the Mercantile Marine, who also -subscribed £500 towards the fund. Carl Petersen, the Eskimo interpreter -on the voyages of Penny and Kane, came to join from Copenhagen, having -landed there from Greenland only six days previously. The British -Government, although declining to send out an expedition, contributed -liberally to the supplies, and sent on board all the arms and ammunition -and ice-gear and every instrument that was asked for. - -[Illustration: THE "FOX" ESCAPING FROM THE PACK] - -Lady Franklin's instructions were so characteristic of the noble-hearted -woman whose name can never be forgotten in Arctic story that they must -be given in full:— - - "ABERDEEN, _June 29, 1857_. - - "MY DEAR CAPTAIN M'CLINTOCK, - - "You have kindly invited me to give you 'Instructions,' but I cannot - bring myself to feel that it would be right in me in any way to - influence your judgment in the conduct of your noble undertaking; - and indeed I have no temptation to do so, since it appears to me - that your views are almost identical with those which I had - independently formed before I had the advantage of being thoroughly - possessed of yours. But had this been otherwise, I trust you would - have found me ready to prove the implicit confidence I place in you - by yielding my own views to your more enlightened judgment; knowing - too as I do that your whole heart also is in the cause, even as my - own is. As to the objects of the expedition and their relative - importance, I am sure that you know that the rescue of any possible - survivor of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ would be to me, as it would be - to you, the noblest result of our efforts. - - "To this object I wish every other to be subordinate; and next to it - in importance is the recovery of the unspeakably precious documents - of the expedition, public and private, and the personal relics of my - dear husband and his companions. - - "And lastly, I trust it may be in your power to confirm, directly or - inferentially, the claims of my husband's expedition to the earliest - discovery of the passage, which, if Dr. Rae's report be true (and - the Government of our country has accepted and rewarded it as such), - these martyrs in a noble cause achieved at their last extremity, - after five long years of labour and suffering, if not at an earlier - period. - - "I am sure that you will do all that man can do for the attainment - of all these objects; my only fear is that you may spend yourselves - too much in the effort; and you must therefore let me tell you how - much dearer to me even than any of them is the preservation of the - valuable lives of the little band of heroes who are your companions - and followers. - - "May God in His great mercy preserve you all from harm amidst the - labours and perils which await you, and restore you to us in health - and safety as well as honour. As to the honour I can have _no_ - misgiving. It will be yours as much if you fail (since you _may_ - fail in spite of every effort) as if you succeed; and be assured - that, under _any and all circumstances whatever_, such is my - unbounded confidence in you, you will possess and be entitled to the - enduring gratitude of your sincere and attached friend, - - "JANE FRANKLIN." - -[Illustration: THE "FOX" ON A ROCK] - -The men of the _Fox_ were worthy of the confidence placed in them. -Leaving Aberdeen on the 1st of July, M'Clintock reached Disco on the -last day of the month, and, proceeding northwards, was, by a perverse -freak of fortune, beset in Melville Bay on the 8th of August, and kept -imprisoned thence onwards all through the winter, drifting south through -Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. On the 26th of April, 1858, after a drift -of 1194 geographical miles, the _Fox_ escaped from the pack and steamed -to the eastward amid the most perilous of ice experiences. Most men -would have returned and tried again; not so M'Clintock. He boldly ran up -the Greenland coast as if nothing had happened and, making good -deficiencies, resumed his voyage. Soon after leaving Sanderson's Hope -the _Fox_ was nearly wrecked near Buchan Island, remaining on a rock -until the tide rose again to set her free. After calling at Beechey -Island, M'Clintock followed Franklin's track down Peel Sound until -stopped by the pack, when he retraced his course and tried Prince Regent -Inlet, reaching Bellot Strait on the 21st of August. At Port Kennedy in -this famous waterway—which is like a Greenland fiord, about twenty miles -long and scarcely a mile wide at its narrowest part, the water four -hundred feet deep within a quarter of a mile of its northern shore—he -passed the winter. - -On the 1st of March he reached by sledge the Magnetic Pole and fell in -with four of the Boothian Eskimos, who, at the cost of a needle each, -built him a snow hut in an hour, in which they all spent the night. -"Perhaps," says M'Clintock, "the records of architecture do not furnish -another instance of a dwelling-house so cheaply constructed!" Halting at -Cape Victoria the Eskimos came up from their village close by with a -number of small relics of the lost expedition. Returning to the _Fox_ -after a journey of four hundred and twenty statute miles in which the -survey of the west coast of Boothia was completed, everything was made -ready for three long sledge journeys of two sledges each, the captain -taking that for Montreal Island, and giving Hobson the best chance of -promotion by sending him round the west coast of King William Land, -while Young took the Prince of Wales Land route. - -On the east coast of King William Land M'Clintock met with more Eskimos, -from whom he obtained relics and obtained information. Pushing on, he -reached Montreal Island on the 15th of May, where the only traces of a -boat were some scraps of copper and an iron-hoop bolt. A crossing to the -mainland on the 18th of May revealed no more; and next day the return -journey began. Six days afterwards, walking along a gravel ridge near -the beach on the way to Cape Herschel, M'Clintock found the first -skeleton, partly exposed, with a few fragments of clothing appearing -through the snow, evidently one of the men who, as the old Eskimo woman -said, fell down and died as they walked along. Visiting Simpson's cairn -at Cape Herschel and meeting with nothing, he went on for about twelve -miles, where he caught sight of a small cairn built by Hobson's party at -their furthest south, reached six days before, containing a note with -the great news that at Point Victory they had found what is now known as -the Franklin record. - -This record, which has frequently been printed—in a smaller size than -the original—was one of the navy bottle-papers with the request in six -languages that it should be forwarded to the Admiralty. A pale blue -paper, twelve and a half inches by eight, it was filled up in the -ordinary way, and then added to round the four margins in the -handwriting of Lieutenant Gore, Captain FitzJames, and Captain Crozier, -and signed by these and C. F. Des Vœux. It had been first deposited four -miles away, so it said, "by the late Commander Gore," in 1847, and next -year found by Lieutenant Irving, added to, and removed to the new cairn -on the site of Sir James Ross's pillar. - -[Illustration: DISCOVERY OF THE CAIRN] - -Brief as it was, it contained all the authentic information regarding -Franklin's voyage up to the time the ships were abandoned. Resuming the -return journey along the edge of the strait where the meeting of the -Pacific and Atlantic tides keeps the ice drifting down from the -north-west almost constantly packed, M'Clintock reached a boat with two -skeletons and other relics already visited by Hobson, who had found -other cairns and many relics, and, in Back Bay, another record by Gore, -also deposited in 1847, but giving no additional news. - -Hobson was dragged alongside the _Fox_, on the 14th of June, so ill with -scurvy that he was unable to walk or even stand without assistance. -M'Clintock arrived five days later; and on the 27th Allen Young returned -after an exploration of three hundred and eighty miles of coast-line, -which, added to that discovered by M'Clintock and Hobson, gave a total -of eight hundred geographical miles of new coast as the work of the -expedition, besides what it had done in clearing up the Franklin -mystery. - -In 1869 Captain C. F. Hall collected other relics and sufficient -information to account for seventy-nine men out of the hundred and five -who left the ships. Ten years after that, Schwatka, in his long, careful -search of King William Land, discovered the grave of Lieutenant Irving, -in which were some fragments of his instruments and the prize medal he -won at the Royal Naval College. Near by were many traces indicating that -it was the site of the first encampment of the retreating crews after -leaving their ships; and down the coast he traced camp after camp, and -death after death. Irving's remains were brought away and are buried at -Edinburgh. The spot where they were found was Cape Jane Franklin. - -More fortunate than Franklin was Captain Roald Amundsen. Leaving -Christiania in the _Gjöa_ on the 16th of June, 1903, he crossed the -Atlantic and proceeded down Peel Sound, past Bellot Strait, and along -the west coast of Boothia, where a fire on the ship did a certain amount -of damage, and, struggling thereafter for ten days among shoals and -rocks, down James Ross Strait, past Matty Island into Rae Strait, he -dropped anchor in Petersen Bay, King William Land. For his base station -he required a site in which the inclination was eighty-nine degrees, and -at Gjöahaven, in this bay, he found it in 68° 30´ N., 96° W. - -Here he arranged his headquarters for his observations on the Magnetic -Pole which were kept going night and day for nineteen months; and here -he stayed for two winters, moving about in the country around and over -into Boothia, where he proved that the Pole was not immovable and -stationary, but in all likelihood in continual movement. Leaving the -south-eastern corner of King William Land in his little ship he passed -through Simpson Strait, linking up with Collinson; and, like him, he was -delayed for a winter on the coast of the American mainland. Through -Bering Strait he reached San Francisco, where the voyage ended in the -sale of the _Gjöa_. Thus of Amundsen it can be said, without any -qualification whatever, that he accomplished the North-West Passage. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - BAFFIN BAY - - Sir Humphrey Gilbert—Sir Martin Frobisher—His first voyage—The - fateful stone—First meeting with the Eskimos—The Cathay - Company—Second voyage—Third voyage—Frobisher builds a fort—The - ships among the floes—Captain Hall finds the Frobisher - relics—Adrian Gilbert—John Davis—His voyages and dealings with the - Eskimos—Reaches and names Sanderson's Hope—The Traverse - Book—William Baffin—His first voyage to Greenland—His fourth and - fifth voyages—Discovers Baffin Land—Discovers Baffin Bay—Smith - Sound—Jones Sound—Lancaster Sound—Baffin's farthest north—John - Ross and Parry verify his discoveries. - - -In 1566 Humphrey Gilbert—who was as near to heaven by sea as by -land—petitioned Queen Elizabeth for privileges in regard to discoveries -"by the North-west to Cataia" as an alternative to a petition he, in -conjunction with Anthony Jenkinson, had presented the previous year for -a voyage by the north-east. He received no answer; but ten years -afterwards, in support of this unanswered petition, he published his -_Discourse of a Discovery for a New Passage to Cataia_. This met with -approval, and led, with little delay, to the expedition under the Martin -Frobisher who, among other noteworthy services, commanded the _Triumph_ -in the Armada fight to such good purpose that he was one of the five -distinguished men knighted by Howard in mid-channel after the battle off -the Isle of Wight. - -Frobisher was a good seaman—but no mineralogist. Mainly at the expense -of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and under the business management of -that old seafarer, Michael Lock, of the Muscovy Company, he left -Blackwall on the 7th of June, 1576, in the _Gabriel_ of twenty-five -tons, accompanied by the _Michael_ of twenty tons—which deserted and -returned as soon as difficulties arose—and a ten-ton pinnace, which -ended by foundering off Greenland. All told, the expedition numbered -thirty-five, of whom the _Gabriel_ carried eighteen; and with these the -voyage through the Arctic Ocean was to be made to China. - -Leaving the Shetlands at her top speed of a league and a half an -hour—which her master, good Christopher Hall, proudly recorded—the -_Gabriel_ sighted Cape Farewell on the 11th of July. Two days afterwards -she was thrown on her beam-ends in a storm, and was rapidly filling with -water flowing in at her waist when she was relieved by the loss of her -fore-yard and the cutting away of her mizen-mast. Rounding the cape, -steering westward when he could among the floating ice, Frobisher -reached a high headland at the south-east end of what is now Frobisher -Bay, which he named Queen Elizabeth Foreland. A few days afterwards -Hall, out in a boat seeking a way through the ice for the ship, landed -on what they called Hall's Island, and, noticing a fog coming on, left -hurriedly, snatching up, as specimens of the plants, a few grasses and -flowers, and, as a rock specimen, a heavy black stone picked up -haphazard on the beach. The grass faded, the flowers perished, and the -fateful stone remained. - -[Illustration: SIR MARTIN FROBISHER] - -For fifty leagues Frobisher sailed north-westward into the bay, thinking -it to be a strait with Asia on the right hand and America on the left. -He landed at what he called Butcher's Island, saw "mightie deere which -ranne at him and hardly he escaped with his life in a narrow way where -he was faine to use defence and policie," and from a hill-top "perceived -a number of small things fleeting in the sea afarre off whyche hee -supposed to be porposes or seales or some kind of strange fishe but -coming nearer he discovered them to be men in small boates made of -leather," who only just failed in capturing his boat before he reached -it. Subsequent conferences with the Eskimos ended in his losing the boat -with five men who had gone ashore to trade; and finally, having lifted -single-handed one of the interesting natives, kayak and all, into the -_Gabriel_, he made sail for home. - -When Lock went aboard on the ship's arrival there were no riches from -Cathay, nothing worth mentioning beyond the Eskimo—who soon died—the -kayak and paddle, and "the fyrste thynge found in the new land," the -black stone. He carried away the stone, after chipping off a few -fragments for the friends around, and after a week or two's -consideration sent some of it to the Mint to be assayed. The report was -not as he expected; the "saymaster" was of opinion that it was -marcasite, that is, iron pyrites. Not satisfied, Lock sent some to -another expert, who also said it was pyrites. Then he tried a third man, -who could find no gold in it. And then he tried a fourth—this time an -Italian—who gave him the answer he wanted: "A very little powder of gold -came thereout." - -Lock sent him some more, telling him frankly that three other assayers -"could find no such thing therein," but again the Italian was equal to -the occasion. "The xviii day of January," writes Lock, "he sent me by -his mayde this little scrap of paper written, No. 1, hereinclosed; and -thereinclosed the grayne of gold, which afterward I delivered to your -majesty." For the Queen had become interested in the wonderful stone -which was the talk of the town, its value increasing at every recital -until many believed, as Sir Philip Sidney seems to have done, that it -was "the purest gold unalloyed with any other metals." - -Lock was not the man to let such excellent advertisement be lost, and -forthwith he projected the Cathay Company for which the charter was -obtained from the Crown on St. Patrick's Day, 1577. Lock was named as -Governor for six years with remuneration "for ever" of one per cent on -all goods imported; Frobisher was named as Captain by sea and Admiral of -the ships and navy of the Company for life with a yearly stipend and one -per cent, like Lock, on all goods the Company brought in. Queen -Elizabeth—notwithstanding the report from the Mint—headed the list of -shareholders with £1000; and Burghley, Howard, Leicester, Walsingham, -Hunsdon, Sidney, even Gresham, subscribed for shares in this remarkable -company. - -To bring home more of the "golden ore," a new expedition was entered -upon at once, and on the 26th of May, Whit-Sunday as it happened, -Frobisher started on his second voyage. He had three vessels, the _Aid_ -of two hundred tons, lent him from the Royal Navy, and the _Gabriel_ and -_Michael_ as before, and one hundred and twenty officers and men, of -whom thirty were miners and other landsmen, and, in addition, six -condemned criminals whom he was to land in Greenland as colonists but -put ashore at Harwich instead. - -To the new land—named by the Queen Meta Incognita, "the unknown limit of -the outward course"—he made his way without much adventure. Landing on -Hall's Island, he sought for more stone but could find not so much as a -piece as big as a walnut; for Hall, who was again with him as master, -had apparently lighted, in the one sample, on the whole of its mineral -wealth. This disappointment, however, was forgotten in the finding of -occasional patches of pyrites on the mainland and other islands which in -due course were visited. Thirty leagues up the bay a landing was made on -what was called Countess of Warwick's Island, where more ore was found -and a fort called Best's Bulwark was built. That was Frobisher's -farthest on this voyage, and thence he sailed on the 24th of August, -bringing with him two hundred tons of pyrites, and, as a present for the -Queen, a horn two yards long, wreathed and straight, which he had found -in the nose of a dead narwhal. - -The ore was received with rejoicings. Some of it was deposited in -Bristol Castle, some in the Tower of London under four locks, but there -was not enough of it; and as there were then, as now, no furnaces in -England capable of getting gold out of marcasite, a new expedition was -despatched while the furnaces were being prepared. This time the -enterprise was to be on a very different scale. Frobisher was given a -fleet of fifteen vessels, Drake's old ship, the _Judith_, amongst them, -the _Aid_, as before, being the flagship. He was to bring home two -thousand tons of mineral and find other mines, if he could, besides -taking out a colony of a hundred persons to settle in Meta Incognita, -for whom the materials of a wooden house were among the miscellaneous -cargo. - -The fleet left Harwich on the 31st of May, 1578. A landing was made in -the south of Greenland, which Frobisher named West England and took -possession of, his point of departure from there being called by him, -"from a certain similitude," Charing Cross! Soon he was among the ice -floes. One of the ships was driven on to a floe and sank with some of -the materials for the wooden house. Then followed a storm in which most -of the ships had a terrible experience. "Some," says Captain Best of the -_Ann Frances_, the chronicler of the voyage, "were so fast shut up and -compassed in amongst an infinite number of great countreys and ilands of -ise, that they were fayne to submit themselves and their ships to the -mercie of the unmercifull ise, and strengthened the sides of their ships -with junckes of cables, beds, masts, planckes, and such like, which -being hanged overboord, on the sides of their shippes, mighte the better -defend them from the outrageous sway and strokes of the said ise. But as -in greatest distresse, men of best value are best to be discerned, so it -is greatly worthy commendation and noting with what invincible mind -every captayne encouraged his company, and with what incredible labour -the paynefull mariners and poore miners (unacquainted with such -extremities) to the everlasting renoune of our nation, dyd overcome the -brunt of these so great and extreame daungers; for some, even without -boorde uppon the ise, and some within boorde, uppon the sides of their -shippes, having poles, pikes, peeces of timber and ores in their hands, -stood almost day and night, without any reste, bearing off the force, -and breaking the sway of the ise, with suche incredible payne and perill -that it was wonderfull to behold, which otherwise no doubt had striken -quite through and through the sides of their shippes, notwithstanding -our former provision; for planckes of timber, of more than three ynches -thick, and other things of greater force and bignesse, by the surging of -the sea and billow, with the ise were shevered and cutte in sunder at -the sides of oure ships, that it will seeme more than credible to be -reported of. And yet (that which is more) it is faythfully and playnely -to be proved, and that by many substantiall witnesses, that our shippes, -even those of greatest burdens, with the meeting of contrary waves of -the sea, were heaved up betweene islandes of ise a foote welneere out of -the sea above their watermarke, having their knees and timbers within -boorde both bowed and broken therewith." - -To add to the difficulties of the voyage Frobisher lost his way, and -entered what he called the Mistaken Streight—now designated Hudson -Strait—through which he might have found his way to Cathay, had he been -so minded; but recognising that he was on the wrong road he returned and -reached his mining district at the end of July. While the ore was being -gathered in, Best ventured into the upper part of Frobisher Bay as far -as the Gabriel Islands—the only exploring work that was done—and early -in September the fleet departed on the homeward voyage. - -Frobisher had left one unmistakable indication of his visit behind him. -On Countess of Warwick Island he had built a house of lime and stone, -and "the better," says Best, "to allure those brutish and uncivill -people to courtesie, againste other times of our comming, we left -therein dyvers of our countrye toyes, as bells and knives, wherein they -specially delight, one for the necessarie use, and the other for the -great pleasure thereof. Also pictures of men and women in lead, men a -horsebacke, lookinglasses, whistles and pipes. Also in the house was -made an oven, and breade left baked therein, for them to see and taste. -We buried the timber of our pretended forte, with manye barrels of -meale, pease, griste, and sundrie other good things, which was of the -provision of those whyche should inhabite, if occasion served. And -insteade therof we fraight oure ships full of ore, whiche we holde of -farre greater price." - -Here we part from the Cathay Company. The inevitable trouble came with -the discovery that, practically, the only gold the ore would yield was -that put in as an "additament" by the Italian. A very thick cloud rolled -over Frobisher, who, like Lock, seems to have believed in the -genuineness of the affair all through; but soon his country had need of -him and he came to the front again in so worthy a manner that little -more was heard of his connection with this company that failed. - -[Illustration: ESKIMO AWAITING A SEAL] - -To complete the story. In 1861 (say three hundred years afterwards) -Captain Hall—hearing among the Eskimos how numerous white men had -arrived first in two, then three, then a great many ships, how they had -killed several natives and taken away two, how five of the white men had -been captured, and how these had built a large boat and put a mast in -her and sailed away to death when the water was open—went to Kod-lun-arn -(White Man's Island) and there found the house of lime and stone as -described, and traces of the diggings, and many relics among which he -made the collection presented by him to the British Government. - -In the year 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert, whose _Discourse_ gave so -great a stimulus to Arctic discovery, founded St. John's, -Newfoundland—the first English colony in America—a patent was granted by -Queen Elizabeth to his brother Adrian "of Sandridge in the county of -Devon," as one of the colleagues of the Fellowship for the Discovery of -the North-West Passage. At this Sandridge—on the east of the Dart, -bounded on three sides by the river, some two miles above Dartmouth—was -the home of the three Gilberts (John, Humphrey, and Adrian), whose -mother by a second marriage became the mother of Carew and Walter -Raleigh; and here, about 1550, of a family also owning property in the -small peninsula, was born John Davis, as we know him, or John Davys, as -he signed himself, who was probably a playmate, and certainly a -life-long friend, of these five. - -Davis was an accomplished seaman, the best of the Elizabethan -navigators, and a man of accurate observation, always on the alert, -whose reputation does not rest only on the work he did in the northern -and other seas, for he was the author of _The Seaman's Secrets_, the -most popular practical navigation treatise of its time. Very early, -perhaps from the first, he was one of the moving spirits in this new -north-west enterprise, for on the 23rd of January, 1583, we find Dr. -Dee-who had helped to send Frobisher on his first voyage—making an entry -in his journal that Mr. Secretary Walsingham had come to his house, -where by good luck he found Mr. Adrian Gilbert, and so talk began on -"the north-west straits discovery"; and, next day, "I, Mr. Awdrian -Gilbert and John Davis, went by appointment to Mr. Beale, his howse, -where only we four were secret, and we made Mr. Secretary privie of the -N.W. Passage, and all charts and rutters were agreed upon in -generall"—"rutter" being the French "routier," originating in _Le -Routier de la Mer_, signifying a book of sea routes. Another important -friend of Davis was William Sanderson, the representative of the -merchants by whom the expenses of the voyage were borne, he being the -chief subscriber. One of the ships, the _Moonshine_, seems to have -belonged to him, and it was largely owing to his influence among the -shareholders that Davis was appointed captain and chief pilot of the -"exployt," in which he was to practically rediscover Greenland. - -There were two vessels, the _Sunshine_ of London, fifty-nine tons, with -twenty-three persons on board, and the _Moonshine_ of Dartmouth, -thirty-five tons, with nineteen. They left Dartmouth on the 7th of June, -1585, but had to put in at Falmouth and then at the Scillies, where -Davis occupied the twelve days he spent there in surveying and charting -the islands. On the 20th of July they were sailing down the east coast -of Greenland, and were so little attracted by it that Davis called it -the Land of Desolation. Nine days afterwards he found a group of many -pleasant green islands bordering on the shore, while the mountains of -the mainland were still covered with snow, and here he landed on the -west coast at Gilbert Sound, as he named it, near where Godthaab now is, -and entered into communication with the natives. - -[Illustration: A GREENLANDER IN HIS KAYAK] - -For such occasions, apparently, he had among the _Sunshine_ people four -described as musicians, whom, on sighting the Eskimos, he sent for. As -soon as they arrived from the ship he ordered them to strike up a -dancing tune, and to their merry music Davis and his men began to caper -as if they were enjoying themselves immensely, while the lookers-on -gradually increased in number. "At length," he says, "one of them -poynting up to the sunne with his hande would presently strike his brest -so hard that we might hear the blowe. This he did many times, before he -would any way trust us. Then John Ellis the master of the _Mooneshine_, -was appointed to use his best policie to gaine their friendshippe: who -strooke his breast and poynted to the sunne after their order: which -when he had diverse times done, they began to trust him, and one of them -came on shoare, to whom we threwe our caps, stockings and gloves, and -such other things as then we had about us, playing with our musicke, and -making signes of joy, and dancing. So the night comming we bade them -farewell, and went aboord our barks." - -The next morning, being the 30th of July, thirty-seven canoes came up to -the ships, their occupants calling to the English to come on shore. "Wee -not making any great haste unto them, one of them went up to the top of -the rocke, and lept and daunced as they had done the day before, shewing -us a seales skinne, and another thing made like a timbrel, which he did -beate upon with a sticke, making a noyse like a small drumme." Whereupon -Davis manned his boats and went to the waterside where they were in -their canoes, "and after we had sworne by the sunne after their fashion, -they did trust us. So I shooke hands with one of them, and hee kissed my -hand, and we were very familier with them. We bought five canoas of -them, we bought their clothes from their backs, which were all made of -seales skins and birdes skinnes: their buskins, their hose, their -gloves, all being commonly sewed and well dressed: so that we were fully -persuaded that they have divers artificers among them. Wee had a paire -of buskins of them full of fine wooll like bever. Their apparell for -heate, was made of bird skinnes with their feathers on them. We sawe -among them leather dressed like glovers leather, and thicke thongs like -white leather of a good length. Wee had of their darts and oares, and -found in them that they would by no meanes displease us, but would give -us whatsoever we asked of them and would be satisfied with whatsoever we -gave them. They took great care one of an other: for when we had bought -their boates, then two other woulde come and carie him away betweene -them that had soulde us his." He describes them as "a very tractable -people, voyde of craft or double dealing, and easie to be brought to -civiltie or good order," the men of good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, -"by whom, as signes would permit, we understood that towards the north -and west there was a great sea." - -During his stay among these islands he found considerable quantities of -wood—fir, spruce, and juniper—which whether it came floating any great -distance or grew in some island near he did not discover; but he thought -it grew further inland because the people had so many darts and paddles -which they held of little value and gave away for insignificant trifles. -He also found "great abundance of seales" in shoals as if they were -small fish; but saw no fresh water, only snow water in large pools, and -he notes that the "cliffes were all of such oare as M. Frobisher brought -from Meta Incognita." - -Leaving the sound on the 1st of August he crossed the strait now named -after him and reached land in 66° 40´. In water "altogether voyd from ye -pester of ice" he anchored, "in a very fair rode, under a very brave -mount, the cliffs whereof were as orient as gold." This mount he named -Mount Raleigh, the roadstead he called Totnes Rode, the sound round the -mount he named Exeter Sound, the foreland to the north he called Dyer's -Cape, the southern foreland being named Cape Walsingham—all of which -names remain. Here white bears were killed "of monstrous bignesse," a -raven was descried upon Mount Raleigh, withies were found growing low -like shrubs, and there were flowers like primroses, though there was no -grass. - -For three days Davis went coasting downwards, and rounding the -southern point of the peninsula, which he named the Cape of God's -Mercy, he entered what he afterwards called Cumberland Strait, now -Cumberland Gulf, supposing it to be his way to the westward. It was -clear of ice; sixty leagues up islands were found, among which a stay -was made during five days of very foggy foul weather. On the 15th of -August "we heard dogs houle on the shoare, which we thought had bene -Wolves, and therefore we went on shoare to kil them; when we came on -lande, the dogs came presently to our boate very gently, yet we -thought they came to pray upon us, and therefore we shot at them and -killed two: and about the necke of one of them we found a letheren -coller, whereupon we thought them to be tame dogs. Then wee went -farther and founde two sleads made like ours in Englande. The one was -made of firre, spruse and oken boards, sawen like inch boards; the -other was made all of whale bone, and there hung on the toppes of the -sleds three heads of beasts, which they had killed. We saw here -larkes, ravens, and partriges"—probably rock ptarmigan. - -Searching about, it was agreed that the place was all islands, with -sounds passing between them; that the water remained of the same colour -as the main ocean, whereas in every bay they had been into it became -blackish; that a shoal of whales they saw must have come from the west, -because to the eastward no whale had been seen; that "there came a -violent counter checke of a tide from the south-west against the flood -which we came with, not knowing from whence it was maintayned"; that the -further they ran westward the deeper was the water, "so that hard abord -the shoare among these yles we could not have ground in 330 fathoms"; -and that, lastly, there was a tide range of six or seven fathoms, "the -flood comming from diverse parts, so as we could not perceive the chiefe -maintenance thereof." For which six reasons it was determined to -continue the voyage to the westward if the weather changed—which it did -to worse with the wind unfavourable, so that the ships had to run for -shelter and then sail for home, crossing the Atlantic from Greenland in -a fortnight. On arrival Davis reported to Walsingham that the North-West -Passage was a matter nothing doubtful, but at any time almost to be -passed, the sea navigable, void of ice, the air tolerable, and the -waters very deep; and a voyage for next year was decided on, for which -the merchants of Exeter, Totnes, London, Cullompton, Chard, and -Tiverton, and five private subscribers, "did adventure their money"—to -the amount of £1175—"with Mr. Adrian Gilbert and Mr. John Davis in a -voyage for the discovery of China, the seventh daie of April in the -xxviij yeare of the rayne of or. soverayne Ladie Elizabeth." - -The fleet, consisting of the _Mermaid_ of one hundred and twenty tons, -the _Sunshine_ and _Moonshine_, and a ten-ton pinnace named the _North -Star_, left Dartmouth on the 7th of May, 1586. On reaching Greenland the -_Sunshine_ and _North Star_ were sent up the east coast of Greenland, -while the _Mermaid_ and _Moonshine_ made for Gilbert Sound. - -Here the Eskimos received them cordially "after they had espied in the -boate, some of our companie that were the yeere before heere with us, -they presently rowed to the boate, and tooke holde on the oare, and hung -about the boate with such comfortable joy as woulde require a long -discourse to be uttered: they came with the boates to our shippes, -making signes that they knewe all those that the yere before had bene -with them. After I perceived their joy, and smal feare of us, my selfe -with the merchaunts, and others of the company went a shoare, bearing -with me twentie knives: I had no sooner landed, but they lept out of -their Canoas, and came running to mee and the rest, and imbraced us with -many signes of hartie welcome: at this present there were eighteene of -them, and to each of them I gave a knife: they offered skinnes to mee -for rewarde, but I made signes that it was not solde, but given them of -curtesie: and so dismissed them for that time, with signes that they -shoulde returne againe after certaine houres." But soon there were -passing troubles owing to iron having so great an attraction for them -that they could not resist stealing it. While amongst them, exploring -the country, Davis compiled the first Eskimo vocabulary known, a list of -some forty words written down phonetically, most of them remarkably good -approaches considering that both parties were ignorant of each other's -language, none of them, however, except that for "sea" being likely to -be of any use in putting him on the road to China. - -On leaving Gilbert Sound, Davis when in latitude 63° 8´ "fel upon a most -mighty and strange quantity of ice, in one intyre masse, so bigge as -that we knew not the limits thereof, and being withall so very high, in -forme of a land, with bayes and capes, and like high cliffe land, as -that we supposed it to be land, and therefore sent our pinnesse off to -discover it: but at her returne we were certainely informed that it was -onely ice, which bred great admiration to us all, considering the huge -quantity thereof, incredible to be reported in truth as it was, and -therefore I omit to speake any further thereof. This onely, I thinke -that the like before was never seene, and in this place we had very -stickle and strong currants. We coasted this mighty masse of ice untill -the 30 of July, finding it a mighty bar to our purpose: the ayre in this -time was so contagious, and the sea so pestered with ice, as that all -hope was banished of proceeding: for the 24 of July all our shrowds, -ropes, and sailes were so frozen, and compassed with ice, onely by a -grosse fogge, as seemed to me more then strange, sith the last yeere I -found this sea free and navigable, without impediments." - -Crossing the straits he repaired and revictualled the _Moonshine_ in an -excellent harbour among islands where they found it very hot and were -"very much troubled with a flie which is called Musketa, for they did -sting grievously." Forsaken by the _Mermaid_, he abandoned the search in -Cumberland Sound as he "found small hope to pass any farther that way," -and worked south, it being too late to go northwards, crossing Frobisher -Bay, which he described as "another great inlet neere forty leagues -broad where the water entered with violent swiftnesse, this we also -thought might be a passage, for no doubt the north parts of America are -all islands." Off the coast of Labrador he found a vast shoal of -codfish, of which he caught over forty with a long spike nail made into -a hook. These he salted, and some of them, on his return, he gave, at -Walsingham's request, to Burghley, who, at an interview, encouraged him -to make a further attempt. - -Next year he was off again, this time "to the Isles of the Molucca or -the coast of China." He seems to have been on board the _Ellen_, a small -craft of some twenty tons, his two other vessels being the _Sunshine_ as -before, and the _Elizabeth_. These he left to fish for cod in the -straits while he went northward from Gilbert Sound in his little -"clinker," which he had probably chosen as being handy for ice -navigation. Running along the land, to which he gave the name of London -Coast, he reached 72° 12´—the highest north up to then attained—where he -named the loftiest of the headlands Sanderson's Hope, whose lofty crest -piercing through the driving clouds near Upernivik has become perhaps -the best-known landmark in the northern seas. Here the wind suddenly -shifting to the northward made further progress impossible, and he had -to shape his course westerly, and then, owing to ice, which he in vain -endeavoured to get round to the north, he had to turn southwards. Amid -much fog, and with the ice always present, he came down the coast of -Baffin Land, giving a name here and there on the way, until on the 31st -of July he passed "a very great gulfe, the water whirling and roring, as -it were the meetings of tides," which was probably the entrance to -Hudson Strait. Next day he was off the Labrador coast and named Cape -Chidley after his friend who died in the Straits of Magellan, and on the -15th of August he laid his course for England. - -[Illustration: BAFFIN BAY IN 1819] - -Of this voyage Hakluyt prints the Traverse Book, one of the earliest -known. In it the full detail is given for every day, arranged in nine -columns, one each for the month, the day, the hour, the courses, the -leagues, the elevation of the pole in degrees and minutes, the wind, and -a remarks column headed "The Discourse"—for Davis was an exact and -systematic man remarkable for his latitudes never being wrong, though -like all those old navigators before the invention of the chronometer, -he was frequently out in his longitude. He was going off again bound for -the sea north of Sanderson's Hope, but the coming of the Armada and the -death of Walsingham caused the postponement of the project he did not -abandon, for it seems that the _Desire_, in which he discovered the -Falkland Islands at the other end of America, was to be his reward for -accompanying Cavendish round the world, and that in her he intended to -make his next Polar voyage. - -The work he had set himself to do was done by William Baffin, who first -appears in the Arctic record as pilot of the _Patience_ in James Hall's -Greenland voyage in 1612, which ended in Hall being killed in revenge -for the kidnapping proceedings on the two previous voyages under the -Danish flag. Baffin then made two voyages, as we have seen, to -Spitsbergen in the service of the Muscovy Company, and, in that of the -Company for the Discovery of the North-West Passage, he made his fourth, -in 1615. In Hudson's old ship the _Discovery_, also her fourth trip to -the north, he passed up Hudson Strait to the end of Southampton Island, -where he abandoned the attempt to get through owing to ice and shallow -water, and returned after discovering the land that Parry named after -him. - -In his fifth voyage, again in the _Discovery_, with Robert Bylot again -as master, he left Gravesend on the 16th of March, 1616, and reached -Sanderson's Hope on the 30th of May, discovering the great bay to the -north which bears his name. Passing the Women Islands and the Baffin -Islands off Cape Shackleton, he took the middle passage across Melville -Bay, coasting along by Cape York, by the cape named after one of his -directors, Sir Dudley Digges, and the sound named after another of his -directors, Sir John Wolstenholme; along Prudhoe Land, entering the North -Water of the whalers, reaching Cape Alexander in 77° 45´, his farthest -north; opening up and naming Smith Sound, after Sir Thomas Smith, -another of his directors, and Jones Sound, after Alderman Sir Francis -Jones, another of the board, and Lancaster Sound, after Sir James -Lancaster of the East India Company. Thus, coasting Ellesmere Land, -North Devon, Bylot Island, and Baffin Land, he continued his voyage from -the north on his way home. A good piece of work: the discoveries so many -and unexpected that people ceased to believe in them, geographers going -so far as to erase his bay from their maps until, two hundred years -afterwards, Ross and Parry sailed over the land of the unbelievers and -confirmed Baffin's work in every detail—and Ross, in his best -mountain-finding manner, reported no thoroughfare at Smith Sound. - -[Illustration: DR. E. K. KANE] - - - - - CHAPTER XII - SMITH SOUND - - Captain Inglefield—Dr. Kane—The open Polar Sea—Hans Hendrik the - Greenlander—Kalutunah the Eskimo—An Eskimo bear-hunt—A lesson in - catching auks—Dr. Hayes—His journey over the glacier—Tyndall - Glacier—Captain C. F. Hall—Joe and Hannah—Voyage of the - _Polaris_—Drift of the _Polaris_—The voyage on the ice-floe—The - British Government Expedition of 1875—The _Alert_ and - _Discovery_—The cairn on Washington Irving Island—Discovery - Harbour—How the _Alert_ got into safety at Floeberg Beach—Low - temperatures—Nares on sledging—Description of the sledges and - their burden—Markham starts for the Pole—Reaches 83° 20´ - 26˝—Outbreak of scurvy—Parr's walk—Aldrich's journey - west—Beaumont's journey east—The perilous homeward voyage. - - -Lady Franklin, who incidentally did so much for Arctic discovery, sent -out the _Isabel_ in 1852 under Commander, afterwards Sir, Edward -Augustus Inglefield to search for her husband to the north of Baffin -Bay. Unlike John Ross, the names of whose ships, _Isabella_ and -_Alexander_, are home by the capes at its entrance, he found Smith Sound -to be the highway to the north. Steaming up the open water "stretching -through seven points of the compass," noting the coasts as he went, he -was turned back by the ice in 78° 28´, at the entrance to the Kane Sea, -with Cairn Point and the way in to Rensselaer Harbour on his right, and -Cape Sabine and Ellesmere Land, which he named, on his left; the -farthest north he sighted being Cape Louis Napoleon, the farthest east -Cape Frederick VII, now known as Cape Russell. Needless to say he found -no Franklin traces, although he really looked for them. - -Twelve months afterwards Dr. Elisha Kent Kane in the United States brig -_Advance_ followed in his track and wintered in Rensselaer Harbour, nine -miles further north. Ostensibly Kane was on a Franklin search, but his -real object was the Pole. He explored the sea named after him, naming -many landmarks, not always placing them in their true positions, and -underwent many hardships. For one mistake he was famous for a time, and -his reputation now suffers. One of his expedition, William Morton, -almost reached Cape Constitution, in about 80½°, which he placed some -sixty miles too far north, and described as the corner of the north -coast of Greenland; and from the southern horn of the bay of which it is -the northern boundary he looked out over the south of Kennedy Channel, -which is open every summer, and mistook it for the Polar Sea. And he -returned with a report of an even more wonderful discovery than the -Polar Sea, for, according to the illustration, he beheld the midnight -sun dipping in its waters on Midsummer Day. - -In May, 1854, the month before Morton's discoveries, Dr. Hayes and -William Godfrey crossed the Kane Sea to connect the northern coast with -Inglefield's survey, "but it disclosed no channel or any form of exit -from the bay," being, in fact, Ellesmere Land continued, and yet on -reaching the shore for the first time at Hayes Point, three miles north -of Cape Louis Napoleon, and following it for two miles to Cape Frazer, -they quite unnecessarily named the country Grinnell Land. On the other -side of this sea the chief discovery was Kane's Humboldt glacier, some -fifty miles north-east of their winter quarters, which was described as -"the mighty crystal bridge which connects the two continents of America -and Greenland," when, of course, it does nothing of the sort. - -[Illustration: KALUTUNAH] - -What with sickness, accident, and other disaster, it became evident that -the _Advance_ would never leave her wintering place, and in July Kane -set off on a wild endeavour to reach Beechey Island and obtain relief -from the Franklin search vessels, but he had to return. Next month Hayes -was sent to Upernivik, but he also came back. Finally in May, 1855, the -brig was abandoned and the survivors began their journey to the south. -Fortunately on the outward voyage Kane, at Fiskernaes, had engaged Hans -Hendrik the Greenlander, then a boy of nineteen, who became quite a -prominent figure in this and subsequent voyages, and without him and -Kalutunah, chief of the Etah Eskimos, the whole party would have -perished miserably. - -Hans first appears when spearing a bird on the wing; Kalutunah's first -appearance was equally encouraging. "The leader of the party," says -Kane, "was a noble savage, greatly superior in everything to the others -of his race. He greeted me with respectful courtesy, yet as one who -might rightfully expect an equal measure of it in return, and, after a -short interchange of salutations, seated himself in the post of honour -at my side. I waited, of course, till the company had fed and slept, for -among savages especially haste is indecorous, and then, after -distributing a few presents, opened to them my project of a northern -exploration. Kalutunah received his knife and needles with a 'Kuyanaka,' -'I thank you'; the first thanks I have heard from a native of this upper -region. He called me his friend—'Asakaoteet,' 'I love you well'—and -would be happy, he said, to join the nalegak-soak in a hunt." - -And the journey ended in a hunt, for the dogs caught sight of a large -male bear in the act of devouring a seal. The impulse was irresistible; -Kane lost all control over both dogs and drivers, who seemed dead to -everything but the passion of pursuit. Off they sped with incredible -speed; the Eskimos clinging to their sledges and cheering their dogs -with loud cries. A mad, wild chase, wilder than German legend—"the dogs, -wolves; the drivers, devils." After a furious run, the animal was -brought to bay, and the lance and rifle did their work. There were more -bears and more hunts, and when Kane objected that this could hardly be -called northern exploration, he was told by Kalutunah, significantly, -that the bear-meat was absolutely necessary for the support of their -families, and that the nalegak-soak had no right to prevent him from -providing for his household. "It was a strong argument," says Kane, "and -withal the argument of the strong." - -[Illustration: THE EAST COAST OF SMITH SOUND] - -Bear-hunting hereabouts has its dangers, for the Eskimos of the north -are not armed with bows and arrows as are those of the mainland. When -the bear is found the dogs are set upon the trail, and the hunter runs -by their side in silence. As he turns the angle ahead his game is in -view before him, stalking probably along with quiet march, sometimes -sniffing the air suspiciously, but making, nevertheless, for a clump of -hummocks. The dogs spring forward, opening in a wild wolfish yell, the -driver shrieking "Nannook! nannook!" and all straining every nerve in -pursuit. The bear rises on his haunches, views his pursuers, and starts -off at full speed. The hunter, as he runs, leaning over his sledge, -seizes the traces of a couple of his dogs and liberates them from their -burden. It is the work of a minute; for the speed is not checked and the -remaining dogs rush on with apparent ease. Pressed more severely, the -bear stands at bay while his two foremost pursuers halt at a short -distance and quietly await the arrival of the hunter. At this moment the -whole pack are liberated; the hunter grasps his lance, and, stumbling -through the snow and ice, prepares for the encounter. Grasping the lance -firmly in his hands he provokes the animal to pursue him by moving -rapidly across its path, and then running as if to escape. But hardly is -its long body extended for the tempting chase, before, with a quick -jump, the hunter doubles on his track, and, as the bear turns after him -again, the lance is plunged into the left side below the shoulder; and -that so dexterously, that, if it be an inch or so wide of the proper -spot, the spear has to be left in the bear and the man has to run for -his life. - -At this hazardous work Kalutunah was an adept, and he was equally -skilful at a much less dangerous game, as Dr. Hayes was to discover when -wintering in the schooner _United States_ in Foulke Harbour, further -south, in 1860-61. Hayes wished to learn how to catch auks, and the -Eskimo gave him a lesson. Kalutunah carried a small net, made of light -strings of sealskin knitted together, the staff by which it was held -being about ten feet in length. Arriving about half-way up the cliffs he -crouched behind a rock and invited the doctor to follow his example. The -slope on which the birds were congregated was about a mile long, and in -vast flocks they were sweeping over it a few feet above the stones down -the whole length of the hill, returning higher in the air, and so round -and round in a complete circuit. Occasionally a few hundreds or -thousands would drop down as if following some leader, and in an instant -the rocks, for some distance, would swarm with them as they speckled the -hill with their black backs and white breasts. The doctor was told to -lie lower, as the birds noticed him and were flying too far overhead. -Having placed himself as Kalutunah approved, the birds began to sweep -lower and lower in their flight until their track came well within -reach. Then, as a dense portion of the crowd approached, up went the -net, and half a dozen birds flew into it, and, stunned by the blow, -could not recover before the Eskimo had slipped the staff through his -hands and seized the net. With his left hand he pressed down the birds, -while with the right he drew them out one by one, and, for want of a -third hand, used his teeth to crush their heads. The wings were then -locked across each other; and with an air of triumph the old chief -looked around, spat the blood and feathers from his mouth, and went on -with the sport, tossing up his net and hauling it in with much rapidity -until he had caught about a hundred, and wanted no more. - -[Illustration: I. I. Hayes] - -Hayes did his best to disparage both Kalutunah and Hans, to whom he was -not quite so much indebted as Kane, owing to his having given himself a -better chance of retreat by not taking the schooner out of Smith Sound, -his quarters in Hartstene Bay being only some twelve miles north of Cape -Alexander. He had come to verify the existence of the open sea and sail -to the Pole across it if he could; and he verified it to his own -satisfaction. But he did not get so far north as Morton, although he -claimed to have done so, for he climbed a cliff eight hundred feet high -and looked out over the open water—in Kennedy Channel—and did not see -the Greenland cliffs trending away northwards within thirty miles of -him, and visible all the way up for two degrees north of Cape -Constitution. Thus he left the map as Kane left it, with Greenland cut -off short south of the eighty-first parallel, and his farthest seems to -have been the south point of Rawlings Bay, where the _Alert_ was forced -on shore in August, 1876, in 80° 15´. - -"I climbed," he says, "the steep hillside to the top of a ragged cliff, -which I supposed to be about eight hundred feet above the level of the -sea. The view which I had from this elevation furnished a solution of -the cause of my progress being arrested on the previous day. The ice was -everywhere in the same condition as in the mouth of the bay across which -I had endeavoured to pass. A broad crack, starting from the middle of -the bay, stretched over the sea, and uniting with other cracks as it -meandered to the eastward, it expanded as the delta of some mighty river -discharging into the ocean, and under a water-sky, which hung upon the -northern horizon, it was lost in the open sea. The sea beneath me was a -mottled sheet of white and dark patches, these latter being either soft -decaying ice or places where the ice had wholly disappeared. These spots -were heightened in intensity of shade and multiplied in size as they -receded, until the belt of the water-sky blended them all together into -one uniform colour of dark blue. The old and solid floes (some a quarter -of a mile, and others miles across) and the massive ridges and wastes of -hummocked ice which lay piled between them and around their margins, -were the only parts of the sea which retained the whiteness and solidity -of winter." - -Unfortunately for Hayes, the astronomer of the expedition, August -Sonntag, who had assisted Kane in the same capacity, was frozen to death -on a sledge journey, and the doctor was left to do the work for himself, -with disappointing results, as with errors of many miles in either -latitude or longitude his journeys can only be noticed in a very general -way. In October, 1860, he proceeded for some distance over the glacier -to the east of his wintering place. The first attempt to scale the -glacier was attended by what might have been a serious accident. The -foremost member of the party missed his footing as he was clambering up -the rude steps, and, sliding down the steep side, scattered those who -were below him to the right and left and sent them rolling into the -valley beneath. The next effort was more successful, and, the end of a -rope being carried over the side of the glacier, the sledge was drawn up -the inclined plane and a fair start obtained. A little further on Hayes -was only saved from disappearing down a crevasse by clutching a pole he -was carrying on his shoulder. Next day, the surface being smoother, more -progress was made, and they reached a plain of compact snow covered with -a crust through which the feet broke at every step. The day afterwards -the cold grew more intense and a gale came on. At night the men -complained bitterly and could not sleep, and as the storm increased in -strength they were forced to leave the tent and by active exercise -prevent themselves from freezing. - -[Illustration: THE SHORES OF KENNEDY CHANNEL] - -To face the wind was impossible, and shelter was nowhere to be found -upon the unbroken plain, there being but one direction in which they -could move, that being with their backs to the gale. It was not without -difficulty that the tent was taken down and bundled upon the sledge, the -wind blowing so fiercely that they could scarcely roll it up with their -stiffened hands. The men were in pain and could only hold on for a few -moments to the hardened canvas, their fingers, freezing continually, -requiring vigorous pounding to keep them on the flickering verge of -life. "In the midst of a vast frozen Sahara, with neither hill, -mountain, nor gorge anywhere in view," says Hayes, "fitful clouds swept -over the face of the full-orbed moon, which, descending toward the -horizon, glimmered through the drifting snow that whirled out of the -illimitable distance, and scudded over the icy plain, to the eye in -undulating lines of downy softness, to the flesh in showers of piercing -darts. Our only safety was in flight; and like a ship driven before a -tempest which she cannot withstand, and which has threatened her ruin, -we turned our backs to the gale; and, hastening down the slope, we ran -to save our lives. We travelled upwards of forty miles, and had -descended about three thousand feet before we ventured to halt." - -Next year he visited the large glacier in Whale Sound which he named -after Professor John Tyndall, pulling first along its front in a boat -and then mounting its surface. As he rowed along within a few fathoms of -this two miles of ice, he found the face "worn and wasted away until it -seemed like the front of some vast incongruous temple, here a groined -roof of some huge cathedral, and there a pointed window or a Norman -doorway deeply moulded; while on all sides were pillars round and fluted -and pendants dripping crystal drops of the purest water, and all bathed -in a soft blue atmosphere. Above these wondrous archways and galleries -there was still preserved the same Gothic character; tall spires and -pinnacles rose along the entire front and multiplied behind them, and -new forms met the eye continually. Strange, there was nothing cold or -forbidding anywhere. The ice seemed to take the warmth which suffused -the air, and I longed to pull my boat far within the opening and paddle -beneath the Gothic archways." - -Charles Francis Hall, of Cincinnati, was a man of a very different -stamp. He was a genius and a genuine worker, an accurate observer and -painstaking explorer who believed above all things in thoroughness. -Realising that the best way to study the Polar regions was to understand -the Eskimos, who know most about them, and utilise their local -knowledge, he settled amongst them, lived with them, adopted their -customs, and became as one of them in their huts and tents, taking part -in their sports and hardships. Two friends he made amongst them, -Ebierbing and his wife Tookoolito, better known as Joe and Hannah, who -accompanied him till he died. - -[Illustration: TYNDALL GLACIER] - -After clearing up the Frobisher problem and throwing some light on the -Franklin mystery, he started in 1871 to go as far north as he could -across the reported Polar Sea. To him Henry Grinnell, who did so much -for northern discovery, entrusted the American flag which had been to -the Antarctic with Wilkes in 1838, to the Arctic with De Haven, with -Kane and with Hayes, and was a sort of oriflamme of Polar discovery. His -ship was the _Polaris_, of 387 tons, once the _Periwinkle_, a name which -seemed to be a little too unassuming. Buddington, his sailing-master, -was an experienced whaling captain; his assistant, Tyson, destined for -the independent command of an ice-floe, was another whale-fisher. The -naturalist was Emil Bessels. On board were also Joe and Hannah—of -course—and William Morton, to show where the sea was, and, picked up at -Upernivik, the indispensable Hans Hendrik with his wife and three -children. - -The voyage was fortunate so long as Hall lived. The _Polaris_ found the -Polar gates open before her. She steamed right up Smith Sound, through -Kane Sea, up Kennedy Channel, into Robeson Channel—named after the -Secretary to the American Navy—until she reached the ice, in 82° 16´, on -the 30th of August, 1871, the highest latitude then attained by a ship. -Hall would have pressed on into the ice, but Buddington wisely refused, -and hardly had the _Polaris_ been headed round when she was beset and -carried southwards, to escape in a few days and take refuge for the -winter in a harbour on the east of what is now known as Hall Basin, -protected at its entrance by a grounded floeberg. The latitude is 81° -38´, the harbour Hall called Thank God Bay. There in November he died; -and close by is Hall's Rest, where he is buried. - -His death was the end of the enterprise. Buddington wished to return as -soon as the ship was released, and eventually had his way, after a -journey or two of little importance. But he stayed too long. The ship -was clear in June, and he did not start until the 1st of August, and he -started by driving her into the pack, anchored her to a floe, and -drifted helplessly into Baffin Bay, as De Haven had done through -Lancaster Sound in 1850. For eleven weeks the drift continued until she -was off Northumberland Island on the 15th of October. Here in the middle -of the night a violent gale arose, and the crippled ship, nipped between -two masses of ice, was lifted bodily and thrown on her side, her timbers -cracking loudly and her sides apparently breaking in. Two boats, all she -had, were hurriedly got on to the ice, and provisions, stores, and -clothing were being passed out, when with a roar the floe broke asunder, -and the _Polaris_ disappeared like a phantom in the gale. As the ice -cracked and the sides lurched apart, a bundle of fur lay across the -fissure. A grab was made at it, and the bundle was saved. It contained -the baby of Joe the Eskimo, whose wife had been confined the year before -in latitude 82°, perhaps the most northerly birthplace of any of this -world's inhabitants. - -[Illustration: A SEAL IN DANGER] - -On the ice were Tyson, with Sergeant Meyer, the steward, the cook, six -sailors, and nine Eskimos, men, women, and children, including Hans and -Joe. They built a house, from the materials thrown out from the ship, as -a shelter; and they built snow houses as the time went on and the floe -diminished. Provisions they had but few, but Hans and Joe were -indefatigable. They speared seals, caught fish, trapped birds, and, -sometimes, a bear would scramble up on to the ice for them to shoot—and -they never missed. In short, without them the party would have starved -to death. - -The floe on which the castaways passed the winter was about a hundred -yards long and seventy-five broad. On this they voyaged down the whole -length of Baffin Bay and through Davis Strait, the ice melting away and -getting smaller and smaller as they drifted south, until on the 1st of -April, when it was only twenty yards round, they had to take to the -remaining boat, the other having been used for fuel. Once they nearly -touched the shore, but the wind rose and off they were driven in the -snow. When they were picked up by the sealer _Tigress_ in 53° 35´, near -the coast of Labrador, on the 30th of April, they had drifted fifteen -hundred miles in the hundred and ninety-six days that had elapsed since -they left the ship. - -The _Polaris_, blown to the northward, reached land at Lifeboat Cove in -the entrance to Smith Sound, a little north of Foulke Harbour, and here -with the aid of the Etah Eskimos the crew passed the winter; and, in the -spring, some of them went on an expedition in the Hayes country and lost -the famous flag. As the ship could not be made seaworthy, two -flat-bottomed boats were built of her materials, and on the 21st of June -these were found hauled up on a floe in Melville Bay, and their people -rescued by the whaler _Ravenscraig_, which shifted them into the -_Arctic_, another Dundee whaler, on board of which was Commander -Markham, who, with Hans Hendrik, four years afterwards, was to follow up -Hall's track to the north. - -The results of this expedition were of considerable importance. In five -days Captain Hall had run five hundred miles through what on most -occasions has been found to be an ice-choked sea. He completed the -exploration of Kennedy Channel, discovered Hall Basin and Robeson -Channel, and was the first to reach the Polar ocean by this route. -Greenland and Grinnell Land he extended northward for nearly a hundred -and forty miles; and, north of Petermann Fiord, where he showed that the -inland ice terminated, he had found a large area free from ice, with its -wild flowers and herbage and musk oxen. - -Hall's remarkable success in taking a ship to so high a latitude led to -the Government expedition of 1875, the first British attempt to reach -the Pole since Parry's failure in 1827. Three ships were employed: the -_Alert_, a seventeen-gun sloop; the _Discovery_, once the _Bloodhound_, -a Dundee whaler; and the _Valorous_. The _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were -specially prepared for the voyage at Portsmouth by Sir Leopold -M'Clintock who was then Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard; the -_Valorous_, an old paddle sloop, required little alteration, as her duty -was merely to carry the stores that could not safely be taken by the -exploring vessels in crossing the Atlantic and hand them over at Disco. - -[Illustration: SIR GEORGE NARES] - -The leader, Captain George Strong Nares, when one of the Franklin search -officers under Kellett at Melville Island, had distinguished himself by -a sledge journey in which he had travelled nine hundred and eighty miles -in sixty-nine days and reached 119½° west longitude. He was known as one -of the best navigators in the Navy, and when called upon to go to the -north was in command of H.M.S. _Challenger_, then on her famous voyage -of scientific exploration in very different seas. With him in the -_Alert_ was Commander Albert Hastings Markham, whose experience, varied -and considerable, gained by his spending much of his spare time within -the Arctic Circle, rendered him especially well fitted for the position. -In command of the _Discovery_ was Captain Henry Frederick Stephenson; -and the officers of both ships were, like the crews, all specially -selected. There was no difficulty in the manning. One commanding officer -called at the office at Portsmouth where the men were being entered and -asked for advice. "An order," he said, "has come on board my ship, -directing me to send volunteers for Arctic service to this office. What -am I to do? The whole ship's company, nearly eight hundred men, have -given in their names." - -The three ships left Spithead on the 29th of May, 1875, and were all at -Godhavn on the 6th of July. Nine days afterwards they left for Ritenbenk -of the curious name, which is an anagram of that of Berkentin who was in -charge of the Greenland department when it was founded. Here the -_Valorous_ parted company to return home after filling up with fuel at -the coal quarries on the north side of Disco Island, while the two ships -went to Proven to pick up Hans Hendrik, who this time left his wife and -children behind him. - -Through Smith Sound, almost choked with ice, progress was slow and -difficult; but the passage was safely accomplished, and so across Kane -Sea and up Kennedy Channel. On Washington Irving Island an ancient cairn -was found, evidently the work of white men's hands and of great age, as -shown by the state of the lichens on it—yet another of the many -indications in the Polar regions that there was always a somebody before -the first on record. Crossing the mouth of Archer Fiord, a snug harbour -was found in 81° 44´, where the _Discovery_ was left to spend the -winter, the _Alert_ going on, hampered much by the floes, though helped -at last by a south-westerly wind, until she had to stop in 82° 27´ on -the shore of the Polar Ocean, at what was named Floeberg Beach, off an -open coast and with no more protection during the winter than was -afforded by masses of ice ranging up to sixty feet in height aground in -from eight to twelve fathoms of water. - -"The protected space," says Nares, "available for shelter was so -contracted and shallow, the entrance to it so small, and the united -force of the wind and flood-tide so powerful, that it was with much -labour and no trifling expense in broken hawsers that the ship was -hauled in stem foremost. It was a close race whether the ice or the ship -would be in first, and my anxiety was much relieved when I saw the -ship's bow swing clear into safety just as the advancing edge of the -heavy pack closed in against the outside of our friendly barrier of ice. -From our position of comparative security the danger we had so narrowly -escaped was strikingly apparent as we gazed with wonder and awe at the -power exerted by the ice driven past us to the eastward with -irresistible force by the wind and flood-tide at the rate of about a -mile an hour. The projecting points of each passing floe which grounded -near the shore in about ten fathoms of water would be at once wrenched -off from its still moving parent mass; the pressure continuing, the -several pieces, frequently thirty thousand tons in weight, would be -forced up the inclined shore, rising slowly and majestically ten or -twelve feet above their old line of flotation. Such pieces quickly -accumulated until a rampart-like barrier of solid ice-blocks, measuring -about two hundred yards in breadth and rising fifty feet high, lined the -shore, locking us in, but effectually protecting us from the -overwhelming power of the pack." The land had already assumed a wintry -aspect, and the ship soon put on a garb of snow and ice, each spar and -rope being double its ordinary thickness from the accumulation of rime. -Around her everything was white and solemn; no voice of bird or beast -was heard; all was still and silent save the gathering floes; and in two -days the men were able to walk on shore over the new ice. - -For eleven months she stayed here, secured by cables to anchors frozen -on to the shore to protect her from gales on the landward side. With the -ship housed in awnings of tilt-cloth, with snow a foot thick laid on the -upper deck and banked up on each side as high as the main-chains, with -skylights and hatchways carefully covered up, except two hatchways for -ingress and egress constructed with porches and double doors so as to -prevent the entrance of the bitter air, the crew here passed the long -Polar night. On the 11th of October the sun disappeared, and then began -those entertainments, lectures, lessons, games, not forgetting the Royal -Arctic Theatre which opened on the 18th of November, with which the -winter was pleasantly whiled away. "Can you sing or dance? or what can -you do for the amusement of others?" every man had been asked before he -was chosen, and the result was a singularly happy time kept up until -sunrise. - -The cold was intense and long-continued. Even the tobacco pipes froze, -the stem becoming solidly clogged with ice as the smoking went on unless -it was made so short as to bring the bowl unpleasantly close to the -mouth. On the 1st of April the temperature was down to minus 64°, and -three days afterwards it was a hundred and five below freezing, the cold -weather preventing the departure of the dog-sledge for Discovery Bay. - -During the autumn, sledging parties had laid out reserves of stores for -the spring journeys, and a certain amount of practice had been given to -the men in what was intended to be the chief work of the expedition. The -field, however, was not promising. On one occasion Nares went out to -look at it. He obtained a fine view of the pack for a distance of six -miles from the land. The southern side of each purely white snow-covered -hummock was brilliantly lighted by the orange-tinted twilight. The -stranded floebergs lining the shore extended from half to three-quarters -of a mile off the land. Outside were old floes with undulating upper -surfaces separated from each other by Sherard Osborn's "hedgerows of -Arctic landscape," otherwise ridges of pressed-up ice of every size. "It -will be as difficult," was his verdict, "to drag a sledge over such ice -as to transport a carriage directly across country in England." He gave -a lecture on sledging at one of the winter entertainments. It was -interesting but not encouraging. He told his hearers that if they could -imagine the hardest work they had ever been called upon to perform in -their lives intensified to the utmost degree, it would only be as -child's play in comparison with the work they would have to perform -whilst sledging. "These prophetic words," says Markham, "were fully -realised, and were often recalled and commented on by the men." - -They had four different kinds of sledges. From the illustrations it will -appear how the eight-feet sledges differed from those used by -M'Clintock, the Nares sledge being higher and more slender in the -uprights. The eight-men sledge, such as the Marco Polo—which was bound -for the Pole—had six uprights eighteen inches apart. It was eleven feet -long, thirty-eight inches wide, eleven inches high, and weighed one -hundred and thirty pounds. The tent, made of light, unbleached duck, was -nine feet four inches long at the bottom, eight feet at the top, seven -feet wide and high, and weighed forty-four pounds. The tent poles, five -in number, weighed five pounds apiece. The coverlet weighed thirty-one -pounds and a half, and the extra coverlet twenty pounds. The lower robe -weighed twenty-three pounds, the waterproof floor-cloth fifteen. The -eight sleeping-bags weighed eight pounds apiece, and the eight -knapsacks, when packed, twelve pounds apiece. The shovel and two -pickaxes accounted for twenty-one pounds, the store-bag for twenty-five, -the cooking gear for twenty-nine, the gun and ammunition for -twenty-five, the medical stores for twelve, the instruments for fifteen, -and the tent for nine and a quarter. To this must be added a thousand -and eighty pounds for forty-five days' provisions for the eight men, and -we have the total of sixteen hundred and sixty-four pounds odd, which -with seven men at the ropes gives each man a drag of about two hundred -and thirty-eight pounds. In the spring the weight decreases as the -provisions are consumed, but the rate of decrease is not the same in the -autumn, for then the steadily falling temperature increases the weight -of the outfit by the moisture it adds to the tent and clothing. In -Markham's autumn journey the tent of thirty-two pounds came back as -fifty-five, the coverlet as forty-eight, the lower robe as forty, the -floor-cloth as forty, and everything else was heavier than at the start. - -The sledges mustered for their journeys on the 3rd of April. Seven in -number, they were drawn up in single line according to the seniority of -the leaders, all fully equipped and provisioned, and manned by -fifty-three officers and men. On each was its commander's banner—a -swallow-tailed flag charged with a St. George's cross and displaying the -armorial bearings. As a precaution against snow-blindness, the men had -been ordered to decorate the backs of their snow-jumpers with any device -they thought fit, the result being a display of comic blazonry that -often formed a topic of conversation when others failed. For the same -reason the two boats carried on the north-going sledges were gaily -decorated with the royal arms, and the rose, shamrock, and thistle; the -artist, as on other occasions, being Doctor Moss, whose great difficulty -in the matter was that in spite of the quantity of turpentine used in -mixing the paint it would persist in freezing so that the brush became -as stiff as a stick every few seconds. - -[Illustration] - - SECTION SLEDGES USED BY (1) SIR LEOPOLD M'CLINTOCK AND SECTION - M'CLINTOCK (2) SIR GEORGE NARES NARES - - (In the collection of Ed. Whymper) - -Lieutenant Aldrich, supported for three weeks by Lieutenant Giffard, was -to explore the shores of Grant Land, towards the north and west, along -the coast-line he had discovered in the previous autumn. Commander -Markham, seconded by Lieutenant Parr, was to accompany Aldrich to Cape -Joseph Henry and then strike off to the northward over the ice. The -other three sledges were to accompany these as far as their own -provisions would allow, after completing the four's deficiencies and -giving them a fresh start from an advance post. - -When Markham was only eleven days out, one of his crew complained of -pain in his ankles and knees, and was of no help for the rest of the -journey. This was the first appearance of the scurvy which was to ruin -so many hopes, for man after man was taken ill and became a passenger. -To make matters worse no rougher road was ever traversed by sledge. Over -a labyrinth of piled-up blocks of ice ranging to forty feet and more in -height, through which the road had to be cut with pickaxe and shovel, -and amid gale and fog and falling snow, the painful progress went on. -With many a "One; two; three; haul!" the heavy mass would be dragged -where the men could hardly drag themselves; one of the sledges taken a -few yards by the combined crews, who would then return for the other. On -the 19th of April one of the boats was abandoned and this made matters -easier, but only for a time, as the disease spread. At last it was -decided to stop; and on the 12th of May a party of ten went ahead to -reach the farthest north. - -"The walking," says Markham, "was undoubtedly severe, at one moment -struggling through deep snowdrifts, in which we floundered up to our -waists, and at another tumbling about amongst the hummocks. Some idea -may be formed of the difficulties of the road, when, after more than two -hours' hard walking, with little or nothing to carry, we had barely -accomplished one mile. Shortly before noon a halt was called, the -artificial horizon set up, and the flags and sledge standards displayed. -Fortunately the sun was favourable to us, and we were able to obtain a -good altitude as it passed the meridian, although almost immediately -afterwards dark clouds rolled up, snow began to fall, and the sun was -lost in obscurity. We found the latitude to be 83° 20´ 26˝ N., or three -hundred and ninety-nine miles and a half from the North Pole." - -On the 8th of June Lieutenant Parr appeared on the quarter-deck of the -_Alert_ greeting in silence the one or two who chanced to meet him. That -some calamity had happened was evident from his looks. He had walked on -alone for forty miles to bring the news that Markham's party were in -sore distress. Measures of rescue were instantly taken; Lieutenant May -and Doctor Moss, on snow-shoes, pushing ahead with the dog-sledge laden -with medical stores, while Nares with a strong party followed. On their -arrival one man had died, and of the others no less than eleven were -brought back to the ship on the relief sledges. - -Ten days afterwards, fearing a similar fate had overtaken Aldrich's -party, Lieutenant May was despatched to find him. As with Markham, -scurvy had begun on the outward journey, and it had become so bad on the -return that one of the men was being sent off to the ship when May -arrived with help. It had nevertheless been a successful journey, the -road being easier than that by the northern route. Aldrich had traced -the continuous border of the heavy pack for two hundred miles from -Floeberg Beach, rounded Cape Columbia, in 83° 7´ N., the northernmost -point of Grant Land, and, along the coast trending steadily south-west, -had reached longitude 85° 33´ and sighted Cape Alfred Ernest in -longitude 86½°. - -With his arrival there were over forty scurvy patients on board the -_Alert_; and Nares was to learn that the sledge parties from the -_Discovery_ had been similarly affected. Lieutenant Beaumont had gone -along the North Greenland coast, reaching, on the 21st of May, 51° W., -in 82° 20´ N., and sighting Cape May, Mount Hooker, and Cape Britannia. -On the 10th of May, while on his outward journey, he had sent back -Lieutenant Rawson to bring a relief party to meet him, and Rawson with -Hans and eight dogs, accompanied by Doctor Coppinger, reached him on the -25th of June when he was on his last possible day's journey, he and two -of his men dragging the sledge with four helpless comrades lashed on the -top of it. - -The _Discovery_ had also sent out Lieutenant Archer to survey the fiord -named after him, which opens out into Lady Franklin Bay; and Lieutenant -Fulford had crossed the channel and explored Petermann Fiord. In fact, -the expedition's geographical work was of great extent, as was the other -scientific work, the most important, as usual, being that done from the -ships. Among the odds and ends easily rememberable was the haul of the -seine in Sheridan Lake, near the wintering station of the _Alert_, which -yielded forty-three char (_Salmo arcturus_), the most northerly -freshwater fish; the finding of the nest of the sanderling (_Calidris -arenarius_), now in the Natural History Museum, in 82° 33´, and the -discovery of the nesting of the grey phalarope and the knot in the same -neighbourhood; the thirty-feet seam of Miocene coal worked in Discovery -Harbour; and the Eskimo relics at Cape Beechey, near the eighty-second -parallel, which, in connection with the encampments on the opposite -coast, suggested that there, at the narrowest part of Robeson Channel, -had been a crossing place from shore to shore. - -On the 31st of July, 1876, the _Alert_ was again under steam after her -long rest, and one of the most dangerous voyages on record began. The -ships, of from five hundred to six hundred tons, were handled as if they -were small tugs; blocked, beset, pressed on shore, Nares with consummate -skill, constant watchfulness, and never-failing patience, brought them -through. But they did not get out of Smith Sound until the 9th of -September, and then it was against head winds in stormy weather amid -icebergs innumerable that they were slowly worked southwards and -homewards. - -[Illustration: BISHOP PAUL EGEDE] - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - GREENLAND - - Hans Egede—The house of Eric the Red—Nansen's crossing of - Greenland—Nansen and Sverdrup row to Ny Herrnhut—Nordenskiöld's - journeys—Berggren's discovery—Nordenskiöld on the inland - ice—Glaciers and icebergs—Diatoms and whales—Edward Whymper's - expedition—Greenland in Miocene times—Graah—Scoresby—Ryder—The - _Germania_ and _Hansa_—The Duke of Orleans—The Eskimos of - Clavering Island—Franz Josef Fiord—The drift of the _Hansa_—The - Greely expedition—The International Polar stations—Voyage of the - _Proteus_—Lockwood reaches 83° 24´—Greely's wagon—The Eskimo house - at Lake Hazen—Greely Relief expeditions—The rescue of - Greely—Peary—His journey to Independence Bay—His four years' - expedition—Reaches 84° 17´—His Polar expedition of 1905—The - _Roosevelt_—The voyage to Cape Sheridan—Plan of the northern - advance—Peary reaches 87° 6´—Moxon's mariner. - - -Hans Egede, aged twenty-two, priest of the parish of Vaagen, in the -north of Norway, reading, in 1710, about the Norse colonists of the -west—and apparently knowing nothing of Thiodhilda—was led to think that -some of their descendants might still be living in heathenism. Writing -to the Bishop of Trondhjem, he proposed to go out to these as a -missionary. The good father rather astonished him by the reply that -"Greenland was undoubtedly part of America, and could not be very far -from Cuba and Hispaniola, where there was found such abundance of gold," -and, as those who went to Greenland might bring home "incredible -riches," he approved of the suggestion. - -Unfortunately, however, Egede had written his letter without the -knowledge of his wife, who by no means thought with the Bishop until -seven years afterwards, when she changed her mind. Trying in vain -locally, Egede applied for support to Frederick IV of Denmark, who -finding him an earnest, honest, interesting man, gave him his patronage, -the result being that a company was formed at Bergen for the development -of trade and the propagation of the gospel; and, on the 3rd of May, -1721, the _Hope_ set sail from there for Greenland with forty-six -intending colonists, including the missionary and his wife and family. - -His landing-place was on an island at the mouth of Godthaab Fiord, or -Baal's River. He found the Greenlanders very different from what he had -supposed; and also that the Dutch were carrying on a profitable trade -with them and keeping it quiet. To begin with they were nothing like -Vikings in appearance; and their language, instead of being a -Scandinavian dialect, was of the same character as that of the Eskimos -of Labrador—and not at all easy to learn. Learn it, however, he and his -family did; and among the Greenlanders they remained and laboured with -truly admirable energy and devotion, battling hard for life amid much -disaster until, with the help of his son Paul, who succeeded him as -superintendent of the mission with the title of bishop, the settlement -became permanent, and other settlements arose from it up the western -coast as they are found to-day. - -[Illustration: GREENLANDERS] - - _From a photo by Dr. H. Rink_ - -Though there were no Norsemen, there were many traces of them, the most -interesting being the house of Eric the Red, near Igaliko. Here, close -to Erik's Fiord and overlooking Einar's Fiord, on one of the prettiest -sites in Greenland, was Brattelid—"the steep side of a rock"—one side of -it a natural cliff, the walls of the other sides, more than four feet -thick, built of blocks of red sandstone from four to six feet in length -as well as in breadth and thickness, reminding the visitor of those of -Stonehenge, and evoking similar wonderment as to how they were got into -place. And in his first colony, now called Igdluernerit, Egede seems to -have followed the Norsemen—at an interval—in their architecture, to -judge by the large stones in the walls of his house, which, like Eric's, -is now in ruins. - -Twelve years after Egede, came the Moravians to take up their quarters -at Ny Herrnhut, also at the mouth of Godthaab (that is, Good Hope) -Fiord. It was here that Nansen and Sverdrup landed in October, 1888, -having rowed up from Ameralik Fiord in their "half a boat," as the -Eskimos called it. - -"Are you Englishmen?" they were asked. - -"No," said Nansen, in good Norse, "we are Norwegians." - -"May I ask your name?" - -"My name is Nansen and we have just come from the interior." - -"Oh, allow me to congratulate you on taking your doctor's degree!" - -From which it is clear that Godthaab is not so much out of the world as -one would suppose. - -Nansen with his three Norsemen and two Lapps had reached the east coast -in the _Jason_, and on the 17th of July had left the ship in their boats -to make their way to the shore; but they had been caught in the floes, -and on them and among them they had drifted for twelve days—an -experience they had not bargained for. Getting ashore at last near Cape -Tordenskiold, they worked their way back northwards along the coast, -spending a short time at an Eskimo encampment at Cape Bille, until on -the 15th of August they hauled their two boats up near Umivik and -started to cross Greenland over the inland ice. - -The country is now in its glacial period, and for days they toiled -across its glacial desert; each day alike in its wearisome monotony. -"Flatness and whiteness were the two features of this ocean of snow," -says Nansen; "in the day we could see three things only, the sun, the -snowfield and ourselves. We looked like a diminutive black line feebly -traced upon an infinite expanse of white. There was no break or change -in our horizon, no object to rest the eye upon, and no point by which to -direct the course. We had to steer by a diligent use of the compass, and -keep our line as well as possible by careful watching of the sun and -repeated glances back at the four men following and the long track which -the caravan left in the snow. We passed from one horizon to another, but -our advance brought us no change." - -By the 2nd of September they had all taken to their skis on which they -made great progress alone, but when it came to hauling the sledges there -was a difference. Sometimes the snow proved to be very heavy going, -particularly when it was wind-packed, and then it was no better than -sand. One entry in Nansen's journal will suffice: "It began to snow in -the middle of the day, and our work was heavier than ever. It was worse -even than yesterday, and to say it was like hauling in blue clay will -scarcely give an idea of it. At every step we had to use all our force -to get the heavy sledges along, and in the evening Sverdrup and I, who -had to go first and plough a way for ourselves, were pretty well done -up." - -[Illustration: ON LEVEL GROUND] - -When at last the wind became favourable they hoisted sail, and off they -went over the waves and drifts of snow at a speed that almost took their -breath away; and when they reached the western slopes they slid down -them using the sledges as toboggans. At first they had intended making -for Christianshaab, but the route had to be changed for that to -Godthaab, and the sea was reached some distance to the south. Here they -stitched the floor-sheet of their tent over a framework of withies, and -with oars made of canvas stretched across forked willows and tied to -bamboo shafts, Nansen and Sverdrup boldly trusted themselves to the -waves and with much hard labour pulled into Ny Herrnhut on the 3rd of -October. Such was the first crossing of Greenland, a really remarkable -instance of daring endeavour. - -Further north, Nordenskiöld, in 1883, had attempted to cross over the -ice-cap from near Disco on the west coast, but, hindered and finally -stopped by crevasses and other obstacles, could do no more than send his -Lapps to try their best on their skis, and they returned after their -journey eastwards of a hundred and forty miles reporting similar -monotonous conditions all along their track. Thirteen years before, he -had, also from Auleitsivik Fiord, started out with Berggren; and -deserted by their followers, they had gone on by themselves for some -thirty miles east of the northern arm of the fiord. It was on this -occasion that Berggren discovered _Ancylonema_, that small poly-cellular -alga forming the dark masses that absorb a far greater amount of heat -than the white ice and thus cause the deep holes that aid in the process -of melting. - -"The same plant," says Nordenskiöld, "has no doubt played the same part -in our country; and we have to thank it, perhaps, that the deserts of -ice which formerly covered the whole of Northern Europe and America have -now given place to shady woods and undulating cornfields." - -Nordenskiöld looked upon Greenland and its icefield as a broad-lipped, -shallow vessel with chinks in the lip, the glacier being viscous matter -within it. As more is poured in, the matter runs over the edges, taking -the lines of the chinks, that is, of the fiords and valleys, as that of -its outflow. In other words, the ice floats out by force of the -superincumbent weight of snow just as does the grain on the floor of a -barn when another sackful is shot on to the top of the heap already -there. When the glacier reaches the sea it makes its way along the -bottom under water for a considerable distance, in some cases, as near -Avigait, for more than a mile. This is where the water is too shallow -for it to affect the mass, which forms a breakwater; though as a rule -the shore deepens more suddenly and the projection is less. It was long -supposed that the berg broke from the glacier by force of gravity, but -this is not generally so. The berg is forced off from the parent glacier -by the buoyant action of the sea from beneath; the ice groans and -creaks; then there is a crashing, then a roar like the discharge of -artillery; and with a great regurgitation of the waves the iceberg is -launched into life. These huge floating islands of ice are the most -conspicuous exports of Greenland; and their true magnitude is not -realised until it is remembered that only about an eighth of their bulk -appears above the water. Bergs as large as liners we frequently hear -of—one such is shown in our illustration—but sometimes they are of much -greater freeboard, though the very large ones reported as extending -along the horizon are invariably groups of several crowded together. - -[Illustration: THE ALLAN LINER "SARDINIAN" AMONG ICEBERGS] - -_Ancylonema_ has evidently plenty to do. Another instance of the -important part played by the insignificant in these regions is suggested -by the colour of the sea. This varies from ultramarine blue to -olive-green, from the purest transparency to striking opacity; and the -changes are not transitory but permanent. These patches of dark water -abound with diatoms, while the bluer the water the fewer are the -diatoms; and where they are most numerous, there the animals that feed -on them assemble in their greatest numbers. And these animals are -jellyfish, entomostracans, and, to a greater extent, pteropods, their -chief representative being _Clio borealis_. In short, the animals that -feed on the diatoms are food of the Greenland whale, and where the -waters are dark the whale-fishers thrive. "I know nothing stranger than -the curious tale I have unfolded," says Dr. Robert Brown, who worked out -this remarkable chain, "the diatom staining the broad frozen sea, again -supporting myriads of living beings which crowd there to feed on it, and -these again supporting the huge whale. Thus it is no stretch of the -imagination to say that the greatest animal depends for its existence on -a being so minute that it takes thousands to be massed together before -they are visible to the naked eye." - -Cold as Greenland is, there was a time when matters were different. In -token of this we have the Miocene fossils collected by Edward Whymper -during his expedition from near Jakobshavn in 1867, which were described -and illustrated by Oswald Heer in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for -1869. A look at these is a welcome relief after such a surfeit of ice. -Here, as well preserved as in the leaf beds of Alum Bay, are the leaves -and fruits of an unmistakable temperate flora. Magnolias, maples, -poplars, limes, walnuts, water-lilies; myrica, smilax, aralia; sedges -and grasses, conifers and ferns: these at the least were all growing in -Greenland in its Miocene age. And even a thousand years ago the climate -must have been milder than now, to judge by the farming reports of the -colonists who seem to have been quite at home along the coast, which, -with its innumerable islands and fiords, is as intricate as that of -Norway. - -Searching for the ancient eastern settlement of the Norsemen, W. A. -Graah, in 1829, wintered at Julianehaab, which in all likelihood is the -site, although he knew it not. Possessed with the idea that it must be -on the south-eastern coast, he devoted his attention to that region -only, finding Eskimos who had never seen a white man and starting a -trading intercourse which led to most of them migrating to the less -inclement west. His work linked up with that of Scoresby, who in 1822 -charted the main features of the sea-front from 69° to 75°. Ryder, -seventy years afterwards, filled in the details of much of Scoresby's -work, and found Eskimos further north, as Clavering had done in 1823, -when in the _Griper_ during Sabine's observations at Pendulum Island. - -[Illustration: THE "GERMANIA" IN THE ICE] - -It was to Pendulum Island, in 74° 32´, that Karl Koldewey, after his -preliminary run to 81° 5´ in 1868, took the _Germania_ to winter during -the German expedition of 1869. The two vessels, the _Germania_, a small -two-masted screw steamer of one hundred and forty-three tons, built -specially for Arctic service, and the _Hansa_, only half her size, which -had been strengthened for the voyage, reached Jan Mayen on the 9th of -July, and, hidden from each other by fog, sailed northwards for five -days. On the fifth evening the wind rose, the fog cleared, and a hundred -yards in front of them lay the ice like a rugged line of cliffs. - -For a few days they sailed along it endeavouring to find an opening to -the north. Then, on the 20th, the _Germania_ ran up a signal to approach -and communicate, which was misunderstood, and, instead of repeating it -and making sure, the _Hansa_ put up her helm, fell off, crowded on all -sail, and disappeared in the fog. Koldewey, persisting in his efforts to -get through the pack, found an opening on the 1st of August. Nine days -afterwards he was again blocked, and finally, on the 27th, he reached -Pendulum Island, where he made the _Germania_ snug for the winter, which -proved to be remarkably mild. - -The first sledge party travelling up one of the fiords met with abundant -vegetation and herds of reindeer and musk oxen, and were visited by -bears who had not learnt to be wary of man; and when the bears came back -with the sun in February they were as troublesome as those of Ice Haven -to the Dutchmen. Several sledge parties went out in the spring, and, -notwithstanding inadequate equipment, did excellent work. In April, -1870, Koldewey reached 77° 1´, almost up to Lambert Land, otherwise the -Land of Edam. Here, looking out over the ice-belt, they agreed that it -was "a bulwark built for eternity," and hoisting sails on their sledges -they ran back to the ship. But in 1905 the Duke of Orleans arrived on -the coast to reach 78° 16´ and discover that their Cape Bismarck was on -an island and their Dove Bay a strait. - -In the neighbourhood of their winter quarters the glaciers and mountains -were well explored, and an attempt was made to measure an arc of the -meridian, which proved to be rather rough work among such surroundings. -The snowstorms were particularly pitiless and heavy, and the travelling -decidedly bad. The thaw began about the middle of May, and there was -more sledging through pools than usual, so that they did not want -variety in their occupations. On the 14th of July boating became -practicable, and a voyage was made to the Eskimo village found by -Clavering in 1823, on the island named after him, but the village proved -to be deserted and the huts in ruins—an unwelcome discovery, for, as -M'Clintock says in reference to it: "It is not less strange than sad to -find that a peaceable and once numerous tribe, inhabiting a coast-line -of at least seven degrees of latitude, has died out, or has almost died -out, whilst at the same time we find, by the diminution of the glaciers -and increase of animal life, that the terrible severity of the climate -has undergone considerable modification. We feel this saddening interest -with greater force when we reflect that the distance of Clavering's -village from the coast of Scotland is under one thousand miles. They -were our nearest neighbours of the New World." - -[Illustration: THE REGION ROUND MOUNT PETERMANN] - -A little north of the seventy-third parallel Koldewey discovered on his -way home the magnificent Franz Josef Fiord. Here the grandest scenery in -Greenland is to be found along its deep branches winding among the -mountains, one of which, Mount Petermann, is over eleven thousand feet -high. As the _Germania_ entered this remarkable inlet, which extends -inland for some five degrees of longitude, a fleet of icebergs were -sailing out of it with the current; the farther she advanced the warmer -seemed the temperature of the air and surface water, and the wilder and -more impressive became the grouping of the mighty cliffs and peaks with -their lofty waterfalls and raging torrents and deep glacier-filled -ravines. It was the great geographical discovery of the expedition. - -Meanwhile Hegemann, trying to pass to the north more to the westward, -got the _Hansa_ beset on the 9th of September some twenty-four miles -from Foster Bay. As the ice-pressure threatened to become too great for -the vessel to resist, an elaborate house was planned and built on the -floe. Briquettes were used for the walls, the joints were filled up with -dry snow on which water was poured, and in ten minutes it hardened into -a compact mass. The house was twenty feet long, fourteen feet wide, and -four feet eight inches high at the sides, with a rising roof consisting -of sails and mats covered with deep snow. Into this house, which took a -week to build, provisions for two months were carried, besides wood and -fuel. The boats were put out, a flagstaff was set up, and quite a little -settlement was started on the ice; and no sooner was it completed than a -violent snowstorm, lasting for five days, buried both the ship and the -house. The ice increased around, and, the pressure of the accumulation -lifting the _Hansa_ seventeen feet above her original level, everything -of value was removed from her on to the ice and into the house. On the -22nd of October she sank, having drifted below the seventy-first -parallel; and all through the winter the floe, which was about two miles -across, leisurely made its way to the south. - -Off Knighton Bay Christmas was kept with all possible honour. The -briquette house was decorated with coloured-paper festoons, and, by the -light of the sole remaining wax candle, the genial Germans made -themselves merry around a stubby Christmas tree devised out of an old -birch broom. Three weeks afterwards the floe cracked beneath the -dwelling. There was barely time to take refuge, but all hands were saved -in the boats. For two days they remained in them, poorly sheltered from -the storm and unable to clear out the snow. Then a smaller house was -built of the ruins of the old one, but it was only large enough for half -the party; and as the spring advanced the floe decreased, breaking away -at the edges as did that on which the _Polaris_ people drifted to -Labrador. - -[Illustration: THE LAST DAYS OF THE "HANSA"] - -At the end of March it entered Nukarbik Bay and there it stayed four -weeks, caught in an eddy, slowly moving round and round just far enough -from the shore to render an attempt at escape impossible; twice a day -they went in with the tide and out with the tide, the ice too bad for -the boats and never promising enough for a dash to the land. Having -become thoroughly acquainted with this portion of the coast with its -bold range of hills, its deep bays, its inlets, headlands, and islands, -a storm came on which cleared them out of the eddy and drove them -further south. Three weeks after that the floe had become so diminished -by the lashing of the surge that it was hardly a hundred yards across, -and large fragments were slipping off every hour. - -They had been on it for two hundred days and drifted eleven hundred -miles when, on the 7th of May, water-lanes opening shorewards, they took -to the boats and ventured among the masses of ice, making for the south. -At first they had their difficulties in being compelled to haul up on -the floes to pass the night or wait for a favourable wind, which meant -severe work in unloading and reloading. Once during their painful -progress of more than a month they were kept on a floe for six days by -gales and snow-showers. Finally, after a long desperate effort, they -reached Illuilek Island, and thence proceeded close inshore among rocks -and ice to Frederiksdal, a couple of hours' walk from the southernmost -point of the Greenland mainland, Cape Farewell being part of an island -twenty-eight miles further to the south-east. On the 21st of June, eight -days afterwards, they were at Julianehaab, whence they sailed to be -landed at Copenhagen on the 1st of September, just ten days before the -_Germania_ steamed into Bremen. Thus the expedition, by its two -divisions, ice-borne and ship-borne, had skirted nearly all that was -then known of the east coast from end to end. - -On the north coast, Beaumont's discoveries were extended by Lieutenant -James B. Lockwood for ninety-five miles, the trend of the shore taking -him up to 83° 24´, three minutes and thirty-four seconds nearer the -North Pole than Markham reached out on the sea. This was on the 13th of -May, 1882, during the ill-fated A. W. Greely expedition. Like most -American expeditions up to then this began well and ended badly, worse, -in fact, than any; and unlike them, and all others, it consisted -entirely of soldiers—as if a detachment of Royal Engineers had been sent -north on ordnance survey work. It was, however, more miscellaneous, for -among its twenty-three members were representatives of three cavalry -regiments, six infantry regiments, and an artilleryman. - -This was to be the garrison of the International Circumpolar Station at -Lady Franklin Bay. The idea of a ring of stations round the Pole for the -study of the natural phenomena for which the Arctic regions afford so -wide and important a field was not new, but it was first reduced to -definiteness and its adoption secured by Karl Weyprecht of the -Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872. At a meeting of German scientific -men at Gratz, in September, 1875, he procured assent to his general -principle that the best results in Arctic inquiry were to be obtained by -subordinating geographical discovery to physical investigation. It had -long been evident that the most valuable results had been obtained by -the ships and fixed observatories, and that the toilsome work of the -sledges in their successive approaches by a few more miles towards a -mathematical point, though most interesting to read about, had really -been of very little practical use owing to the necessarily light -equipment. Instead, therefore, of a number of isolated attempts at -irregular intervals, Weyprecht suggested that the better way would be to -attack the subject systematically by a group of expeditions at permanent -stations working together long enough at the same time for their -observations to be dealt with as part of a general scheme; and the -suggestion was approved although he did not live long enough to see the -stations occupied. - -[Illustration: GREENLAND] - -Three International Polar Conferences were held, in 1879 and the two -following years, at Hamburg, Berne, and St. Petersburg, at the last of -which it was arranged that the stations should be fourteen in number, -two in the south and twelve in the north, these twelve being—(1) The -Austrian at Jan Mayen; (2) the Danish at Godthaab; (3) the Finnish at -Sodankyla in Uleaborg; (4) the German at Kingua in Cumberland Sound; (5) -the British at Fort Rae on the northern arm of the Great Slave Lake; (6) -the Dutch at Dickson Harbour at the mouth of the Yenesei; (7) the -Norwegian at Bosekop at the head of Alten Fiord; (8) the Russian at -Little Karmakul Bay in Novaya Zemlya; (9) the second Russian on Sagastyr -Island in the Lena Delta; (10) the Swedish at Mossel Bay in Spitsbergen; -(11) the American at Point Barrow under Lieutenant P. H. Ray, who met -with marked success and brought his men all home in safety; and (12) the -second American at Lady Franklin Bay, the winter quarters of H.M.S. -_Discovery_, which Greely renamed Fort Conger. - -In direct opposition to the guiding idea of the scheme, Greely's work -was complicated by having tacked on to it Howgate's proposal of another -dash for the Pole, his instructions requiring him to send out "sledging -parties in the interests of exploration and discovery." Further, his -expedition was fitted out in a way that almost invited disaster. Let one -instance suffice. "In speaking of this instrument," he explains, "it is -necessary to say that a dip-circle was especially made for the Lady -Franklin Bay Expedition, but it was by error shipped to the United -States Coast Survey. On calling for it, when the duplicate instrument -ordered could not be had in time, the late Mr. Carlisle Patterson, then -Superintendent, promptly promised that it should be sent on to me at New -York. On the day of my sailing, a dip-circle, carefully boxed, was -received; but on opening it at St. John, an old, rusty, unreliable -instrument was found in the place of the new circle. This resulted in -unsatisfactory and incomplete observations at Conger, for the old circle -having upright standards instead of transverse ones, as in the new, but -one end of the needle could be read. It must always be a matter of -regret that this unwarrantable and unauthorised substitution by some -person was made, which materially impaired, if not effectually -destroyed, the value of our two-years' dip-observations." This sort of -thing reduced International Polar Research to a farce, and the same -spirit appeared in other departments, more seriously than all in the -relief proceedings, which were conducted in a way that could only lead -to starvation. - -In August, 1881, the _Proteus_, with the expedition on board, made her -way up Smith Sound and Kennedy Channel without serious hindrance until -she entered the south-eastern part of Lady Franklin Bay, where the -close, heavy pack brought her to a stop within eight miles of her -destination. She had come seven hundred miles from Upernivik in less -than a week, and, faced by ice twenty to fifty feet thick, she had to -wait another seven days before she got into Discovery Harbour. Here the -party landed and a house was built, and dissension arose which ended in -one of the company returning in the ship and another endeavouring to do -so and being too late, so that he had to remain as a sort of tolerated -volunteer. Two others were sent away as being physically unfit; but, -making up for these, were two Eskimos engaged at Upernivik. - -Preliminary sledging began at once, and in the spring the two great -efforts were made. The doctor's, towards the Pole, left on the 19th of -March and got adrift on a floe from which the party escaped with the -loss of their tent, provisions, and some of their instruments. According -to Greely's report: "The farthest latitude attained by this party is -given by Dr. Pavy as 82° 56´, it being estimated, as no observations for -time, magnetic declination, or latitude were made at any period during -his absence." - -On the 3rd of April, Lockwood with twelve men left for the coast of -Greenland. Up to Newman Bay four men had been sent back as unfit for -field-work. On the 16th, when the party started from here for the -north-east, Lockwood and Christiansen, the Eskimo, were in advance -hauling about eight hundred pounds with a team of eight dogs, a -three-men sledge following, and then two two-men sledges; at Cape Bryant -the men-sledges were sent back, and Lockwood, Brainard, and the Eskimo -went on with the dog-sledge. Cape Britannia was reached on the 5th of -May, and on the 13th they camped at Lockwood Island, and there, for the -first time, Americans reached a farthest north. - -"I decided to make this cape my farthest," reported Lockwood, "and to -devote the little time we could stay to determining accurately my -position, if the weather would allow, which seemed doubtful. We built a -large, conspicuous cairn, about six feet high and the same width at the -base, on the lower of two benches. After repitching the tent Sergeant -Brainard and I returned to the cairn, and collected in that vicinity -specimens of the rocks and vegetation of the country, the sergeant -making almost all the collection. We ascended without difficulty to a -small fringe of rocks, which seemed from below to form the top. The -ascent, at first very gradual, became steeper as we went up, but we had -no difficulty, as for some distance below the summit the surface is -covered with small stones, as uniform in size, position, etc., as those -of a macadamised road. Reached the top at 3.45 p.m. and unfurled the -American flag (Mrs. Greely's) to the breeze in latitude 83° 24´ N. -(according to last observation). The summit is a small plateau, narrow, -but extending back to the south to broken, snow-covered heights. It -commanded a very extended view in every direction. The barometer, being -out of order, was not brought along, so I did not get the altitude. The -horizon on the land side was concealed by numberless snow-covered -mountains, one profile overlapping another, and all so merged together, -on account of their universal covering of snow, that it was impossible -to detect the topography of the region. To the north lay an unbroken -expanse of ice, interrupted only by the horizon." - -On Midsummer Day Greely started with a four-wheel wagon to explore -Grinnell Land. The wagon, in the men's vernacular, was a man-killer, and -was abandoned after they had dragged it a hundred miles. On this journey -much exploring work was done in the unknown country, the most -interesting find being that of the Eskimo house at Lake Hazen. In this, -according to Greely's description, there were two fireplaces, one in the -east and the other in the south, both of which had been built outward so -as to take up no part of the space of the room, which was over seventeen -feet long and nine feet wide. The sides of the entire dwelling were low -walls of sodded earth, lined inside with flat thin slates, the tops of -which were about two feet above the level of the interior floor, and the -bench was covered with flat slabs of slate. Near by was a smaller house -of the same character, and around were a large number of relics, -including walrus-ivory toggles for dog-traces, sledge-bars and runners, -an arrow head, skinning knife, and articles of worked bone. Next year -further explorations of the back country were undertaken, so that some -six thousand miles of the interior were viewed, disclosing many fertile -valleys with their herds of musk ox. - -Meanwhile the _Neptune_, with supplies for Fort Conger, had in August, -1882, been vainly endeavouring to get north, and, a few miles from Cape -Hawks, had turned back with the pack piling the ice as high as her rail. -Six attempts she made before she gave up and retreated, after making -several deposits of stores at Cape Sabine and elsewhere. In July, 1883, -the _Proteus_, making a similar attempt to reach Greely, was crushed in -the ice off Cape Albert, her side opening with a crash while the men -were working in the hold, the ice forcing its way into the coal-bunkers -and then pouring in so that as soon as the pressure slackened she went -down, escape to the south being effected in the boats. - -Next year, matters having become serious, a naval expedition consisting -of the _Thetis_, the _Bear_, and Nares's old ship the _Alert_, presented -by the British Government, was placed in the capable hands of Commander -Winfield Schley, who had with him George Melville of _Jeannette_ fame as -engineer of the _Thetis_, and matters were conducted in quite a -different way under much more favourable circumstances. Schley intended -to find Greely, at all costs, and he did so. First he found a cairn at -Brevoort Island, in which were the papers deposited by Greely relating -how he had had to come south owing to shortness of supplies, and how his -party were then—21st of October, 1883—encamped on the west side of a -small neck of land distant about equally from Cape Sabine and Cocked Hat -Island. - -As it was then the 22nd of June, 1884, and they had had only forty days' -complete rations to live upon, Schley hurried off at once. Had he been -two days later he would have been too late. There was a tent wrecked by -the gale, with its pole toppling over and only kept in place by the guy -ropes. Ripping it up with a knife, a sight of horror was disclosed. On -one side, close to the opening, with his head towards the outside, lay -what was apparently a dead man. On the opposite side was a poor fellow, -alive but without hands or feet, and with a spoon tied to the stump of -his right arm. Two others, seated on the ground, were pouring something -out of a rubber bottle into a tin can. Directly opposite, on his hands -and knees, was a dark man with a long matted beard, in a dirty and -tattered dressing-gown with a little red skull cap on his head, and -brilliant staring eyes. As Colwell appeared, he raised himself a little, -and put on a pair of eyeglasses. - -"Who are you?" asked Colwell. - -The man made no answer, staring at him vacantly. - -"Who are you?" again. - -One of the men spoke up. "That's the Major—Major Greely." - -Colwell crawled in and took him by the hand, saying to him, "Greely, is -this you?" - -"Yes," said Greely in a faint, broken voice, hesitating with his words; -"yes—seven of us left—here we are—dying—like men. Did what I came to -do—beat the best record." - -Near at hand were ten graves. The bodies, despite Greely's -remonstrances, were taken up and removed for burial in the United -States. "Little could be seen of the condition of the bodies, as they -had been clothed, and all that appeared was intact. In preparing them -subsequently," says Schley, "it was found that six had been cut and the -flesh removed." One of these, that of a cavalryman serving under the -assumed name of Henry, had a bullet in it. He had been shot, at Greely's -written order, "for stealing sealskin thongs, the only remaining food." - -The next to add to our knowledge of the northern coast of Greenland was -Robert E. Peary, of the American Navy, who seems to have devoted his -life to Arctic exploration. On his first expedition in 1886, he -penetrated with Maigaard for some distance into the country in the -neighbourhood of Jakobshavn as a sort of pioneering venture. In 1891, -accompanied by his wife, when outward bound in the _Kite_ in the -Melville Bay pack, he had his leg broken. The ship had been butting a -passage through the spongy sheets of ice which had imprisoned her, when -in going astern a detached cake struck the rudder, jamming the tiller -against the wheel-house where Peary was standing, and pinned his leg -long enough to snap it between the knee and the ankle. In spite of this -he insisted on being landed with the rest of the party at McCormick Bay, -a little to the north of Whale Sound, where a house was built and the -winter spent. - -Making a good recovery, he set off in May to sledge across North -Greenland through snow and over it, and over snow-arched crevasses, -often, in cloudy weather, travelling in grey space with nothing visible -beyond a foot or two around him. After fifty-seven days' journey to the -north-east and along Peary Channel, the northern boundary of the -mainland, he left the inland ice for a strange country dotted with -snowdrifts and mostly of red sandstone, in which murmuring streams, -roaring waterfalls, and the song of snow-buntings formed an agreeable -change from the silence of the desert of snow. Four days' hard labouring -through this brought him on the 4th of July to Independence Bay on the -north-east coast, where from Navy Cliff, nearly four thousand feet high, -he looked across to Academy Land on the other side of the bay and beyond -it over the region leading down to the farthest north of the Duke of -Orleans. "It was almost impossible," he says, "to believe that we were -standing upon the northern shore of Greenland as we gazed from the -summit of this bronze cliff, with the most brilliant sunshine all about -us, with yellow poppies growing between the rocks around our feet, and a -herd of muskoxen in the valley behind us. Down in that valley I had -found an old friend, a dandelion in bloom, and had seen the bullet-like -flight and heard the energetic buzz of the humble-bee." - -[Illustration: R. E. Peary, U. S. N.] - -Next year he and his wife were out again to take up their quarters at a -house they built at Bowdoin Bay, where, in September, their daughter was -born. In March, 1894, he started for another journey across Greenland, -with twelve sledges and over ninety dogs, but severe weather drove him -back after travelling some two hundred miles. Staying over that winter -instead of returning in the _Falcon_, he set out in the spring, and -under almost desperate circumstances managed to reach and return from -Independence Bay. - -Following this came his expedition of 1898, in which he spent four -winters in the Arctic regions and almost met with Petersen's fate by a -venturesome winter sledge journey, which resulted in the freezing of his -feet and the loss of eight of his toes. Travelling in Grinnell Land he -proved beyond doubt that it was continuous with Ellesmere Land, as had -been admitted by those who named it. Following Lockwood's track, he -continued it up to 83° 54´, along Hazen Land, practically completing the -coast-line to Cape Henry Parish, its furthest east, thus rounding the -north of the Greenland archipelago, and even there finding traces of -Eskimos and a fauna similar to that of other Arctic lands hundreds of -miles further south. And striking northwards over the sea from Cape -Hecla, with seven men and six dog-sledges, into the breaking, drifting -pack, he made a dash for the Pole which ended at 84° 17´. - -His next northern venture, though not more remarkable, is destined, -perhaps, to be remembered longer. On it he sighted the new land away out -in the sea north-west of Grinnell Land, nearer to the Pole than any -other land discovered up to then, and where it was expected to be. And -out over the ice he went to eclipse his 1902 record by nearly two -hundred miles, in the best planned of all his journeys. - -In July, 1905, he had left New York in the _Roosevelt_, a steamship of -over six hundred tons and more than a thousand horse-power, rigged -complete as a three-masted coasting schooner, able to hold her own -almost anywhere in the event of her engines becoming useless. One -hundred and eighty-two feet in length, thirty-five and a half in beam, -and sixteen and a quarter in depth; sharp in the bow and rounded -amidships; treble in framing and double in planking, with sides thirty -inches thick, twelve feet of deadwood in her bow, and six feet of false -keels and kelsons, she was specially built for the expedition as the -strongest and most powerful vessel ever sent on Arctic service, and was -launched on the 23rd of May, 1905, Mrs. Peary naming her by smashing a -block of ice against her ironclad stem. - -A month out from New York, the _Roosevelt_ left Etah laden deep with -coal from the _Eric_ that had awaited her there, and having on board -over fifty Eskimos, of both sexes and all sizes, and some two hundred -Eskimo dogs. Leaving a reserve of provisions at Bache Peninsula, she -worked up through open water and occasional ice to Richardson Bay, where -the pack looked so threatening that Peary literally rammed his way -across to the eastern side, and so continued northwards. When off Cape -Lupton the ship received such rough treatment that the rudder was -twisted and the head-bands and tiller-rods broken, as she ground along -the face of the ice-foot "with a motion and noise like that of a -railway-car which has left the rails"; but this was the only time she -was in serious danger during her most fortunate run. Resting for six -days in Newman Bay to repair damages and make ready for a final effort, -she was headed westward to Grinnell Land through the floes, and after a -continuous battle of thirty-five hours, reached the ice-foot at Cape -Sheridan, a little north of the old winter quarters of the _Alert_, and -found her wintering place, like her, just as the Polar pack closed in -against the shore. The endeavour had been to lay up in Porter Bay, -twenty-seven miles further north, but the state of the ice made this -impossible. - -Provisions were plentiful, as no less than two hundred and fifty musk -oxen had been shot by the 1st of November, and there were numbers of -hares and several herds of the white reindeer first mentioned by Hudson -in his second voyage three hundred years ago. During the very mild -winter eighty of the dogs died, and when sledging began only twenty -teams of six each were available. The plan of the northern advance over -the ice was to divide it into sections of about fifty miles each, with -snow houses at each station, the nearest station being supplied from the -base and supplying the next, and so on, thus keeping up an unbroken line -of communication gradually extending nearer to the Pole, the sledges -working backwards and forwards, outwards laden and inwards empty, -between station and station along the line. - -The land was left at Point Moss, north-west of Cape Joseph Henry. At 84° -38´ a lead in the pack stopped the way for six days until the young ice -was thick enough to bear, and forty miles further north the vanguard -drifted east some seventy miles during a storm for another six days. On -the 20th of April a region of much open water was reached, and from -midnight to noon next day the last effort was made by Peary, Henson, and -a small party of Eskimos, the farthest north, 87° 6´, being attained and -immediately left in a rapid retreat for safety. - -Thus Peary went nearer to the Pole than Cagni by thirty-two minutes or -thirty-seven statute miles, both being stopped by water with apparently -similar conditions ahead of them. What the conditions may be along the -intervening two hundred miles from Peary's farthest nobody knows; but -although a good many things may happen between London and York, which is -about the same distance, there is good reason for supposing that, even -if there be land somewhere, the road is over a sea more or less packed -with ice which is never without its channels. - -One thing is clear: the attainment of the Pole is a matter of money. -Given the funds, the men and the dogs, and the ships, boats, sledges, -and other things will be forthcoming, and the journey accomplished, not -by a rush, but on some systematic station-to-station plan; though it is -not impossible that it may be done by chance in some exceptional year, -for the climate of the north is variable and has a wider range of -temperature than that of Britain in its good years and its bad years. - -Let us hope there may be land at the exact spot, for then the position -can be checked at leisure, and there will be no doubt of its having been -reached. Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King, in 1652 met at -Amsterdam a sailor of a Greenland ship which "went not out to fish that -summer, but only to take in the lading of the whole fleet to bring it to -an early market"—in other words, to act as a carrier—which ship, before -the whaling fleet had caught enough to lade her, had by order of the -Company sailed to the North Pole and back again, and even two degrees -beyond it; no land seen, no ice, and the weather as it was in -summer-time at Amsterdam. - -A sailor's yarn told in a tavern? Only this and nothing more, perhaps; -though a good many things were kept dark in the whaling trade as in -other trades. But if there had been an island at the Pole we might -eventually have been able to verify that ancient mariner's tale. - - - - - INDEX - - - Abruzzi, Duke of, The, 76 - - Academy Land, 281 - - Actinia Haven, 87 - - _Advance_, The, 183, 236 - - _Aid_, The, 218, 219 - - Akaitcho, 150, 156, 160 - - Alaska, 134 - - Aldrich, Pelham, 255 - - _Alert_, H.M.S., 248, 278 - - _Alexander_, The, 179 - - Alexander, Cape, 234, 235 - - Alexandra Land, 75 - - _Alexandria_, H.M.S., 179 - - Alfred Ernest, Cape, 257 - - Ameralik Fiord, 261 - - America, The Norse discovery of, 3 - - Amundsen, Roald, 178, 214 - - _Ancylonema nordenskioeldii_, 264 - - Anderson Falls, The, 163 - - Andrée, S. A., 104 - - Anjou, P. F., 108 - - _Ann Frances_, The, 220 - - Antelope, 126 - - Archangel, 6 - - Archer, Colin, 91 - - Archer Fiord, 250, 257 - - Archer, R., 257 - - _Arctic_, The, 247 - - Arctic Search Expedition, The first, 7 - - _Assistance_, H.M.S., 183, 184 - - Atlassof, 128 - - Augustus the Eskimo, 157, 159, 160 - - Auk, Cape, 69 - - Auleitsivik Fiord, 263 - - Aurora Borealis, The, 67 - - Austin, Horatio, 183 - - Austria Sound, 68 - - Avigait, 264 - - - Baal's River, 260 - - Back, George, 38, 149, 151, 156, 160, 203 - - Baden-Powell, Sir George, 105 - - Baffin, William, 15, 233 - - Baffin Land, 233 - - Banks Land, 172, 176, 182 - - Baranoff Cape, 85 - - Barents Bay, 49 - - Barents, Willem, 9, 49 - - Barnacle Goose, The, 12 - - Barren Grounds, The, 156, 159 - - Barrington, The Hon. Daines, 29 - - Barrow Point, 137, 167, 273 - - Barrow, Sir John, 178 - - Barrow Strait, 180 - - Bathurst Island, 180, 206 - - Bear, Black, 110 - - Bear Island, 12 - - Bear, Polar, 11, 12, 23, 27, 28, 52, 73, 74, 88, 99, 186, 238, 267 - - _Bear_, The, 278 - - Beaufort Sea, The, 173 - - Beaumont, Lewis Anthony, 257 - - Beechey, Cape, 159 - - Beechey, Frederick William, 35, 137 - - Beechey Island, 180, 183, 186, 206 - - Belanger, 151 - - Belcher, Edward, 184 - - Bellot, Joseph René, 183, 207 - - Bellot Strait, 197 - - Bennet, Stephen, 12 - - Bennett Island, 107, 117, 126 - - Bering Strait, 85, 127 - - Bering, Veit, 130 - - Berry, Captain, 141 - - Bessels, Emil, 245 - - Best, George, 220 - - Best's Bulwark, 219 - - Bille, Cape, 262 - - Bird Cape, 12 - - Birds, 12, 88, 113, 114, 141, 160, 172, 181, 228, 239, 258, 280 - - Bismarck, Cape, 268 - - Bjarni discovers America, 2 - - Bjelkof Island, 107 - - _Blossom_, H.M.S., 137 - - Boat Extreme, 167 - - Bolscheretzkoi, 131 - - _Bona Confidentia_, The, 5 - - _Bona Esperanza_, The, 5 - - Booth, Felix, 194 - - Boothia, 190 - - Borough, Steven, 6 - - Borough, William, 8 - - Bosekop, 273 - - Bounty Cape, 180 - - Bowdoin Bay, 281 - - Bowen, Port, 193 - - Bradley, Thomas, 4 - - Brainard, D. L., 276 - - Brattelid, 261 - - Brentford Bay, 197, 207 - - British Channel, 75, 99 - - Brorok, Cape, 82 - - Brown, Robert, 265 - - Brunel, Olivier, 9 - - Brunn, Mount, 71 - - Buchan, David, 33, 157 - - Buchan Island, 211 - - Buddington, J. M., 245 - - Bulun, 124 - - Bunge, A., 126 - - Burrough Strait, 7 - - Bush, Henry, 129 - - Butcher's Island, 217 - - Byam Martin Island, 180 - - Bylot, Robert, 233 - - - Cabot, Sebastian, 4, 5 - - Cagni, Umberto, 77, 284 - - Cambridge Bay, 177 - - Camden Bay, 177 - - _Carcass_, H.M.S., 29 - - Carlsen, Elling, 44, 58 - - Carlsen, Olaf, 65 - - _Castor_, The (boat), 166 - - Castor and Pollux River, 169, 208 - - Cathay Company, The, 218 - - Catherine, The Empress, 130 - - Cator, Lieutenant, 183 - - Cavendish thermometer, The, 30 - - Chamisso Island, 138 - - Chancellor, Richard, 5 - - Char, 44, 258 - - Charing Cross, 220 - - Charles's Foreland, Prince, 14 - - Chelagskoi, Cape, 108 - - Chelyuskin, Cape, 84 - - Cherie Island, 12 - - Chippewyan, Fort, 147, 152, 166 - - Christian Land, King, 185 - - Chukches, The, 89, 115, 127 - - Chvoinof, 106 - - Clavering Island, 268 - - Clerke, Charles, 136 - - _Clio borealis_, 268 - - Coal, 45, 249, 258 - - Collinson, Richard, 171, 175 - - Columbia, Cape, 257 - - Columbus visits Iceland, 3 - - Colwell, J. C., 279 - - Commander Islands, The, 135 - - Conferences, The Polar, 273 - - Confidence, Fort, 167 - - Conger, Fort, 273 - - Constitution, Cape, 236 - - Conway, William Martin, 47 - - Cook, James, 90, 136 - - Cookery-of-Haarlem, 25 - - Coppermine River, 147, 153, 159, 167 - - Cornwall, North, 185 - - Cornwallis Island, 180, 206 - - Coronation Gulf, 155 - - Countess of Warwick Island, 219, 222 - - Crow's Nest, The, 30 - - Crozier, F. R. M., 205, 212 - - Cumberland Gulf, 227 - - - Dall, W. H., 142 - - Danes Island, 104 - - Danish Sound, 185 - - Davis, John, 9, 223 - - Davis Strait, 227 - - Dealy Island, 174, 180 - - Dease, Peter Warren, 158, 165 - - Dease River, 158, 159 - - Dease Strait, 168 - - Dee, Dr. John, 223 - - De Haven, Lieutenant, 183 - - De Long, G. W., 116 - - Deschnef, 85 - - Des Vœux, C. F., 212 - - Devon, North, 180 - - _Diana_, The, 44 - - Dickson Harbour, 85, 273 - - _Discovery_, H.M.S. (Cook), 136 - - _Discovery_, H.M.S. (Nares), 248 - - _Discovery_, The (Hudson), 233 - - Discovery Harbour, 250 - - Distillation apparatus, The, 30 - - _Dolphin_, The (boat), 157, 158 - - Dolphin and Union Strait, 159 - - _Dorothea_, H.M.S., 33 - - Dove Bay, 268 - - Drummond, Thomas, 157, 160 - - Dudley, Ambrose, 216 - - Dudley Digges Cape, 234 - - Durfourth, Captain, 5 - - Dyer, Cape, 227 - - - East Cape, 132 - - Ebierbing and Tookoolito, 244 - - Edam, Land of, 268 - - Edge, Thomas, 15 - - Edge's Island, 15 - - _Edward Bonaventure_, The, 5 - - Egede, Hans, 259 - - Egede, Paul, 260 - - _Eira_, The, 72 - - _Elizabeth_, The, 232 - - _Ellen_, The, 231 - - Ellesmere Land, 235, 281 - - Ellis, John, 225 - - Elmwood, 103 - - Elson, Thomas, 137, 159 - - Elson Bay, 137 - - _Endeavour_, The (boat), 41 - - English Chief, 147 - - Entada bean, The, 44 - - Enterprise, Fort, 150 - - _Enterprise_, H.M.S., 171, 175 - - _Enterprise_, The (boat), 41 - - _Erebus_, H.M.S., 171, 183, 205 - - _Eric_, The, 283 - - Eric the Red, 2, 261 - - Ermine, 188 - - Eskimo relics, 277 - - Eskimos first met with, 217 - - Eskimos, Migration of the, 3 - - Eskimos, 3, 139, 140, 145, 152, 154, 157, 158, 159, 167, 168, 176, 192, - 198, 200, 207, 211, 217, 222, 225, 229, 237, 244, 246, 258, 260, - 277, 282, 283 - - Etah, 283 - - Evensen, Captain, 83 - - Exeter Sound, 227 - - _Express_, The, 87 - - - _Falcon_, The, 281 - - Farewell, Cape, 271 - - Fedotof, 129 - - Felix Harbour, 197 - - _Felix_, The, 182 - - Fern, The first Spitsbergen, 43 - - Finlay Island, 185 - - Finlayson Islands, 177 - - Fish River, The Great, 160, 169 - - Fishes, 153, 176, 258 - - FitzJames, James, 212 - - Fligely, Cape, 70, 76 - - Floeberg Beach, 250 - - Flora, Cape, 72, 75, 103 - - Forsyth, C. C., 183 - - Fossils, 43, 107, 126, 173, 266 - - Foulke Harbour, 239 - - Fox, Arctic, 23, 53 - - Fox, Black, 144 - - Fox, Silver-grey, 144 - - _Fox_, The, 208 - - _Fram_, The, 91, 185 - - Franklin, Fort, 158 - - Franklin, John, 33, 149, 156, 195, 205 - - Franklin, Lady, 209, 235 - - Franklin Record, The, 212 - - Franklin Strait, 206 - - Franz Josef Fiord, 269 - - Franz Josef Land, 62, 64 - - _Fraser_, The, 87 - - Frazer, Cape, 236 - - Frederick Jackson Island, 99 - - Frederiksdal, 271 - - Frobisher Bay, 216 - - Frobisher, Martin, 215 - - Frozen Strait, 190 - - Fur-seal, The, 135 - - Fury Beach, 193, 202 - - Fury and Hecla Strait, 193 - - _Fury_, H.M.S., 191 - - - _Gabriel_, The (Bering), 132 - - _Gabriel_, (Frobisher), 216, 218 - - Gabriel Islands, The, 221 - - Gardiner, Charles, 59 - - Garry, Fort, 165 - - _George_, The, 8 - - _Germania_, The, 267 - - Gibraltar Bay, Battle of, 58 - - Giffard, G. A., 255 - - Gilbert, Adrian, 223, 229 - - Gilbert, Humphrey, 215, 221 - - Gilbert Sound, 225 - - Gjöa, The, 214 - - Gjöahaven, 214 - - Glaciers, 16, 46, 68, 189, 242, 237, 244, 264 - - _Glow-worm_, The, 59 - - Godfrey, William, 236 - - Godthaab, 91, 225, 273 - - Godthaab Fiord, 260 - - Gore, Graham, 206, 212 - - Graah, W. A., 266 - - Graham Island, 185 - - Greely, A. W., 272 - - Greenland, 2, 14, 259 - - Greenland Archipelago, The, 282 - - Greenland, East, 12 - - _Greyhound_, The, 10 - - Griffith Island, 180 - - Grinnell Land, 236, 277, 281 - - _Griper_, H.M.S., 179, 202, 267 - - Gulf Stream, The, 13, 26, 44 - - Gundersen, Captain, 59 - - Gunnbiörn discovers Greenland, 2 - - - Hakluyt Headland, 14 - - Hall Basin, 245 - - Hall, C. F., 213, 222, 244 - - Hall, Christopher, 216 - - Hall, James, 233 - - Hall Island, 68 - - Hall's Rest, 246 - - Hamilton, Cape, 174 - - Hans Hendrik, 237, 245, 249 - - _Hansa_, The, 267 - - Hare, 172, 176, 181, 186, 188, 283 - - Hare Fiord, 186 - - Hartstene Bay, 241 - - Hayes, I. I., 237 - - Hazen, Lake, 277 - - Hazen Land, 281 - - Hearne, Samuel, 147 - - Hecla, Cape, 282 - - _Hecla_, H.M.S., 40, 179, 191 - - Hedenström, 107 - - Heemskerck, Jacob van, 10, 49 - - Heer, Oswald, 266 - - Hegemann, Captain, 269 - - Heiberg Land, Axel, 185 - - Helluland, 3 - - Hendon, North, 197 - - Hendrik, Hans, 237, 245, 249 - - Hendriksen Sound, 185 - - Henrietta Island, 107 - - Henson, C., 284 - - Hepburn, John, 156, 207 - - _Herald_, H.M.S., 138 - - Herald Island, 116, 141 - - Herschel, Cape, 169, 212 - - Himkoff, Alexis, 26 - - Hinlopen Strait, 17 - - Hobson, W. R., 208, 212 - - Hohenlohe Island, 68 - - Hood River, The, 155 - - Hood, Robert, 149 - - Hooper, William Hulme, 140 - - Hope, Fort, 204 - - _Hope_, The (Young), 75 - - _Hope_, The (Egede), 260 - - Howgate, H. W., 274 - - Hudson Bay, 62 - - Hudson, Henry, 13, 15, 60 - - Hudson River, The, 61 - - Hudson Strait, 4, 62, 221, 232 - - Hudson's Bay Company, The, 146 - - Hudson's Touches, 14 - - Humboldt Glacier, The, 237 - - Hyaqua shell, The, 145 - - - Icebergs, 35, 230, 264 - - Ice-drill, The, 30 - - Ice Haven, 49 - - Iceland, 2 - - Icy Cape, 136, 137 - - Igloolik, 193 - - Igloos, 198, 211 - - Ikmallik, 200 - - Independence Bay, 280 - - Inglefield, E. A., 235 - - Ingolf lands in Iceland, 2 - - Insects, 192, 281 - - International Polar Stations, The, 272 - - _Intrepid_, H.M.S., 183 - - _Investigator_, H.M.S., 171 - - Irkaipii, 89, 136 - - Irving, John, 212, 213 - - _Isabel_, The, 235 - - Isabella, Cape, 235 - - _Isabella_, The, 179, 202 - - Isachsen, Cape, 186 - - _Isbjörn_, The, 64 - - - Jackman, Charles, 8, 60 - - Jackson, Frederick G., 75, 103 - - Jakobshavn, 266, 280 - - Jan Mayen, 14, 273 - - Japanese, The, 129, 133 - - _Jason_, The, 261 - - _Jeannette_, The, 91, 116, 141 - - Jeannette Island, 107 - - Jenkinson, Anthony, 7, 215 - - Jesup Land, 185 - - Joe and Hannah, 244 - - Johansen, F. H., 96 - - _John_, The, 196 - - Jones Sound, 234 - - Joseph Henry, Cape, 284 - - Journal, The, introduced, 5 - - _Judith_, The, 219 - - Julianehaab, 266 - - - Kalutunah, 237 - - Kamchatka, 129 - - Kane, E. K., 236 - - Kane Sea, The, 235 - - Kara Sea, The, 7 - - Karmakul Bay, 273 - - Kay, E. C. Lister, 59 - - Kellett, Henry, 138, 174, 184 - - Kendall, E. N., 156 - - Kennedy Channel, 236 - - Kennedy, Port, 211 - - Kennedy, William, 183, 207 - - King, Richard, 160 - - Kingua, 273 - - King William Land, 163, 214 - - _Kite_, The, 280 - - Knight, John, 146 - - Kod-lun-arn, 223 - - Kola, 9, 12, 57 - - Koldewey, Karl, 267 - - Kolguiev, 8 - - Kolyuchin Bay, 90 - - Kompakova, The, 129 - - Kotelnoi Island, 106, 117 - - Kraechoj, 127 - - _Krusenstern_, The, 196 - - Kruzof Island, 134 - - Ku Mark Surka, 122 - - Kuriles, The, 133 - - Kutchins, The, 145 - - - Labrador, Discovery of, 4 - - Labrets, 145 - - Lady Franklin, 183 - - Lady Franklin Bay, 250, 272 - - Lambert Land, 268 - - Lamont, James, 44 - - Lancaster Sound, 179, 180, 234 - - Lands Lokk, 186 - - Laptef, Dmitri, 85 - - Laptef, Khariton, 84 - - Leif lands in America, 3 - - Lemming, 188 - - _Lena_, The, 87 - - Lena Delta, The, 106 - - Liakhoff, 89, 106 - - Liakhoff Island, 89, 126 - - Lichens, 156 - - Lifeboat Cove, 247 - - Linschoten, Van, 10 - - _Lion_, The (boat), 157, 158 - - Little Table Island, 41 - - Lock, Michael, 61, 216 - - Lockwood, James B., 272, 275 - - Lockwood Island, 276 - - Log, The, introduced, 5 - - Long, G. W. De, 116 - - Long, Thomas, 141 - - Loschkin, S., 62 - - Louis Napoleon, Cape, 235 - - Ludlow, 62 - - Lunar at sea, The first, 17 - - Lundstrom, 85 - - Lütke, 63 - - Lutwidge, Skeffington, 29 - - Lyon, George Francis, 191, 202 - - - Mackenzie, Alexander, 147 - - Mackenzie River, Discovery of, 148 - - Macintoshes, The first, 157 - - M'Clintock, F. L., 184, 208, 248, 268 - - M'Clintock, Cape, 99 - - M'Clure, Robert Le M., 171, 177 - - McCormick Bay, 280 - - McKay, James, 161 - - _Magnet_, The (boat), 204 - - Magnetic North Pole, 214 - - Mahlemut labret, The, 145 - - Mammals, Fossil, 126 - - Mammoth, 107, 115, 126 - - Markham, A. H., 247, 249 - - Markland, 3 - - Marten skins, 144 - - Martens, F., 25 - - Mary Harmsworth, Cape, 75 - - _Mary Margaret_, The, 15 - - Matiuschkin, 108 - - _Matthew_, The, 4 - - Matty Island, 201 - - Matyushin Shar, 60 - - May, William H., 256 - - Melville Bay, 234 - - Melville, G. W., 117 - - Melville Island, 174, 176, 180 - - Melville Peninsula, 192, 205 - - Merchant Adventurers, The, 5 - - _Mercury_, The, 9 - - Mercy Bay, 174 - - _Mermaid_, The, 229 - - Meta Incognita, 219 - - _Michael_, The, 216 - - Middendorf Glacier, The, 68 - - Middleton, Christopher, 190 - - Mistaken Streight, 221 - - Moloi, 106 - - Montreal Island, 162, 169, 206, 212 - - Moons, Mock, 151 - - _Moonshine_, The, 224, 229 - - Moore, Thomas E. L., 138 - - Moose-hunting, 144 - - Moravians, The, 261 - - Morton, William, 236, 245 - - Moss, E. L., 254 - - Moss Point, 284 - - Mossel Bay, 44, 45, 273 - - Moxon, Joseph, 285 - - Murchison, Cape, 197 - - Murchison River, 208 - - Muscovy Company, The, 6, 13, 15, 17, 60, 233 - - Musk ox, 126, 172, 181, 188, 248, 267, 283 - - - Nai, Cornelis, 9 - - _Nancy Dawson_, The, 139 - - Nansen, Fridtjof, 91, 261 - - Nares, G. S., 248 - - Narwhal, 31, 188, 219 - - Nassau, Cape, 9 - - Navy Cliff, 280 - - Nelson, Horatio, 29 - - _Neptune_, The, 277 - - Newfoundland, Discovery of, 4 - - Newman Bay, 283 - - New Siberian Islands, The, 88, 106 - - Nindemann, 118 - - Nordenskiöld, Adolf Erik, 43, 44, 85, 263 - - Noros, 118 - - Norsemen discover America, 2 - - Northbrook Island, 100 - - North Cape, The, 6, 89, 136 - - North East Land, 26 - - North-East Passage, The, 5, 85 - - Northern Passage, The, 5 - - _North Pole_, The (boat), 204 - - North Pole, Magnetic, 214 - - _North Star_, The, 229 - - North Water, The, 234 - - North-West Fur Company, The, 147 - - North-West Passage, The, 5 - - Norton Sound, 142 - - Nova Kholmogory, 9 - - Novaya Zemlya, 7, 9, 49 - - Nulato, 142 - - Ny Herrnhut, 261 - - - Obi, The, 85 - - Observation, Mount, 172 - - Ochotsk, 129 - - Ommanney, Erasmus, 183 - - Omoki, The, 115 - - Ooligbuck the Eskimo, 157, 158, 168 - - Oraefa, Mount, 2 - - Orleans, Duke of, 268 - - Osborn, Sherard, 183 - - Ostiaks, The, 115 - - _Otaria_, The, 105 - - - Pachtussoff, 63 - - _Pandora_, The, 116 - - Parhelia, 152 - - Parker Bay, 171 - - Parr, Alfred A. C., 255 - - Parry, William Edward, 40, 178, 179, 191, 234 - - Parry Falls, The, 163 - - _Patience_, The, 233 - - Patrick Island, Prince, 174, 184 - - Pavy, O., 275 - - Payer, Julius, 64 - - Peary Channel, 280 - - Peary, Robert E., 185, 186, 280 - - Peel Sound, 206 - - Pellham, Edward, 18 - - Pelly Bay, 207 - - Pelly Point, 171 - - Pendulum Island, 267 - - Penny Strait, 206 - - Penny, William, 183 - - Pet, Arthur, 7, 60 - - Pet Strait, 8 - - Peter the Great, 130 - - Petermann Fiord, 248 - - Petermann, Mount, 269 - - Petersen Bay, 214 - - Petersen, C., 208 - - Petropaulovsk, 134 - - Phipps, The Hon. Constantine John, 29 - - Pim, Bedford, 174 - - _Pioneer_, H.M.S., 183 - - Plants, 43, 88, 91, 113, 114, 156, 192, 248, 264, 266, 281 - - _Plover_, H.M.S., 138 - - Point Lake, 153 - - Point Victory, 206 - - Polar Stations, The International, 272, 273 - - _Polaris_, The, 245 - - _Polhem_, The, 44 - - _Pollux_, The (boat), 166 - - Poole, Jonas, 13, 15 - - Porcupine River, The, 142 - - Pospeloff, 62 - - Pribylov Islands, The, 135 - - _Prince Albert_, The, 183, 207 - - Prince of Wales, Cape, 136 - - Prince of Wales Strait, 172, 176 - - _Proeven_, The, 85 - - Pronchistschef, 85 - - _Proteus_, The, 274, 278 - - _Protococcus nivalis_, 192 - - Prudhoe Land, 234 - - Pullen, W. J. S., 139 - - - Quennerstedt, A., 43 - - - _Racehorse_, H.M.S., 29 - - _Racer_, The, 183 - - Rae, Fort, 273 - - Rae, John, 170, 204, 207 - - Rae Strait, 208, 214 - - Raleigh, Mount, 227 - - Rat River, The, 142 - - _Ravenscraig_, The, 247 - - Rawlings Bay, 241 - - Rawson, Wyatt, 257 - - Red snow, 192 - - Regent Inlet, Prince, 180 - - _Regina_, The, 59 - - Reikjavik founded, 2 - - Reindeer, 10, 18, 23, 27, 28, 60, 109, 150, 169, 172, 174, 176, 181, - 188, 267, 283 - - Reindeer, White, 61, 283 - - Reliance, Fort, 160 - - _Reliance_, The (boat), 158 - - Rensselaer Harbour, 235, 236 - - Repulse Bay, 191, 204, 207 - - _Resolute_, H.M.S., 175, 183, 184 - - _Resolution_, H.M.S., 136 - - _Resolution_, The (whaler), 31 - - Return Reef, 159, 166 - - Rhinoceros, 126 - - Richardson, John, 149, 156, 170 - - Richthofen Peak, 71 - - Rijp, Jan Corneliszoon, 11, 57 - - Ringnes Islands, The, 185 - - Ritenbenk, 249 - - Robeson Channel, 245 - - Rocky Mountains first crossed, 149 - - _Rodgers_, The, 141 - - _Roosevelt_, The, 282 - - Rosmysslof, 62 - - Ross, James Clark, 41, 181, 201 - - Ross, John, 179, 182, 194, 234 - - Rudolf Island, Prince, 75, 76, 82 - - Hudson's Point, 14 - - Russell, Cape, 235 - - Ryder, Lieut., 266 - - - Sabine, Edward, 181, 267 - - Sabine, Cape, 235 - - Sable, The, 135 - - Sagastyr Island, 273 - - St. Elias, Cape, 134 - - St. Elias, Mount, 136 - - St. Lawrence Bay, 141 - - St. Lawrence Island, 132 - - _St. Paul_, The, 134 - - _St. Peter_, The, 134 - - _Salmo arcturus_, 258 - - Salmon trout, 176 - - _Salutation_, The, 18 - - Samoyeds, The, 10, 115 - - Sanderson's Hope, 232 - - Sanderson, William, 224 - - Sannikof, 107 - - Schley, Winfield S., 278 - - Schonau Island, 70 - - Schwatka, Frederick, 213 - - Scoresby, William, the elder, 30 - - Scoresby, William, the younger, 31, 129, 266 - - Seal, The Fur, 135 - - Seals, 31, 88 - - Sea-otter, The, 135 - - _Searchthrift_, The, 7 - - Semonovski Island, 117 - - Serdze Kamen, Cape, 90, 132, 136 - - Seven Islands, The, 40 - - Shackleton, Cape, 233 - - Shantar Islands, The, 130 - - Sheathing for ships introduced, 5 - - Shedden, Robert, 139 - - Sheridan, Cape, 283 - - Siberia, 84, 106 - - Siberian Islands, The, 88, 106 - - Silver Bay, 63 - - Simmons Peninsula, 188 - - Simpson, Sir George, 165 - - Simpson, Thomas, 165 - - Simpson Strait, 168, 206, 214 - - Sinclair, George, 166 - - Sirovatskof, 107 - - Sitka Sound, 134 - - Sledges and sledge-work, 184, 252 - - Smeerenberg, 24 - - Smith, Benjamin Leigh, 44, 72 - - Smith Sound, 234, 235 - - Snow, William Parker, 183 - - Snow houses, 198, 211 - - Sodankyla, 273 - - _Sofia_, The, 44 - - Somerset House, 202 - - Somerset, North, 180 - - Sonntag, August, 242 - - _Sophia_, The, 183 - - Spangberg, Martin, 131 - - Spinks, Robert, 37, 158 - - Spitsbergen, 12, 15, 16, 18, 24, 104 - - Steamship, The first Arctic, 194 - - _Stella Polare_, The, 76 - - Sterlegof, Cape, 85 - - Stoat, 188 - - Stolbovoi, 107 - - Stuxberg, 85 - - _Sunshine_, The, 224, 229, 232 - - Sverdrup, Otto, 104, 185, 261 - - Svjatoi Nos, 89 - - - Tanana, The, 144 - - Tananas, The, 145 - - _Tegetthoff_, The, 64 - - Teplitz Bay, 69, 77 - - _Terror_, H.M.S., 171, 183, 203, 205 - - Thaddeus Island, 107, 117 - - _Thames_, The, 87 - - Thermometer, The deep-sea, 30 - - _Thetis_, The, 278 - - Thirkill, Launcelot, 4 - - _Thomasine_, The, 16 - - Thorne, Robert, 5 - - Tiger, 126 - - _Tigress_, The, 247 - - Toll, Baron E., 126 - - Torell, Otto, 43 - - _Trent_, H.M.S., 33 - - Treurenberg Bay, 40 - - Tripe-de-roche, 156 - - Tschirikof, Alexei, 131 - - Tundra, The, 86, 113 - - Turnagain, Point, 155, 167 - - Tyndall Glacier, 244 - - - Umivik, 262 - - _Union_, The (boat), 157, 158 - - _United States_, The, 239 - - Upernivik, 232 - - - _Valorous_, H.M.S., 248 - - Veer, Gerrit de, 10, 49 - - _Vega_, The, 87 - - Victoria, Cape, 211 - - Victoria Land, 168 - - Victoria Sea, Queen, 75 - - Victoria Strait, 206 - - _Victory_, The, 194 - - Victory, Point, 212 - - Vinland, 3 - - Vlamingh, Willem de, 62 - - Vrangel', Ferdinand, 108 - - - Wager River, 190 - - Waigatz Island, 7 - - Wainwright Inlet, 139 - - Walden Island, 40 - - Walker Bay, 176 - - _Walnut Shell_, The (boat), 157, 159 - - Walrus, 12, 13, 20, 31, 34, 57, 73, 82, 88, 93, 101 - - Walsingham, Francis, 224, 229, 231 - - Washington Irving Island, 250 - - Welden, Captain, 13 - - Wellington Channel, 180 - - Wentzel, 150, 151, 154 - - West England, 220 - - Weyprecht, K., 64, 272 - - Whale fishery, The, 15, 17 - - Whale, Greenland, 14, 15, 31, 265 - - Whale Island, 148 - - Whale, White, 88, 148, 188 - - Whaling trade begins, 15 - - White Man's Island, 223 - - White Sea, The, 6 - - White Shirt, 2 - - Whymper, Edward, 266 - - Whymper, Frederick, 142 - - Wiggins, Joseph, 87 - - Wijde Bay, 17 - - Wilberforce Falls, The, 155 - - Wilczek Island, 66 - - William Land, King, 163, 214 - - _William_, The, 8 - - Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 5 - - _Windward_, The, 76, 103 - - Winter Harbour, 174, 181 - - Winter Island, 192 - - _Winthont_, The, 10 - - Wollaston Land, 158 - - Wolstenholme, Cape, 234 - - Wolverine, 144 - - Women Islands, The, 233 - - Wrangell, Ferdinand Von, 108 - - Wrangell Island, 116, 141 - - - Yakuts, The, 115 - - Yalmal, 85 - - Yenesei, The, 85 - - _Ymer_, The, 87 - - Young, Allen, 75, 116, 208, 213 - - Young's Foreland, 14 - - Yugor Strait, 8 - - Yukon, Fort, 142, 144 - - Yukon, The, 142 - - - PLYMOUTH - WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. - PRINTERS - - - - - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical - errors. - 2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. - 4. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript - character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly - braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Round About the North Pole, by W. J. 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