American Explorations in the Ice Zones ... With a brief notice of the Antarctic Cruise under Lieut. Wilkes, 1840, etc

Front matter

IN THE PACK, American Explorations IX The Ice Zones THE EXPEDITIONS OF DEHAVEN, KANE, RODGERS, HAYES, HALL, SCHAVATKA, AND DeLONG ; THE RELIEF VOYAGES FOR THE JEANNETTE BY THE U. S. STEAMERS CORWIN, RODGERS, AND ALLIANCE ; THE CRUISES OF CAPTAINS LONG AND RAYNOR OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE: WITH A BRIEF NOTICE OF THE ANTARCTIC CRUISE UNDER LIEUTENANT WILKES, 1»40, AND OF THE LOCATIONS AND OBJECTS OF THE U.S. SIGNAL SERVICE ARCTIC OBSERVERS. yrcparcij (S/hieflg from ©ffirial Sources BY PROF. J. E. NTOURSE, U.S.N. EDITOR OF " HALL'S SECOND EXPEDITION." BOSTON : D. LOTHEOP AND COMPANY, Franklin Street, LONDON : TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. Copyright, By D. Lothrop and Company. 1884. C. J. PETERS AND SON, ELECTR0TYPER3 AND STEREOTVPERS, IV. High Street. TO THE AMERICAN EXPLORERS, NAVAL, MILITARY, AND CIVIL, AND TO THE MEMORY OF THE GALLANT SPIRITS WHO OPENED UP THEIR PATHWAY. PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter I

The Arctic regions, sea and land — Comparison of the ice zones of the North and the South — The problem of the Pole and the Northwest Passage — Chief attempts for its solution — Participation in these attempts by the American Colonies — American voyages resulting from the Franklin Expedition, and their renewal in 1850 ... 17

Chapter II

The Grinnell Expeditions — Reviving Arctic exploration — President Taylor's message to Congress transmitting correspondence with Lady Franklin — Resolution authorizing the expedition approved, May 5, 1850 — Mr.Grinnell's memorial supported by Clay, Seward, and Pearce, in the Senate — Officers of the First Expedition — In structions of Secretary Preston to DeHaven, who sails from New York, May 22, 1850 — Dispatches from St. Johns and the AVhale-Ship Islands — DeHaven's report of the graves found at Beechey Island — He arrives at Griffith Island — Drifts northward — Geographical discoveries — Eastward into Baffin's Bay — Freed from the ice, June 10, 1851 — Again released, Aug. 18 — Sails from Holsteinborg, Sept. 6 — Arrives at New York, Sept. 30 41

Chapter III. The Second Grinnell Expedition

1853-55. The expedition designed by Kane — Contributors — Paper read before the Geographical Society of New York — Assistance by the Secretary of the Navy — Officers of the "Advance" — Fiskernaes — Crossing Melville Bay — The "Advance" moored to an iceberg — Rensselaer Harbor — Provision depots for spring explorations — The observatory — Daily ship life — Morton's reported Polar Sea — The brig fixed in the ice — Attempt to reach Beechey Island — Nine of the company leave for the South; their return — Scurvy — The brig abandoned — Boat and sledge journey southward — Rescue of Kane by Captain Hartstene at Disco — Arrival at New York — Reports to the Department — Summary of results — Appreciation by the British Government — Publications of the narrative — Kane's failing health — Request of Lady Franklin to him to undertake a new expedition — He sails for England — Return voyage — Death — Funeral honors at Havana, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Columbus, Baltimore, and Philadelphia — Kane's religious confidence TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Explorations Of Lieutenant John Rodgers, It

S. N. The Exploration of the "Vincennes " a part of the United States Expedition under Commander Ringgold — Appropriation by Congress — Objects — Secretary Kennedy's instructions — Sickness of Commander Ringgold — Lieutenant Rodgers succeeds to the command — Loss of the "Porpoise" — The "Vincennes" leaves Hong Kong for her Arctic cruise — Arrives at Petropaulovski — Condition of the town — Enters Bering Straits — Leaves a party under Lieutenant Brooke at Glassenapp — Habits and customs of the natives — The "Vincennes" in the Arctic Sea — Anchors in latitude 72° 5' North — Sails over the tail of Herald Shoal and locates Herald Island — Can see no trace of Plover Island — Approaches Wrangell Land — Returns to St. Lawrence Bay and Glassenapp for Lieutenant Brooke's party — Arrives at San Francisco, Oct. 13, 1855 — Suggestions for the publication of the full narrative .... 108

Chapter V. Explorations Of Dr

ISAAC I. HAYES, 1860-61. Design of Dr. Hayes for a new exploration suggested while on his first voyage with Kane — His plans supported by the Smithsonian and other institutions — Sails from Boston with Sonntag, July 7, 1860 — Arrives off Proven on the twenty-fourth day out — Adds to his ship's company and supplies at Upernavik — Crosses Melville Bay in fifty-five hours to Cape York — Winters at Port Foulke — Observatory set up — Observations made — Experiences of the season — Death of Sonntag, Hans' account of it — The Arctic night described — Attempts to launch the boat on the Polar Sea — Highest point reached — Belief in the existence of the open sea confirmed — Ex periences of recent navigators compared with this — Explorations and surveys made on the return voyage to the United States — Purpose of a new expedition — Reception of the gold medals from abroad — Volumes published 132

Chapter VI. The Grinnell And Haven Expedition Of

C. F. HALL — THE FIRST OF HIS THREE VOYAGES, 1860-62. Hall's motives for his first voyage — Arctic study — Limited resources — Reasons for believing that some of Franklin's men still lived — Circular endorsed by leading men of Ohio — Generous aid by Mr. Grinnell and by AVilliams and Haven — Sails from New London — Buries his native companion, Kud-la-go — Visits Holsteinborg — The kayaks — The belted and the gothic icebergs — Arrives at Cornelius Grinnell Bay — First impressions of the natives — Destruction of the "Rescue" and the expedition boat — First acquaintance with Ebierbing and Too-koo-li-too — Inland excursion — Explorations in the spring following — Discovery that Frobisher " Strait" is a bay — Finding of the Frobisher relics confirmed by Barrow's history — Explorations in the spring and summer of 1862 — Notes of Eskimo dress, habits, and superstitions — Return to the United States Avith the two natives and their child TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter VII. Hall's Second Arctic Expedition

— RESIDENCE AMONG THE ESKIMOS, 1864-69. Preparatory labors — Paper before the American Geographical Society — Frobisher relics sent to London and to the Smithsonian — Lectures — Plans for the new voyage — Sailing of the "Monticello" — Landing at Whale Point — First inter course Avith the natives — Feasting — Ankooting — The Key-low-tik — Walrus hunt — New Year's Day — Sealing — Hall's first prize — Capture of a whale — Winter quarters at Fort Hope — Hall's daily life — Auroras — Refraction and parhelia — Native mapping — Unsuccessful advance westward — Franklin relics — Journey to Cape Weynton — Journey to Fury and Hecla Straits — A mutineer — Journey to Igloolik — Visit to King AVilliam Land — Franklin relics — Capture of the third whale — Return to the United States 199

Chapter VIII. Hall's Voyage In The

"POLARIS." Early design to reach the pole — Lectures in Washington — Appropriation by Congress — The " Polaris" sails from New York — Arrives at Fiskernaes — U. S. S. "Congress" at Godhavn — Hans Hendrick — Tessuissak — North water reached — The "Polaris" beset at 82° 16' — Consultation —Drift to the South — Anchored to Providence Berg — Winter quarters — Sledge journey — Deposit in the cairn — Hall's death and burial — Winter of 1871-72 — Auroras— Return of the sun — The "Polaris" leaves the harbor — Drifts South — The separation — The ship leaking — House on the floe — Drift of the floe party and rescue — Relief ships sent for the " Polaris " — DeLong's cruise — Rescue of the Polaris party by the " Ravenscraig" — Hall's memorials — Medal awarded — Tablet put up by the English Expedition — The Eskimos Kud-la-go, Joe, Hannah, Ou-se-gong, and Abbot — Graves at Groton, Conn 269

Chapter IX. Sledge Journey Of Lieutenant Schwatka

U. S. A. Reports from Hudson's Bay which occasioned the journey — Sailing of the " Eothen " — Arrival at Depot Island — The true story of " The Spoon " — Decision to cross to King AVilliam Land — Meeting with the Innuits; their stories — Visit to the cairn — Remains of Lieutenant Irving, R. N., identified — Journey to Cape Felix — No records found — Relics of Franklin's Expedition — Camping out and sledge journey, October, 1879, to March 4, 1880 — Return to the United States — Award of a medal by the Geographical Society of Paris — Recognition of the work by Congress — Renewed search for the records and journals of the Franklin Expedition TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter X. Lieutenant

DeLONG'S EXPEDITION TOWARD THE POLE, 1879-81, The expedition DeLong's own prompting — Mr. Bennett undertakes it — Selection of the route — Theories — DeLong's plan — The " Jeannette " commissioned — Re port of the Board of Inspection at Mare Island — Officers and Crew — Sailing from San Francisco — Arrival at St. Michael's — Reports of Nordenskiold — Passing the Straits — Attempts to reach Wrangell and Herald Islands — Frozen in the Pack, September 6 — Chipp attempts the crossing to Herald Island — The "Jeannette" drifts northwest past Wrangell Land — Pumping begun — Lieutenant Danenhower disabled — The return of the sun — Experiment of the windmill pump — DeLong abandons the theory of the currents — Scientific observations kept up — The frozen summer — Auroral phenomena — Continued drift northwest — Discovery of Jean nette and Henrietta Islands — The "Jeannette" crushed — Landing on the floe — Discovery of Bennett Island ; description of it by Dr. Ambler — The three boats — Their separation — The whaleboat party land on the Lena Delta — The first cutter under DeLong — Sufferings — DeLong's last entries — Danenhower's search — Melville's search — The dead ten found — Their burial — Return of Lieutenant Danenhower — Search begun by Lieutenant Harber — Engineer Melville's return — Appropriation to bring the bodies home — Their expected arrival 363

Chapter XI. Relief Expeditions For The

"JEANNETTE "—THE TWO FIRST CRUISES OF THE "CORWIN"— THE CRUISES OF THE " RODGERS " AND " ALLIANCE." Tee " Corwin's " First Cruise, 1880. The missing whalers — Instructions of Secretary Sherman for their search and for the " Jeannette " — The ship refitted at San Francisco — Arrives at Ounalaska, June 7th — Nipped in the pack off Cape Romanzoff, June 16th — Enters the Arctic Sea, 28th — Last sight of the "Mount Wollaston" and " Vigilant " reported by Captain Bauldry — Visit to the cave dwellers on King's Island — The coal vein East of Cape Lisburne — Within seven miles of Herald Island — Wrangell Land in sight — Land seen to the North — Return of the "Corwin" — Captain Hooper's notes of the ice — Of the habits and customs of the natives on the shores of the Arctic and Bering Sea 428 Second Cruise of the " Corwin."

Instructions of Secretary Sherman — Officers — Sailing from San Francisco — Onalga Pass — Ounalaska — St. Lawrence Island — Reports of the missing ships at Cape Serdze-Kamen — Arrival of the " Corwin " — Sledge party to search the shore — Plover Bay — Return to Cape Serdze — Landing on Herald Island — Character of the Island — Landing on Wrangell Land — Discovery of this land by Captains Long and Raynor, 1867 — Visit to Point Barrow — Return to San Francisco — Tribute to DeLong TABLE OF CONTENTS. The Cruise of the "Rodgers." Petitions to Congress for relief of the " Jeannette " — Appropriation granted — Selection of vessel — The "Mary and Helen" purchased — A Naval Board con vened for advice in regard to the search — Its officers — Suggestions — Testimony of ship-captains and experts — Instructions to Lieutenant R. M. Berry — The "Rodgers" equipped and commissioned — Her officers — Arrives at St. Lawrence Bay, at Petropaulovski, Wrangell Land — Finds a harbor and explores the island — Reaches lat. 73° 44' — Arrives at Cape Serdze and lands a party to search for the missing crews — The "Rodgers" burned — Master Putnam lost on the ice — Lieu tenant Berry searches the coast — Joins Engineer Melville at Yakutsk — Learns the orders to Lieutenant Harber and returns home 473 The Cruise of the U. S. Steamer " Alliance," June 16 to Oct. 11, 1881 Fitting out of the "Alliance " — Instructions to Commander Cooper and to Commander Wadleigh — Arrival at Reykiavik — Description of the "Jeannette" circulated — The harbor of Hammerfest, Norway — Green Bay, Spitzbergen — Tidal marks established — Cruise in lat. 79° — The ice barrier — Return to the United States under orders 485

Chapter XII. The Antarctic Cruise Of Lieutenant

(LATE ADMIRAL) CHARLES WILKES, U. S. N., 1839-40. The Antarctic region a terra incognita — Object of its explorations compared with explorations in the Arctic — National aid required — Earliest American discovery — Foreign explorations, private and national — Wilkes' cruise a part of the plans of the exploring expedition of 183S-42 — Organization of the squadron and its route — First cruise towards Cook's Ne-plus-ultra — Cruise along the icy barrier — Reported discovery of the continent — Award of the gold medal by Royal Geographi cal Society, London — Discoveries of Ross — Scientific results — Collections in the National Museum, Washington 489

Chapter XIII. Summary Of The Expedition, Beneficial Results

The American Arctic Expeditions — Highest points reached — Value of Arctic explorations endorsed by Weyprecht, Maury, Henry, Bache, Barrow, and Osborn — Meteorological stations in the ice zones — Their purpose distinct from the Polar problem — Lieutenant Weyprecht' s proposition — Stations under the International Commission recommended by Professor Henry — Preliminary voyage of the " Flor ence" — Sherman's and Kiimlien's reports — Signal Service Station at Lady Frank lin Bay — Unsuccessful attempts for relief — Signal Service Station near Point Barrow — Preliminary reports — Geographical discovery — Benefits to the whale fisheries — Small number of lives lost in the expeditions — Further explorations . . ERRATA. Page 330. Title of Cut. For "Tyson's crew sighting the ' Ravenscraig ' off Labra dor," read " Budington's crew sighting the ' Ravenscraig.' " Page 353, line 20.

For " 1881 " read 1818. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Circumpolar Map Pocket. Map of Alaska and the Strait Pages 470, 471 Moot! lEttgtabings Pa OK Page In the Pack Frontispiece. Eskimo Woman and Child . . . 170 Scaling an Iceberg 19 Kyak Somerset 171 Barometer of Franklin's Expedition, 38 Gothic Iceberg ....... 172 The Crow's Nest 55 Loss of the " Rescue " 175 The Three Graves 58 Nik-u-jar, the Boat Steerer . . . 176 Portrait of Kane* (to face) ... 65 Eskimo Dog 177 Harbor of St. Johns 69 Eskimo Lamp 178 An Arctic Moonlight Scene (to face) 87 Storm Bound 179 Godhavn 90 Passing through Lupton Channel . 183 The Kane Medal 105 Indian Summer Village .... 184 Portrait of Admiral Rodgers (to face) 108 One of Frobisher's "Gold Mines," 185 Eskimo and Seal Dog 192 Portrait of Dr. Hayes* (to face) . . 132 Seal Hole and Igloo .... 194, 195 Belted Iceberg 134 Too-koo-litoo, Hall, and Ebierbing, 197 Upernavik 135 Eskimo Lamp 198 Foulke Fiord 143 Sir Martin Frobisher 201 The Best Part of a Sledge Journey, 146 Frobisher Bay and Grinnell Glacier 207 Unfurling the Flags ("The Open Polar Sea," J. R. Osgood & Co.), 148 Polar Bear of Hudson Strait ... 208 Snow Partridges 212 A Snow Village 156 Hall's First Igloo, Ground-plan, 213, 214 Chart of Smith Sound ("The Open Polar Sea," J. R. Osgood & Co.), 159 Game of Cup and Ball 216 Key-low-tik and Ken-toon .... 217 Vignette of Sir John Franklin . . 164 Governor Elborg in his Oomiak 169 Playing the Key-low-tik .... 219 Sek-koons 220 * From " 'The Jeannette," by Capt. Perry.

Newman & Coburn Publishing Company.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, Fastening to the Berg 303 A Walrus-Hunt 223 Mock Moons 309 A Walrus Head 224 " Polaris " rounding the Berg . . 311 Ground-plan of New Year's Day Igloo 226 Boat Camp 313 &■ House on the Floe 314 Ground-plan of Igloo Built on a Journey 227 Before Separation 315 The Separation 317 ArroAvtar 228 Polaris House, Life-Boat Cave . . 319 Ebierbing Going out Sealing . . 230 Landing on Northumberland Island 328 Capturing a Whale 233 Too-koo-litoo (Hannah) .... 236 Sighting the " Ravenscraig " . . 330 Ar-too-a DroAvned in his Kia . . 237 Hall's Medal from Paris .... 333 Innuit Head-Ornament 238 Hall's Grave . . 338 Now- Yarn Harbor 239 Aurora Sketched by Hall .... 241 Ou-se-gong and Kud-lup-pa-mune . 342 Papa's Sketch of Pond Bay ... 242 Lieutenant SchAvatka (" Schwatka's Search," Scribner's Sons), to face 345 Franklin Relics 247, 248 Bone-Charms and Knife .... 251 Franklin's Spoon 350 The Tenting-Place 254 The March Southward ("Sclnvatka's Search," Scribner's Sons) . . . 355 Monument and Coast-Line . . . 255 Hall's Boat-Log 257 Cold Weather .357 Snow Village 258 Eskimo Needle-Case . . . ... 362 Setting out for King William Land 260 Lieutenant-Commander DeLong, * (to face) . . . \ . . . . -. 363 Hall's Tablet-Covers 261 Lieutenant Chipp* 374 Ivory Knives 262 Lieutenant Danenhower* .... 376 Page of Hall's Note-Book . ... 263 Engineer Melville* 379 Sir John Franklin's Desk .... 266 Surgeon Ambler* ....... 382 Hannah's Musk-Ox and Deer Horns, 268 An Arctic Boat Journey .... 404 Fiskernaes 272 The Delta 409 Lichtenfels 274 The Cross* 415 Tessuissak, or Tessiussak . . . . 277 The Tomb* . . 417 Shooting Walrus 279 The " Corwin " in a Nip .... 431 "Polaris" Passing Fitz-Clarence Rock 281 Herald Island 435 Oomiak . 445 Working through the Ice ... . 283 Arctic Ravine . ...... . . 454 "Polaris " in Thank-God Harbor . 285 Wrangell Island 465 Landing Stores on the Ice . . . 287 Map of Wrangell Island . . . . 479 Shooting a Musk-Ox 290 The Penguins ("Wood's Natural History," Porter & Coates) . . 504 The Cairn . . . 294 Funeral of Captain Hall .... 299 The Albatross ("Wood's Natural History," Porter & Coates) . . 507 The " Polaris " Adrift 301 From " The Jeannette," by Capt. Perry.

Newman & Coburn Publishing Company. This volume purposes to accredit the work of American explorers in a region toward which the world still looks with interest and unsatisfied inquiry. Arctic exploration will not soon be abandoned. However much, in this age of unprecedented advance in the more directly practical, it may seem to some to deserve place with the visionary only, it confessedly embraces problems of high value. The geographer would gladly exchange his dotted and broken lines for definite boundaries; the ethnologist and the Christian have questions to ask of this region bearing on the unity and the development of the race; and the scientist awaits from the sea of the far-off North, revelations the key to which Nature has as yet hidden from him. A third of a century has passed since history cordially admitted to her domain the records of De Haven and Kane; Hayes and Hall gave to her their work of the succeeding decade; our younger officers — De Long, Chipp, and their associates— have closed with their lives the latest Arctic records.

The volumes from Kane's pen cannot be found on the shelves of a large number of our increasing libraries, while the publications of the United States Government, in official form, are too bulky for the convenience of the general reader. It is the design of the publishers of the volume now offered, to bring together within the reach, especially of the young, the labors of each American explorer, and to this desire the most cordial response is made from a re-study of these labors, each of which reflects honor upon our country. The chapters which follow embrace brief notices of the expedition for the Northwest pas sage under Sir John Franklin, the voyages of Lieutenant De Haven, and of Dr. Kane, of the late Admiral Rodgers, Dr. Hayes, the three expeditions of C. F. Hall, the remarkable sledge journey of three thousand miles by Lieutenant Schwatka, U.S.A., the cruise and loss of the " Jeannette," and the relief expeditions sent out for De Long by the Treasury Department under Captain Hooper, and by the Navy Department under Lieutenant Berry.

To these is added a notice of the first expedition sent out by the United States for scien tific purposes, that of 183S-42 under Lieutenant (late Admiral) Wilkes; the volume closes with a statement of the positions and objects of the Arctic Observers under the U. S. Signal Service. J. E. N. Washington, Dec. 1, 1883.

Chapter I. The Arctic Regions, Sea And Land

— COMPARISON OF THE ICE ZONES OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. — THE PROBLEM OF THE POLE AND THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. — CHIEF ATTEMPTS FOR ITS SOLUTION. — PARTICIPATION IN THESE ATTEMPTS BY THE AMERICAN COLONIES. — AMERICAN VOYAGES RESULTING FROM THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, AND THEIR RENEWAL IN 1850. THE field of Arctic exploration includes a section of the earth's surface not strictly coincident Avith the Arctic circle of the geographers. Countries such as South Greenland, Labrador, or Alaska, in the western hemisphere, or the region around Lake Baikal in the eastern, though situated as low as the sixtieth, or even the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, have a decidedly Arctic climate, with its products ; Avhile others, as the coast of NorAvay, lying far nearer the Pole, but under specially favorable influences, enjoy in midwinter a remarkably mild temperature.

Arctic exploration has of necessity employed itself both upon the stormy sea and upon the snow and ice-bound land. The great ocear surrounding the Pole drains the northern slopes of three continents, receiving the waters of an estimated area of more than four and a quarter millions of square miles, and its river systems exceed those of the West Atlantic coast. Within this great basin the Pole itself is, as yet, shut out from access by an investing zone of probably permanent ice ; beyond this zone, theory still places an open sea. The undiscovered polar region is limited, at most points on the American and European sides, by about the eighty-second parallel ; on the north of Asia the limit is as Ioav as the seventy-fourth degree. To the inner basin there are but three possible ways of entrance : the estuaries of Hudson's and Baffin Bays, north of America ; the space between Greenland and Norway, north of Europe ; and Behring's Straits, between America and Eastern Russia.

The lands of the Arctic region are naturally divided into two well marked zones, — the forests and the treeless Avastes. In America the latter are the Avell-known " barrens," or " barren grounds," which yield a scanty subsistence to the suffering natives, and were traversed Avith so much hardship by Franklin and by those who sought for him by land in the explorations hereafter to be noted. In the eastern con tinent they bear the name of the "tundra," often showing nothing more than boundless morasses or arid Avastes, tracked by the feet of Siberian exiles and arctic explorers, including the perishing ones from the " Jeannette " and its survivors in their search for the lost. Over such scenes many weary sledge-journeys have been made, to the extent of more than a thousand miles each. A narratiAe of Arctic exploration leads, therefore, not only to the Avell-furnished ship, or even to her deck when housed for the winter storms, but to perilous journeys over tracks at times scarcely distinguishable by the most experienced ; over ice-floes and fissures, requiring the scaling of the rough and dizzy crests of the bergs.

The chief scene of Arctic exploration, however, is upon the tempestuous sea, Avith its closing nips, and, at times, equally dangerous and sudden openings on the seaman. The mysterious Avaters hold a fascination possessed by no other region, creating and keeping up an indescribable longing for adventure, in Avhich daring spirits have found all that makes travel exciting. The ice zones of the south present no such allurements. No continents there approach the ocean's shore, while a glance at the world's map shows, in the north, a preponderance of land, spread ing out in such almost unbroken continuity as to tempt some to the theory that nearer the Pole the land masses are separated by ARCTIC AND ANTARTIC REGIONS COMPARED. a chain of islands only. This essential difference in the land sur faces accounts in part for the extreme difference in the summer tem peratures of the two zones.

The ice barrier of the south has been but once penetrated beyond the seventy-eighth degree. And Avhile, even in Spitzbergen, vegetation ascends the mountain slopes to a height of three thousand feet, in every land within or near the Antarctic circle the snow line descends to the Avater's edge. Not even a moss or a lichen has been observed beyond south latitude 64° 12'. In Spitz bergen the thermometer has risen to 58A°, but during the summer months spent by Sir James Ross in the Antarctic, the temperature of the air never once exceeded 41° 5'. No hunters there, like the Eski mos, chase the seal or the Avalrus ; no herdsmen, like the Lapps, follow the reindeer to the ocean's edge ; not a single land quadruped exists beyond 56° : all is one dreary, uninhabitable waste. In the north, coasts and valleys at equal distances from the equator are green with vegetation ; in the south they are wastes of ice and snow.

The spread of the northern lands points us, as has been said, chiefly to the causes of this difference. The plains of Siberia and of Northern America, warmed by the summer's sun, become centres of radiating heat ; but the Antarctic lands, of small extent, isolated in the midst of frigid Avaters, and chilled by the cold sea-winds, act as constant refrige rators. In the north, icebergs are found in a few mountainous countries only ; upon Antarctic lands they are more continuous, tower much higher, and their vast fragments perpetually maintain the low temperatures of the sea, detached bergs having been met with as near the equator as the mouth of the La Plata. In the latter regions no traces of warm currents have been observed beyond the fifty-fifth degree of south latitude ; but in the north the well-known gulf stream carries its powerful influence as far as Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, thus making the northern zone, by comparison, an attractive scene of exploration and adventure.* Arctic exploration may be said to have had at first but one purpose : to reach the Pole, and cross it from continent to continent ; and this, indeed, has been the chief element in the polar problem for the last three and a half centuries.

It is the purpose of this volume to refer briefly to the events giving rise to this problem, to the persistent efforts for its solution, and to the beneficial results secured by these seemingly useless labors. The Pole has not been reached, and may not be, and the short, navigable route is demonstrably impracticable. But the incidental results of exploration have far more than compensated for eArery expenditure of thought and money, for all of exposure and dis appointment. For lessons in patience, self-sacrifice, and heroic en durance, few clearer examples can be drawn from the world's history than those to be found in the baffled attempts to reach the Pole. And yet the world has learned from these, that Providence, which shapes the destinies of men and nations, ordains that Avhile men may fail to * The remarkable phenomenon of the great difference between the two zones is ac counted for by the meteorologist, Mr. Croll, on the ground that, in long lapses of time, their climates alternate, through the change in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, in combination with the precession of the equinoxes.

In both regions extensive fossil remains prove that a tropical or semi-tropical climate formerly existed. Our age is that of excess of cold in the Antarctic zone. EARLY SEARCH FOR A PASSAGE To CATHAY. attain their first and perhaps less valuable aims, a larger reward often aAvaits their unrelinquished efforts. The problem of the Pole and the northern passage had its birth at the great era of the discovery of America and of the neAv Avay to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope ; discoveries which snatched mari time commerce from its old seat in the Mediterranean and gave to the Spaniards and the Portuguese its almost exclusive control. These nations claimed not only the neAvly-discovered countries, but the right to the exclusive navigation of the ocean betAveen them ; and as the attempt by any other nation to enter those seas involved a Avar Avith either, or both, Spanish and Portuguese, the northern maritime nations began seriously to think of some shorter passages to the Indies which would give them commercial superiority.

For the East, as the region of barbaric pearl and gold, ever loomed up before the mind as the land of unimagined riches, and a readier passage to it, as a feat of daring but of sure renoAvn. England led the Avay. " Having then no anticipation of becoming the sovereign of Hindostan, she hoped for a peaceful intercourse by a nearer avenue to southern Asia." Of this the old navigator, Sebastian Cabot, said, " When the news was brought that Don Christoval Colon had discovered the coasts of India, by his fame and report, there increaseth in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing ; and understanding by reason of the sphere (globe) that if I should sail by way of the northwest I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my device."