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lowed in his track, the first being Captain Button in 1612, who 

 reached and named Nelson River, at the spot where the Hudson 

 Bay Company founded its first post. He also discovered the Mans- 

 field Islands, in latitude 65 degrees. Two years later a voyage was 

 made by William Baffin and in 1616 one by William Baffin and 

 Robert Bylot, which resulted in the discovery of W r hale Sound, 

 Smith Sound, Jones Sound, Lancaster Sound, and Baffin Bay. 

 These were notable additions to the chart of the Arctic World, 

 which British enterprise was gradually defining and filling up; but 

 by Baffin's contemporaries they were discredited. As Mr. Mark- 

 ham observes, the memory of a bold and scientific navigator had to 

 wait many weary years for that full justice which comes at last It 

 was two centuries before another vessel forced her way into the 

 "North Water" of Baffin Bay, and the great pilot's discoveries 

 were almost forgotten. On maps published as late as 1818, may be 

 seen a circular dotted line to the west of Greenland, with this legend, 

 "Baffin's Bay, according to the relation of William Baffin in 1616, 

 but not now believed" 



The all-important discovery made by Baffin was that of the 

 great channel leading out of his bay in a northerly direction, and 

 opening upon the vast and still unknown region which stretches 

 towards the Pole. He named it after Sir Thomas Smith, the gov- 

 ernor, we may almost say the creator, of the East India Company; 

 and a man of great sagacity, liberality, and enterprise. Of this 

 sound Baffin says: "It runneth to the north of 78 degrees, and is 

 admirable in one respect, because in it is the greatest variation of 

 the compass of any part of the world known; for, by divers good 

 observations, I found it to be above five points, or 66 degrees, varied 

 to the westward, so that northeast by east is true north, and so of 

 the rest. Also this sound seemeth to be good for the killing of 

 whales, it being the greatest and largest in all this bav." It is now 

 regarded as affording the only practicable route to the Polar Sea. 



Several other voyages, of no great importance, took place 



