CHAPTER XXIII. 



Nordenskiold and the Northeast Passage 



IN the preceding chapter we have been principally concerned with 

 expeditions to the seas north of America, and with polar 



researches by the route lying through Smith Sound. Later 

 Arctic ventures have proved that this is the best road to the Pole, 

 and as we now know it is the only one by which the Pole has been 

 reached. But the course of history leads us to other seas, those 

 lying north of Europe and Asia, the seas in which Parry made his 

 famous 1827 record of 82 degrees 45 minutes and which became 

 the seat of important discoveries in the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century. 



Readers of the chapters of polar history so far given will have 

 perceived that the main objects of explorations were the discovery 

 of a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of 

 America, and the rescue of the unfortunates who were lost in this 

 effort, especially of the Sir John Franklin party. Those which made 

 the discovery of the North Pole their chief object were few in 

 number, the most important being the expeditions of Parry, Hayes, 

 Hall, and Nares. 



Meanwhile the problem of the Northeast Passage that from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of the seas north of Europe and 

 Asia remained unsolved. After the long ago Willoughby expedi- 

 tion little attention was paid to it until very recent times, when 

 Baron Nordenskiold made his famous and successful voyage in that 

 direction. We must, however, briefly consider an unsuccessful 

 attempt in this field preceding that of Nordenskiold. This was the 

 Austrian expedition of 1872 under Lieutenant Payer. 



