ARCTIC ADVENTURE 



CHAPTER I. 



ASPECTS OP THE ARCTIC REGIONS. PHENOMENA. THE ARCT1W OCBAlf . 



EARLIEST EXPLORERS. THE NORTHMEN. THE CABOTS. THE CORTK- 



REALS. SIR HUGH WILLOTJGHBY. FROBISHER. SIR HUMPHREY GIL- 

 BERT. DAVIS. BARENTZ. HUDSON. BAFFIN. 



THE varied physical aspect of the globe offers as 

 much to charm or awe the eye of man as to minister 

 to his comfort and well-being 1 . From the glowing heat 

 and gorgeous vegetation of the torrid zone, we move 

 through all gradations of climate and feature, to the 

 frigid regions of either pole, where perpetual ice and a 

 depressed temperature present an extraordinary con- 

 trast to the lands of the sun : from intensest heat we 

 pass to intensest cold ; from the sandy deserts of the 

 south to the icy deserts of the north. Yet there is as 

 much in the frozen zone to impress and elevate the mind 

 of the beholder as in the countries where nature das- 

 plays herself in rich and exuberant loveliness. 



Beyond the seventieth degree of latitude not a tree 

 meets the eye, wearied with the white waste of snow ; 

 forests, woods, even shrubs, have disappeared, and given 

 place to a few lichens and creeping woody plants, which 

 scantily clothe the indurated soil. Still, in the furthest 

 north, nature claims her birthright of beauty ; and in 



the brief and rapid summer she brings forth numerous 

 2 



