Introduction. i i 



83 20', but at the cost of enormous exertion and loss ; 

 and Nares was of opinion that the impossibility of 

 reaching the Pole by this route was fully demonstrated 

 for all future a^-es. 



O 



During- the stay of the Greely expedition from iSSi to 

 1884 in this same region, Lockwood attained a somewhat 

 higher record, viz., 83 24', the most northerly point on 

 the globe that human feet had trodden previous to the 

 expedition of which the present work treats. 



By way of the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen, 

 several attempts have been made to penetrate the 

 secrets of the domain of ice. In 1607 Henry Hudson 

 endeavoured to reach the Pole along the east coast of 

 Greenland, where he was in hopes of finding an open 

 basin and a waterway to the Pacific. His progress was, 

 however, stopped at 73 north latitude, at a point of the 

 coast which he named " Hold with Hope." * The 

 German expedition under Koldewey (1869-70), which 

 visited the same waters, reached by the aid of sledges as 

 far north as 77 north latitude. Owing to the enormous 

 masses of ice which the polar current sweeps southward 

 along this coast, it is certainly one of the most unfavour- 

 able routes for a polar expedition. A better route is that 

 by Spitzbergen, which was essayed by Hudson, when 

 his progress was blocked off Greenland. Here he 

 reached 80 23' north latitude. Thanks to the warm 

 current that runs by the west coast of Spitzbergen in a 

 northerly direction, the sea is kept free from ice, and it is 



