TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE. 57 



man, nor Mr. Baldwin established a record. Dr. Nansen's famous 

 journey in 1893-96, on which the explorer made so great a stride 

 towards the Pole, is still fresh in the minds of all. Here we will only 

 recall that the Fram, after entering the ice near the New Siberian 

 Islands, touched the 86th parallel in the course of her long drift west- 

 wards, while Dr. Nansen himself and Lieutenant Johansen, having 

 left the ship in 84 N., finally reached (at least) 86 5' N., in longitude 

 roughly 90 E. Two years ago this record was surpassed by Captain 

 Cagni, of the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition, who reached 86 33' 

 i\ T . latitude, the highest northing yet attained in either the Eastern or 

 the Western Hemisphere. 



Hitherto the passage north tbrough Behring Strait has not led any 

 traveller to very high latitudes. Behring himself discovered neither 

 the strait nor the sea that bear his name. His utmost northing was 

 67 18', attained on his first expedition in 1728. Exactly 50 years 

 later Captain James Cook, the great navigator, reached 70 44' north, 

 and in 1826 another British naval officer, Captain F. W. Beechey, who 

 had been told off to cooperate with Franklin in his researches on the 

 mainland of North America, attained the latitude of 71 08' N. 

 Beechey 's mate, Elson, pushed 126 miles beyond Icy Cape to Point 

 Barrow, in 71 24' N. latitude. In 1849 Captain Kellet reached the first 

 island to the north of Behring Strait, in 71 18' N., and six years later 

 Commander John Eodgers, of the United States navy, surpassed Elson 's 

 latitude, his northing being 72 05'. But the highest latitude recorded 

 in these seas was that attained by Commander GL W. De Long, of the 

 United States navy, to the north of the Liakoff or New Siberian Islands. 

 This group had first been reached from the north coast of Asia in 1770, 

 by a Eussian trader named Liakoff, and in 1823 Lieutenant P. F. 

 Anjou, who since 1820 had been exploring among the islands in com- 

 pany with Lieutenant F. von Wrangell, had succeeded in getting as 

 far north as 7636'. De Long sailed through Behring Strait in the 

 ill-fated Jeannette in 1879. The pack-ice was entered near Herald Is- 

 land in 71 35' N., and for two years the vessel drifted westward and 

 northwards. Wrangell Land, which De Long had thought was part of a 

 continent, and on which he expected to winter, was passed in the sum- 

 mer of 1779; in June, 1881, Jeannette Island in 7647' N. latitude 

 was reached; later in the same month Henrietta Island, in 7708' N. 

 was passed, and then the Jeannette was crushed in the ice. The sur- 

 vivors drifted north to 77 3 6', the highest northing yet attained in 

 those seas. How at last the north coast of Asia was reached, and how 

 all but Chief Engineer Melville and eleven of the crew perished, does 

 not here concern us. 



Only a slightly, if at all, higher latitude than that reached by De 

 Long has been attained by travellers following the east coast of Green- 



