358 WRANGEL'S OPEN SEA. 



although it is claimed that Hudson had gone still 

 further; and if the stories which Daines Barrington 

 picked up from the fishermen of Amsterdam and Hull 

 are to be relied on, then the old Dutch and English 

 voyagers have gone even beyond this, seeking new 

 fishing-grounds and finding everywhere an open sea. 

 There is, however, as before observed, no well-authen- 

 ticated record of any ship having attained a higher 

 latitude than that of Scorsby. 



Failing to get through the ice, explorers have next 

 tried to cross it with sledges. In this the Russians 

 have done most. Many enterprising officers of the 

 Russian service, using the dog-sledges of the native 

 tribes inhabiting the Siberian coast, have, in the early 

 spring, boldly struck out upon the Polar Sea. Most 

 conspicuous among them was Admiral Wrangel, then 

 a young lieutenant of the Russian Navy, whose ex- 

 plorations, continued through several years, showed 

 that, at all seasons of the year, the same condition of 

 the sea existed to the northward. The travelers were 

 invariably arrested by open water ; and the existence 

 of a Polynia or open sea above the New Siberian Isl- 

 ands, became a fact as well established as that the 

 rivers flow downward to the sea. 



Sir Edward Parry tried the same method above 

 Spitzbergen, using, however, men instead of dogs for 

 draft, and carrying boats for safety in the event of 

 the ice breaking up. Parry traveled northward until 

 the ice, becoming loosened by the advancing season, 

 carried him south faster than he was traveling 

 north ; and after a while it broke up under him, and 

 set him adrift in the open sea. 



Next came Captain Inglefield's attempt to get into 

 this circumpolar water through Smith Sound ; and 



