240 DISCUSSION OF THE DESICCATION QUESTION. 



intellectual nations, and now, sunk in poverty and distress, the few remain- 

 ing numbers have begun, after battling against cold, famine, disease, and 

 volcanic agencies for centuries, to leave their native land, several hundreds 

 having already found a home in the valley of the Red River of the North, 

 and in other parts of North America. Wliether the large and constant emi- 

 gration from Norway to this country has for its cause a deterioration of the 

 climatic conditions, the present writer has not the means of deciding. It 

 appears that some Scandinavian authorities are of that opinion, for the 

 Swedish newspapers have been obliged to admit the unwelcome idea of a 

 gradual refrigeration of the country, and the consequently increased diffi- 

 culty of sustaining life in those northern regions.* 



The present writer, after considerable examination of much, if not most, 

 of what has been written in various languages in regard to geographical 

 discovery and commercial ventures in the North Polar regions, has found 

 himself strongly impelled to believe that access to the lands lying in that 

 part of the world has become less easy than it was some centuries ago. If 

 this is not the case, it is difficult to understand how it was that the old navi- 

 gators, and especially the Dutch, were able to penetrate so far to the north 

 as they did, with such apparent ease. In considering what they were able to 

 accomplish in those days, it is necessary to take into account the fact that 

 their vessels were far inferior in every respect to those now used in northern 

 voyages. Indeed, such a "little cockboat" as that in which Hudson made his 

 discoveries f would not be considered safe for crossing the Atlantic at the pres- 

 ent day ; much less would it be supposed possible to bore through the ice-pack 

 with one. But unless we are willing to deny statements made repeatedly, 

 and apparently in good faith, by various Dutch and English whaling captains, 

 we are obliged to admit that with these diminutive ill-shapen craft they did 

 frequently reach a latitude of from ST to 82°, and sometimes a considerably 

 higher one. These statements have, it is true, been scouted as lies by most 

 modern writers ; but, in view of all that has been said of a probable deterio- 

 ration of the climate of those regions, it seems not unreasonable to believe 

 that there may be more truth in them than has been generally admitted. $ 



* See "Nature," Vol. XVI. p. 467. 



t See Captain Markliam's description of tliis " wretched little craft " in " The Threshold of the Unknown Ke- 

 gion," London, 1876, p. 28. 



J See "Tracts on the Possibility of reaching the North Pole" in "Miscellanies," by the Honorable Daines 

 Harrington, London, 1781, pp. 1-124. The reason why the evidence, so zealously collected and here brought 

 together by Barrington, is so generally discredited, seems to be the fact that the idea of a secular change in the 



