INTRODUCTION 



about seven hundred millions of dollars. Barren of at- 

 tractions as has been Spitzbergen to the tourist visitor, it 

 is now of such commercial imj^ortance that its ownership 

 is to be the subject of international conference. 



Polar work has had its tragedies and calamities as well 

 as its triumphs and successes. Scores of books have been 

 written on voyages relating to the Northwest Passage, in 

 attempting which Sir John Franklin and one hundred and 

 twenty-eight other souls perished. Their ships were last 

 seen moored to an iceberg in Baffin Bay, and thereafter 

 there have been found no records later than those reciting 

 the abandonment of their vessels, beset in ice northwest 

 of King William Land, and their retreat southwards 

 towards Great Fish river. This unparalled polar mystery 

 engaged the attention of the world for nearly fifteen 

 years, until the harrowing story of its fate found at least 

 a partial solution through the great arctic traveler Mc- 

 Clintock. 



' A similar disaster in the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury befell the first extended maritime venture of Eng- 

 land to distant seas, in the attempted discovery of the 

 Northeast Passage. Chancellor's two ships, with an 

 equippage of sixty-two souls, wintered on the barren 

 shores of Eussian Lapland, where the entire party per- 

 ished on the dread arctic disease — scurvy. In striking 

 contrast with Chancellor's experiences, illustrating the 

 vast improvements in equipment and transportation, 

 Nordenskiold made the Northeast Passage without cas- 

 ualty or danger. 



Most fortunately England was not discouraged by this 

 disaster, through which was opened up a lucrative Musco- 



