CHAPTER XXXII. 



AMUNDSEN'S DISCOVERY OF THE NORTHWEST 



PASSAGE. 



A modest Norseman, Roald Amundsen by name, performed in 1905 one 

 of the few remaining great feats of Arctic exploration by sailing a ship for the 

 first time in history through the northwest passage and charting new land in 

 the region where the gallant Franklin and his companions lost their lives. Others 

 had crossed on sledges the archipelago that lies to the north of the American 

 continent, and so bridged the gulf between the two oceans; but Amundsen was 

 the first to sail a boat from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Amundsen was one of those Norwegians who, as soon as their boyhood 

 mentality begins to dawn, feel their blood stirred by the call of the sea. He 

 was a student of the Franklin tragedy, and his latter-day hero was Fridtjof 

 Nansen. He tells of his enthusiasm when he saw Nansen returning triumphant 

 from his march across Greenland. And it was Nansen who was largely instru- 

 mental in enabling Amundsen to venture on the trip that was to succeed where 

 Franklin, Parry, Sir John Ross and others had failed. Amundsen also received 

 the material and moral aid of the king of Norway. By this powerful backing he 

 was able to get a ship, and he gathered around him six sturdy Norwegians, like 

 himself. The small but compact and sympathetic band of explorers started 

 June 16, 1903, from Christiania in the motor-yacht Gjoa, a tiny vessel of 47 

 tons. It seemed almost a toy ship, when it came to ocean travel and Arctic 

 storms, but its very smallness no doubt had much to do with its success in riding 

 over shoals and escaping ice complications. 



A quick trip was made from Norway around the lower coast of Greenland 

 and through Davis Strait to Godhavn. This point was reached July 5, 1903, 

 and stores of all kinds were taken in. Then the Gjoa pushed northward in 

 Baffin Bay, making for Cape York, which was the northernmost point to be 

 reached in that part of the expedition. Cape York was sighted August 14, but 

 not till after dangerous ice had been encountered in Melville Bay, often a 

 perilous spot for explorers. 



Telling of this ice, Amundsen says : 



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