202 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



It will be seen that the great obstacle which 

 has hitherto frustrated every endeavour, has been 

 a vast barrier of ice stretching across the north- 

 ern seas from Nova Zembla on the one hand, to 

 the shores of Greenland on the other. This vast 

 barrier has been encountered by all, with dif- 

 ferent degrees of success it must be allowed, 

 but with the same invariable result, and yet 

 so great are the changes which occasionally 

 take place in its position, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the many failures, the question does not 

 seem to be entirely hopeless; especially now 

 that we can call to our aid that powerful agent 

 steam, which enables us to set wind and currents 

 at defiance. It has been shown that the western 

 shores of Nova Zembla, and Spitzbergen, have 

 both been found navigable to their northern 

 limits, whilst their eastern sides, and that of 

 Greenland also, have, with very few exceptions, 

 been so encumbered with ice as to frustrate every 

 attempt to explore them ; Spitzbergen has, it is 

 true, been sailed round by the Dutch, and the 

 eastern side of Greenland has been visited twice 

 or thrice, but to this day the hardy Russians have 

 not been able to survey the eastern side of Nova 

 Zembla; and the ships which passed through the 

 Waigatz Strait have never been able to proceed 

 far, owing to the quantity of ice driven into the 



