xvi FOREWORD 



able of all, Hudson brought back accounts of great 

 multitudes of whales and walruses, with the result 

 that for the succeeding years these new waters were 

 thronged with fleets of whaling ships from every mari- 

 time nation. The Dutch specially profited by Hud- 

 son's discovery. During the 17th and 18th centuries 

 they sent no less than 300 ships and 15,000 men each 

 summer to these arctic fisheries and established on 

 Spitzbergen, within the Arctic Circle, one of the most 

 remarkable summer towns the world has ever known, 

 where stores and warehouses and reducing stations 

 and cooperages and many kindred industries flourished 

 during the fishing season. With the approach of 

 winter all buildings were shut up and the population, 

 numbering several thousand, all returned home. 



Hudson's record remained unequaled for 165 years, 

 or until 1773, when J. C. Phipps surpassed his farthest 

 north by twenty -five miles. To-day the most inter- 

 esting fact connected with the Phipps expedition is 

 that Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar and of the Battle of 

 the Nile, then a lad of fifteen, was a member of the 

 party. Thus the boldest and strongest spirits of the 

 most adventurous and hardy profession of those days 

 sought employment in the contest against the frozen 

 wilderness of the north. 



The first half of the 19th century witnessed many 

 brave ships and gallant men sent to the arctic regions. 

 While most of these expeditions were not directed 

 against the Pole so much as sent in an endeavor to 

 find a route to the Indies round North America — 

 the Northwest Passage — and around Asia — the 

 Northeast Passage — many of them are intimately 



