LECTURE ON ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 151 



of the North Pole, and, as far as known, this point of extreme north- 

 ness is in the centre of a great ocean, ahnost mediterranean in its 

 character, for you will observe that the shores of Greenland, America, 

 Asia, and Europe invest it almost completely, M'hile the islands of 

 Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen interrupt the only broad entrance to 

 it from the south. 



It has long been supposed by physicists that this large body of 

 water could not be frozen over, that an open sea of varying extent 

 would be found within the ice belt which was known to invest it ; 

 and the correctness of this hypothesis seemed to be, at least partially 

 confirmed, by the researches of the old Dutch and English voyagers, 

 and more recently by those of Scoresby, Wrangell, and Parry. To 

 these evidences were added the important discovery of open water 

 by one of Dr. Kane's exploring parties to the northward of Smith 

 strait. 



The great difficulty which has been experienced in solving this in- 

 teresting problem has been an inability either to push through the 

 ice belt with a vessel, or to travel over it with sledges sufficiently far 

 to obtain indisputable proofs. 



My experience with Dr. Kane led me to believe that the chances 

 of success were greater by the route which had been pursued by » 

 Dr. Kane than any other, and I conceived the idea of carrying a boat 

 over the ice belt to the open water, having previously penetrated as 

 far as practicable with a vessel. 



You may remember that Dr. Kane's highest northing with his ves- 

 sel was latitude 78° 37' on the eastern side of Smith strait. It 

 seemed to me that the chances of success would be greater if a ves- 

 sel could be taken up the west coast, and from my own observations 

 in 1854, it appeared probable that a latitude between 79° and 80° 

 could be obtained for a winter harbor. For means of transport across 

 the ice I relied upon dogs. 



How far I was able to execute ray plans, it will be my purpose to 

 inform you in this lecture. 



The schooner in which we sailed was originally built for the West 

 India trade ; she was carefully strengthened for the ice encounters 

 by heavy beams and braces internally, and externally by a thick' 

 Avooden sheathing, and by heavy iron plates over the bows and cut- 

 water. Agreeably to mv petition, her name was changed from 

 "Spring Hill" to " United States," by act of Congress. 



I will not dwell upon the details of our voyage to Greenland, which 

 was unusually boisterous. The schooner was unavoidably so heavily 

 laden fliat her deck was never more than eighteen inches above the 

 water, and was never dry. x\.fter touching at Proven and Upernavik, 

 we reached, on the 21st of August, Tessuissak, the most northern of 

 the Danish stations, in latitude 73° 40'. At all of these places we 

 were kindly received, and the officials furnished me with every facil- 

 ity in their power for procuring the requisite furs and dogs for sledge 

 travelling. 



A brief description of these settlements may not be out of place in 

 this connexion. You are all, no doubt, aware that Greenland is a 

 possession of Denmark. It is divided into two principal districts or 



