DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH. 61 



to the nearest land in the direction of the Pole. 

 And as this account, derived by Muller from the 

 archives of Yakutsk, shows us that Markoff's jour- 

 ney, which was nearly equal in extent to the pro- 

 jected journey to the Pole, was accomplished with 

 safety to the travellers, there appears no very great 

 reason why a person equally adventurous as INIark- 

 ofF and better provided, might not, in a similar man- 

 ner, reach the Pole. 



sect: V. 



Account of the Progress of Discovery in the 

 North. 



Some brief remarks have already been made, in 

 the foregoing pages, relative to the discovery of se- 

 veral of the polar countries, since the period when 

 a northern passage to China and India became a po- 

 pular speculation ; but for tracing the progress of 

 discovery in the north with any degree of fulness, 

 it will be necessary to go back to a period of many 

 centuries, before the passage to India in this way 

 was, perhaps, ever thought of. 



The first considerable discovery which appears to 

 have been made in or near the Arctic Circle, was 

 the result of accident ; one of the numerous Scan- 

 dinavian depredators, who, in the ninth century. 



