33 



was argued that the great length of a Pohir day must more than 

 compensate for the obliqueness of the sun's rays, and for the very 

 long night ; and this conclusion was apparently strengthened when 

 the "Polaiis," an old American river steamer, a weak ill-found ship, 

 with a heterogeneous, undisciplined, and mutinous crew, notwith- 

 standing all disadvantages, got farther north than any ship had 

 previously done, and reported open sea ami mild climate. Most 

 geographers who had studied the conditions of climate, and most 

 sailors of Arctic experience, doubted the correctness of these deduc- 

 tions. They knew that local conditions affect local climate every- 

 where, and in the Arctic to an extreme degrae. It was known that 

 the lay of the land in respect to the prevailing winds, the currents, 

 and the tides, had a great deal more to do with the possibility of a 

 comparatively open sea, than any effect of a long summer day, — an 

 effect altogether wildly exaggerated ; and it was within the bounds 

 of certain knowledge that the possibility of passing further north 

 must depend on the continuance of the land. Still, the reports of 

 land seen far to the north of the winter quarters of the '•'Polaris," 

 as well as the reports of open sea, bearing testimonj' to the stoppage 

 of heavy ice, were sufficient to lead our more scientific and experi- 

 enced geographers to recommend further exploration by this route. 



It was by it, therefore, that the expedition under Sir George 

 Nares (1875-6) was despatched, only to find that the north- 

 ward trend of the land came to an end ; that the coast ran 

 away to the west or to the east, and that to the north was a sea of 

 very old ice of stupendous thickness and exaggerated roiighness ; 

 ice similar to what Mc Clure had encountered far to the west, when 

 he endeavoured to push north from Beiing Strait. This sea, 

 covered with this tremendous old ice — which Sir George Nares 

 called "the Palaeocrystic Sea," — put a very absolute stop to further 

 progress northwards ; and though, by extreme exertion, the sledging 

 party did go a few miles beyond any former expedition, it was 

 clearly established that nothing more could be done. The nature 

 of the ice met by Sir George Nares, closely resembling that found 

 more than 20 years before by Mc Clure, woidd seem to show that 

 there is no barrier of land separating the sea north of Robeson 

 Channel from that west of Banks Laud ; and if this idea is correct. 



