INTRODUCTION. 



It has been frequently said that Arctic discovery is 

 the heritage of our nation ; it was bequeathed some 

 three centuries since by Davis, Hudson, Baffin, and 

 other illustrious seamen whose names and deeds will 

 ever retain an honoured place in their country's 

 history. It was not, however, until early in the 

 present century that the legacy was accepted by the 

 Government. The termination of a long war was not 

 deemed an unfitting time to renew the encouragement 

 of that spirit of enterprise and adventure which had 

 been transmitted from the earliest maritime period, 

 and had ever been a characteristic of the seafaring 

 profession. 



It is doubtful, however, whether that long series of 

 brilliant achievements in the frozen North which called 

 forth so much daring, so much fortitude, so much 

 endurance, would have adorned the annals of the 

 British Navy but for the untiring energy and perse- 

 verance of one man — himself an ardent admirer of 

 the deeds and sufferings of those ancient Arctic worthies 

 which his pen has so ably chronicled ; it need scarcely 

 be said that this individual was the late Sir John 

 Barrow, whose singular determination of character, 



