GEOGKAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1868. 



292 



great age of 85 years, in London, on the llth 

 of May. At the very beginning of 1869 (Jan- 

 uary 9th), Viscount Strangford, a learned 

 traveller in the East, and a profound Oriental- 

 ist, an active member of the Geographical 

 Society, and said to be better acquainted with 

 the entire range of Oriental literature than any 

 other man in Great Britain, died at the early 

 age of 43 years. 



These losses it will be difficult to make up, 

 for so wide is the range of geographical 

 science, that few men can give it that thorough 

 and life-long study which will qualify them to 

 become authorities in regard to all subjects ap- 

 pertaining to it. 



We turn now to the brief record of what has 

 been accomplished in the way of exploration 

 and discovery during the year 1868, and com- 

 mence with the Arctic region, and the efforts 

 to penetrate into the circumpolar space. The 

 year was as prolific in theories and adven- 

 tures, and as barren in accomplishment, as that 

 which had preceded it. The German Arctic 

 Expedition, projected and fitted out by Dr. 

 Aug. Petermann, sailed from Bremen in the 

 Greenland or Germania, a vessel of eighty tons 

 burden, commanded by Captain Karl Kolde- 

 wey. On the 24th of May they left Bergen, 

 Norway, and on the 19th of July had pene- 

 trated as far north as 80 30' N. lat. and 60 

 35' E. long, from Qreenwich, where they were 

 seriously impeded by the ice. Captain Kolde- 

 wey, while managing Kis little vessel with great 

 skill, to avoid being crushed by the ice, made 

 repeated efforts, both ok that parallel and 

 farther south, to reach the east coast of Green- 

 land, but without success, though on the 10th 

 of August they reached the merVlian of 17 30' 

 W. long, in lat. V3 23' N., whe^ they were 

 not more than seventy miles distant from Cape 

 Hold-with-Hope, and could see several of the 

 rocky promontories of the coast, but tb^ heavy 

 solid ice prevented their penetrating any rearer. 

 Finding progress in this direction impossible, 

 Captain Koldewey turned the prow of his ves- 

 sel toward the north coast of Spitzbergen, an<l 

 on the 21st of August reached Cape Torell, 

 V9 23' N. lat., and 21 30' E. long, from Green- 

 wich, having passed through the Hinlopen 

 Straits, though not without considerable dif- 

 ficulty. Here they were locked in by the ice 

 for several weeks, but, by climbing the moun- 

 tains, and using their powerful glasses, they 

 were able to survey the greater part of the 

 southern coast of the island of Northeast 

 Land (the northeast island of the Spitzber- 

 gen group). They waited till the 10th of Sep- 

 tember for the breaking up of the ice, but, foul 

 weather coming on, with snow and fog, they 

 were reluctantly obliged to return homeward. 

 By great exertion they succeeded in forcing a 

 passage through the Hinlopen Straits into the 

 sea north of the Spitzbergen Islands, and on 

 the 14th of September reached lat. 81 5' N. 

 on the 16th meridian of east long., the farthest 

 point yet attained in this part of the Arctic 



Ocean, though not so high by nearly two de- 

 grees as Wrangel's Land north of Smith's 

 Sound, visited by Parry. On their return they 

 reached the Fiord of Bergen on the 30th of 

 September, 1868, and at Bremen were enter- 

 tained with a banquet on the 16th of October. 

 An Arctic expedition was also dispatched 

 from Stockholm by the Swedish Government 

 in the summer of 1868. A powerful screw- 

 steamer, expressly built for winter navigation, 

 and provisioned for twelve months, sailed in 

 July, and by the last of September had reached 

 the latitude of 81 42' north of Spitzbergen. 



Captain Lambert, of the French Navy, whoso 

 projected voyage toward the polar regions, by 

 way of Behring's Straits, was noticed in the 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1867, was delayed by 

 various causes, mainly by the incompleteness 

 of the subscription (the voyage being long and 

 very expensive), and did not, as he had ex- 

 pected, sail in the autumn of 1868, but will 

 probably commence his voyage during the 

 year 1869. 



Meantime, Captain Hall still remains in that 

 frozen region, and has pursued his discoveries 

 with considerable success. He has ascertained, 

 beyond a doubt, that Captain Crozier and one 

 other man of Franklin's party survived till 

 1864, and had heard of some traces of others 

 of the party in Prince William's Land, which 

 he was about to explore. His heroism and 

 perseverance certainly deserve success. Of 

 projected expeditions to the Polar Seas, the 

 number is greater than ever before. Dr. Hayes 

 is endeavoring to secure the means for another 

 tour of exploration, by way of Smith's Sound, 

 in search of that open Polar Sea which he has 

 already twice essayed to reach ; Captain Sher- 

 rard Osborne is urging with great strenuous- 

 ness another British expedition, also by way 

 of Smith's Sound; the Russian Government 

 propose to seek a route to the Pole by way of 

 the New Siberian Islands or Nova Zembla; 

 Captain Long, an intelligent and experienced 

 captain of a whale-ship, whose discovery of 

 new lands in high latitudes was chronicled 

 last year, has demonstrated, in two or three 

 well-written essays, that the attempt to enter 

 the Polar Sea, and to reach the Pole by Baf- 

 fin's Bay and Smith's or Jones's Sound, is 

 futile, because the advance must be made 

 against the strong current of water and ice 

 flowing out of this sea through these channels, 

 and down the east coast of Greenland, the re- 

 sult of the immense volume of water poured into 

 it from the great rivers of Siberia and Arctic 

 America ; and he advises, as the only sensible 

 course, to follow the current through Behring's 

 Straits, and either along the route lying north 

 of Siberia and Russia to its efflux into the At- 

 lantic by way of Spitzbergen, or north of the 

 extensive tracts of land to the north of our 

 own continent to the Pole itself, and out by 

 way of Smith's or Jones's Sound, and Baffin's 

 Bay. Captain David Gray, an experienced 

 Scottish whaling-captain, insists, and will at- 



