THE 



EDINBURGH ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 



POLAR REGIONS.' 



Polar A GENERAL designation for those parts of the globe, 

 Begions. included within the arctic and antarctic cjrcles, and 

 *^" v "^' / consequently occupying a space, circumscribed by a 

 circle of 23| degrees of latitude around each pole. 



The general want of inhabitants, and the deficiency 

 of those products suited for the necessities of human 

 beings, intimate that the polar regions were not de- 

 signed for the permanent residence of man. In a few 

 instances, indeed, the flexibility and hardihood of con- 

 stitution which enable our species to endure the ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold that occur in the torrid and 

 frigid zones, have also been the means of peopling, to a 

 small extent, some of the sterile tracts of the arctic 

 lands. Thus we find those hardy people the Esqui- 

 maux, Samoides, Laplanders, Tchutkchi, and a few 

 northern Indians occupying, in scattered hordes, the 

 otherwise desolate and Arctic portions of America, Eu- 

 rope, and Asia. Many of these people are so far dis- 

 tinct in their habits from the rest of the human race, 

 that they live almost entirely upon animal food, and in 

 their subsistence differ only from carnivorous animals in 

 the cooking, or partial cooking, to which their provi- 

 sion is subjected before it is made use of. These scat- 

 tered tribes, which appear to belong to some branch of 

 the ancient Tartar stock, are confined to the Arctic re- 

 gions, or the immediate neighbourhood. 



\ntarctic The Antarctic regions, as far as we yet know, and 

 egions. have reason to believe, are entirely destitute of human 

 inhabitants. None of the southern lands, indeed, with- 

 in ten degrees of the Antarctic circle, yet discovered, 

 have been found to be peopled. Those extensive tracts 

 the Sandwich Land, and its probable continuation South 

 Shetland, do not appear to afford a residence to a single 

 human being ; nor have the whole of the regions within 

 the Antarctic circle, and for the next ten degrees of la- 

 titude nearer to the equator, as far as can be ascertain- 

 ed, ever afforded, excepting to a few adventurous fish- 

 ermen,any produce, wealth, or subsistence to mankind. 

 With regard to the southern polar regions little how- 

 ever is yet known ; the tracks of few navigators have 



extended to the Antarctic circle, and no land, except 

 two desolate islands, has yet been discovered within 

 it. The Terra Auslralis of early geographers is either 

 wholly a place of imagination ; or securely enveloped, 

 probably beyond the reach of mortals, within the vast 

 and impermeable expanse of the Antarctic ices. Cap* 

 tain Cook (until a recent expedition by the Russians, 

 noticed in the appendix) was the only voyager who made 

 any considerable advance within the southern frigid 

 zone; thrice he penetrated its limit, but observed no ob- 

 ject of any interest, excepting the prodigious fields and 

 islands of ice by which his further progress was pre. 

 vented. He first crossed the Antarctic circle on the 17th 

 of Jan. 1773, on the meridian of about 40 east, and ad- 

 vanced into the southern frigid zone, which had hitherto 

 remained impenetrable to all navigators. He again ac- 

 complished a similar advance towards the pole on the 

 20th of Dec. following, in longitude 147 SO 7 west, 

 when the sun at midnight was for the first time exhi- 

 bited to human observation within the southern hemi- 

 sphere. And on the 30th of January, 1 774-, he attained 

 the latitude of 71 KX 30" south, being the nearest ap- 

 proach to the southern pole ever effected. 



SECT. I. Progress of Discovery in the Polar Regions. 



Our information respecting the Antarctic regions is 

 so entirely destitute of interest, and is at the same 

 time so extremely limited, that we shall take a hasty 

 leave of them, and confine ourselves chiefly to a vienof 

 the North Polar regions, respecting which we have much 

 more ample information. Curiosity and self-interest, 

 the two fruitful stimuli to investigation and research, 

 have, we believe, been the occasion of almost all those 

 great geographical discoveries which have not been 

 merely accidental. To the influence of one or both of 

 these motives, the whole of the discoveries made within 

 the Arctic circle may be safely attributed. 



Ohthere, a Norwegian of the ninth century, a man ot 

 enterprise and wealth, instigated, it would appear, by 



The Editor has been indebted for this interesting article to WILLIAM SCOWSBT, Esq. jun. F. R. S. &c. 



