POLAR REGIONS. 



Po!ar the first of these motive?, curiosity, undertook a coast- 

 Rtgions. j n g voyage from Drontheim towards the north, and was 

 ' ~*~ " the fint adventurer, of whom we have any account, who 

 crossed the Arctic circle : his voyage extended beyond 

 the North Cape of Norway to the entrance of the White 

 Sea, Iceland was discovered by a Scandinavian pirate 

 about the same period ; and the south of Greenland was 

 discovered about the year 970, by one of the colonists 

 of Iceland. But these are tracts of country which lie 

 without our limits, excepting a small promontory of the 

 former, and the northern continuation of the latter. 



The popular idea of a northern passage to India, 

 which was suggested by John Vaz Costa Cortereal, or 

 according to a more general opinion, by John Cabot, 

 the father of the celebrated Sebastian Cabot, about the 

 middle, or latter end of the fifteenth century, was the 

 occasion of a number of voyages being undertaken into 

 the Arctic Sea, from which, with some considerable dis- 

 coveries made by the whale-fishers, almost the whole of 

 our knowledge of Arctic lands has been primarily de- 

 rived. 



Though many attempts were made to find a north- 

 western or western passage to India before the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, there is no well-authenticated ac- 

 count of any of these voyagers having extended their re- 

 searches within the Arctic circle. SirHugh Willoughby, 

 therefore, who discovered Nova Zembla in the year 

 1553, and perished soon afterwards with the crews of 

 two ships, on attempting to winter in Lapland, may be 

 considered as one of the first discoverers within the 

 frigid zone. He was succeeded by Stephen Burrough, 

 who discovered the island of Weigats, and visited Nova 

 Zembla; and by Frobisher and several others in voyages 

 towards the north-west, whose researches did not ex- 

 tend so far as the polar circle. John Davis, however, 

 passed this circle in the year 1585, and in the course of 

 this and subsequent voyages discovered the strait named 

 after him, and the greater part of the coast on both sides 

 of Davis's Strait, as high as the latitude of 72 12' north. 

 William Barentz, a Dutch navigator, discovered Spitz- 

 bergen, together with Bear or Cherie Island, in the 

 year 1 596', the investigation of the coasts of which, as 

 far almost as at present known, was completed by the 

 English whalers between 1611 and 1620. The first 

 land seen within the Arctic circle, on the east coast of 

 Greenland, was by Henry Hudson, in 1607, who dis- 

 covered Young's Cape, Hold with Hope, and other lands 

 as high as latitude 73. In Hudson's fourth voyaye, in 

 which he discovered the strait and bay distinguished 

 by his name, this brave navigator was forced by a mu- 

 tinous crew into a boat, and, with eight of his adhe- 

 rents, abandoned to perish. The celebrated William 

 Baffin, in the year I6l6, discovered the bay bearing 

 his name, and circumnavigated, in a solitary little vessel, 

 this extensive and ice-encumbered sea, into which the 

 most adventurous navigators have not ventured to fol- 

 low him until within the present century. 



Considerable navigations of the Frozen Sea, on the 

 northern face of Asia and Europe, were made by the 

 Russians in 1636 and the ten following years, in which 

 establishments were formed on the banks of the Lena, 

 &c. ; and the rivers Jaha, Indighirsa, Alasei, Kovima, 

 &c. were discovered. The celebrated, but still doubtful 

 voyage of Semoen Deschnew, round the great promon- 

 tory of the Tchuktchi, to the east side of Kamtchatka, 

 was undertaken in the year 1648 from the Kovinia; 

 and the discovery of Behring's Strait by the navigator 

 of that name, was accomplished in 1728. This strait 

 has since been passed by Capt. Cook, who reached the 



latitude 70 44', the highest ever attained in that region, 

 in the summer of 1778. Capt. Clerke, the successor of 

 this extraordinary navigator, in 1779. Joseph Billings, ' 

 in 1790, and Lieut. Kotzebue, in 181 6, all passed Beh- 

 ring's Strait ; but none of them reached the extent to 

 which Cook attained. Subsequently, however, in an 

 investigation by land, Capt. Cochrane, we understand, 

 has traced the whole of the Tchuktchi Noss, and de- 

 termined its peninsularity. 



The greater part, almost the whole irtdeecl, of the 

 northern coast of Russia, between Archangel and the 

 Tchuktchi Noss, was traced by interrupted detail in 

 the years 1734 to 1740 by the Russians; ami some 

 other researches since that period, have been accom- 

 plished by the same nation in the Frozen Sea. * 



The journey of Hearne to Copper-mine River in 

 1772, and of Alexander Mackenzie in 1789 to the Fro 

 zen Ocean, bring us down to the period of the recent 

 voyages of Captains Ross and Parry towards the north- 

 west, and of the overland expedition of Capt. Franklin. 

 Some of the whale fishers frequenting Davis' Strait, 

 penetrated in the year 1817 to an unusual height into 

 Baffin's Bay ; and some of the Spitzbergen whalers also 

 penetrated to within sight of the ice-bound coast of 

 East Greenland. This uncommon permeability of the 

 polar ices, with a representation of one of the captains 

 that a great quantity of ice had disappeared out of the 

 polar seas, and that circumstances were very favour- 

 able for discovery, was the occasion, we believe, of the 

 recent voyages having been undertaken. Captain Ros?, ' 

 in the year 1818, circumnavigated the Bay of Baffin, 

 corrected its geography, and expunged from the maps ' 

 the supposed land lying in the centre of the straits, 

 called James's Island.^ As the time allowed to Captain 

 Ross did not permit him to complete the examination 

 of this bay, and as there appeared to the government 

 some reason to believe, that Lancaster Sound of Baffin 

 was an outlet into the Hyperborean Sea, Captain Parry, 

 well provided for wintering in these seas, was sent out 

 the year following for the purpose of pursuing this 

 supposed opening, and determining its limits towards 

 the west. This was accomplished in the ablest manner ; 

 no particular difficulty indeed occurred, until the expe- 

 dition reached the longitude of 110 west, but coming 

 then on the coasts of a large island, which was named 

 Melville Island, the ice was found gradually to ap- 

 proach, and ultimately to form a junction with the shore. 

 After every exertion, and after exposing the ships to 

 considerable risk, advanced to the longitude of 112 51'. 

 west, in latitude 74" 22 north, where the ice became an 

 impervious wall. The winter now beginning to set in, 

 they returned a few leagues to the eastward to a secure 

 place in Melville Island, which they named Winter Har- 

 bour, where they remained in great quietness and safety, 

 firmly frozen up until the middle of the next summer. 

 Being fairly released on the 1st of Aug. 1820, they renew- 

 ed the attempt to penetrate to the westward ; but after 

 pressing with uncommon perseverance between the ice 

 and the coast, in a dangerous and dubious channel, as 

 far as longitude 113 46' 43" west, (in latitude 74 26' 

 25",) they found it impracticable to proceed farther 

 and therefore returned to search for a more favourable/ 

 situation for pursuing the investigation . In this, how- 

 ever, they were not successful, the ice forming a barrier 

 to the westward wherever they went. They arrived in 

 England in the beginning of November, after having 

 penetrated 520 miles, or 32^ of longitude farther to the 

 westward than any former navigator in this parallel, 

 and discovered various barren islands extending from 



Polar 

 Regions. 



