POLAR REGIONS. 



Polar Lancaster Sound to Melville Inland. To the cliain of 

 inlands they mrt with on the north .side, which were 

 ^ ~r~ ' ncarlv continuous, the occurrence of the open sea, 

 (wherein they made Mich considerable progress to the 

 westward) is to be attributed. This uncommon degree 

 of succe.-s called for further research ; and ('apt. Parry, 

 whose judicious management of the people under his 

 charge, whose persevering zeal in the cau.se had distin- 

 guished him as admirably calculated for such a service, 

 was accordingly dispatched again on a similar service, 

 and in a state of the best possible equipment, on the 

 8th of May, 1821. He returned safely in the month 

 of October, 1823, after two years and a half spent in 

 laborious though fruitless exertions to obtain a pas- 

 sage through the northern part of Hudson's Bay, round 

 the north-eastern extremity of the American conti- 

 nent. 



"Captain Franklin, in his over-land expedition to the 

 mouth of theCopper-Mine River, obtained the firstaccu- 

 rate knowledge of the American coast of the Frozen Sea. 

 His researches were perfectly satisfactory, as far as they 

 extended ; and it was owing only perhaps to some un- 

 fortunate contingencies, and to the extreme hardships 

 he encountered, that the complete design of his labori- 

 ous adventure did not fully succeed ; for certainly, as 

 much was accomplished as human perseverance could 

 encounter. 



A portion of the eastern side of Greenland, lying be- 

 tween the parallels of 72 and 73 north, we have ob- 

 served, was discovered by Henry Hudson in the year 

 1607 ; but we have no record of any person having 

 ever landed upon this coast, except Captain Scoresby, 

 Jun. nor have we any details concerning it, excepting 

 what we derive from the journal and researches of this 

 navigator.* Captain Scoresby, in his annual visits to 

 the Greenland whale fishery, has at different times ob- 

 tained sight of this coast, which for centuries was sup- 

 posed to be confined within an impenetrable /one of ice. 

 In the summer of 1822, however, the first opportunity 

 for minute research, compatible with the leading designs 

 of his voyage, occurred. He penetrated the ice to an 

 extent of 1 50 miles towards the west, as soon as it was 

 possible to accomplish a passage. On the 7th of June he 

 saw land (the east coast of Greenland) in the parallel of 

 75, and remained generally within sight of it until the 

 26th of August. During this interval Captain Scoresby, 

 notwithstanding the arduous duties of his profession, 

 and the want of proper assistance for such a work, ac- 

 complished a survey of nearly the whole line of coast 

 from latitude 75 to 6'9 9 , consisting of an extent, includ- 

 ing the various indentations and flexures, of near 800 

 geographical miles, t By this survey, it was found that 

 the. coast was in general so totally unlike what it is re- 

 presented to be in our best charts, both as to form and 

 ppsition, that the greater part of the land lie visited 

 and explored may safely be considered as a new coun- 

 try. Various islands and inlets were discovered, and 

 names were given to the most striking parts of the 

 coast. One of the inlets was penetrated and examined 

 by Capt. Scoresby, with the assistance of his father, to 

 the depth of fifty or sixty miles. Capt. Scoresby's re- 

 searches towards the south were limited by the leading 

 objects of the voyage, otherwise he had no doubt of be- 



ing able to proceed along shore betwixt the land and 

 the ice, had he had a justifiable motive* down to Cape 

 Farewell, and had every prospect of being able to do* 

 termine the fate of the ancient Norwegian colonies, re- 

 .spec-ting which there is such a general and intense in* 

 tcrest 



Having now briefly traced the progress of geogra- 

 phical discovery within the Arctic circle, we shall con* 

 elude this division of our article with a notice of the 

 highest advances made towards the north pole. 



The first attempt to reach the north pole, of which 

 we have any account, was undertaken about the year 

 1527, at the suggestion of one Robert Thome, of Bris- 

 tol, who proposed the scheme of the trans- polar passage 

 for shortening the voyage to India. The result of this 

 attempt is not known. After this voyage, the passage 

 across the pole was successively attempted by Barentz 

 in 196> Hudson in 1607, Jonas Poole in 16JO and 

 16*11, Baffin and Fotherby in 1614, Fotherby in 1615, 

 Phipps in 1773, and Buchan in 1818. 



The highest latitude attained by any of these navi- 

 gators, it would appear, did not exceed 81. Proba- 

 bly Phipps, who penetrated to 80 48', was the nearest 

 to the pole. Some of the whalers, however, who pur- 

 sue the Mt/slicelus in these frozen regions, have pro- 

 ceeded still farther north. Dailies Barrington, in his 

 discussion of the question respecting " the probability 

 of reaching the north pole," gives a number of instances 

 of whalers having attained higher latitudes than Phipps 

 by several degrees. But as his information was deriv- 

 ed entirely from oral communications, there is reason to 

 believe that most of his examples were greatly exagger- 

 ated by the persons from whom he derived them. The 

 closest approximation to the pole that is fully authenti- 

 cated, was doubtless that of Captain Scoresby, Sen. who, 

 in the year 1 806 penetrated the northern ice, a sin- 

 gle ship, as high as 81 30' north. J 



The whale-fishers almost annually sail to the lati- 

 tude of 80, or 80 ; but the extent reached by Capt. 

 Scoresby, Sen. is very rarely attainable. 



With a view of encouraging advances towards the 

 pole, government has for some years held out a scale of 

 rewards for navigators penetrating to certain latitudes ; 

 but as the first premium is offered for 88, a latitude 

 much too high for the commencement of the scale, it 

 does not appear to have produced a single energetic at- 

 tempt. 



From the great severity of the cold in the regions 

 beyond the 80th parallel, the mean annual temperature 

 being perhaps 20 below the freezing point, combined 

 with the observations and experience of many years, 

 Captain Scoresby, Jun. is of opinion, that the field ice 

 met with in so great profusion around Spitsbergen ex- 

 tends (provided there be no land) continuously to the 

 pole. Hence he conceives, that the only access to the 

 pole would be over the ice ; and he several years ago 

 gave a memoir on the subject of the practicability 

 of accomplishing the journey on sledges, drawn by 

 dogs or rein-deer. The feasibleness of the plan he 

 grounds on several examples of considerable journeys- 

 having been performed in this manner over snow-clad 

 land, and also across extensive surfaces of ice, which in 



Journal of a Voyage to the Northern WhakFi*hcry t m 182?. 



f The laborious nature of this work may be judged of, from the circumstance that Captain Scoresby's survey was founded on about 500 

 bearings or angles, besides 200 or 300 more for the deviation and variation of the compass, and that these were taken -at 50 different station?, 

 mostly determined astronomically. 



$ Scoraby's Arctic Regumt, vol. L 42, 



