THE SECRET OF THE NORTH POLE. IOI 



a practicable one, would shorten the course to China by 

 many hundreds of miles. 



Let us return, however, to the consideration of the 

 information which arctic voyagers have brought us 

 concerning the north-polar regions. 



The most laborious researches in arctic seas are those 

 which have been carried out by the searchers after a 

 north- west passage. We will therefore first consider 

 the limits of the unknown region in this direction. 

 Afterwards we can examine the results of those voy- 

 ages which have been undertaken with the express 

 purpose of reaching the North Pole along the three 

 principal routes already mentioned. 



If we examine a map of North America constructed 

 in recent times, we shall find that between Greenland 

 and Canada an immense extent of coast-line has been 

 charted. A vast archipelago covers this part of the 

 northern world. Or, if the strangely-complicated coast- 

 lines which have been laid down really belong to 

 but a small number of islands, the figures of these must 

 be of the most fantastic kind. Towards the north-west, 

 however, we find several islands whose outlines have 

 been entirely ascertained. Thus we have in succession 

 North Devon Island, Cornwallis Island, Melville Island, 

 and Port Patrick Island, all lying north of the seventy- 

 fifth parallel of latitude. But we are not to suppose 

 that these islands limit the extent of our seamen's re- 

 searches in this direction. Far to the northward of 

 Wellington Channel, Captain de Haven saw, in 1852, 

 the signs of an open sea in other words, he saw, 



