102 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



beyond the ice-fields, what arctic seamen call a ( water- 

 sky.' In 1855 Captain Penny sailed upon this open 

 sea; but how far it extends towards the North Pole 

 has not yet been ascertained. 



It must not be forgotten that the north-west passage 

 has been shown to be a reality, by means of voyages 

 from the Pacific as well as from the Atlantic. No arctic 

 voyager has yet succeeded in passing from one ocean 

 to the other. Nor is it likely now that any voyager 

 will pursue his way along a path so beset by dangers 

 as that which is called the north-west passage. Long 

 before the problem had been solved, it had become well 

 known that no profit could be expected to accrue to 

 trade from the discovery of a passage along the 

 perilous straits and the ice-encumbered seas which lie 

 to the north of the American continent. But Sir 

 Edward Parry having traced out a passage as far as 

 Melville Island, it seemed to the bold spirit of our arctic 

 explorers that it might be possible, by sailing through 

 Behring's Straits, to trace out a connection between 

 the arctic seas on that side and the regions reached by 

 Parry. Accordingly, M'Clure, in 1850, sailed in the 

 ( Investigator,' and passing eastward, after traversing 

 Behring's Straits, reached Baring's Land, and eventu- 

 ally identified this land as a portion of Banks' Land, 

 seen by Parry to the southward of Melville Island. 



It will thus be seen that the unexplored parts of the 

 arctic regions are limited in this direction by suffi- 

 ciently high latitudes. 



Turn we next to the explorations which Russian 



