NORTH POLAR EXPEDITIONS. 



257 



Sweden lost this rank, which it had retained from 

 1648 to 1709. 



NORTH GEORGIAN ISLANDS. See North 

 Polar Expeditions. 



NORTHMEN. See Normans. 



NORTH POLAR EXPEDITIONS. The daring 

 and hardy mariners of England have, within the last 

 350 years, penetrated into the remote Arctic regions. 

 Cabot, according to his recent biographer, penetrated 

 into Hudson's oay in 1496. Frobisher, in 1577, 

 sailed into one of the many entrances of Hudson's 

 bay. Davis discovered, in 1587, the entrance 

 (Davis's strait) into the great bay between the wes- 

 tern coast of Greenland and the eastern coast of 

 North America ; Hudson discovered and examined, 

 in 1610, the straits and bay called after him ; Baffin 

 examined, in 1616, the eastern parts of the great 

 channel, called from him Baffin's bay, in which 

 Davis's strait terminates. On the western side he 

 discovered (74 30' N. lat.) an entrance which he 

 called Lancaster sound, but was prevented from 

 examining it ; Jones, Middleton, in 1742, and others, 

 explored the western, southern, and northern borders 

 of Hudson's bay. It was expected to find a passage 

 here towards the west, and a prize offered by parlia- 

 ment for the discovery of such a passage, led to the 

 voyage of Ellis, in 1746. At a later period (1771), 

 Hearne reached the Northern ocean by land, from 

 the north-western settlement of the Hudson's bay 

 company; and Mackenzie, in 1780, from that of the 

 North-west company. They discovered (69 71 lat.) 

 the Frozen ocean, and two rivers which emptied into 

 it. Hearne discovered the mouth of the Coppermine 

 river, and Mackenzie tliat of the river called by his 

 name, and Whale island. Barrington endeavoured 

 to prove, in his Possibility of approaching the North 

 Pole asserted (new edit., with an appendix by colonel 

 Beaufoy, London, 1818), that in certain seasons the 

 Arctic seas were sufficiently free from ice to allow 

 an approach to the poles. The British government, 

 therefore, in 1773, sent captain Phipps, afterwards 

 lord Mulgrave, with two vessels, to Spitzbergen; but 

 in 80 48' the ice prevented them from proceeding 

 any farther. Cook was also stopped in his progress 

 by the ice (1778), at Icy cape (lat. 70 44'), which 

 he reached from Beering's straits. These and other 

 attempts of the British, Dutch, and Russians seem 

 to show sufficiently that a north-east passage from 

 the Atlantic into the Pacific ocean, or a navigable 

 way round the north coast of Asia into Beering's 

 straits, is not practicable.* 



The polists, as they were called, as Barrow (in his 

 Chronological. History of f'oyages into the Polar 

 Regions, London, 1818), and others, were of opinion 

 that the north-west passage, from Baffin's bay alon^ 

 the north coast of America, where the Mackenzie and 

 Coppermine rivers fall into the Frozen ocean, and 

 round Icy cape into Beering's straits, which is shorter 

 than the former, or even the polar passage, the 

 shortest of all, would not be entirely shut up by ice. 

 They asserted that an error had hitherto been com- 

 mitted in sailing always too near the shore, which 

 was surrounded by enormous masses of ice ; and that 

 the middle of the Polar sea, which was more than 

 2000 miles in diameter, and, between Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen, was of an unfathomable depth, and in 

 constant motion, could not be frozen up, and would 

 therefore afford a navigable passage. They argued 

 from the following facts : The Polar sea is open on 

 the northern coasts of Spitzbergen; the Russians 



It is, however, said that the Cossack Simom Deschneff 

 "led, in 1648, out of the Frown sea to Anadyr through a strait 

 -enng's straits), aud the Russian historiographer Mueller 



assures us that he saw the account in 1736, in the archives of 



xakutzk. This voyage, however, is doubtful. 



wintered in Spitzbergen, under 80 lat, where the 

 deer propagate. Neither of these facts are true of 

 Nova Zembla (75 lat.) ; from which they conclude 

 that in Spitzbergen the weather must be milder than 

 in Nova Zembla. Moreover, the cold on the eastern 

 coast is more severe than on the western. For 

 about five years (the period of the deviation of the 

 needle towards the west), immense masses of ice had 

 broken away round Greenland ; perhaps in conse- 

 quence of their increasing weight, and of earth- 

 quakes, or of several successive mild winters ; hence 

 the icebergs, which, from 1815, were so numerous, 

 down to 40 lat. Several whalers had also stated, 

 that the eastern coast of Greenland, hitherto sur- 

 rounded, had recently become visible again. Finally, 

 the currents, which set from the north through 

 Davis's and Beering's straits towards the south, by 

 which a constant circulation and change of the 

 waters is kept up between the Northern Pacific and 

 the Atlantic oceans ; the great quantity of drift 

 wood, which is brought down from the high northern 

 latitudes along the coasts of Iceland and Greenland ; 

 and instances of whales, which, as was shown by the 

 harpoons found in them, had been struck off Spitz- 

 bergen, being taken to the south of Beering's straits ; 

 and of others wounded in the latter region being 

 taken off Greenland and. in Davis's straits, render a 

 passage through Baffin's bay probable. 



According to historical accounts, the Polar sea on 

 the eastern coast of Old Greenland, had been unap- 

 proachable for four centuries. The Danish colony, 

 established in 983 by Eric the Red, prospered ; but 

 the coast itself became so blocked up by ice (from 

 1406), that the communication between Europe and 

 that colony, probably long since destroyed, had never 

 been restored. Since that period, also, the soil of 

 Iceland, once covered with wood, had lost its former 

 power of vegetation. To this was added that the 

 aurora borealis, the changes of which were said to 

 depend upon the freezing, thawing, and collision of 

 polar ice, first appeared about a century after the 

 settling of the ice along the coast of Greenland, but 

 has been less often seen since the diminution of the 

 polar ice. On these observations was founded the 

 opinion that the polar ice would naturally disappear, 

 as it had accumulated, in the course of tune, and also 

 the conjecture that Greenland, the eastern coast of 

 which was known as far as 80 lat., and the western 

 coast hitherto only to 77 30', is an island, and that 

 Baffin's bay opens into the Frozen ocean. On the 

 other hand, it was supposed that America is not con- 

 nected with New Siberia and Northern Asia beyond 

 the Icy cape. 



These considerations led the British government, 

 and at a later period the Russian, to undertake polar 

 expeditions, which were destined, not only to attempt 

 the discovery of a north-west passage, but also, in 

 general, to examine the northern coasts of Asia and 

 America, and determine whether there is a large 

 extent of land around the north pole, which is con- 

 nected towards the west with America, and towards 

 the east with New Siberia, or with the great con- 

 tinent, which Sannikoff declared he had seen north 

 of New Siberia ; or whether, as many believe, North 

 America be entirely separated from the polar coun- 

 tries. Parliament offered a premium of 20,000 

 sterling to the first navigator who should accomplish 

 the north-west passage, and 5000 sterling to the first 

 vessel which should reach the north pole nnd pass it. 

 In 1819, the prince regent offered prizes of from 5000 

 to 15,000 to those vessels which should advance 

 to certain points in the Arctic seas. The British 

 government, therefore, fitted ont two expeditions in 

 the summer of 1818, to the north pole. Captain 

 Buchan, commanding the Trent and the Dorothy 



