NORTH POLAR EXPEDITIONS NORTH STAR. 



261 



ward, they passed to the northward of her, and 

 having gained the south shore of Lancaster sound, 

 they nearly reached its entrance before the Isabella 

 overtook them. It is impossible for any description 

 to do justice to the feelings of either side on meeting. 

 None but those who have been in a similar situation, 

 can form any idea of what passed in the minds of 

 men rescued from such misery by the hand of Divine 

 providence ; nor can the feelings of him who has 

 been selected as the instrument of mercy, be fully 

 appreciated. The party were not more reduced by 

 their sufferings than might have been expected. 

 The circumstance that captain Ross was rescued by 

 the ship he commanded in 1818, cannot fail to be 

 considered an extraordinary, as well as a happy con- 

 clusion of the voyage, the result of which was, as far 

 as the endeavours of the explorers were directed, of 

 the most conclusive nature, namely, establishing that 

 there is no new passage south of 74 north. The 

 country discovered, which is larger than Great 

 Britain, was named Boothea, after Mr Booth, who 

 acted as a truly patriotic and public spirited citizen, 

 by assisting captain Ross, when fitting out the expe- 

 dition. The true position of the magnetic pole was 

 discovered, and much valuable information obtained 

 for the improvement of geographical and philoso- 

 phical knowledge. Captain Ross had a good oppor- 

 tunity of verifying his former survey of the west coast 

 of Baffin's bay, which every master of a Greenland 

 ship can testify is the most correct. Only three men 

 died during the voyage, two of whom were men 

 whose constitutions were unfit for the climate. Cap- 

 tain Ross arrived at Hull on the 18th October, 1833, 

 after an absence of upwards of four years, and his 

 arrival excited a very general expression of satisfac- 

 tion throughout the kingdom. Before news of his 

 safety reached this country, public subscriptions 

 were raised for fitting out an expedition to go in 

 search of the gallant captain and his crew. Towards 

 this expedition the treasury contributed liberally ; 

 and captain Back, whose experience eminently 

 qualified him for the service, was appointed to con- 

 duct it. He sailed in the spring of 1833 ; but news 

 of captain Ross's return reached him in time to 

 prevent him from encountering any inconvenience in 

 his proposed search for that individual. He, how- 

 ever, visited the great Fish river, and examined its 

 course to the Polar seas ; and after a perilous Arctic 

 land journey, he arrived at Liverpool, in the packet 

 ship, North America, on the 8th September, 1835. 



If the antipolists, or opponents of Barrow, at the 

 head of whom Leslie was, who ascribe the breaking 

 up of the ice on the coast of Greenland to the acci- 

 dental prevalence of warm winds, and infer, from phy- 

 sical principles, the impossibility of penetrating the 

 ice of the polar seas, are correct in their views, yet these 

 bold expeditions have been rich in scientific results ; 

 they have determined the outlines of the northern coast 

 of America, and of the western coast of Greenland, 

 and made known the depth, temperature, saltness,and 

 specific gravity of the polar seas, the rate and direc- 

 tion of the currents, and the state of the atmospheric 

 electricity, and its connexion with the variation and 

 power of the magnetic needle in the Arctic regions. 

 The whole enterprise is a monument of perseverance, 

 hardiness, and courage, as well as of intelligence and 

 skill, highly honourable to the British nation. 



The expeditions directed by the Russian govern- 

 ment, in part at the expense of the count Rumjanzoff, 

 have had for their object the examination of the 

 coasts of Kamschatka and the north-west coast of 

 North America, or that of the north coast of Asia 

 and Nova Zembla. Captain Kotzebue, on his first 

 expedition (1814 1818), discovered the sound called 

 by his name, to the north of Beering's straits, and, 



in 1824, undertook a new voyage round the world, 

 in which it was intended that he should penetrate 

 beyond the Icy cape, which had been discovered by 

 Cook ; but the ice obliged him to return, and he 

 arrived at Cronstadt in 1826. The Narratives of 

 these two voyages have been published in English. 



The polar expedition of baron Wrangel, whose 

 companions were lieutenant Anjou, doctor Kober, 

 and some seamen, started from Siberia in April, 

 1820. Here, and upon the ice of the Polar ocean, 

 they struggled for four years with cold and hunger, 

 as they could take with them but a small supply of 

 provision in their sledges drawn by dogs. After 

 passing forty-six days upon the surface of the Frozen 

 ocean (at a temperature of from 2 to 22), they 

 reached, in their sledges, the latitude of 72 3'. 

 Wrangel surveyed astronomically the whole coast 

 from cape Schalagskoi to Beering's straits, to the 

 point seen by Billings, 438 geographical miles south- 

 east from Cook's North cape, and the hitherto 

 unknown northern coast of Siberia, and placed be- 

 yond doubt the existence of an open passage between 

 Asia and America. He returned to Petersburg in 

 May. 



A third expedition was fitted out for Beering's 

 straits and the Polar seas, under captain Wassiljeff, 

 who sailed from Cronstadt in June, 1819, with two 

 sloops. Captain Wassiljeff discovered an island 

 inhabited by the Aleutians, in 60 59' 57" N. lat., 

 and 193 17' 2" W. Ion. Thence he sailed to 71 

 7' N. lat., 19 minutes farther than Cook had gone 

 before him, and discovered two capes upon the north- 

 west coast of North America, which he named Golow- 

 nin and Ricord. The other vessel of this expedition 

 sailed along the eastern coast of Siberia, but was 

 compelled to put back, in 69 10', on account of the 

 ice. Late in the summer of 1822, both ships returned 

 to Cronstadt. 



To survey the yet unexplored coasts of the island 

 of Nova Zembla, the Russian government sent lieu- 

 tenant Lasareff in 1819, lieutenant Lawroff in 1821, 

 and the lieutenant-captain Litke in 1822. The last 

 added much to our knowledge of Nova Zembla, and 

 of the coast of Lapland. A new expedition was 

 intrusted to him in 1823, for the examination of 

 Waygatz island ; and he was also instructed to make 

 charts of its coasts, as well as the other coasts of these 

 northern regions, of the island Werdhuus, and of 

 Waranger bay. He returned to Archangel August 

 31, 1823. 



Another Russian ship, the Neptune, which, ac- 

 cording to Krusenstern, reached (1817) 83 20' N. 

 lat., found no indications of a country lying north of 

 Spitzbergen; and this result has been confirmed by 

 Parry's last expedition. The Russians have, how- 

 ever, proved that Asia is not connected with America 

 on the north. See North America. 



A compendious view of the attempts to explore 

 the polar regions is given in the Narrative of Dis- 

 covery and Adventure in the Polar sea and Regions, 

 by professors Leslie, Jamieson, and Murray, published 

 at Edinburgh by Oliver and Boyd. 



NORTH POLE. See Pole. 



NORTH POLE in Magnetism. See Magnetism. 



NORTH RIVER. See Hudson River. 



NORTH SEA (anciently Mori-marusa); a name 

 given to that part of the Atlantic situated to the 

 north of England and Ireland, sometimes also to the 

 German ocean or that part of the Atlantic which is 

 north of the Downs and the mouth of the Thames. 

 This term has likewise been applied to the gulf of 

 Mexico, and all that part of the Atlantic which is 

 north of the coast of South America, from the isth- 

 mus of Darien. 



NORTH STAR. See Pole Star. 



