514 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



and California many examples of the Spanish 

 type are to be found. Many fine buildings have 

 been erected for commercial purposes in various 

 cities of the United States, which justly deserve 

 the title of "business palaces," and are well 

 suited to accommodate our merchant princes. 

 Although architects are somewhat fettered by 

 the small lots of twenty-five feet in width, pre- 

 vailing in most of our cities, many dwelling- 

 houses present remarkably handsome exteriors 

 and interiors. Fifth Avenue, in New York, is 

 in this respect one of the finest thoroughfares 

 in the world. The apartment houses, which 

 have come into fashion since the late war, cover- 

 ing more than one lot, have fared better in an 

 artistic point of view, of which the Stevens 

 house of New York is one of the notable examples 

 Many beautiful country residences are to be 

 found at Newport, Long Branch, and scattered 

 throughout the country 



Arctic Exploration. Frobisher, Davis, 

 Hudson, Bylot and Baffin successively, were the 

 first to engage in an effort to reach the North 

 Pole. Then after an lapse of nearly two cen- 

 turies the record of Arctic research was taken 

 up by such men as Ross and Parry (1818), who 

 were followed by Sir John Franklin. Franklin set 

 sail in command of the " Erebus" and " Terror," 

 in May, 1845, and by the month of July reached 

 Whalefish Islands in Davis' Strait. On the 26th 

 of that month the ships were seen in latitude 

 74 48' north; longitude 66 13' west; after 

 which no further intelligence concerning them 

 was received. It was not, however, till the be- 

 ginning of 1847 that serious apprehensions were 

 entertained regarding the expedition. The 

 most strenuous efforts were then made by both 

 the English and the Americans to obtain tidings 

 of Franklin. Among the numerous expeditions 

 sent out by sea and land in search of the missing 

 navigator and his company, were those of Rich- 

 ardson and Rae (by land, 1847), of Moore (1848- 

 52), of Kellet (1848-50), of Shedden (1848-50), 

 of Sir James Ross (1848-49), of Saunders 

 (1849-50), of Austin and Ommaney (1850-51), 

 and of Penny (1850-51). In 1850 MacClure set 

 out by Behring's Strait on a search expedition, 

 and to him is due the honor of having ascertained 

 the existence of the long-sought-for northwest 

 passage. Other expeditions between 1850 and 

 1855 were: Collinson's, Rae's, Kennedy's, Ma- 

 guire's, Belcher's, MacClintock's, and Ingleneld's. 

 In 1853, Rae, proceeding to the east side of King 

 William Sound, obtained the first tidings of the 

 destruction of Franklin's ships. In 1855, Ander- 

 son, proceeding up the Great Fish River, also 

 discovered relics of the "Erebus" and "Terror." 

 At length MacClintock (1857-59), set all doubts 

 at rest regarding the fate of Sir John Franklin 

 and his companions, by establishing the fact 

 that they had died in 1847. Dr. Kane made 

 some important observations during the prog- 

 ress of his Arctic explorations, 1853-55. Then 

 followed the expeditions of Dr. Isaac Hayes in 

 1860 and 1869, and those of Captain Charles 

 Hall in 1860 and 1864. Finally, Lieutenant 

 Schwatka headed an overland expedition in 

 1879-80 in search of the journals of the Franklin 

 expedition. Of later expeditions may be men- 

 tioned that of the unfortunate and ill-advised 



1 Jeannette" (1879), sent out under the command 

 of Lieutenant DeLong, to explore the Arctic Sea 

 through Behring's Strait; those of Mr. Leigh 

 Smith in 1880 and 1881, in the latter of which 

 he lost his vessel; and that of Sir C. Young for 

 the relief of the former. An expedition sent out 

 by the United States under Greely (1881-84), 

 reached 83 24' north. In 1888 South Green- 

 land was crossed by Nansen, and March 14, 

 1895, he attained 83 59'. In 1892 Peary traced 

 Greenland to 82 north. 



In 1896, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, of Norway, re- 

 turned from an Arctic expedition, after an ab- 

 sence of more than three years. The most 

 northerly point reached by him was 86 14' 

 north latitude, or 200 miles nearer the Pole 

 than ever reached before. He found no indi- 

 cations of land north of 82 north latitude, and 

 in the higher latitudes no open sea, only narrow 

 cracks in the ice. 



The following are the farthest points of north 

 latitude reached by Arctic explorers, up to the 

 present date : 



YEAR 



EXPUORERS 



NORTH LATITUDE 



In 1902 Lieutenant Peary attained the farth- 

 est north in the western hemisphere, latitude 

 84 17', 156 statute miles short of Abruzzi's 

 record, and 404 statute miles from the Pole. 

 He pushed the advance on the American side 

 thirty miles beyond his own best record estab- 

 lished in 1901, and sixty miles beyond the point 

 reached by Lockwood and Brainerd of the 

 Greely expedition in 1882, which had stood as 

 the American record for nineteen years. He 

 encountered the greatest dangers in his efforts 

 to reach the Pole, and showed ability and en- 

 durance which place him high in the rank of 

 explorers. The Baldwin-Ziegfer expedition, sent 

 out under command of Evelyn Baldwin, by 

 William Ziegler, a Brooklyn capitalist, and 

 which proceeded by way of Franz Josef Land, 

 proved a complete failure, and returned with- 

 out important results, in August, 1902, after 

 costing Mr. Ziegler $350,000. 



Arctic Ocean, or Northern Icy Sea, is 

 that part of the ocean which extends from the 

 Arctic circle, latitude 66 30' north, to the North 

 Pole ; it washes the whole of the northern coasts 

 of Europe, Asia, and America, and communi- 

 cates on the northwest of Europe with the At- 

 lantic; and on the northeast of Asia with the 

 Pacific by Behring Strait. It forms the White 

 Sea in Europe, and the gulfs of Kara, Obi, and 

 Yenesei, in Siberia; in North America, where 

 it takes the name of the "Polar Sea," it forms 

 Baffins' Bay. During winter ice extends in 

 every direction round the Pole, covering a space 

 of from 3,000 to 4,000 miles in diameter; and 

 even during the four months of summer the 

 surface of this sea is at the freezing-point. Ice- 

 bergs and fields of ice are continually drifting 



