THE NORTH POLE. 87 



yet to be determined. In spite of the very positive utterances of many explorers 1 - 

 and scientists, all we really know is that there is much open water, or at all events 

 ice-covered watei', and that it may extend to the Pole. No weight whatever can he- 

 attached to the once popular " open polar sea " theory, which rested principally on the 

 statements of those who had, after reaching given points, been unable to see any thing- 

 hut open water before them. How would that wiseacre be esteemed, who, looking seaward 

 froih different parts of our coast, saw nought but ocean, and thereon immediately 

 built a theory that no land existed in the direction of his gaze? America must 

 be swept from his map entirely, while even Continental Europe would have a poor 

 chance except on a fine day, and even then from but a few points of our south 

 coast. 



Whilst the claims of Parry, Hall, and Nares, as the three explorers who have approached 

 nearer the Pole than any others, must be admitted by all authorities, we may note en 

 passant that other and stronger claims have been put forth in days gone by. The Hon. 

 Daines Barrington, somewhat of an authority in his day, read before the Royal Society, 

 late in the last century, a series of papers devoted to polar subjects,"* in which he records 

 the cases of whalers and others who were said to have almost reached the North Pole. 

 He cites with some substantiatory evidence the case of a Dutch ship-of-war, superintending 

 the Greenland fisheries, which had reached the latitude of 88 N., or within 120 miles of 

 the Pole. He gives the case of an English captain one Johnson, or Monson (Buffon records 

 the same case) who had also reached 88 N. He further offers us the " Relation of Two 

 Dutch Masters" to one Captain Goulden, who asserted that they had reached 89, and caps 

 the climax with a "Dutch relation" to a Mr. Grey, in which the Hollander claims to have 

 been within, half a degree (thirty geographical miles) of the Pole. These claims were seriously 

 discussed at the time, and were not put forward by an ignorant or careless writer. Never- 

 theless, no credit is given to them by present Arctic authorities, although they would seem 

 to deserve some little examination and attention. 



One other claim to the discovery of a continent immediately surrounding the North 

 Pole remains to be considered, albeit not seriously. It has been very naturally ignored 

 here, but was calmly discussed some years since in America, where it was first published. 

 The present writer presents it in a condensed form simply as a novelty; it is only too 

 evidently a sailor's "yarn," invented by some one familiar with Arctic works, or possibly 

 with the Arctic regions themselves. But as it will serve to enliven our narrative at this 

 juncture, the reader will pardon its introduction. 



The editor of the following narrative commences by stating that a log, squared and 

 much water-soaked, was found floating in Hudson's Bay in the year 1866 by an American 

 sailor. On examination, a small piece of wood was discovered to be morticed in its side, 

 and this being picked out, a manus'cript, written on skin sewn together with sinews, was 

 found enclosed in a seal-skin cover. The story inscribed on it was in substance as follows. 

 The writer begins by stating that he has discovered a new continent at the Pole. Being 

 desirous of leaving England, he had shipped before the mast on the Erebus, under the 



* These papers, with others, were published in a small work bearing the title, " The Possibility of Approaching 

 the North Tole Asserted, &c." 



