SOUTH COAST OF NOUTH DEVON ISLAND. 



CHAPTER IV. 



AN HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE DISCOVERIES AND 

 EXPLORATIONS IN ARCTIC AMERICA. 



A SUMMARY of Arctic explorations must be confined to a brief 

 statement of the objects and achievements of the various expe- 

 ditions, and in consequence loses the charm of the matter of fact 

 manner in which the dangers, difficulties and hardships are 

 recorded in the different narratives. 



The history of the exploration of the American Arctics opens 

 with the first voyage of Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1576, and 

 practically closes with the return of Sverdrup in the Fram, in 



