2 48 SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS. 



of Davis Strait, which was much needed; for between 1715 and 

 1725 as many as 748 voyages were made in that direction by 

 the Dutch whale-fishers. Their chief fishing station was in Disco 



8. Dutch Bay, and the coast of Greenland was well known to 

 Davis them as far as Saunderson's Hope, the furthest point 

 English reached by Davis more than a century earlier. . We are 



translation, 



i 73 i. (A.) told that in 1715, Commander L. Feikes Haan sailed 

 along the west coast of Greenland as far north as 72, where he 

 found the ice solid and immovable. So no sailor succeeded in 

 following the bold track of Baffin during the i8th century ; 

 but towards its close, Captain Cook discovered the coast of 

 North America, in Behring Strait, up to Icy Cape ; Hearne, 

 in 1772, reached the shores of the Arctic Sea by following the 

 course of the Coppermine; and in 1789 Mackenzie achieved 

 a similar feat when he discovered the river which bears his 

 name. 



8. The year 1818 must be considered as the first year of 

 10 Circum- modern Arctic discoveries ; and the careful examination 

 ?8i8. r chan ' of a map of the Polar regions, prepared in that year 

 (R.G.S.) Before the expeditions sailed, is very instructive.- An 

 1818 chart must be looked upon as our great point of departure, 

 and as the standard by which the progress of discovery in this 

 century may be estimated. The Russians are, it must be con- 

 fessed, well to the front ; for they had already delineated the 

 whole coast of Siberia, and had added to the knowledge of 



9 . MS. chart Novaya Zemlya acquired by the Dutch. The map of 



with track of _, __ , , -, , .... 



Captain Spitzbergen, by Van Keulen, had been slightly im- 

 1773. (A.) proved and added to by Captain Phipps. Davis 

 Strait, and the west coast of Greenland as far as Saunderson's 

 Hope, was well delineated by the Dutch; Hudson's Bay and 

 Strait by the English ; but the grand discoveries of Baffin were 

 nearly forgotten, and Baffin's Bay is indicated by a dotted line in 

 the roughest possible manner. On one map of 1818, indeed, we 

 have this legend : " Baffin's JBay, according to the relation of 



