INTRODUCTION xv 



Mulgrave, sailed with the Racehorse and Carcass, with a 

 view of reaching the North Pole. He reached 80° 37', 

 and visited some of the Seven Islands. He also mapped 

 the north of Spitzbergen. In this expedition the great 

 Horatio Nelson was captain's coxswain on board the 

 Carcass. 



In 1818, Captain Buchan in the Dorothea, and 

 Lieutenant (afterwards Sir John) Franklin in the Trent, 

 attained 80° 34' north of Spitzbergen. 



In 1823, Clavering and Sabine, in the ship Griper, 

 visited Spitzbergen, and while Sabine carried on magnetic 

 observations on the inner Norway Island, Clavering went 

 to sea and steered northwards, but did not get farther 

 than 80° 20'. 



The edge of the ice had now been thoroughly examined 

 between the coast of Greenland and Novaya Zemlya, and 

 it became evident that the ice could not be pierced by 

 a ship. It occurred to Sir John Franklin and Sir Edward 

 Parry that the best way of reaching the Pole would be by 

 means of sledging over the ice. Parry put his ideas into 

 practice in 1827, when he undertook his well-known 

 expedition in the Hecla. He had just returned from his 

 third Arctic voyage in search of the North-West Passage. 

 His fourth voyage was an important one, and will be 

 treated at some length in the first chapter. 



