TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE. 167 



route. For, though Collinson in 1850 reached high lati- 

 tudes to the north of Behring's Straits, while Wrangel and 

 other Russian voyagers have attempted to travel northwards 

 across the ice which bounds the northern shores of Siberia, 

 it can hardly be said that either route has been followed 

 with the definite purpose of reaching the North Pole. I 

 shall presently, however, have occasion to consider the pro- 

 bable value of the Behring's Straits route, which about twelve 

 years ago was advocated by the Frenchman Lambert 



Dr. Kane's expedition in 1853-55 was one f those sent 

 out in search of Sir John Franklin. It was fitted out at 

 the expense of the United States Government, and the route 

 selected was that along Smith's Sound, the northerly pro- 

 longation of Baffin's Bay. Kane wintered in 1853 and 

 1854 in Van Reusselaer's Inlet, on the western coast of 

 Greenland, in latitude 78 43' north. Leaving his ship, the 

 Advance, he made a boat-journey to Upernavik, 6 further 

 south. He next traced Kennedy Channel, the northerly 

 prolongation of Smith's Sound, reaching latitude 81 22' 

 north. He named heights visible yet further to the north, 

 Parry Mountains ; and at the time that is, twenty-two years 

 ago the land so named was the highest northerly land yet 

 seen. Hayes, who had accompanied Kane in this voyage, 

 succeeded in reaching a still higher latitude in sledges 

 drawn by Esquimaux dogs. Both Kane and Hayes agreed 

 in announcing that where the shores of Greenland trend 

 off eastwards from Kennedy Channel, there is an open 

 sea, "rolling," as Captain Maury magniloquently says, "with 

 the swell of a boundless ocean." It was in particular 

 noticed that the tides ebbed and flowed in this sea. On 

 this circumstance Captain Maury based his conclusion that 

 there is an open sea to the north 6f Greenland. After 

 showing that the tidal wave could not well have travelled 

 along the narrow and icebound straits between Baffin's Bay 

 and the region reached by Kane and Hayes, Maury says : 

 " Those tides must have been born in that cold sea, having 

 their cradle about the North Pole." The context shows, 



