196 DR. scoresby's opinion. 



fore, obliged — but one can well understand 

 with what heart-felt reluctance he did so — to 

 give it up. 



I believe, however, that that distinguished 

 navigator always maintained, to the last day 

 of his life, that it was perfectly possible to 

 make a sledge expedition to the North Pole 

 successfully. 



In this belief the late Dr. Scoresby also 

 concurred, and certainly no two men can be 

 named who were more entitled to give an 

 opinion on the subject. 



It may also be remarked that Arctic sledge- 

 travelling has become very much better un- 

 derstood since the days of Parry ; and one has 

 only to read the narratives of Dr. Kane, Sir 

 Leopold McClintock, and others, to see what 

 can be performed by zealous and resolute men 

 with weU-appointed dog-sledges. 



In MuUer's " Voyages from Asia to Ame- 

 rica," there is an account of a sledge-journey 

 which seems to me to go a long way towards 

 establishing the practicability of the thing. 

 In 1715, one Alexei Markhoff was sent by the 

 Russian Government to explore the ocean 

 lying to the north of Siberia, and this gallant 

 fellow, with eight others, set off in sledges 



