R. W. Haskins on the Open North Polar Sea. 85 
the earth’s surface a reasonably successful study, had ample 
cause for real astonishment at the great extent to which all the 
teachings of the past, in regard to this open northern polar sea, 
had been either overlooked or forgotten, 
Since the occasion in question has fixed so much attention 
upon this open sea as a new thing to us all, and is still employ- 
ig sO Many pens upon it as such, it seems a fitting time to 
place the more general public in possession of the past knowl- 
edge of this sea, in a collected form, by way of giving profitable 
direction to the laudable public zeal which is just now so ear- 
hestly manifested in the case. 
his unfrozen polar sea, then, has been Jong known and often 
navigated, at different periods, and by different nations and ves- 
sels. The earliest no less than the most persevering navigators 
of high northern latitudes, were the Hollanders or Dutch and 
the Greenlanders, 'These pe did not resort to these lati- 
tudes year after year for the purpose of scientific discoveries of 
ay kind. Their purpose was whale and seal catching, and 
to whatever regions they penetrated, they were led solely by the 
pursuit of these creatures. Now it is from these early naviga- 
tors thus employed, and chiefly from the log-books of their 
ships, that we have derived almost all we know of a constantly 
combat, and no end to serve or aim to accomplish, by falsify- 
Mg or perverting the record, Again, this record of the log is 
5 gain, 
scard. Of the great mass of this species of evidence that has 
doubtless been brought home by the ships from the polar re- 
-Blons, We may well suppose we possess but a very small propor- 
Hon, since all we have owes its preservation either to accident or 
the Individual efforts of devoted men. In proceeding to cite the 
-€vidences we possess in this matter, we may premise that a large 
uon of them were collected from their various sources by the 
y erg Barrington, and by him published at London in 1776. 
As the citations we are about to make are numerous, and also 
seed a very considerable range of time, we have thought to add 
ney more clear understanding by: sree estar 
den. Of chronological order, so far as it has been p 
a8certain this, 
shin tS 22 English navigator, who was sent north with two 
aes in 1585, to discover a northwest passage, and who . 
~over the straits that bear his name, is, by modern authors, 
