R. W. Haskins on the Open North Polar Sea. 87 
Captain’s statement was, that being in company with two other 
Holland ships to the eastward of Edge’s Island, in pursuit of 
whales, and these not appearing there, the two Hollanders re- 
solved to go farther north. They did so, and at the end of two 
weeks returned again and said they had sailed to latitude 89°; 
and when Capt. Goulden doubted this, they produced out of the 
two ships four journals or log-books, which confirmed the state- 
ment, and did not differ from each other in all but four minutes 
of adegree. In this run to the north they encountered no ice, 
but had a free and open sea. ‘This occurrence is stated by Capt. 
Goulden to have taken place some twenty years before its narra- 
tion to Wood, which places it somewhere about the year 1650, » 
In 1662 Mr. Oldenburgh, Secretary of the Royal Society, 
London, was ordered to register a paper entitled “ Inquiries con- 
cerning Greenland, answered by Mr. Grey, who had visited 
3 ose parts.” To the question “How near hath any one been 
_. known to approach the pole?” Mr. Grey answered, — 
“lTonce met [date not given, but of course prior to 1662] 
upon the coast of Greenland, a Hollander that swore he had 
been but half a degree from the pole, showing me his log-book, 
Which was also tested by his mate; where they had seen no ice 
or land, but all water.” ; 
Yr. Campbell, who compiled Harris’s Travels, states therein 
this: “ By the Dutch journals they get into north latitude 88 
56’, and the sea open.” On being asked his authority for this 
Statement, Dr. Campbell answered that he received it from Hol- 
and as being an extract from the journals produced to the 
States General, in 1665, eae 
Martin, in his voyages, says, “in 1671 we sailed to the eighty- 
55 degree, and no ships ventured farther that year. 
Fleet Street, as a practising physician, about the year 1746, 
0 Sea wholly free from ice. The date of this voyage may 
ve been about 1685. ae : é 
_ Jacob Schol, who resided at the Helder, in 1700 sailed to 84 
horth in pursuit of whales, and had open sea there without ob- 
— Struction, 3 
8nd went no higher north, but had no doubt he might have done 
* through all the ice there was, had he been so minded. 
