Dec. 25, 1873J 



NATURE 



139 



work for many generations of explorers ere the contents 

 of land and water be anything like fully disclosed. 



Of all narratives of discovery, those relating to Arctic 

 regions bear, in our estimation, the palm for intensity of 

 interest, and we are sure there are many who think along 

 with us in this matter. It would be difficult to say 

 briefly why this is so. It may be mainly that there the 

 mystery of the unknown, so far as relates to the surface 

 of our globe, is concentrated. No doubt, also, there is a 

 weird fascination around those eerie, rugged, ice-bound 

 regions of the far north, which have been the scene of a 

 greater number of deeds of heroic daring for noble and dis- 

 interested purposes, than any other region of the globe of 

 equal extent. There is also a general though perhaps 

 vague, yet we believe, well-founded belief, that within 

 these regions lie solutions to n.any of the yet mysterious 

 problems of science ; that if once all the phenomena 

 that He within the yet unlifted veil were exposed and 

 understood, they would afford us the means of tracing with 

 something like certainty the history of our earth through 

 many geological ages. In more senses than one, we are 

 there on the threshold of the unknown. 



There is somehow not the same attractiveness about 

 Antarctic exploration, though, as Dr. Neumayer has well 

 shown, it is certainly calculated to yield valuable results to 

 Science, and indeed has already done so. This may partly 

 arise' from the scarcity in these regions of land and of 

 life of all kinds, which are abundant enough in certain 

 regions of the known north. Indeed, the tract around 

 M'hich the interest of Arctic discover)' is concentrated 

 may be regarded as but a continuation of the great Ame- 

 rican Continent. 



We are sure that all who read this immensely interest- 

 ing volume of Mr. Markham's will agree with what we 

 have said. No more attractive subject for a work exists 

 than the history of Arctic discovery ; no man knows this 

 subject better than Mr. Markham ; and few could have 

 written a volume on the subject more full of interest and 

 of valuable information clearly arranged than the one 

 before us. The object of the volume, Mr. Markham tells 

 us, "is to give the public a correct knowledge of the 

 whole line of frontier separating the known from the 

 unknown region round the North Pole, to recall the stories 

 of early voyagers, to narrate the recent efforts of gallant 

 adventurers of various nationalities to cross the threshold, 

 to set forth the arguments in favour of a renewal of Arctic 

 exploration by England, and to enumerate, in detail, the 

 valuable and important results to bs derived from North 

 Polar discovery." Mr, Markham's main design is evi- 

 dently to show that the only certain gateway to the Pole is 

 by the Smith Sound route, and this design he accom- 

 plishes in a way that cannot fill to convince any unpre- 

 judiced reader, by going over the whole story of Arctic 

 discovery from the time that that hardy Norseman Lief, 

 the son of Eric the Red, in looi, made his abortive dis- 

 covery of North America, down to the present year, 

 when the world was astounded by the news of the dis- 

 coveries and adventures of the ill-equipped but remarkably 

 successful Polaris expedition. One's blood is once more 

 stirred by the story of these fearless early English 

 and Dutch adventurers, Burrough and Pett and Jack- 

 man and Barentz and Hudson and others, who dared 

 to face the dangers of Arctic navigation in mere "cock- 



boats" of 20 and 40 and 80 and 100 tons. The story of 

 Barentz and his companions especially is told with con- 

 siderable fulness, and it is with a very strange kind of 

 feeling that one reads of the discovery, in 1871, of the 

 very hut in which these stout-hearted Dutchmen passed 

 the winter of 1596-7, and goes over the long catalogue of 

 "Barentz rehcs" found therein. 



Mr. Markham recounts the principal attempts that have 

 been made to pierce through the formidable barrier of 

 ice that guards the North Pole. " There are three ap- 

 proaches by sea to this land-girt end of the earth : through 

 the wide ocean between Norway and Greenland, through 

 Davis' Strait, and through Behring's Strait— one wide 

 portal and two narrow gates." At present no one seems 

 to think of attempting the last-mentioned route, advocates 

 of Arctic exploration being divided between the Spitz- 

 bergen route, as the wide sea between Greenland and 

 Novaya Zemlya is called, and the Smith Sound route, the 

 route through the winding passages that lie between 

 Greenland and the American continent. Mr. Markham, 

 in considerable detail, recounts the various expeditions 

 which, from the days of Barentz down to our own time, 

 have charged the barrier that hems the Pols between 

 the east coast of Greenland and Novaya Zemlya. He 

 states with perfect fairness and with all necessary fulness 

 the progress made by each expedition, and the invariable 

 result, so far as the attempt to approach the Pole is con- 

 cerned, has been failure. The highest latitude attained 

 by this route was that reached by the well-equipped sledge 

 expedition of Parry in 1827, 82° 45' N. ; but the diffi- 

 culties which the expedition had to encounter were so 

 stupendous as, when combined with what is known of the 

 conditions which influence the movements of the pack in 

 this direction, to utterly forbid any hope of attaining the 

 desired goal by the Spitzbergen route. The inevitable 

 conclusion to be derived from the many fruitless attempts 

 which have hitherto been made by this route is, " that 

 by the Spitzbergen route, in a bad season, nothing what- 

 ever can be done ; and in a favourable season a steamer 

 may possibly press one or two, or even more degrees 

 farther north than has hitherto been reached, and obtain 

 some valuable deep-sea soundings and temperatures, but 

 no other scientific results in the absence of land. The 

 Spitzbergen route cannot be recommended, because there 

 is no sure prospect of exploring an extensive unknown 

 area, and because no valuable results in geology, botany, 

 ethnology, cr geodesy could be obtained under any circum- 

 stances." On this point Arctic authorities are all but 

 unanimous, as they are also on the point that by 

 the Smith Sound route a well-equipped Government 

 expedition, if sent out next spring, would be almost cer- 

 tain to return within three years with the mystery of the 

 " Polynia " cleared up, and with results in nearly all de- 

 partments of Science not only invaluable from a purely 

 scientific point of view, but of the highest practical 

 importance. The very last attempt that has been made 

 by the Smith Sound route seems to us to prove trium- 

 phantly that it would at present be folly to attempt to 

 reach the pole by any other route, and that if the meagrely 

 equipped and badly disciplined /'i?Ai/v'j' exped ition accom- 

 plished so much in a ver y few days, an e.xpedition such as 

 Government will, we hope, feel bound to send out, will 

 be sure to accomplish the remaining 400 or 500 miles 



