212 REPORT— 1872. 



perEeveraiice ^Yhicll foimed one of their natural characteristics, never better illus- 

 trated than in the recent heroic journey of Mr. Stanley to the rescue of Livingstone) 

 were not satisfied even by the news brought home by Rae and M'Clintock of the 

 glorious fate of Franklin, with M'Clure's accomplishment by ship and sledge of a 

 passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, or with Dr. Kane's report of a 

 passage, with much open water, extending northward through Smith's Sound ; but 

 they immediately sent forth, by private enterprise supplemented with Government 

 aid,' two fresh expeditions — one, under Captain Hall, to try on foot to reach Eepulse 

 Bay and the estuary of the Great Fish River, with the object of trying to save any 

 documents left by the last survivors of Franklin's people ; and the other to add, if 

 possible, fresh geographical discoveries in the promising field of Smith's Sound laid 

 open by the gallant l)r. Kane. Captain Hall for seven years lived the life of an 

 Esquimaiix and returned to tell us of a vast amount of relics of the crews of the 

 ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' being strewed about the shores and islets south of King 

 William's Land, to bring home the bones of probably the latest survivor. Lieu- 

 tenant le Vescomte, but only to confirm Sir Leopold M'Clintock's opinion, that by 

 some sad fatality no written record beyond the one he picked up at Cape Victory 

 existed of that lost expedition. Yet the ardour of Captain Hall was so little 

 quenched by these long years of hardship that he again volunteered for Arctic 

 labours, and was again now striving with a fresh-appointed expedition to secure to 

 his country the honour of a polar exploration — Dr. ILiy, who had been sent out on 

 Kane's footsteps, having in the mean time returned, a'fter carrying up the investi- 

 gation of the shores of Grinnel Land, on the west side of Smith's Sound, to the 

 80th parallel of latitude, only COO miles from the Pole, with much open water in 

 sight. While our Transatlantic brethren had thus unfiinchingly persevered iu 

 Arctic research other European nations had not been idle. Sweden had since 18C0 

 sent scientific expedition after expedition to Spitzbergen, not only to explore that 

 region, but also to test a theory of an open sea extending bej'ond it, by which the 

 navigator could reach and explore the Polar area — that great unknown space, of 

 more than a million square miles, lying around the polo and within the 80th 

 parallel of latitude. Captain von Oiler and Professor Nordenskiiild, after repeated 

 gallant eflbrts, reported no probability of reaching it in that direction. Germany, 

 for ten years, under the inspiration of Dr. Petermann, of Gotha, had been attempt- 

 ing unsuccessfully to reach these Polar waters by passing either between Spitz- 

 bergen and Nova Zembla, or between Spitzbergen and Greenland ; and after en- 

 countering all the ordinary perils of the Arctic voyage, and exhibiting indomitable 

 courage and perseverance, the German leader, Captain Karle Koldeway, returned 

 to tell us in 1871 what Parry, Eoss, and Franklin had told us half a century ago, 

 that the outpour of ice between Greenland and Spitzbergen was too continuous 

 and heavy for any navigator to push through, and that on the east of Spitzbergen 

 an open passage to the Pole was a mere philosophical dream. Yet that latter 

 course might still be a subject for geographical dispute had not two gallant 

 officers of the Austrian Navy boldly essayed it from Tromso, in Norway, last year. 

 The results of that enterprising little voj'age had been so recently laidby Captain 

 Osborn before the Royal Geographical Society that it was unnecessary to repeat it 

 here; but one thing was certain, that as they went northward, and reached about 

 the 7yih parallel of latitude, to the east of Spitzbergen, they were fast approaching 

 some unknown land of which glimpses had only previously been obtained. This 

 land must block the passage in that direction, its existence accounting for the 

 absence of drift Polar ice between Nova Zembla and the North Cape of Europe. 

 These same Austrian explorers had again put forth with the intention of explwing 

 the sea in a north-east direction from Nova Zembla along the shores of Siberia to 

 Behring's Straits — a course likely to yield rich scientific and geographical results ; 

 and we could only wish them the " God-speed " they deserved at our hands. All 

 these efforts by European nations, barring ourselves, during the last ten years, 

 went to confirm the theory held now by nearly all our Arctic navigators, that the 

 best, the safest, and most promising route towards the unknown Pole of our earth 

 lay by way of Baffin's Bay and Smith's Sound ; and by that route the President 

 and Council of the Royal Geographical Society desired to see English navigators, 

 associated with competent men of science, make a strenuous eflbrt next year to 



