144 'T^^ National Geographic Magazine 



ing the last one hundred years, which 

 may be summed up in the general state- 

 ment that fully 60 per cent of the world's 

 land area was unexplored in iSoo, while 

 scarcely 10 per cent now remains un- 

 known. 



At the commencement of the last cen- 

 tury the four greatest geographic prob- 

 lems were the Northeast Passage, the 

 Northwest Passage, the sources of the 

 Nile, and the North Polar quest ; the 

 last only remains. 



ONK ARCTIC PROBLEM SOLVED 



The Northwest Passage first yielded 

 its secrets to the energetic explorers of 

 this age, the result being attained by a 

 series of voyages, almost entirely under 

 British auspices, that are unsurpassed 

 in number, duration, and heroism. At- 

 tempts for a Northwest Passage, inter- 

 rupted by the death of the great naviga- 

 tor, James Cook, who lost his life therein, 

 were renewed owing to the success of 

 William Scoresby, Jr., in exploring East 

 Greenland, i8i7-'22. Prosecuted both 

 by land and sea, material advances came 

 through Parry, Ross, and Franklin, 

 1819-' 35, while the voyages of Austin, 

 Belcher, Collinson, McClintock, Mc- 

 Clure, Rae, and others in search of 

 Franklin, 1 845-' 59, completely solved 

 the mystery. 



Parry, in three notable voyages, ex- 

 plored the greater part of the islands and 

 waterways north of America half way 

 from Baffin Bay to Bering Strait, pass- 

 ing north of the magnetic pole. John 

 Ross explored the Felix Boothia Penin- 

 sula, the north point of the continent 

 of America, while his lieutenant and 

 nephew, James C. Ross, located the 

 north magnetic pole at Cape Adelaide, 

 70 degrees 5 minutes north, 96 degrees 

 44 minutes west. The north coasts of 

 America were outlined by the land jour- 

 neys of Franklin, Beechey, Dease, and 

 Simpson, i8i9-'46, from King William 

 lyand west to Point Barrow. 



Other notable advances have been 

 made in Arctic America by Inglefield, 

 Kane, Hall, Nares, and Greely in Grin- 

 nell Land and Northwest Greenland ; 

 by Drygalski, Geisecke, Garde, Holm, 

 Steenstrup, and other Danes in Western 

 Greenland ; b}'- Scoresby, Graah, Kolde- 

 wey. Payer, Nordenskjold, Garde, Cla- 

 vering. Holm, Ryder, and Peary on the 

 east coast, while Nansen and Peary have 

 crossed the inland ice, the latter to the 

 extreme southeastern point of the new 

 land to the north of Greenland, discov- 

 ered by Greely in 1882. 



ADVANCES TOWARD THE NORTH 

 POLE 



Spitzbergen has been fully explored by' 

 Gaimard, Nordenskjold, Torrell, Leigh 

 Smith, and Conway. Weyprecht and 

 Payer discovered Franz Josef I^and, 

 whose limits have been extended and 

 defined by Leigh Smith, Jackson, Nan- 

 sen, and Wellman. De Long drifted 

 from Bering Strait to the New Siberian 

 Islands, and Nansen' s extraordinary- 

 continuation of De L,ong's drift around 

 Spitzbergen has most materially ad- 

 vanced our knowledge of the Siberian 

 and Polar Seas. 



Advances toward the North Pole have 

 been made through the exertions of 

 Scoresby, 81 degrees 30 minutes north 

 Parry, 82 degrees 45 minutes north 

 Nares, 83 degrees 20 minutes north 

 Greely, 83 degrees 24 minutes north (the 

 most northerly land as yet); Nansen, 86 

 degrees 14 minutes north, and Abruzzi, 

 86 degrees 33 minutes north, within 207 

 geographic miles of the Pole. 



As to the Northeast Passage,. Nor- 

 denskjold, having faith in both its scien- 

 tific value and practicability, selected 

 Palander as his navigator. Sailing 

 from Tromso in 1878, they passed Kara 

 Sea successfully and readily rounded 

 the north cape of Asia. Beset by ice 

 and obliged to winter within 120 miles 

 of Bering Strait, Nordenskjold com- 



