i6 Transactions iSgg-^oo 



From a very early date circuni-polar regions exercised a 

 peculiar fascination over the men of the European races. From 

 Pytheas to the Duke of the Abruzzi ; from 323 3^ears before 

 "bright-harnessed angels sat in order serviceable" around the 

 Babe of Bethlehem to this year of grace 1900 more than 170* sea- 

 voyages and land journeyings and one balloon trip in high lati- 

 tudes have been undertaken by different nations, by navigators 

 sailing now in a westerly, now in an easterly course, or by ex- 

 plorers pressing northward over land, now gliding smoothl}^ down 

 the liquid highways of the wilderness, now running rapids and 

 portaging cataracts, either in search of new whaling grounds and 

 of polar water communication, or for the purpose of wresting from 

 the frozen north its ice-imprisoned secrets of climate, of mineral 

 wealth and ocean life. 



Danish, Dutch, Spanish ; Italian, Greek, Swedish ; English, 

 Scotch, & Irish ; French, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, 

 Russian, Venetian ; Canadian and Unistoniamf explorers b}' sea 

 and by land, during more than 20 centuries have taken part in 

 these attempts to make the Eady of the Iceberg throne and the 

 snow diadem their obedient vassal. 



In lordly ships, strengthened and braced by every mechani- 

 cal contrivance ; in barks of small tonnage, in pinnaces that were 

 the veriest cockle-shells ; in canoe and kayak ; in clinch and 

 shallop, and bomb and pink ; b}' dog-train and l^y that most 

 ancient of all methods of transportation, "shank's nag" frequent- 

 1}' called the "marrow bone stage" ; with store-room sometimes 

 provided for years of sharp onslaught, sometimes empty as the 

 cupboard of that far-famed woman "old Mother Hubbard" when 

 she visited it with benevolent intentions for her dog — hard}- and 

 adventurous seamen and persistent landsmen have attacked 

 circum-polar seas from e\'ery quarter, intent upon winning renown 

 for themselves and profit for their nation. 



*Mr. Chas. C. Smith, in a paper contained in Justin Winson's Narrative 

 and Critical History of America, states that since Frobisher's time more than 

 100 sea vo3^ages and land journeys have been undertaken in quest of the 

 North West Passag-e. To this number must be added those in search of a 

 North East Passage. 



IFormed from the words "United States of North America ' to avoid the 

 use of that verberian misfit "American" so often used to designate the people 

 of one country of the seventeen or eighteen countries of this Western Hemis- 

 phere. 



