Miscellanea. 345 
disease, we could scarcely suppose that the most hardy of the brave men 
could have struggled on for any length of time. 
Most geographers, however, I am happy to say, cling rather, like Admi- 
ral Beaufort, Capt. W. A. Baillie Hamilton, Mr. J. Barrow, and myself 
to the hopeful than to the desponding side of this picture of Arctic chances. 
I rejoice, indeed, in presiding over a Society that does not now abandon hope 
any more than when the bold veteran Sir John Ross, and his nephew Sir 
James, who was destined so ably to explore the Antarctic seas, had been 
absent four years, and were quite given up by high authorities. It was 
then that the Royal Geographical Society flew to the rescue, and stimulated 
the public to effect by subscription what the British Government declined to 
execute as a hopeless task. 
A like feeling has supported Lady Franklin, through the memorable exer- 
tions she has made, to equip and transmit the Prince Albert under Captains 
Forsyth and Kennedy, at her own expense; to contribute much to the 
outfit of the Helix under Sir John Ross, and to provide largely for the equip- 
ment and purchase of the Isabel. To this feeling also we owe one of the 
finest examples of disinterested philanthropy which history has recorded, in 
the conduct of Mr. Grinnell, the President of the Geographical Society of New 
York, who sent forth, at his own cost, an expedition of two vessels, under 
the command of Captain de Haven,* and which has led us to confer on 
that noble-minded citizen of the United States the distinction of being one 
of our Honorary Members. 
In reviewing all that Britain has accomplished in polar researches, 
whether in the spirit of discovery or philanthropy, we must not, however, 
forget how boldly our former rivals, the Dutch, navigated in these seas. 
It is even asserted that their old explorers reached to within one degree of 
the pole. However this may have been, we know that Barentz+ advanced 
considerably to the north, in the great sea between Spitzbergen and Nova 
Zembla. 
Itis indeed singular that this, by far the widest—indeed the only oceanic 
opening towards the North Pole—should in this century have been so much 
neglected, and that nearly all our recent efforts should have been accu- 
mulated upon the north shores of America, where every succeeding year 
has brought with it discoveries not of open sea, but of numerous masses of 
land separated from each other by comparatively narrow channels of water. 
Our associate Mr. Petermann has recalled public attention in a clear and 
emphatic manner to the great open highway leading to the North Pole, 
This laborious young German physical geographer, who is now naturalized 
amongst us, has shown that, whether we look to the ascertained outlines 
of the land, the range of the isothermal lines, the results of the annual 
* See the clear and unpretending official report of this good officer de- 
scribing his co-operation with our expeditions. 
+ The Hakluyt Society will soon publish the voyages of Barentz, the 
English translation of which, in 1609, is very scarce. 
GG 
