ARCTIC CORPS OF EXPLORERS. 163 



in various directions. Knowledge is priceless, and science teaches that no fact 

 is so insignificant as to be overlooked. But the results flowing from arctic dis- 

 coveries have been purchased at a great sacrifice. Many valuable lives have been 

 lost in the ice fields and floes of northern seas, great suffering have been endured, 

 and an untold amount of property has been lavished on the expeditions. Dur- 

 ing the last eight centuries, probably not less than one hundred expeditions have 

 been fitted out by national patronage, and private munificence. The larger por- 

 tion have sailed in well equipped ships, while others have traversed the country 

 on sledges. Science and art have been exhausted in fitting out these expeditions 

 in the most elaborate manner, and nothing that could contribute to the ultimate 

 success of the expeditions has been overlooked or wanting. The navies of the 

 world have been stripped of their most sea-worthy vessels, and every appli- 

 ance known to navigation has been supplied. Skill has been employed in the 

 preparation of food for long voyages while ships might be locked in the ice. 

 Cairns have been constructed in various places to preserve the records of lost 

 expeditions, and caches located so that ship-wrecked mariners might not perish. 

 These expeditions have been manned by the most distinguished navigators of all 

 countries, and accompanied by experts in every department of natural science. 

 We recognize the highest and most versatile talent in such men as the Cabots, 

 Sir Hugh Willoughby, Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Henry Hudson, Von 

 Wrangell, Lord Mulgrave, Captain Cook, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Sir John 

 Ross, Lieutenant Parry, Sir John Franklin, William Baffin, Sir George Back, 

 Dr. King, Dr. Rae, Captain Penny, Lieutenant DeHaven, Lieutenant McClin- 

 tock. Dr. Kane, Dr. Hayes, Captain Hall, Lieutenant DeLong, Captain Nares, 

 Nordenksjold, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, and many others. Their ships 

 have vexed the Arctic seas, encountered icebergs, wrestled with floes, drifted in 

 the frozen ice, and their sledges have tracked the frozen fields of the north, or 

 been covered with accumulating drifts. Exploring parties have been days with- 

 out food, eating their old shoes and scraps of leather, subsisting at last on rock 

 tripe and mosses, sleeping with a single blanket and deer-skins, with the spirit 

 thermometer 57° below zero, and have dragged their canoes and sledges over 

 the snow until they have dropped down from sheer exhaustion, and multitudes 

 have left their bones to bleach under the snows. of Arctic lands. 



When Arctic exploration seemed destined to prove a comparative failure, 

 Capt. H. W. Howgate proposed to establish a colony of fifty persons, on the 

 shores of Lady Franklin Bay, where they would besupplied with fuel from a seam 

 of coal lately discovered. This Arctic colony was to be provisioned for three 

 years, and another smaller colony was to be established at Cape Union about 

 ninety miles farther north, and the two colonies connected by telegraph. The 

 world is now witnessing an expedition sent out to relieve Lieutenant Greely 

 whose safety is problematical. ^ 



Amidst such unparalleled hardships and sufferings, on the part of Arctic 

 explorers, of nearly all civilized nations, we cannot wonder that the world is be- 

 coming a little weary of Arctic exploration, and many are asking, "Why is all 



1 Written before the news of Lieut. Greely's rescue had been received.— [Ed. Review. 



