THE EUEOPEAN ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAN. 



HE seas stretcliing from the Scandinavian peninsula ami Eussia 

 northwards to the unexplored regions about the pole have, like the 

 North Atlantic itself, their islands and archipelagos, often hound 

 together by frozen masses. These islands, some of which have 

 hitherto been but dimly seen through mist and snow, and to which 

 further polar exploration may soon add others, are not even usually regarded as 

 forming part of Europe. ^Yith. the northern extremity of Greenland and the 

 arctic groups on the north coast of America, they form a world apart, not yet 

 subdued by man. Certain European states have doubtless claimed possession of 

 Spitzbergen, and hoisted their flags over its dreary wastes ; but those remote 

 lands remain none the less vast solitudes, shrouded for months together in the 

 mantle of night, then lit up by a pale sun sweejjing in mid-air above the horizon, 

 but rarely acting as a beacon except to a few daring whalers. 



The naturalists who are exploring these polar islands may possibly some day 

 discover treasures in them sufficient to attract settlers to these desolate regions, 

 but hitherto fishers and the shipwrecked alone have passed the winter on their 

 shores. Although lying beyond the habitable world, these inhospitable lands still 

 recall some of the most unsullied deeds of humanity. These dangerous waters 

 have been traversed in ever}' direction by men strangers to fear, who sought 

 neither the glory of battle nor fortunes, but only the pleasure of being useful to 

 their fellow-men. The names of Barents, Heemskerk, and Bernard, of Willoughby 

 and Parry, of Nordenskjold, Payer, and Wej'precht, conjure up noble deeds of 

 courage and endurance of which mankind may ever be proud. And no year passes 

 that does not witness other dauntless navigators following in their track, eager to 

 enlarge the known world and penetrate farther into the m^^steries of the pole. 



I.— BEAU ISLAND. 



The first land in the Frozen Ocean, lying about 280 miles north-west of the 

 Finmark coast, is completely separated from Scandinavia by profound abysses, the 

 sea being here no less than 1,800 feet in depth. Discovered on July 1st, 1596, by 



