274 ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



Perhaps the merit of having delineated the greatest amount of coast 

 line on our north polar maps rests with this country, but it is only fair 

 to add that this satisfactory result is, in a very great measure, due to 

 the excellent geographical work that was achieved by those various 

 expeditions that were dispatched by England, during the period em- 

 braced between the years 1849 and 1859, with the object of searching 

 for the missing Franklin expedition. 



The United States of America have, principally through the munifi- 

 cence and patriotism of its citizens (nobly supported as they have been 

 by the energy of those who have been employed), been wonderfully 

 successful in their laudable efforts to reveal the hidden secrets of the 

 unknown north. 



To Austria-Hungary we are indebted for the discovery of a large 

 extent of territory which has bee'n called Kaiser Franz Josef Land. 



To Sweden, thanks to that distinguished scientist and arctic 

 explorer Baron Nordenskiold, belongs the undying honor associated 

 with the successful accomplishment of the northeast passage along the 

 north coast of Europe and Asia from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Germany has successfully traced the east coast of Greenland to as 

 far north as Cape Bismarck, in latitude 77°. 



Bussia has done admirable work by a very complete survey of the 

 seaboard of Novaya Zemlya, as well as by the delineation of the coast 

 of the mainland from the Kara Sea, around Cape Chelyuskin, to Bering 

 Strait. 



Holland has, by successive expeditions sent up year after year (the 

 dispatch of which was mainly due to the active exertions of the late 

 Admiral Jansen), done much to familiarize us with the condition and 

 drift of the ice in the Barents Sea, even as far as the shores of Franz 

 Josef Land. 



Aud, finally, Norway claims Fridtjof Nansen as a countryman, who 

 won his spurs as an arctic traveler by the indomitable pluck and 

 energy he displayed during his marvelous journey on suowshoes 

 across the icy continent of Greenland, and who is now combating, and 

 let us hope successfully, with the almost insuperable difficulties attend- 

 ing an enterprise the main object of which is to carry his vessel across 

 the extreme northern point of our globe. 



It will thus be seen that many nations have shared in the glorious 

 work of arctic discovery, and all of them have written their names, 

 some with perhaps a stronger hand than others, on the pages of arctic 

 history. 



A glance at the map will at once reveal the fact that there are several 

 ways by which this large unknown area of a million and a half square 

 miles can be approached. 



In the first place, there is the route via Smith Sound, by which we 

 have x^enetrated a greater distance into the unknown area than in any 

 other direction. There are also the approaches by Jones Sound and 



