332 North Polar Exploration. 



this, the widest opening into the Polar region. He had 

 with him a crew of fourteen men. On the 9th of June he 

 came to the edge of the pack, in latitude 75° 29' N., and 

 gallantly attempted to push through it, " loosing for one 

 piece, and bearing roome for another." But he soon disco- 

 vered that this sailing ice only existed at the outer edge, and 

 in four hours he found the pack to be so thick and firm 

 ahead, as to present an impenetrable barrier. He therefore 

 began to coast along the pack edge, with the ice always 

 " trending on his larboard" from the 9th until the 26th, when 

 he sighted the coast of Nova Zembla.* During this voyage 

 Hudson discovered the Gulf-stream flowing northwards, with 

 divers pieces of drift wood floating on it. This intrepid 

 seaman had now completed the examination of the space 

 between Greenland and Nova Zembla, in two very small 

 yachts ; and he had ascertained beyond a doubt, by careful 

 inspection, that an impenetrable barrier of ice stretched along 

 the whole- distance, barring the passage to the Pole. He 

 found that on the Greenland coast this barrier came down as 

 low as 75°, that it thence trended to ttfe N.E., until in the 

 meridian of Spitzbergen its outer edge was north of 80° ; and 

 that further east it extended south again to about 75°, and 

 stretched away to the coast of Nova Zembla. Thus, ' f by the 

 means of the great plenty of ice, the hope of passage between 

 Newland (Spitzbergen) and Nova Zembla was taken away." 



In 1611, Jonas Poole, and in 1614-15, Baffin and Fotherby, 

 made similar unsuccessful attempts in the direction of Spitz- 

 bergen, and in 1676, the Admiralty of Charles II. sent Cap- 

 tain Wood to attempt a passage to the North Pole, but he lost 

 his ship on the Nova Zembla coast. This important and in- 

 teresting subject was then lost sight of in England for nearly 

 a century, from the time of Wood (1676) to that of Phipps 

 (1774). It was quite clear that for Hudson's cock -boat, and 

 such like craft, the portals of the unknown region were firmly 

 closed. It remains to be seen whether a sharp-bowed screw- 

 steamer will be able to force them open. 



The Spitzbergen Seas, however, were a favourite Dutch and 

 English whaling station during the whole of that time, and 

 vessels frequently reached a latitude of 80°, and sometimes of 



* On the 15th of June two of his company, named Thomas Hilles and Robert 

 Rayner, saw a mermaid close to the ship's side, and looking earnestly upon 

 them ; but a little after, a sea came and overturned her. Prom the navel upwards 

 her back and breasts were like a woman's, her body as big as one of us, her skin 

 very white, and long hair hanging down behind, of colour black. In her going 

 down they saw her tail, which was like the tail of a porpoise, and speckled like a 

 mackerel. Hudson's editor suggests that this was a seal, and adds the testimony 

 of Dr. Kane, that there is something in the appearance and movements of this 

 animal strongly akin to those of human beings. 



