HEAD OF WHITE BEAR. 



FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE 

 LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE : 1807-1857. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 



ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS RUSSIAN RESEARCHES UNDER KRUSENSTERN AND 



KOTZEBUE FREYCINET ROSS THE CRIMSON CLIFFS LANCASTER SOUND 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN PARRY THE FOLAR SEA WINTER QUARTERS 



RETURN HOME DUPERREY" EPISODES IN THE WHALE-FISHERY PARRY'S 



POLAR VOYAGE BOAT-SLEDGES METHOD OF TRAVEL — DISHEARTENING DIS- 

 COVERY 82° 43 / NORTH. 



We have now entered the nineteenth century. From this time 

 forward we shall find little or no romantic interest attaching to 

 the history of the sea, with the single exception of that of the 

 Arctic waters. The epoch of adventure stimulated by the thirst 

 for gold has long since passed : there are no more continents to 

 be pursued, and few islands to be unbosomed from the deep. 

 There was once a harvest to be reaped ; but there remain 

 henceforward but scanty leavings to be gleaned. The navi- 

 gator of the present century cannot hope to acquire a rapid 

 fame by brilliant discoveries : he must be content if he obtain a 

 tardy distinction by patient observation and minute surveys, — 

 a task far more useful than showy, and, while less attractive, 

 much more arduous. Our narrative, therefore, of the remaining 

 maritime enterprises will be correspondingly succinct. The 

 reader's interest, as we have said, will attach almost exclu- 

 sively to the Polar adventures of the heroes o£ the Northwest 



551 



