64 
TOPULAR SCIENTIFIC REVIEW. 
THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
By E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. 
A FTER the return of Sir Edward Belcher’s expedition in 
1854 the Government of this country appeared to have 
given up all idea of further prosecuting Arctic discoveries. 
Other nations, in the meantime, had successfully entered upon 
this field of research. Swedes and Norwegians enlarged our 
knowledge of Spitzbergen and of the seas washing the coasts of 
Novaya Zemlya ; Americans pushed their way up Smith Sound 
as far as the shores of the Polar Sea; the Germans directed 
their principal efforts to the eastern coast of Greenland, whilst 
an Austrian expedition attempted the north-west passage, and, 
failing in its object, discovered an Arctic archipelago to the east 
of Spitzbergen. All these expeditions were the result of private 
enterprize, and the successes they achieved were calculated to 
rouse the emulation of England, which for many years had taken 
the lead not only in Arctic exploration but also in maritime 
researches of every kind. Amongst those who most persistently 
advocated the renewal of Arctic research the late Sherard 
Osborn holds the foremost place. For ten years he agitated 
this question, until at length he succeeded in prevailing upon 
Government to fit out another expedition. During all these 
years the selection of the most practicable route had formed a 
fertile source of discussion, but the advocates of that through 
Smith Sound prevailed in the end, and the leader of the ex- 
pedition was instructed to take his vessels to an advanced position 
beyond that Sound, and then to explore the neighbouring coasts, 
and, above all, to make an effort to reach the North Pole. 
Smith Sound had already been the scene of important Arctic 
enterprizes. Bylot and Baffin, its discoverers, had reached Whale 
Sound in lat. 77° 30' N. Captain Inglefield, in 1852 sailed up 
it to lat. 78° 28' N. and reported the existence of open water, 
which he thought might extend as far as Bering Strait and the 
coasts of Siberia. But Dr. Kane, who hoped to profit by this 
discovery, barely succeeded in reaching Rensselaer Harbour, 
where his vessel was frozen in, and whence he effected his retreat, 
