CHAPTER I. 
a Fond men ! if we believe that men do live 
Under the zenith of both frozen poles, 
Though none come thence advertisement to give, 
Why bear we not the like faith of our souls ? ” 
Sir John Davis’s “ Nosce te ipsum,” 1596. 
An invitation from a friend, casually given, to 
join him in two clays’ time, at the Port of Hull, 
from whence he intended to sail on a summer cruise to 
the far north in his schooner-yacht, left but little 
time to make the necessary arrangements for an under¬ 
taking of this kind ; but the desire to see for ourselves 
such wonders of the Arctic seas as fill all books of 
Arctic enterprise so far out of the beaten track of 
modern travel,—made peculiarly interesting at the pre¬ 
sent time, when the question of Arctic exploration is 
uppermost in the minds of men all over Europe, now 
that the question has been rendered doubly important 
by the general inquiry respecting the action and influence 
•of the Gulf Stream in the higher latitudes,—overcame 
all our scruples on the score of shortness of notice, and 
we accepted the offer without much hesitation. All our 
