CHAPTER Y. 
u Where the North Pole in moody solitude 
Spreads her huge tracts and frozen waters round.” 
In the following remarks there are points re¬ 
specting the temperature of the Arctic Sea, to which 
access is obtained through the broadest gateway to- 
the North, i.e., that between Greenland and Norway,., 
the portal of which is'guarded by Spitzbergen. In 
the western portion, along the coast of Greenland, it 
is more or less blocked with ice, and the water is* 
cold. In the eastern part, in the vicinity of Spitz¬ 
bergen, there is warm water and an open sea at certain 
seasons of the year as far north as 81°, and in some 
years one or two degrees further. Nearly all the 
discoveries in these regions have been made by 
persons engaged in commercial enterprise; so that,, 
even when favourable opportunities offered, their 
interests restrained them from taking advantage of 
the same* 
In 1871 Mr. B. Leigh Smith made a cruise in his 
