ished a thousand miles south of the scene of Kane's explorations. But the bold American was not mistaken in his conclusion that the true route to the Pole or to an 66 open Polar Sea," in which he devoutly believed, was to be found by Smith's Sound. He stood almost alone in that opinion; now the whole world has come round to his conclusion. Reasoning from the analogies of physical geography, he concluded that Greenland was a vast peninsula stretching away to the Polar Sea. He therefore determined to make Greenland itself the basis of his operations to force his vessel along its shores as far north as the ice would permit—then, having secured the brig in some creek or inlet, he proposed to send out travelling parties on sledges, drawn by dogs, carrying with them gutta-percha boats, explore the whole north-western coast, reach the extreme north of Greenland, and there embarking on the open water which he hoped to find, reach the Pole. How much he accomplished, in a little brig of one hundred and twenty tons, poorly provided for an Arctic winter, and with a crew of seventeen men, all the world has learned from his charming narrative. Never were awful sufferings and privations more gallantly endured. The most important result of his expedition was the discovery by Morton, one of his crew, of open water at the northern end of Kennedy Channel, which Kane fondly concluded was the long-sought open Polar Sea. We shall see presently that Captain Hall's voyage has disproved this notion, and shown that Morton saw only the waters of a bay which a strong current, in the warm days of summer, had cleared of ice.

In 1860, Dr. Hayes, one of Kane's companions, led a second American expedition, in the same direction, to follow up Kane's line of research. He was unable to carry his vessel farther up Smith's Sound than to 78° 17', where he wintered in Port Foulke, and found abundance of animal life. In the face of tremendous difficulties, he succeeded, in the Spring of 1861, in exploring, by means of dog-sledges, the west coast of Kennedy Channel to lat. 81° 35′ N. His further progress was stopped by cracks and rotten ice. His conclusion was the same as that of Kane, that Kennedy Channel expands into the open Polar Sea. Unfortunately his vessel was so much injured by the ice that he had to abandon the project of pushing her farther North, and had to return home in July 1861. Dr. Hayes's narrative is second only to that of Kane in interest; and his survey of the western coast of Kennedy

Channel possesses great value. Speaking of the point at which his survey terminated, Dr. Hayes says: "Standing against the dark sky at the north there was seen in dim outline the white sloping summit of a noble headland - the most northern known land upon the globe. I judged it to be in latitude 82° 30', or four hundred and fifty miles from the Pole." "All the evidences showed that I stood upon the shores of the Polar Basin, and that the broad ocean lay at my feet; that the land upon which I stood culminating in the distant cape before me, was but a point of land projecting far into it." Like Dr. Kane, however, the enthusiastic explorer was mistaken in his conclusions. Polar Sea," if it exist, has yet to be discovered.

The "

open

A third American expedition was led by Captain Hall, in 1871, the destination being once more Smith's Sound. With the results of that expedition the world was made acquainted in May last, the bearers of the news being a portion of the crew who had been accidentally separated from the Polaris, and who had drifted on an ice-floe not less than two thousand miles, from Whale Sound to the coast of Labrador. I shall now refer to Captain Hall's explorations only in their bearing on the question of the best route to the North Pole.

The original intention of Captain Hall was to enter Jones' Sound, on the west side of the "North Water" of Baffin's Bay, and to follow the coast of Ellismere Land to advanced winterquarters, whence he hoped to reach the North Pole by travelling parties. On arriving at the most northern of the Greenland settlements, he found that the season was the most open which had been known for many years, and he was, in consequence, induced to change his original programme, and to proceed directly north, by way of Smith's Sound. By the most extraordinary good fortune, he got through Melville Bay, the "North Water," and up Smith's Sound without any serious obstruction from the ice. The run he made was indeed quite unprecedented. In eight days after leaving Tessinsak he had reached lat. 82° 16′ N., the highest to which a vessel had ever been pushed. He had passed Cape Constitution, the point on which Morton, of Kane's expedition, stood, when he saw, as he believed, the "open Polar Sea." Arrowsmith places this point in 80° 56′ N.; but Mr. Meyers, of Hall's expedition, found it to be farther south, in 80° 27'. Here Kennedy Channel narrows to fourteen or fifteen miles in breadth. At its

termination, the land, on the Greenland side, trends sharply eastward, and a sound sixty miles in width opens, having a bay, which Hall named Polaris Bay, on its eastern side. Having sailed for about eighty miles through this sound, Hall found himself entering a narrow channel, twenty-five miles wide, which he named "Robeson's Channel." The southern point of this channel he named Cape Lupton, being in lat. 81° 44'. After advancing about forty-five miles up Robeson's Channel, Hall found that it widened out suddenly, and that the Greenland coast again trended eastward, forming another sound or bay, the extent of which could not be determined. On the western side, land could be seen beyond 83° The Polaris was now in lat. 82° 16′, the narrowest part of Robeson's Channel. Here heavy ice was met, and there were divided counsels on board. The majority of the officers, with Captain Hall, were in favour of pushing for the western coast, and either trying to get farther north, or to find a harbour there in which to winter. Captain Buddington, the ice-master, was in favour of wintering in Repulse Harbour, in Robeson's Channel, in lat. 82° 9'. Meantime the pack came down and the Polaris drifted south with it through Robeson's Channel, and finally went into winter quarters in "Thank-God Harbour," Polaris Bay, on September 2nd, 1871. The attempt to get north was not renewed though the season was early for wintering, and the pack seemed to be far from impenetrable. In addition to Repulse Bay, another bay was discovered in Robeson's Channel which was named "Newman's Bay." It is about five miles wide at the mouth. Its southern point, "Summer Headland," is in lat. 81° 55'; its northern point, "Cape Brevoort," in 82° 2′.

It would appear that there were no insurmountable obstacles to the progress of the Polaris farther north; and it must ever be a matter of deep regret that, at all hazards, she did not press on, or try the western side before turning south. In his evidence before the Commission at Washington, Mr Meyers, meteorologist of the expedition, one of the party who escaped on the ice, said, that at the north end of Robeson's Channel, where it is narrow, the ice gathers and presses tightly. But, he added, "if any vessel could push through this narrowest part she could get as far as 85° or 86°, or even further." Mr. Meyers also stated that in the Spring of 1872, he made surveys of Newman's Bay and of the interior, and kept on travelling north-east until want of provisions com

pelled the party to return. "I believe," he said, “I surveyed a little above 84° on the west coast; on the east coast about 80° 30'." His meaning, I think, must have been that he saw land at these latitudes on both sides, not that he actually surveyed the coast to these distances. The winter quarters of the Polaris were in lat. 81° 38′ N., long. 61° 44′ W. The melancholy death of the leader paralysed further efforts to get north, and the Polaris started for home in August, 1872, with results which are already well known.

There can be no doubt that Hall's important discoveries will give a fresh impulse to Arctic exploration, as they have proved beyond all doubt that Greenland stretches away towards the Pole at least as far as 84°, or within three hundred and sixty miles of the mysterious locality, having a channel, which is at times navigable, between it and Grinnel's Land, which also runs Pole-ward. The "open Polar Sea" of Kane and Hayes has vanished, and will henceforth be known as Polaris Bay. There is at present nothing to warrant a belief in 66 any open Polar Sea" in this direction. Hall's discoveries seem rather to sustain Dr. Petermann's hypothesis, that Greenland is prolonged right over the Pole, and joins the land seen by the American whalers who ran up Behring's Strait, in 1867. At present this hypothesis seems more in accordance with known facts than any other. Clearly, then, this is the only practicable gateway to the Pole, the one route which promises important results. The advantages of a coast-line prolonged to 84° and possibly to the Pole, are paramount. The exploration of a coast, by sledge travelling parties, is of infinitely more importance to science than the mere discovery of a coast-line by a ship. In the former case, the coast is accurately charted, and its fauna, flora, geology, ethnology and physical features are fully ascertained; in the latter case, a coast is seen and inaccurately marked by dotted lines, but no substantial additions are made to our knowledge. The voyage of the Polaris shows the advantage of her route over the Spitzbergen one. Not only did she make important geographical discoveries, but should she arrive home in safety, we cannot doubt that the records will show most important results from the coast surveys, the meteorological astronomical observations, and the knowledge of the fauna and flora of the highest northern lands which civilized man has reached, which

has been acquired by these daring voyagers, who, if they have not reached the Pole, have opened the way to it.

I believe it is Captain Sherard Osborne, one of the highest authorities in Arctic matters, who has suggested that the next attempt at Arctic exploration should be made in this fashion: The expedition should consist of two stout steam-ships expressly built for encountering ice, such as the Newfoundland sealing vessels, or the Dundee whalers. One of them would be stationed at the entrance of Smith's Sound, so as to preclude all possibility of danger to the more advanced party, in the improbable event of their vessel being lost. The other would press forward if possible to 84° or farther, and winter there. From such a position, parties could easily survey the whole northern coasts of Greenland and Grinnel Land and reach the Pole. The distance to the Pole and back would not exceed 800 or 900 miles. McClintock's and Mecham's sledge parties accomplished longer distances than these. The ascertained fact that the land stretches far north would render the work of these sledge parties comparatively easy. Meantime the ships could follow up deep-sea dredging in these unknown sea bottoms. The value to science of such explorations would, in all probability, be immense. Not only would there be obtained a knowledge of the northern coasts of Greenland and Grinnel Land, but of the ethnology, geology, fauna and flora of these northern latitudes. In their letter on the subject to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Royal Geographical Society, when referring to "the value and importance of the results which a well-appointed expedition must yield, in exploring nearly two million square miles of unknown ground within the 80th parallel of north latitude," remarked that "such an expedition ought to lead to the solution of the numerous important scientific questions in physical geography, geology, natural history, terrestrial magnetism, anthropology and meteorology." "The Society, after a careful consideration of the subject, is convinced that its geographical results would be of great value." "Apart from the purely scientific point of view, the various explorations of the Arctic regions, by British navigators, have, since 1818, redounded to the national honour and repute, and have, in no small degree, contributed to keep alive, through a long period of peace, the spirit of courage, enterprise and self-denial which is so essential to the character of the seamen of a great maritime nation." Regarding the risk of