Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/977

Rh of a passage into the Pacific; and a naval expedition was dispatched under the command of Captain Christopher Middleton, consisting of the Discovery” pink and the “Furnace” bomb. Wintering in Churchill river, Middleton started in July 1742 and discovered Wager river and Repulse Bay. In 1746 Captain W. Moor made another voyage in the same direction, and explored the Wager Inlet. Later in the century the Hudson’s Bay Company's servants made some important land journeys to discover the shores of the American polar ocean. From 1769 to 1772 Samuel Hearne descended the Coppermine River to the polar sea; and in 1789 Alexander Mackenzie discovered the mouth of the Mackenzie river. (For the establishment of the modern Danish settlements in Greenland, see .)

The countrymen of Barents vied with the countrymen of Hudson in the perilous calling which annually brought fleets of ships to the Spitsbergen seas during the 17th and 18th centuries The Dutch had their large summer station for boiling down blubber at Smeerenberg, near the northern extreme of the west coast of Spitsbergen. Captain Vlamingh, in 1664, advanced as far round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya as the winter quarters of Barents. In 1700 Captain Cornelis Roule is said by Witsen to have sailed north in the longitude of Novaya Zemlya and to have seen an extent of 40 m. of broken land, but Theunis Ys, one of the most experienced Dutch navigators, believed that no vessel had ever been north of the 82nd parallel. In 1671 Frederick Martens, a German surgeon, visited Spitsbergen, and wrote the best account of its physical features and natural history that existed previous to the time of Scoresby. In 1707 Captain Cornelis Gilies went far to the eastward along the northern shores of Spitsbergen, and saw land to the east in 80° N., which has since been known as Gilies Land The Dutch geographical knowledge of Spitsbergen was embodied in the famous chart of the Van Keulens (father and son), 1700–1728. The Dutch Whale fishery continued to flourish until the French Revolution, and formed a splendid nursery for training the seamen of the Netherlands. From 1700 to 1775 the whaling fleet numbered 100 ships and upwards. In 1719 the Dutch opened a whale fishery in Davis Strait, and continued to frequent the west coast of Greenland for upwards of sixty years from that time.

The most flourishing period of the British fishery in the Spitsbergen and Greenland seas was from 1752 to 1820. Bounties of 40s. per ton were granted by act of parliament; and in 1778 as many as 255 sail of whalers were employed. In order to encourage discovery £5000 was offered in 1776 to the first ship that should sail beyond the 89th parallel (16 Geo. III c. 6). Among the numerous daring and able whaling captains, William Scoresby takes the first rank, alike as a successful whaler and a scientific observer. His admirable Account of the Arctic Regions is still a textbook for all students of the subject. In 1806 he succeeded in advancing his ship “Resolution” as far north as 81° 12′ 42″. In 1822 he forced his way through the ice which encumbers the approach to land on the east coast of Greenland, and surveyed that coast from 75° down to 69° N., a distance of 400 m. Scoresby combined the closest attention to his business with much valuable scientific work and no insignificant amount of exploration.

The Russians, after the acquisition of Siberia, succeeded in gradually exploring the whole of the northern shores of that vast region. In 1648 a Cossack named Simon Dezhneff is said to have equipped a boat expedition in the river Kolyma, passed through the strait since named after Bering, and reached the Gulf of Anadyr. In 1738 a voyage was made by two Russian officers from Archangel to the mouths of the Ob and the Yenisei. Efforts Were then made to effect a passage from the Yenisei to the Lena. In 1735 Lieut. T. Chelyuskin got as far as 77° 25′ N. near the cape which bears his name; and in 1743 he rounded that most northern point of Siberia in sledges, in 77° 41′ N. Captain

Vitus Bering, a Dane, was appointed by Peter the Great to command an expedition in 1725. Two vessels were built at Okhotsk, and in July 1728 Bering ascertained the existence of a strait between Asia and America. In 1740 Bering was again employed. He sailed from Okhotsk in a vessel called the “St Paul,” with G. W. Steller on board as naturalist. Their object was to discover the American side of the strait, and they sighted the magnificent peak named by Bering Mt St Elias. The Aleutian Islands were also explored, but the ship was wrecked on an island named after the ill-fated discoverer, and scurvy broke out amongst his crew. Bering himself died there on the 8th of December 1741.

Thirty years after the death of Bering a Russian merchant named Liakhoff discovered the New Siberia or Liakhoff Islands, and in 1771 he obtained the exclusive right from the empress Catherine to dig there for fossil ivory. These islands were more fully explored by an officer named Hedenström in 1809, and seekers for fossil ivory annually resorted to them. A Russian expedition under Captain Chitschakoff, sent to Spitsbergen in 1764, was only able to attain a latitude of 80° 30′ N.

From 1773 onwards to the end of the 19th century the objects of polar exploration were mainly the acquisition of knowledge in various branches of science. It was on these grounds that Daines Barrington and the Royal Society induced the British government to undertake arctic exploration once more. The result was that two vessels, the “Racehorse” and “Carcass” bombs, were commissioned, under the command of Captain J. C. Phipps. The expedition sailed from the Nore on the 2nd of June 1773, and was stopped by the ice to the north of Hakluyt Headland, the north-western point of Spitsbergen. Phipps reached the Seven Islands and discovered Walden Island; but beyond this point progress was impossible. When he attained their highest latitude in 80° 48′ N., north of the central part of the Spitsbergen group, the ice at the edge of the pack was 24 ft. thick. Captain Phipps returned to England in September 1773. Five years afterwards James Cook received instructions to proceed northward from Kamchatka. and search for a north-east or north-west passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In accordance with these orders Captain Cook, during his third voyage, reached Cape Prince of Wales, the western extremity of America, on the 9th of August 1778. His ships, the “Resolution” and “Discovery,” arrived at the edge of the ice, after passing Bering Strait, in 70° 41′ N. On the 17th of August the farthest point seen on the American side was named Icy Cape. On the Asiatic side Cook's survey extended to Cape North. In the following year Captain Clerke, who had succeeded to the command, made another voyage, but his ship was beset in the ice, and so much damaged that further attempts were abandoned.

The wars following the French Revolution put an end to voyages of discovery till, after the peace of 1815, north polar research found a powerful and indefatigable advocate in Sir John Barrow. Through his influence a measure for promoting polar discovery became law in 1818 (58 Geo. III. c. 20), by which a reward of £20,000 was offered for making the north-West passage, and of £5000 for reaching 89° N., while the commissioners of longitude were empowered to award proportionate sums to those who might achieve certain portions of such discoveries. In 1817 the icy seas were reported by Captain Scoresby and others to be remarkably open, and this circumstance enabled Barrow to obtain sanction for the despatch of two expeditions, each consisting of two whalers—one to attempt discoveries by way of Spitsbergen and the other by Baffin Bay. The vessels for the Spitsbergen route, the “Dorothea” and “Trent,” Were commanded by Captain David Buchan and Lieut. John Franklin, and sailed in April 1818. Driven into the pack by a heavy swell from the south, both vessels were severely nipped, and had to return to England. The other expedition, consisting of the “Isabella” and “Alexander,” commanded by Captain John Ross and Lieut.