Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/63

Rh, nor Mr. Baldwin established a record. Dr. Nansen's famous journey in 1893-96, on which the explorer made so great a stride towards the Pole, is still fresh in the minds of all. Here we will only recall that the Fram, after entering the ice near the New Siberian Islands, touched the 86th parallel in the course of her long drift westwards, while Dr. Nansen himself and Lieutenant Johansen, having left the ship in 84° N., finally reached (at least) 86°5′ N., in longitude roughly 90° E. Two years ago this record was surpassed by Captain Cagni, of the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition, who reached 86°33′ N. latitude, the highest northing yet attained in either the Eastern or the Western Hemisphere.

Hitherto the passage north through Behring Strait has not led any traveller to very high latitudes. Behring himself discovered neither the strait nor the sea that bear his name. His utmost northing was 67°18′, attained on his first expedition in 1728. Exactly 50 years later Captain James Cook, the great navigator, reached 70°44 north, and in 1826 another British naval officer, Captain F. W. Beechey, who had been told off to cooperate with Franklin in his researches on the mainland of North America, attained the latitude of 71°08' N. Beechey's mate, Elson, pushed 126 miles beyond Icy Cape to Point Barrow, in 71°24' N. latitude. In 1849 Captain Kellet reached the first island to the north of Behring Strait, in 71°18' N., and six years later Commander John Rodgers, of the United States navy, surpassed Elson's latitude, his northing being 72°05'. But the highest latitude recorded in these seas was that attained by Commander GL W. De Long, of the United States navy, to the north of the Liakoff or New Siberian Islands. This group had first been reached from the north coast of Asia in 1770, by a Russian trader named Liakoff, and in 1823 Lieutenant P. F. Anjou, who since 1820 had been exploring among the islands in company with Lieutenant F. von Wrangell, had succeeded in getting as far north as 76°36'. De Long sailed through Behring Strait in the ill-fated Jeannette in 1879. The pack-ice was entered near Herald Island in 71°35' N., and for two years the vessel drifted westward and northwards. Wrangell Land, which De Long had thought was part of a continent, and on which he expected to winter, was passed in the summer of 1779; in June, 1881, Jeannette Island in 76°47' N. latitude was reached; later in the same month Henrietta Island, in 77°08' N. was passed, and then the Jeannette was crushed in the ice. The survivors drifted north to 77°36', the highest northing yet attained in those seas. How at last the north coast of Asia was reached, and how all but Chief Engineer Melville and eleven of the crew perished, does not here concern us.

Only a slightly, if at all, higher latitude than that reached by De Long has been attained by travellers following the east coast of