Page:The story of geographical discovery.djvu/184

 180 None of these, however, reached much farther north than 75°.

Only Smith Sound promised to lead north of the 80th parallel. This had been discovered as early as 1616 by Baffin, whose farthest north was only exceeded by forty miles, in 1852, by Inglefield in the Isabel, one of the ships despatched in search of Franklin. He was followed up by Kane in the Advance, fitted out in 1853 by the munificence of two American citizens, Grinnell and Peabody. Kane worked his way right through Smith Sound and Robeson Channel into the sea named after him. For two years he continued investigating Grinnell Land and the adjacent shores of Greenland. Subsequent investigations by Hayes in 1860, and Hall ten years later, kept alive the interest in Smith Sound and its neighbourhood; and in 1873 three ships were despatched under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Nares, who nearly completed the survey of Grinnell Land, and one of his lieutenants, Pelham Aldrich, succeeded in reaching 82.48° N, About the same time, an Austrian expedition under Payer and Weyprecht explored the highest known land, much to the east, named by them Franz Josef Land, after the Austrian Emperor.

Simultaneously interest in the northern regions was aroused by the successful exploit of the northeast passage by Professor (afterwards Baron) Nordenskiold, who had made seven or eight voyages in Arctic regions between 1858 and 1870. He first established the possibility of passing from Norway to the mouth of the Yenesei in the summer, making two journeys in 1875-76. These have since been followed up for commercial purposes by Captain Wiggins, who has frequently passed from