Captain Johansen, in 1870, successfully circumnavi gated Nova Zembla—a feat which was repeated the following year by Captain Carlsen, who, as we have already mentioned, discovered the hut in which Barents and his companions had-passed the winter of 1596-7, and which had not been visited for 278 years. The many interesting relics of the old navigators were ultimately purchased by the Dutch Govern ment. In the same year Weyprecht and Payer, in a small yacht, the Isbjorn, reached a point 78° 38' N. lat. In this high latitude Payer reported that the ice presented no serious impediment, and the probability of success in that direction, by a larger vessel provided with steam-power, led to the despatch of the Austro-Hungarian Expedition of 1872. The Tegetthoff left Tromso on the 13th of July, and on the 29th the coast of Nova Zembla was sighted. The Isbjorn, which had arrived on the 12th of August, left shortly after, and the Tegetthojf then steamed north, but was beset in the ice on the 20th, and drifted helplessly north, until, on the 30th of August in the year following, a high rocky coast was ap proached, in latitude 79° 43' N., long. 59° 33' K The ex plorers succeeded in landing twice, on the 1st and 3rd of November the same year, but it was not until the following year that the newly-discovered land, named after the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph Land, was explored. The sledge party under Payer set out in March, and reached their highest point in 82'5° N. lat., after a march of 17 days from the ship, which was enclosed in ice in 79'51° N. lat. They returned to the ship on the 3rd of May, but as there was no probability it would ever be free from the ice, it was resolved to abandon her, and to return south in sledges and boats. After a most adventurous, and at first especially toilsome and difficult journey, the Bay of Dunes was reached in safety on the 24th of August. Here they were taken on board a Russian schooner, and landed at Vardo on the 3rd of the following month, after an absence of over 800 days.
We now come to the British Arctic Expedition of The Alert and Discovery, with Captain, now Sir George, Nares in command, left Portsmouth on the 29th of May, 1875, accompanied by H.M.S. Valorous with coal and provisions, sailed through Davis Strait and Baffin -Bay into Smith Sound, and eventually both vessels pushed north through Kennedy Channel to the northern extremity of Robe son Channel, where they wintered. The Discovery's winter quarters were on the northern side of Lady Franklin Sound, in latitude 44' N. The Alert pushed further north, but being hemmed in by the ice-barrier, was forced to take shelter inside a line of stranded floes on the western side of Robeson Channel, in latitude 82° 27' N., 11' further north than the Polaris in 1872. Sledge-parties were sent out in the spring of 1876. (1) Lieutenant Aldrich, and a sledge crew under Lieutenant Giffard, explored the shores of Grant Land, reaching C. Columbia, the most northerly point, on the 1st of May, and seventeen days later the furthest westerly point, 16' N. lat., and 33' W. long., was attained. (2) Com mander Markham, with Lieutenant Parr second in command with two boats and three sledge crews under Drs. Moss anti White, started with Aldrich's party, and separating on the 11th of April at Cape Joseph Henry, Markham and his com panions pushed north over the frozen sea for 40 days, reaching on May 12th the jurthest northerly point yet attained, in latitude 83° 20' 26" N., only four hundred miles from the North Pole. On the following day they turned south, and with great difficulty reached the Alert on the 14th of June. (3) Lieutenant Beaumont's sledge-party left the Discovery on the 6th of April, reaching the Alert on Sunday the 16th. On the 20th of the same month, Beaumont, accompanied by Lieut. Rawson and Dr. Coppinger, with 21 men and four sledges, started for Greenland. The furthest easterly point, lat. 82° 20' N., 51° 30' E. long., was reached on the 21st of May, and the party returned to Discovery Bay on the 15th of August.
On the 31st of July the Alert was freed from the ice, and joined the Discovery on the 12th of the following month.
After a most hazardous voyage down Kennedy Channel and Smith Sound, open water was reached near Cape Isabella. The expedition ultimately arrived in safety in Portsmouth Harbour on the 2nd of November, having indeed failed tc reach the North Pole, but having proved that the land between the meridians of 50° and 85° W. extends no further than about 83° N. lat.—the coasts of Greenland trending away north-east to Cape Britannia, while those of Grant Land run almost due west along the 83rd parallel from 70° to 80° W. long., and thence curve south-west. Two vast inlets from Hall Basin were also explored,—Petermann Fiord on the Greenland side, and Lady Franklin Sound, with Archer Fiord, on the opposite side. This expedition definitely proved the utter impossibility for any vessel to penetrate the " Palmocrystic Sea,"' as that part of the Polar Ocean north of Robeson Channel is called, and that the most energetic sledging parties can never hope to reach a much higher latitude than that attained by Commander Markham, and that the primary object of all directly Polar expeditions— reaching the North Pole—can never be realised by the Smith Sound route. Admiral Richards says that " the Pole must be sought by ship alone, and by the only track which has not yet been found impossible for steam to penetrate—by the Sea of Spitzbergen." [Along the 300 miles of coasts examined by the sledging parties under Lieutenants Beaumont and Aldrich, the ice was of the same character as that immediately north of the Alert's winter quarters. It was from 80 to 100 feet thick, and apparently of great age. Although subject to an annual disruption, the increase during the winter exceeds the decay during the summer. Sir Rutherford Alcock, in 'his address to the Royal (Ieographical Society, at the anniversary meeting on the 28th May, 1877, said that "Careful and diligent observation furnished some data by which a judgment might be formed of the probable extent of the Pabeocrystic Sea. It is certain that land was not near to the north, because hills were ascended to a height of 1,500 feet and upwards on clear days, and there was not a sign of land. But there are other considerations all tending to the same conclusion. There are no flights of birds to the north, which certainly would be the case if there was land ; and the only living thing that was seen on the PaLTocrystic Sea by the northern division of sledges was a little snow-bunting that had strayed from the nearest shore. Further evidence is furnished by the fact that marine animal life almost ceases to exist in the ice covered Polar Sea. The Palfflocrystic Sea is a sea of solitude."] Of the various attempts made to discover the North East Passage, those of Willoughby in 1553, Burrough in 1556, Pet and Jackman in 1580, Barents in 1594-7, and Hudson in 1608, have been already noticed. The Danes made another attempt in 1653, the English in 1676, both equally unsuccess ful in penetrating the ice-barrier north of Nova Zembla. A Dutchman, Cornelius Roule, is said to have sailed in 1698 due north of Nova Zembla as far as the 85' parallel, where he discovered land. If so, the honour of discovering Franz Joseph Land is due to the adventurous The maritime nations of Western Europe then relinquished the exploration of the apparently impenetrable north-eastern seas. Russian navigators, however, took up the matter energetically; as many as eighteen expeditions successively explored the coasts of Nova Zembla and Siberia, none of which, however, succeeded in solving the problem of a north-east passage. Nova Zembla was first circumnavigated in 1760 by Sawwa Loschkin, and eight years later a Russian vessel passed through the deep in let across Nova Zembla known as the Matyushin Shar. The Russian Government fitted out the Novaya Zemlya in 1821, and for four years its commander, Lutke, explored the west coast of the island. Other expeditions were sent out, but no material progress was made until the cruise of the Ibtyorn in 1871, and the Tegetthof in 1872-4.