Beginning with the earliest authentic expedition (1526), it is possible
to touch only on the most important incidents of the record of this
later phase of the subject. The time from 1526 to date may be roughly
and generally divided into three periods:
The first, from 1526, the time of the first North Polar expedition by
England, to about 1853, the close of Great Britain’s Franklin search
expeditions. In this period the preponderance of British efforts over
those of all other nations combined was so great as almost to obscure
them and make this period preëminently British.
In this period British navigators essayed every route to the polar
regions, attempted the Northeast and Northwest Passages again and
again, and wrote some of the most brilliant pages of Great Britain’s
history over the names of Hudson, Davis, Baffin, Ross, Parry, Franklin,
McClintock, and others.
[Illustration: From “On the Polar Star,” by the Duke of the Abruzzi.
Copyright, Dodd, Mead & Co.