Transcriber’s Note
italic text shown as _italic_
[Illustration: SPITZBERGEN.]
THE
ARCTIC REGIONS
AND THE
NORTHERN
WHALE-FISHERY.
BY
CAPTAIN SCORESBY, F.R.S.E.
LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: _Instituted 1799_. 56,
PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.
PREFACE.
The following pages contain, in an abridged and somewhat modified
form, the substance of the first volume of captain (now the rev.
Dr.) Scoresby’s work on the Arctic Regions and the Whale-fishery,
Edinburgh, 1820; with the omission of the third chapter on the
Hydrographical Survey of the Greenland Sea. It is now issued by the
kind permission of the author; and a wider circulation may thus be
secured for the interesting contents of his volumes than they could
receive in their original and more costly form. Some few materials
have also been collated from the valuable papers by the same author
contributed to the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.”
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
REMARKS ON THE CELEBRATED QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SEA
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS, BY THE NORTH;
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS 9
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE POLAR COUNTRIES 33
CHAPTER III.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE 62
CHAPTER IV.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ATMOSPHEROLOGY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS,
PARTICULARLY RELATING TO SPITZBERGEN AND THE ADJACENT
GREENLAND SEA 96
CHAPTER V.
A SKETCH OF THE ZOOLOGY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS 139
CHAPTER VI.
EXPEDITIONS FOR FURTHER DISCOVERY 188
THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
CHAPTER I.
REMARKS ON THE CELEBRATED QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SEA
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS, BY THE NORTH;
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS.
The question of the existence of a navigable communication between
the European and the Chinese seas, by the north, is one which has
been long in agitation without being resolved, and has been often
revived, with the most sanguine expectations of success, to be again
abandoned as hopeless. The first attempts to reach China by sea, were
made by steering along the coast of Africa toward the south, and the
next, by proceeding from the European shore in a westerly direction.
The former, which first proved successful, was accomplished by
Vasquez de Gama, a Portuguese, in the year 1497-8; and the latter was
undertaken by the renowned navigator, Columbus, in 1492. The notion
of steering to India by the north-west, as the shortest way, was
suggested about the middle or latter end of the fifteenth century,
by John Vaz Costa Cortereal, who performed a voyage to Newfoundland
about the year 1463-4; or, according to a more general opinion,
by John Cabot, the father of the celebrated Sebastian Cabot, who
attempted the navigation in 1497, and perhaps also in 1494-5. The
idea of a passage to India by the North Pole was suggested by Robert
Thorne, merchant of Bristol, as early as the year 1527; and the
opinion of a passage by the north-east was proposed soon afterwards.
The universal interest which has been attached to this question of
a sea communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by the
north, ever since it was first suggested, about three hundred and
thirty or three hundred and fifty years ago, is fully proved by the
facts, that the speculation has never but once been abandoned by the
nations of Europe for more than twenty-five years together, and that
there have been only three or four intervals of more than fifteen
years in which no expedition was sent out in search of one or other
of the supposed passages, from the year 1500 down to the present
time. And it is not a little surprising that, after nearly a hundred
different voyages have been undertaken with a view of discovering
the desired communication with the Indian seas, all of which have
failed, Britain should again revive and attempt the solution of this
interesting problem.
Several facts may be brought forward, on which arguments of no mean
force may be founded, in support of the opinion of the existence of a
sea communication by the north between Europe and China. They may be
enumerated in order.
1. The prevailing current in the Spitzbergen sea flows, we are
well assured, during nine months of the year, if not all the year
round, from the north-east towards the south-west. The velocity of
this current may be from five to twenty miles per day, varying in
different situations, but is most considerable near the coast of
Old Greenland. The current, on the other hand, in the middle of
Behring’s Strait, as observed by lieutenant Kotzebue, sets strongly
to the north-east, with a velocity, as he thought, of two miles and
a half an hour; which is greater, however, by one-half than the rate
observed by captain Cook.
2. By the action of the south-westerly current, a vast quantity
of ice is annually brought from the north and east, and conducted
along the east shore of Old Greenland as far as Cape Farewell,
where such masses as still remain undissolved are soon destroyed by
the influence of the solar heat and the force of the sea, to which
they then become exposed from almost every quarter. This ice being
entirely free from salt, and very compact, appears originally to
have consisted of field-ice, a kind which perhaps requires the
action of frost for many years to bring it to the thickness which
it assumes. The quantity of heavy ice, in surface, which is thus
annually dissolved, may, at a rough calculation, be stated to be
about twenty thousand square leagues, while the quantity annually
generated in the regions accessible to the whale-fishers is,
probably, not more than one-fourth of that area. As such, the ice,
which is so inexhaustible, must require an immense surface of sea for
its generation, perhaps the whole or greater part of the so-called
“Polar Basin;” the supply required for replacing what is dissolved
in Behring’s Strait, where the current sets towards the north,
being, probably, of small moment. The current, in opposite parts of
the northern hemisphere, being thus found to follow the same line
of direction, indicates a communication between the two across the
Poles; and the inexhaustible supply of ice, affording about fifteen
thousand square leagues, to be annually dissolved above the quantity
generated in the known parts of the Spitzbergen seas, supports the
same conclusion.
3. The origin of the considerable quantity of drift-wood, found in
almost every part of the Greenland sea, is traced to some country
beyond the Pole, and may be brought forward in aid of the opinion
of the existence of a sea communication between the Atlantic and
the Pacific; which argument receives additional strength from the
circumstance of some of the drift-wood being worm-eaten. This last
fact I first observed on the shores of the island of Jan Mayen, in
August, 1817, and confirmed it by more particular observation when at
Spitzbergen the year following. Having no axe with me when I observed
the worm-eaten wood, and having no means of bringing it away, I could
not ascertain whether the holes observed in the timber were the work
of a _ptinus_ or a _pholas_. In either case, however, as it is not
known that these animals ever pierce wood in arctic countries, it is
presumed that the worm-eaten drift-wood is derived from a transpolar
region. Numerous facts of this nature might be adduced, all of which
support the same conclusion.
4. The northern faces of the continents of Europe and Asia, as well
as of that of America, so far as yet known, are such as renders it
difficult even to imagine such a position for the unascertained
regions, as to cut off the communication between the Frozen Sea, near
the meridian of London, and that in the opposite part of the northern
hemisphere, near Behring’s Strait.
5. Whales, which have been harpooned in the Greenland seas, have been
found in the Pacific Ocean; and whales, with stone lances sticking
in their fat, (a kind of weapon used by no nation now known,) have
been caught both in the sea of Spitsbergen and in Davis’s Strait.
This fact, which is sufficiently authenticated, seems to me the most
satisfactory argument.
The Russians, it appears, have, at intervals, discovered all the
navigation between Archangel and the Strait of Behring, excepting a
portion of about two hundred miles, occupied by the eastern part of a
noss, or promontory, lying between the rivers Khatanga and Piacina.
The northern extremity of this noss, called Cape Ceverovostochnoi,
appears to have been doubled by lieutenant Prontschitscheff, in the
year 1735, so that ice, and perhaps some small islands, seem in this
place to form the great obstruction to the navigation. As far as can
be well substantiated, the portion of the route between Archangel
and Kamtchatka, which has been hitherto accomplished, clearly proves
that, if a sea communication between the Atlantic and Pacific by the
north-east really exists, it could never be practicable in one year.
Inasmuch as the Russians were five or six years in performing so much
of the navigation as has been accomplished, though they employed a
number of different vessels in the undertaking, it is probable that
the voyage could never be performed in one vessel, unless by mere
accident, in less than eight or ten years. It is clear, therefore,
that the discovery of a “north-east passage” could never be of any
advantage to our commerce with China or India.
Though, however, the voyages undertaken in search of a north-east
passage by the different nations of Europe have amounted to about
twelve, besides numerous partial attempts by the Russians, and though
all of them have failed in their principal intention, yet they have
not been wholly lost to us; the Spitzbergen whale and seal fisheries,
so valuable to the country, with the trade to Archangel, having
arisen out of them.
The voyages of Davis, in the years 1585-6 and 1587-8, of Hudson, in
1610, and of Baffin, in 1616, were the source of the greatest part
of the discoveries which have been made in the countries situated
to the northward and westward of the south point of Greenland.
To these regions, consisting of what have been called bays and
straits, the names of these celebrated voyagers have been applied.
All the voyages, indeed, since undertaken for discovery in the
same quarter, amounting to nearly thirty, have done little more
than confirm the researches of these three individuals, and show
how little there was to be found, instead of discovering anything
of moment. The ostensible object of most of these voyages, was the
discovery of a shorter passage to India than that by the Cape of
Good Hope, by the north-west. The existence of such a passage is
not yet either proved or refuted. In an account of “a Voyage to
Hudson’s Bay,” by Henry Ellis, such a passage is inferred to exist
from the following considerations:—the want of trees on the west
side of Hudson’s Bay beyond a certain latitude; the appearance of a
certain ridge of mountains lying near the same coast, and extending
in a direction parallel to it; the direct testimony of the Indians,
that they have seen the sea beyond the mountains, and have observed
vessels navigating therein; and, most particularly, the nature and
peculiarities observed in the tides. This latter argument is by far
the most conclusive. From observations on the winds and tides in the
Baltic, Mediterranean, and other inland seas, Ellis proceeds to show,
that every circumstance with regard to the tides in Hudson’s Bay
is different from what would take place in an inland sea, and then
concludes that Hudson’s Bay is not such a sea, but has some opening
which communicates with the Frozen Ocean on the north-west.
Other arguments, which have been offered in favour of the separation
of Greenland from America, are deduced from the existence of a
current setting from the north—from the circumstance of icebergs and
drift-wood being brought down by the current—from whales wounded in
the Spitzbergen seas having been caught in Davis’s Strait—from the
position of the land, as represented on skins by the native American
Indians—and from the occurrence of certain plants in Greenland, which
are natives of Europe, but have never been found in any part of the
American continent.
The opinion appears to be quite incorrect, that if a passage were
discovered, it would, probably, be open above half the year. I
imagine it would be only at intervals of years that it would be open
at all, and then, perhaps, for no longer time than eight or ten
weeks in a season. Hence, as affording a navigation to the Pacific
Ocean, the discovery of a north-west passage would be of no service.
For many reasons, however, the examination of these interesting
countries is an object worthy of the attention of a great nation.
The advantages that have already arisen to Britain from the voyages
undertaken in search of a north-west passage are, the establishment
of the Davis’s Strait’s whale-fishery, and of the trade of the
Hudson’s Bay company, so that the expenditure has not altogether been
lost.
The adventurous spirit manifested by our early navigators, in
performing such hazardous voyages in small barks, in which we should
be scrupulous of trusting ourselves across the German Ocean, is
calculated to strike us with surprise and admiration, while the
correctness of their investigations gives us a high opinion of their
perseverance and talent. The famous voyage of Baffin, in which the
bay bearing his name was discovered, was performed in a vessel of
only fifty-five tons’ burden; that of Hudson, in which also the bay
called by his name was first navigated, in the very same vessel; and
the voyages of Davis chiefly in vessels of fifty, thirty-five, and
ten tons’ burden.
In perusing the voyages of our old navigators, it is particularly
gratifying to those who consider religion as the chief business of
this life, to observe the strain of piety and dependence upon Divine
Providence which runs through almost every narrative. Their honest
and laudable acknowledgments of a particular interference of the
Almighty, working out deliverance for them in times of difficulty
and danger, and their frequent declarations expressive of their
reliance upon Providence, for assistance and protection in their
adventurous undertakings, are worthy of our imitation. Thus, while
our modern voyagers are much in the habit of attributing their most
remarkable deliverances to “luck,” “chance,” and “fortune,” those of
old evidenced certainly a more Christian-like feeling, under such
circumstances, by referring their deliverances to that great Being,
from whom alone every good thing must be derived. They only who have
a similar dependence on Providence, and who have been occasionally
in trying situations, can duly appreciate the confidence and comfort
which this belief is calculated to afford under the most appalling
circumstances.
The class of vessels best adapted for discovery in the Polar seas,
seems to be that of one hundred to two hundred tons’ burden. They
are stronger, more easily managed, in less danger of being stoved or
crushed by ice, and not so expensive as those of larger dimensions.
An increase of size is a diminution of comparative strength; and
hence it is evident, that a vessel intended for discovery should be
just large enough for conveying the requisite stores and provisions,
and for affording comfortable accommodation to the navigators, but
no larger. Perhaps a vessel about one hundred and fifty tons’ burden
would be fully sufficient to answer every purpose. The navigation of
the Polar seas, which is peculiar, requires in a particular manner an
extensive knowledge of the nature, properties, and usual motions of
the ice, and it can only be performed to the best advantage by those
who have had long experience in working a ship in icy situations.
It might be a material assistance to those employed in completing
the examination of Baffin’s Bay, as well as productive of some
interesting information in meteorological phenomena, were a vessel or
two to remain in the northern part of this bay through the winter.
There is very little doubt that the vessel would, by this method, be
released by the ice as early as May or June, and thus be afforded
about double the time of research that could be obtained by wintering
out of the bay. There would not, I imagine, be any very great danger
in making this experiment, provided a sufficient quantity of fresh
provisions, for the prevention of the scurvy among the crew, were
taken out, and certain precautions adopted for the preservation of
the ships. The ingenious apparatus invented by Mr. Thomas Morton
designed to supersede, in repairing vessels, the necessity of dry
docks, might be eminently advantageous.
In seas perpetually encumbered with ice, and probably crowded with
islands, if not divided by necks of land, the chance of great
discoveries and of extensive navigations towards the north-west,
even under the best arrangements and under the boldest seamen, is
but small. The most certain method of ascertaining the existence of
a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific, along the northern
face of America, would doubtless be by journeys on land. Men there
are who, being long used to travel upon snow in the service of the
Hudson’s Bay company, would readily undertake the journey by the
interior lakes of North America to the Frozen Ocean, or, in case of
a continuity of land being found, to the very Pole itself, of whose
success we should certainly have a reasonable ground of hope. The
practicability of this mode of making discoveries has been fully
proved by the expeditions of Mackenzie and Hearne; and a possibility
of performing very long journeys on snow can be attested, from
personal experience, by those who have wintered a few times in
Hudson’s Bay.
The plan of performing a journey in this way, for discovering the
northern termination of the American continent, and for tracing
it round to its junction with the coasts of the same country,
washed by the Atlantic, might be in some measure as follows. The
party intended for this expedition, which should consist of as few
individuals as possible, ought, perhaps, in the course of one summer,
to make their way to one of the interior settlements of the Hudson’s
Bay company, or of the Canadian traders, such as Slave Fort, on the
great Slave Lake, situated in the 62nd degree of latitude, or Fort
Chepewyan, near the Athapescow Lake, in latitude 58° 40′, from whence
sir Alexander Mackenzie embarked on his voyage to the Frozen Ocean,
and there abide during the first winter. Supposing the travellers
to winter at Slave Fort, they might calculate on being within the
distance of two hundred leagues, or thirty or forty days’ journey,
moderate travelling, of the Frozen Ocean. In the month of March or
April, the party, consisting of two or three Europeans, one or two
Esquimaux interpreters, and two or more Indian guides, provided with
everything requisite for the undertaking, might set out towards the
north. On the arrival of the travellers among the Esquimaux, their
Indian guides, from fear of this nation, would probably desert them,
but the presence of their Esquimaux interpreters would secure them
a good reception. When once they should meet with this people, they
would have a strong evidence of being near the sea, as it is well
known the Esquimaux never retire far from the coast. On their arrival
at the coast, it will be necessary to associate with the Esquimaux,
to submit in some measure to their mode of living, and, to effect
any considerable discovery, it might be requisite to spend a winter
or two among them, in which case they might trace the line of the
Frozen Ocean to such a length, that the place where it joins the
western coast of Baffin’s Bay, or Hudson’s Bay, or the eastern side
of Greenland, would be determined. Or, if it should be objectionable
to winter among the Esquimaux, several expeditions might be sent out
at the same time from different stations, and on different meridians.
The expense of three or four such expeditions over land would
probably be less than that of one expedition by sea.
The scheme suggested by Robert Thorne, of Bristol, of finding a
passage to India across the North Pole, about the year 1527, appears
to have been immediately attempted by an expedition, consisting of
two ships, sent out by order of Henry VIII.; one of the ships, we
are informed, was lost; of the nature of the success of the other we
have but a very unsatisfactory account. After this voyage, Barentz,
Heemskerke, and Ryp, attempted the transpolar navigation, in 1596;
Hudson, in 1607; Jonas Poole, in 1610 and 1611; Baffin and Fotherby,
in 1614; Fotherby, in 1615; Phipps, in 1773; and Buchan and Franklin,
in 1818. The highest latitude attained by any of these navigators did
not, it would appear, exceed 81°. My father, in the ship Resolution,
of Whitby, in the year 1806, with whom I then served as chief mate,
sailed to a much higher latitude. Our latitude, on three occasions,
in the month of May, as derived from observations taken with a
sextant by myself and my father, was 80° 50′ 28″, 81° 1′ 53″, and
81° 12′ 42″; after which we sailed so far to the northward as made
it about 81° 30′, which is one of the closest approximations to the
Pole which I conceive has been well authenticated.
Whatever may be our opinion of the accounts brought forward by some
parties to prove the occasional accessibility of the 83rd or 84th
parallel of north latitude, of this we may be assured, that the
opinion of an open sea round the Pole is altogether chimerical. It
is urged, indeed, that the extraordinary power of the sun, about the
summer solstice, is so far greater at the Pole than at the Equator,
as to destroy all the ice generated in the winter season, and to
render the temperature of the Pole warmer and more congenial to
feeling than it is in some places lying nearer the Equator. So far,
however, from the actual influence of the sun, though acknowledged
at a certain season to be greater at the Pole than at the Equator,
being above what it is calculated to be by the ordinary formulæ for
temperature, it is found by experiment in latitude 78° to be greatly
below it—how then can the temperature of the Pole be expected to
be so very different? From the remarks in the ensuing pages, it
will be shown that ice is annually formed during nine months of the
year in the Spitzbergen sea, and that neither calm weather, nor the
proximity of land, is essential for its formation. Can it, then, be
supposed, that at the Pole, where the mean temperature is probably as
low as 10°, the sea is not full of ice? If the masses of ice, which
usually prevent the advance of navigators beyond the 82nd degree of
north latitude, be extended in a continued series to the Pole, (of
which, unless there be land in the way, there appears no doubt,)
the expectation of reaching the Pole by sea is altogether vain. By
land, however, I do not conceive the journey would be impracticable.
It would not exceed one thousand two hundred miles, (six hundred
miles each way,) and might be performed on sledges, drawn by dogs
or reindeer, or even on foot. Foot travellers would require to draw
the apparatus and provisions, necessary for the undertaking, on
sledges by hand, and in this way, with good dispatch, the journey
would occupy at least two months; but, with the assistance of dogs,
it might, probably, be accomplished in a little less time. With
favourable winds, great advantage might be derived from sails set
upon the sledges, which sails, when the travellers were at rest,
would serve for the erection of tents. Small vacancies in the ice
would not prevent the journey, as the sledges might be adapted so
as to answer the purpose of boats, nor would the usual unevenness of
the ice, nor the depth or softness of the snow, be an insurmountable
difficulty, as journeys of nearly equal length, and under similar
inconveniences, have been accomplished.
Among many similar accounts, there is one related by Muller, in
his “Voyages from Asia to America,” of a Cossack having actually
performed a journey of about eight hundred miles in a sledge, drawn
by dogs, across a surface of ice lying to the northward of the
Russian dominions, which sufficiently establishes the practicability
of a journey across the ice to the Pole. Alexei Markoff, a Cossack,
was sent to explore the Frozen Ocean, in the summer of the year 1714,
by order of the Russian government, but finding the sea so crowded
with ice that he was unable to make any progress in discovery, he
formed the design of travelling in sledges, during the winter or
spring of the year, over the ice, which might then be expected to be
firm and compact. Accordingly, he prepared several of the country
sledges, drawn by dogs, and accompanied by eight persons, he set
out on the 10th of March from the mouth of the Jana, in latitude
70° 30′, and longitude about 138° east. He proceeded for seven days
northward, as fast as his dogs could draw, which, under favourable
circumstances, is eighty or one hundred versts a day, until his
progress was impeded, about the 78th degree of latitude, by the
ice elevated into prodigious mountains. This prevented his further
advance; at the same time, falling short of provisions for his dogs,
his return was effected with difficulty; several of his dogs died for
want, and were given to the rest for their support. On the 3rd of
April, he arrived at Ust-Jauskoe Simowie, the place from whence he
started, after an absence of twenty-four days, during which time he
appears to have travelled about eight hundred miles. The journey of
Markoff was nearly equal in extent to the projected journey to the
Pole, and there appears no very great reason why a person equally
adventurous with Markoff, and better provided, might not in a similar
manner reach the Pole.
The first considerable discovery which appears to have been made
in or near the arctic circle, was the result of accident; one of
the numerous Scandinavian depredators, who, in the ninth century,
cruised the northern seas in search of plunder, having been driven,
by a long-continued storm, from the eastward upon the coast of
Iceland, in the year 861. This island, from the quantity of snow seen
on the mountains, was, by its discoverer Naddodd, at first called
_Schnee_, or _Snowland_. It was visited by a Swede of the name of
Gardar Suaffarson, three years after its discovery, and afterwards by
another Swede, Flocke, from whom it received the name of _Iceland_.
It was again visited in the year 874, by Ingolf and Lief, two
Norwegians, and became the seat of a Norwegian colony.
The coast of Norway, to the entrance of the White Sea, was examined
about this period by a person of the name of Ohthere, a Norwegian,
who himself gave an account of his voyage to Alfred the Great, by
whom it has been handed down to us along with the translation of the
Ormesta of Orosius.
About the middle, or towards the end of the tenth century, an
extensive country, to the westward of Iceland, was discovered by
one of the colonists of the name of Gunbiorn, which country was
visited, in the year 982, by one Eric Rauda, who had fled from Norway
to Iceland, to avoid the punishment due to the crime of murder
and various other offences. To this country he gave the name of
_Greenland_, and in consequence of his exaggerated account of its
products and appearance, a respectable colony was founded. About
the year 1001, one of the Iceland colonists, Biorn by name, was
accidentally driven by a storm to the southward of Greenland, where
he discovered a new country, covered with wood. Lief, the son of Eric
Rauda, fitted out a vessel, and visited the country. Grapes were
discovered in it, and from this circumstance it was called _Vinland_;
the day was eight hours long in winter, whence it appears that it
must have been somewhere on the coast of North America, probably on
the shore of Newfoundland.
The Christian religion was introduced into Iceland and Greenland
about the year 1000, and within a hundred years afterwards generally
diffused. Above sixteen churches were then built, and two convents.
These buildings, as well as the habitations of the colonists,
were erected near the southern point of Greenland. They had two
settlements, the most western of which increased up to four parishes,
containing one hundred farms or villages; and the most eastern, to
twelve parishes, one hundred and ninety villages, one bishop’s see,
and two convents. The intercourse between Greenland and the rest of
the world was intercepted about the year 1406, when the seventeenth
bishop attempted to reach his see, but was prevented by ice. Since
the beginning of the fifteenth century, these unfortunate colonists
have been of necessity left to themselves, and not having been heard
of, are supposed to have perished; but whether they were destroyed
by their enemies the Esquimaux, or perished for want of their usual
supplies, or were carried off by a destructive pestilence, as some
have imagined, is still matter of doubt. Various attempts have been
made by order of the Danish government for recovery of this country,
and to ascertain the fate of these colonists, but hitherto without
success.
Alter the voyages of Columbus, a new stimulus was offered to
the enterprising trader, and to those who might be desirous of
prosecuting the task of discovery, and a Portuguese navigator, John
Vaz Costa Cortereal, about the year 1463 or 1464, tried the passage
to India by the west, on a parallel far to the northward of that
pursued by Columbus. In this voyage the land of Newfoundland appears
to have been seen. The same voyage was attempted by Sebastian Cabot,
a Venetian, in the year 1497, and by Gaspar Cortereal and Michael
Cortereal, sons of the previously named Costa. Both these brothers
perished, and a third brother, who would have followed in search of
them, was prohibited from embarking by the king of Portugal.
An important voyage of discovery was that of sir Hugh Willoughby,
in the year 1553, in which the coast now called Nova Zembla was
discovered, and the Russian territory on the east side of the
White Sea. In consequence of this expedition, a regular trade was
established with Russia, which was accomplished under various
privileges. In the year 1556, further discoveries in the same quarter
were made by Stephen Burrough. Then followed the voyages of Martin
Frobisher and John Davis; the latter in the year 1585. He proceeded
along the west side of Greenland, and then crossing an open sea to
the north-westward, discovered land in latitude 66° 40′, giving names
to the different parts of the coast which has since been denominated
_Cumberland Island_. In the course of this voyage, they met with a
multitude of natives, whom they found a very tractable people, and
liberal in their mode of trafficking. In the following year, Davis
prosecuted another voyage, but with no discovery of any consequence;
and again also, for the third time, in the year following.
Amongst several expeditions sent out by the Dutch, to explore a
passage to India and China by the north-east, that of two ships,
under the pilotage of William Barentz, is the most memorable. It
sailed from Amsterdam the 10th of May, 1596. After having discovered
Spitzbergen, the two ships pursued different courses, and Barentz,
while endeavouring to sail round Nova Zembla, became entangled in
the ice. They were, in consequence, compelled to winter in this
desolate and frozen country. “The journal of the proceedings of
these poor people,” as Mr. Barrow beautifully observes, “during
this cold, comfortless, dark, and dreadful winter is intensely and
painfully interesting. No murmuring escapes them in their hopeless
and afflicted situation; but such a spirit of true piety, and a tone
of such mild and subdued resignation to Divine Providence, breathe
throughout the whole narrative, that it is impossible to peruse
the simple tale of their sufferings, and contemplate their forlorn
situation, without the deepest emotion.” Forcibly, indeed, does their
narrative illustrate the mind’s independence of external comforts,
and the peace and joy to be derived from trust in God, and cordial
submission to his appointments. Part of the sufferers made their
escape in two open boats from this dismal country, in the following
summer, and after a perilous and painful voyage, of above one
thousand one hundred miles, arrived in safety at Cola; but Barentz,
with some others, was overcome by the severity of the climate, and
the extraordinary exertions which he was obliged to make, and died.
In the year 1608, Henry Hudson was employed in search of a north-east
passage; and, in 1610, in a voyage of discovery towards the
north-west, in a vessel of fifty-five tons’ burden. It was on this
occasion that he discovered the bay which bears his name, hauled
his ship on shore in a convenient situation, and wintered there.
They fell short of provisions, and the following summer the crew
mutinied, and abandoned their captain, his son, and others of the
crew, to a most cruel fate. In 1616 was accomplished the remarkable
voyage of William Baffin, attended by discoveries of a most extensive
nature in the bay which bears his name, which, though regarded with
considerable doubt at first, have since been abundantly confirmed by
the labours of captain Ross and lieutenant Parry.
In March, 1822, the ship Baffin sailed from Liverpool, and reached
80° north latitude without experiencing any frost; on the 27th April,
we arrived within ten miles of Spitzbergen, and were stopped in
latitude 80° 30′ by main ice. Afterwards, we encountered a most heavy
gale, the thermometer falling in the space of sixteen hours 34°,
being the most remarkable change I ever experienced in Greenland
seas. On the 1st May, we advanced to only five hundred and sixty-six
miles’ distance from the Pole, and subsequently discovered the
eastern coast of Greenland, a continuation towards the north of
the coast on which the ancient Icelandic colonies were planted. We
surveyed and named various parts of this coast, to the extent of
about eight hundred miles, and found traces of inhabitants. It was
inferred that Greenland is probably a great group of islands. The
expedition returned on the 18th September, in the same year.