The lands of silence

LIEUT PARR, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_. (_Phot._ Maull & Co.), COMMANDER A. H. MARKHAM, R.N., _H.M.S. Alert_. (_Phot._ Elliott & Fry), SIR GEORGE NARES. (_Phot._ J. Griffin & Co.), LI...

The history of the Polar Regions, of those vast areas, difficult of access, which include millions of square miles of land and ocean at either extreme of our planet, is of surpa...

A knowledge of the nomenclature of polar phenomena is an essential preliminary to the study of the history of Arctic adventure. We must know the meanings of words which constant...

Before we begin to follow the achievements of the great Polar worthies, it seems desirable to take a brief survey of the dwellers on the threshold of the Arctic regions; for her...

The first tidings of the existence of the Arctic Regions that reached the civilised world were due to the voyage of a Greek navigator of great knowledge and ability. The people...

There is one part of the Arctic and Sub-arctic regions, and one only, where a country retaining the warmth and the adaptability of the temperate zone as an abode for civilised m...

The enthralling story of the discovery of Greenland and America, as the actual beginning of great Arctic enterprises, must be introduced by some account of the authorities on wh...

There was dwelling in Oxford, when Chaucer was young, a scholar known as courteous Nicholas. He lodged with an old carpenter who had married a very young wife. He had a room to...

Many reasons led English seamen to turn northward. East and west were occupied by Portugal and by Spain, and our own adventurers, rather later in the field, sought the discovery...

In the struggle for independence against Spain in the height of her power, the Dutch nation saw the necessity for making every effort to increase her commerce in order to obtain...

It was more than 20 years after the expedition of Willoughby to the north-east that the efforts towards the north-west were commenced. Their inception was due to Martin Frobishe...

A substantial yeoman in the days of the great Queen possessed a small freehold called Sandridge on the banks of the Dart, in the parish of Stoke Gabriel. This yeoman had two son...

The merchant adventurers who supplied the funds for Arctic expeditions, often at considerable sacrifice, and generally from patriotic motives, deserve niches in the temple of fa...

The Norse colony in Greenland had been abandoned to its fate for more than two centuries. The annual _knorr_ or ship had ceased to be sent, and during that long period the Norwe...

The greatest English navigator in the Spitsbergen quadrant during the first century of the renewal of Arctic discovery was Henry Hudson. Scarcely anything is known of the person...

Sir Thomas Smith was urgent in his efforts to induce the Directors of the East India Company to take up the question of a northern passage to Cathay, but they were lacking in en...

When Baffin was to the fore, good scientific work was certain to be done. He had shown this in his first polar voyage to Greenland, distinguished by the longitude observation by...

Sir John Wolstenholme was one of the most persistent of the Merchant Adventurers and, after Baffin’s return, he fitted out a ship in 1619 for John Hawkridge, the friend of Butto...

In the beginning of the 18th century there was living at Vogen, in the diocese of Trondhjem in Norway, a priest named Hans Egede, who for some years had been engaged solely in h...

We have seen how quickly a lucrative trade and remunerative returns followed on the heels of Arctic discoveries. It was so in the Spitsbergen seas, it was so in Greenland and Da...

The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in Arctic discovery. If we look at a map of 130 years ago, such an one as is used to illustrate the book of Daines Barrington or Sc...

A history of polar discovery would be incomplete without some notice of the whaling trade in the Spitsbergen Seas and in Davis Strait, for scientific observations were taken by...

Polar exploration had been neglected since the return of Captain Phipps owing to the protracted European war, which came to an end in 1815. But the duty of prosecuting it had ne...

Sir Edward Parry was one of the greatest of Arctic discoverers. Without an equal as an organiser and administrator, unsurpassed as a leader of men, he was an accomplished office...

Hitherto the northern coasts of North America had remained completely unknown save for the work of Hearne and Mackenzie, and it was felt that something should be done to fill up...

After his return from the re-discovery of Baffin’s Bay, Captain Ross must have continually regretted his mistake about Lancaster Sound. He was discredited, and longed to have an...

When Sir James Ross returned from the Antarctic expedition, there were the two well-fortified bomb vessels, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, ready for Arctic work. Sir John Barrow was...

The sad fate of Sir John Franklin and his gallant companions is rendered still more melancholy by the reflection that some at least of them might have been saved. When no news a...

When Captain Austin’s expedition returned the people of England were as determined as ever that the search should continue. But the advisers of the Admiralty in Committee were q...

The Crimean War broke out in 1854, and public attention was absorbed by it. On March 23rd of that year the names of Sir John Franklin and his officers were removed from the Navy...

The east coast of Greenland is difficult of access owing to the great flow of ice from the polar basin. Until the days of Scoresby it was only sighted from a distance. Henry Hud...

We have seen how flourishing the Spitsbergen whale fishery became and how admirably its history was written, the Dutch by Zorgdrager, and the English by Scoresby. But when the a...

The cruise in the _Isbjörn_ was preparatory to a successful effort on the part of Lieutenants Payer and Weyprecht to raise funds for an Arctic expedition. Their plan was to roun...

When my old messmate Admiral Sherard Osborn and I resolved to agitate until the Government was induced to dispatch another Arctic expedition, we selected the route of Sir Thomas...

In the same year that the English Arctic expedition was despatched, Sir Allen Young determined to see whether it was an open year for passing through the navigable north-west pa...

On the 18th September, 1875, Lieutenant Weyprecht, the colleague of Lieutenant Payer when Franz Josef Land was discovered, delivered an address to a meeting of German savants at...

Nordenskiöld is a name which not only recalls much and varied Arctic work, but also most valuable researches connected with historical geography. Its bearer, the late Nils Adolf...

The inland ice of Greenland was for centuries one of the greatest Arctic problems--an entirely unknown area of 750,000 square miles. So little was its formation understood in th...

Fridtjof Nansen, our foremost living Arctic worthy, a devoted scientific enquirer and a profound student of Arctic history, had always taken a broad view of the Arctic problem,...

The very important voyage of Captain Sverdrup may be looked upon as a sequel to the voyage of Nansen. The same generous patrons of Arctic enterprise, Axel Heiberg and the brothe...

The present writer, throughout the sixty years and more of his connection with polar research, has always deprecated the diverting of exploring energy to dashes for the Pole, if...

The voyages of Sir Allen Young in the _Pandora_ had as one result the training of the character of an enthusiastic young Arctic navigator whose brief career was so brilliant and...

The discovery of the east coast of Greenland by the Danes should take an important place in the history of Arctic enterprise. Their objects were most praiseworthy, the work was...

The quest of any further information respecting the Erichsen expedition was a worthy object, and it called forth the zealous enthusiasm of Einar Mikkelsen, the gallant young exp...

The long and glorious story of Arctic discovery is drawing to a close. Two unknown areas of unequal importance remain. One is the extensive region now known as Baffin Island, wh...

The Far South waited much longer for the attention of mankind than the Arctic regions. Antarctica has had no dwellers on the threshold, no demigod clearing its circle on Sleipne...

It was a bright page in English history when our Government awoke to its duties in taking a lead in discovery. In the instructions, dated June 17th, 1764, to Commodore Byron, wh...

Discovery south from Patagonia made very slow progress. After three hundred years knowledge had only reached Cape Horn, the rocks of Diego Ramirez, and the distant view of land...

Charles Enderby is a name which should ever receive honour from geographers. Though engaged in the Antarctic sealing trade, his captains always had orders to pay as close attent...

In the year 1840 there were two exploring expeditions in the Pacific, a French and an American, and the commissions of both were drawing to a close. Both, however, intended to m...

The great Antarctic expedition commanded by Sir James Ross had magnetic research and not geography for its immediate object. It originated with Colonel Sabine, who read a paper...

The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were refitting at Hobart Town from April to July, 1841, when they proceeded to Port Jackson. The chief object of Captain Ross was to obtain a series of...

Sir James Ross began his survey of part of the South Shetland Islands when he reached the north-west coast of Joinville Island of Dumont d’Urville. On December 28th, 1842, he si...

After the days of Sir James Ross various causes led to the development of what was almost a new science, that of Oceanography. It included not only measurement of depths, but al...

After the return of Sir James Ross a quarter of a century elapsed and the Antarctic regions remained neglected. While Sherard Osborn and I were working for the despatch of an Ar...

It was in 1894 that Mr Svend Foyn, the great Norwegian shipowner, sent a vessel southwards to determine whether the despatch of whaling ships to Antarctic seas would be remunera...

In May 1893 I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society, and resolved that an Antarctic expedition should be despatched, preferably by Government, as the encourage...

Lyttelton, New Zealand, was selected for the head-quarters of the expedition in the southern hemisphere. It was a long voyage thither and there was natural anxiety respecting th...

The dreadful disaster to the Franklin Expedition was entirely due to the absence both of a relief ship and a depôt ship; and the necessity of providing one has ever since been r...

The arrival of the _Morning_ with letters and fresh supplies of stores and provisions was a very welcome incident for the explorers, though the precaution had been taken to coll...

Shackleton’s expedition to reach the South Pole differed from any previous one in that ponies were employed. Great care was exercised in the equipment, the sledges were built in...

Shackleton’s attempt to reach the South Pole was soon followed by another and more successful one. The Norwegian, Amundsen, whose conquest of the North-west Passage had fascinat...

It had always been desired that that portion of the coast of Antarctica which faces Australia, along which Balleny, and afterwards Wilkes and Dumont d’Urville, had sailed more t...

The ideal of Captain Scott was completeness, and he put it into practice in his second expedition. This is the reason that the areas discovered from his chosen M’Murdo base are...

Scott and his companions could now easily reach their goal. On the 4th January they were 10,280 ft. above the sea, the soft snow giving them very heavy work. They were still asc...

The great object of Antarctic exploration is to discover the outline of the Antarctic continent, and to study its physiography so far as the great ice-cap will admit of such res...