Among the many books about the Polar regions there is none quite like this, dealing with the gradual progress of exploration towards the north along the different areas of advance within the Arctic Circle. The subject is always interesting, for few regions have been the scene of more persistent effort and exciting adventure and unexpected gains from the unknown, particularly in the earlier days when the endeavour to find the northern passages to the east and west led to the beginning of our fore

Iceland—Greenland—America—Sebastian Cabot—Robert Thorne—The North-east Passage—Willoughby—Chancellor—Borough—The North Cape rounded—The White Sea reached—The First Arctic Search Expedition—Pet and Jackman—Brunel—Cornelis Nai—Barents reaches 77° 20´—Second voyage of Nai—The Samoyeds—Rijp, Jacob Van Heemskerck and Barents—Bear Island discovered—Spitsbergen discovered—The Dutch reach 79° 49´—Stephen Bennet—Welden—Jonas Poole—Henry Hudson reaches 80° 23´—Poole starts the British whaling trade—Baffin

The summer town of Smeerenberg—Himkoff winters in North East Land—Phipps reaches 80° 48´—Scoresby the elder reaches 81° 30´—Scoresby the younger—Voyage of the Dorothea and Trent under Buchan and Franklin—Parry reaches 82° 45´—Torell and Nordenskiöld—Carlsen sails round Spitsbergen—Swedish North Polar expedition under Nordenskiöld—Lamont—The Diana coal mine—Leigh Smith—Conway. This wintering of the Salutation men occurred when the Spitsbergen fisheries were most flourishing, the prosperity contin

Van Heemskerck and Barents reach Ice Haven—The ship in the ice—The first crew to winter in the Arctic—The house the Dutch built—The bears—The foxes—Intense cold—Twelfth Eve rejoicings—Preparations for departure—Death of Barents—The boat voyage—Meeting with Rijp—Admiral Jacob Van Heemskerck—Carlsen at Ice Haven—Finds the house as described by De Veer—The relics at the Hague—Gardiner finds the powder-flask—Gundersen finds the translation of the voyage of Pet and Jackman—Second voyage of Hudson—His

Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872—The voyage as planned—The drift of the Tegetthoff —The polyglot crew—Discovery of Franz Josef Land—Payer's description of an aurora—The sledge journeys—Crown Prince Rudolf Land—Cape Fligely reached—Abandonment of the Tegetthoff —The boat voyage to Cape Britwin—Leigh Smith's expeditions—Loss of the Eira —The retreat in the boats—Jackson in Franz Josef Land—His excellent survey work—The Italian expedition under the Duke of the Abruzzi—Cagni attempts to reach the

Chelyuskin reaches the cape—The Laptefs—Deschnef's voyage through Bering Strait—Nordenskiöld's voyages to the Yenesei—The Siberian tundra—The voyage of the Vega —Nordenskiöld rounds Cape Chelyuskin—Endeavour to reach the Siberian Islands—Liakhoff's discovery—The Vega passes the Cape North of Captain Cook—Frozen in within six miles of Cape Serdze Kamen—Completes the North-east Passage—Nansen's voyage—The Fram —Her drift in the ice—Nansen and Johansen start for the Pole—They reach 86° 13´ 6˝—Their

Discovery of the Siberian Islands—Hedenström—Anjou and Wrangell—Migration of reindeer—Animals and plants of the tundra—The northward migration of the native tribes—The voyage of the Jeannette —Her drift in the pack—Jeannette Island—Henrietta Island—The ship crushed and sunk—Landing on Bennett Island—The boat voyage—The boats separate in a storm—De Long lands on the Lena Delta—Nindemann and Noros in search of assistance—Safety of the whale-boat—Fate of De Long and his companions—Baron Toll's disc

Native stories of the distant continent—The Russians in Kamchatka—Bering's expedition—The difficulties of his task—Builds a vessel and reaches Kamchatka—Builds another vessel and discovers the strait named after him by Captain Cook—His second expedition—Spangberg's voyage to Japan—Bering reaches the American coast—His shipwreck and death—The influence of the sea-otter and the fur-seal on geographical discovery—The Arctic voyage of Captain Cook—Clerke's voyage—Beechey's voyage—Point Barrow reache

The Hudson's Bay Company—Samuel Hearne—His journey down the Coppermine River—The North West Fur Company—Sir Alexander Mackenzie—His journey down the Mackenzie—Sir John Franklin's first land journey—Fort Enterprise—Back's journey to Athabasca—The rapids of the Coppermine—Point Turnagain reached—The Wilberforce Falls—The terrible crossing of the Barren Grounds—Franklin's second land journey—Richardson's voyage to the eastward—Discovers Wollaston Land and Dolphin and Union Strait—Franklin's voyage

John Rae—Wollaston Land and Victoria Strait—Overlaps Franklin's route—M'Clure discovers Prince of Wales Strait—The North-West Passage—Banks Land—M'Clure rescued by Bedford Pim—Collinson's remarkable voyage—In Beaufort Sea—Reaches Banks Strait—Voyage to Cambridge Bay—On Franklin's route—The North-West Passage sailed by Amundsen along the track of the Enterprise —Sir John Barrow—Parry's first voyage—Penetrates Lancaster Sound and discovers the Parry Islands—Stopped by ice in Banks Strait—The searc

Christopher Middleton—Wager River—Repulse Bay—Parry's second north-west voyage—Melville Peninsula—Fury and Hecla Strait—John Ross's second Arctic voyage—Introduces steam navigation into the Arctic regions—The whaler John —Ross misses the North-West Passage—Snow houses—Eskimo geographers—James Clark Ross finds the Magnetic North Pole—Lyon in the Griper —Back in the Terror —Rae's journey round Committee Bay—Sir John Franklin's last voyage—Kennedy and Bellot—Discovery of Bellot Strait—Rae's journey

Sir Humphrey Gilbert—Sir Martin Frobisher—His first voyage—The fateful stone—First meeting with the Eskimos—The Cathay Company—Second voyage—Third voyage—Frobisher builds a fort—The ships among the floes—Captain Hall finds the Frobisher relics—Adrian Gilbert—John Davis—His voyages and dealings with the Eskimos—Reaches and names Sanderson's Hope—The Traverse Book—William Baffin—His first voyage to Greenland—His fourth and fifth voyages—Discovers Baffin Land—Discovers Baffin Bay—Smith Sound—Jones

Captain Inglefield—Dr. Kane—The open Polar Sea—Hans Hendrik the Greenlander—Kalutunah the Eskimo—An Eskimo bear-hunt—A lesson in catching auks—Dr. Hayes—His journey over the glacier—Tyndall Glacier—Captain C. F. Hall—Joe and Hannah—Voyage of the Polaris —Drift of the Polaris —The voyage on the ice-floe—The British Government Expedition of 1875—The Alert and Discovery —The cairn on Washington Irving Island—Discovery Harbour—How the Alert got into safety at Floeberg Beach—Low temperatures—Nares on

Hans Egede—The house of Eric the Red—Nansen's crossing of Greenland—Nansen and Sverdrup row to Ny Herrnhut—Nordenskiöld's journeys—Berggren's discovery—Nordenskiöld on the inland ice—Glaciers and icebergs—Diatoms and whales—Edward Whymper's expedition—Greenland in Miocene times—Graah—Scoresby—Ryder—The Germania and Hansa —The Duke of Orleans—The Eskimos of Clavering Island—Franz Josef Fiord—The drift of the Hansa —The Greely expedition—The International Polar stations—Voyage of the Proteus —Lock