“Yes, explorers from all over Europe as well as from America have tried their hand at it,” answered Barwell Dawson.
“One of the books I have here tells of the various American expeditions,” said Professor Jeffer, thumbing over a volume rapidly. “Ah, here it is. You ought to read it—it is very interesting.”
“I have read over the accounts many times,—trying to map out a route of my own,” said Barwell Dawson.
Then he told the boys of what had been done by various explorers to lift the mystery of the frozen north.
“One of the well-known Arctic explorers was Sir John Franklin, an Englishman,” said he. “Franklin was lost somewhere up north, and when he did not return, various expeditions were sent out for his relief. The first from America was that commanded by Lieutenant E. J. De Haven, of the United States Navy, in 1851. De Haven reached 78° N. He was followed, three years later, by Elisha Kent Kane, who sailed north by way of Smith Sound, and gained 80° 35’ N. lat.”
“How far was that from the Pole?” questioned Chet, whose knowledge of degrees and latitude was rather hazy.
“The highest degree is ninety, which is at the Pole,” explained the professor. “Roughly speaking, a degree of latitude is equal to seventy miles.”
“Then Kane was still nearly seven hundred miles from the Pole.”
“About six hundred and fifty.”
“After Kane,” continued Barwell Dawson, “Commodore John Rodgers commanded an expedition that went through Bering Strait and reached Herald Island, at 71° 18’ N. lat. Then, in 1860, Isaac L. Hayes reached Grinnell Land, at Cape Joseph Goode, and from 1860 to 1869 Charles F. Hall explored the Cumberland Gulf, and reached the Polar Sea northwest of Greenland, in 82° 11’ N.”