HEAD OF WHITE BEAR.
Section VI.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE: 1807-1857.
CHAPTER XLIX.
ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS—RUSSIAN RESEARCHES UNDER KRUSENSTERN AND KOTZEBUE—FREYCINET—ROSS—THE CRIMSON CLIFFS—LANCASTER SOUND—BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN—PARRY—THE POLAR SEA—WINTER QUARTERS—RETURN HOME—DUPERREY—EPISODES IN THE WHALE-FISHERY—PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE—BOAT-SLEDGES—METHOD OF TRAVEL—DISHEARTENING DISCOVERY—82° 43' NORTH.
We have now entered the nineteenth century. From this time forward we shall find little or no romantic interest attaching to the history of the sea, with the single exception of that of the Arctic waters. The epoch of adventure stimulated by the thirst for gold has long since passed: there are no more continents to be pursued, and few islands to be unbosomed from the deep. There was once a harvest to be reaped; but there remain henceforward but scanty leavings to be gleaned. The navigator of the present century cannot hope to acquire a rapid fame by brilliant discoveries: he must be content if he obtain a tardy distinction by patient observation and minute surveys,—a task far more useful than showy, and, while less attractive, much more arduous. Our narrative, therefore, of the remaining maritime enterprises will be correspondingly succinct. The reader's interest, as we have said, will attach almost exclusively to the Polar adventures of the heroes of the Northwest Passage: of Ross, who saw the Crimson Cliffs; of Parry, who discovered the Polar Sea; of James Clarke Ross, who stood upon the North Magnetic Pole; of McClure, who threaded the Northwest Passage; of Franklin and of Kane, the martyrs to Arctic science. Though we shall dwell more particularly upon these voyages, we shall nevertheless mention in due order those undertaken for other purposes in all quarters of the globe.
In 1803, Alexander of Russia determined to enter the career of maritime discovery and geographical research. He sent Captain Krusenstern upon a voyage round the world, in the London-built ship Nadeshda. Nothing resulted from this voyage except the augmented probability that Saghalien was not an island, but a peninsula joined to the mainland of China by an isthmus of sand.
