Reflections on Ill Success of Arctic Research-Plan for an American Overland Expedition-Examination of Welling- ton Channel-Minor Details connected with Search— Eskimaux or Innuít Vocabulary-Reasons which Forbid us to Despair-Utility of Arctic Voyages of Discovery- EXLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS MADE USE OF IN THE COURSE OF THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE. Bay or Young Ice.-Ice newly formed upon the surface. Blink. A peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, which is almost always perceptible in approaching ice or land covered with snow. Land blink is usually more yellow than that of ice. Bore. The operation of "boring" through loose ice, consists in entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by separating the masses. Dock.—An artificial dock is formed by cutting out with saws a square space in a thick floe in which a ship is placed in order to secure her from the pressure of other masses which are seen to be approaching, and which otherwise endanger her being "nipped." A "dock" is simply a small bight accidentally found under similar circumstances. Field.-A sheet of ice generally of great thickness, and of such extent that its limits cannot be seen from a ship's mast-head. Floe.-The same as a field except that its extent can be distinguished from a ship's mast-head. A "bay floe" is a floe of ice newly formed upon the surface. A Hole or Pool of Water.-A small space of clear water surrounded by ice on every side. Nipped. To be forcibly pressed between two or more masses of ice. A Pack.-A large body of loose ice whose extent cannot be seen. A Patch of Ice.—The same as a pack, but of small dimensions. Sailing Ice.-Ice of which the masses are so much separated as to allow a ship to sail among them without great difficulty. A Tongue. A mass of ice projecting under water in a horizontal direction from an iceberg or floe. A ship sometimes grazes or is set fast on a tongue of ice, which may, however, generally be avoided, being easily seen in smooth water. A Water-Sky-A certain dark appearance of the sky which indicates clear water in that direction, and which, when contrasted with the blink over ice or land, is very conspicuous. Portrait of Sir John Franklin-Frontispiece. Two Maps of the Polar Regions-in pocket. NARRATIVE OF ARCTIC DISCOVERY. CHAPTER I. Scandinavian Enterprise and its Results-Discovery of Iceland and Greenland-Probable Discovery of North America by the Scandinavians Ages before Columbus-Fate of the Three Sons of Red-handed Eirek-Voyage of Ochter, the Norwegian, written by King Alfred-Expeditions undertaken after the Invention of the Mariner's Compass. "HISTORY has not recorded the annals of a people who have occasioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous revolutions in Europe than the Scandinavians." It is impossible to read of the habits of these daring ravagers during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, without inwardly shuddering at the cruelties perpetrated by them, and the devastation which almost invariably followed their sanguinary footsteps whithersoever they were pleased to direct them. The whole of northern Europe, and even Spain, Italy, and Greece, were kept in a constant state of alarm 1 Preface to M. Mallett's "Northern Antiquities." B |