Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage | Page 6

to be repented of; for on reaching
navigable sea, and pushing in their boats to Table Island, where some
stones were left, they found that the bears had eaten all their bread,
whereon the men agreed that "Bruin was now square with them." An
islet next to Table Island--they are both mere rocks--is the most
northern land discovered. Therefore, Parry applied to it the name of
lieutenant--afterwards Sir James--Ross. This compliment Sir James
Ross acknowledged in the most emphatic manner, by discovering on

his part, at the other Pole, the most southern land yet seen, and giving
to it the name of Parry: "Parry Mountains."
It very probably would not be difficult, under such circumstances as Sir
W. Parry has since recommended, to reach the North Pole along this
route. Then (especially if it be true, as many believe, that there is a
region of open sea about the Pole itself) we might find it as easy to
reach Behring Straits by travelling in a straight line over the North Pole,
as by threading the straits and bays north of America.
We turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the ice- barred
eastern coast of Greenland, Shannon Island. Somewhere about this spot
in the seventy-fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast
known to us. Colonel--then Captain--Sabine in the Griper was landed
there to make magnetic, and other observations; for the same purpose
he had previously visited Sierra Leone. That is where we differ from
our forefathers. They commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril
for the search of gold ore, or for a near road to Cathay; but our peril is
encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service
that can now be rendered to the human race.
Before we leave the Northern Sea, we must not omit to mention the
voyage by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the
Dorothea, accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the Trent. It was Sir
John Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions. This trip forms the
subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey.
On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a
point of Iceland. Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic region,
whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the
circumference. In connection with this district there is a remarkable fact;
that by the agency of subterranean forces, a large portion of Norway
and Sweden is being slowly upheaved. While Greenland, on the west
coast, as gradually sinks into the sea, Norway rises at the rate of about
four feet in a century. In Greenland, the sinking is so well known that
the natives never build close to the water's edge, and the Moravian
missionaries more than once have had to move farther inland the poles
on which their boats are rested.
Our Phantom Ship stands fairly now along the western coast of
Greenland into Davis Straits. We observe that upon this western coast
there is, by a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. That is a rule

generally. Not only the configuration of the straits and bays, but also
the earth's rotation from west to east, causes the currents here to set
towards the west, and wash the western coasts, while they act very little
on the eastern. We steer across Davis Strait, among "an infinite number
of great countreys and islands of yce;" there, near the entrance, we find
Hudson Strait, which does not now concern us. Islands probably
separate this well-known channel from Frobisher Strait to the north of
it, yet unexplored. Here let us recall to mind the fleet of fifteen sail,
under Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, tossing about and parting company
among the ice. Let us remember how the crew of the Anne Frances, in
that expedition, built a pinnace when their vessel struck upon a rock,
stock, although they wanted main timber and nails. How they made a
mimic forge, and "for the easier making of nails, were forced to break
their tongs, gridiron, and fire-shovel, in pieces." How Master Captain
Best, in this frail bark, with its imperfect timbers held together by the
metamorphosed gridiron and fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did
depart up the straights as before was pretended." How a terrific storm
arose, and the fleet parted and the intrepid captain was towed "in his
small pinnesse, at the stern of the Michael, thorow the raging seas; for
the bark was not able to receive, or relieve half his company." The
"tongs, gridyron, and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as
many minutes as were absolutely necessary, for the pinnesse came no
sooner aboard the ship, and the men entred, but she presently shivered
and fell in pieces,