of the water they have nearly two beneath, which
would give to this one a total height of about four hundred feet.

At last with a temperature at noon as low as 12 degrees, under a
snowy, misty sky, they sighted Cape Farewell. The _Forward_ arrived at
the appointed day; the unknown captain, if he cared to assume his
place in such gloomy weather, would have no need to complain.

"Then," said the doctor to himself, "there is this famous cape, with
its appropriate name! Many have passed it, as we do, who were destined
never to see it again! Is it an eternal farewell to one's friends in
Europe? You have all passed it, Frobisher, Knight, Barlow, Vaughan,
Scroggs, Barentz, Hudson, Blosseville, Franklin, Crozier, Bellot,
destined never to return home; and for you this cape was well named
Cape Farewell!"

It was towards the year 970 that voyagers, setting out from Iceland,
discovered Greenland. Sebastian Cabot, in 1498, went as high as
latitude 56 degrees; Gaspard and Michel Cotreal, from 1500 to 1502,
reached latitude 60 degrees; and in 1576 Martin Frobisher reached the
inlet which bears his name.

To John Davis belongs the honor of having discovered the strait, in
1585; and two years later in a third voyage this hardy sailor, this
great whaler, reached the sixty-third parallel, twenty-seven degrees
from the Pole.

Barentz in 1596, Weymouth in 1602, James Hall in 1605 and 1607,
Hudson, whose name was given to the large bay which runs so far back
into the continent of America, James Poole in 1611, went more or less
far into the straits, seeking the Northwest Passage, the discovery of
which would have greatly shortened the route between the two worlds.

Baffin, in 1616, found in the bay of that name Lancaster Sound; he was
followed in 1619 by James Monk, and in 1719 by Knight, Barlow,
Vaughan, and Scroggs, who were never heard of again.

In 1776, Lieutenant Pickersgill, sent to meet Captain Cook, who tried
to make his way through Behring Strait, reached latitude 68 degrees;
the next year, Young, on the same errand, went as far as Woman's
Island.

Then came James Ross, who in 1818 sailed all around the shores of
Baffin's Bay, and corrected the errors on the charts of his
predecessors.

Finally, in 1819 and 1820, the famous Parry made his way into
Lancaster Sound. In spite of numberless difficulties he reached
Melville Island, and won the prize of five thousand pounds offered by
act of Parliament to the English sailors