who should cross the meridian
at a latitude higher than the seventy-seventh parallel.

In 1826, Beechey touched at Chamisso Island; James Ross wintered, from
1829 to 1833, in Prince Regent's Inlet, and, among other important
services, discovered the magnetic pole.

During this time Franklin, by a land-journey, defined the northern
coast of America, from Mackenzie River to Turnagain Point; Captain
Back followed the same route from 1823 to 1835; and these explorations
were completed in 1839 by Dease, Simpson, and Dr. Rae.

At last, Sir John Franklin, anxious to discover the Northwest Passage,
left England in 1845, with the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_; he entered
Baffin's Bay, and since his leaving Disco Island there has been no
news of his expedition.

His disappearance started numerous search-expeditions, which have
effected the discovery of the passage, and given the world definite
information about the rugged coasts of the polar lands. The boldest
sailors of England, France, and the United States hastened to these
terrible latitudes; and, thanks to their exertions, the tortuous,
complicated map of these regions has at last been placed in the
archives of the Royal Geographical Society of London.

The strange history of these lands crowded on the imagination of the
doctor, as he stood leaning on the rail, and gazing on the long track
of the brig. The names of those bold sailors thronged into his memory,
and it seemed to him that beneath the frozen arches of the ice he
could see the pale ghosts of those who never returned.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.
THE ENTRANCE OF DAVIS STRAIT.

During that day the _Forward_ made easy progress through the loose
ice; the breeze was in a good quarter, but the temperature was very
low; the wind coming across the ice-fields was thoroughly chilled.

At night the strictest care was necessary; the icebergs crowded
together in this narrow passage; often they could be counted by the
hundred on the horizon; they had been loosened from the lofty coasts
by the incessant beating of the waves and the warmth of the spring
month, and they were floating down to melt away in the depths of the
ocean. Often, too, they came across large masses of floating wood,
which they were obliged to avoid, so that the crow's-nest was placed
in position on the top of the foremast; it consisted of a sort of tub,
in which the ice-master, partly sheltered from the wind, scanned the
sea, giving notice o