eg.
north latitude, at a point of the coast which he named "Hold with
Hope." The German expedition under Koldeway (1869-70), which visited
the same waters, reached by the aid of sledges as far north as 77 deg.
north latitude. Owing to the enormous masses of ice which the polar
current sweeps southward along this coast, it is certainly one of the
most unfavorable routes for a polar expedition. A better route is that
by Spitzbergen, which was essayed by Hudson, when his progress was
blocked off Greenland. Here he reached 80 deg. 23' north latitude. Thanks
to the warm current that runs by the west coast of Spitzbergen in a
northerly direction, the sea is kept free from ice, and it is without
comparison the route by which one can the most safely and easily reach
high latitudes in ice-free waters. It was north of Spitzbergen that
Edward Parry made his attempt in 1827, above alluded to.

Farther eastward the ice-conditions are less favorable, and therefore
few polar expeditions have directed their course through these
regions. The original object of the Austro-Hungarian expedition
under Weyprecht and Payer (1872-74) was to seek for the Northeast
Passage; but at its first meeting with the ice it was set fast off
the north point of Novaya Zemlya, drifted northward, and discovered
Franz Josef Land, whence Payer endeavored to push forward to the
north with sledges, reaching 82 deg. 5' north latitude on an island,
which he named Crown-Prince Rudolf's Land. To the north of this he
thought he could see an extensive tract of land, lying in about 83 deg.
north latitude, which he called Petermann's Land. Franz Josef Land
was afterwards twice visited by the English traveller Leigh Smith in
1880 and 1881-82; and it is here that the English Jackson-Harmsworth
expedition is at present established.

The plan of the Danish expedition under Hovgaard was to push forward
to the North Pole from Cape Chelyuskin along the east coast of an
extensive tract of land which Hovgaard thought must lie to the east
of Franz Josef Land. He got set fast in the ice, however, in the Kara
Sea, and remained the winter there, returning home the following year.

Only a few attempts have been made through Bering Strait. The first was
Cook's, in 1776; the last the Jeannette expedition (1879-81), under De
Long, a lieutenant in the American navy. Scarcely anywhere have polar
travellers been so hopelessly blocked by ice in comparatively low
latitudes. The last-named