arch of the north-east
passage, were really in pursuit of mercantile ends. It is only with
James Cook that the era of purely scientific exploration begins,
though it is fair to qualify this statement by observing that the
Russian expedition under Behring, already referred to, was ordered
by Peter the Great to determine a strictly geographical problem,
though doubtless it had its bearings on Russian ambitions. Behring
and Cook between them, as we have seen, settled the problem of the
relations existing between the ends of the two continents Asia
and America, but what remained still to the north of _terra firma_
within the Arctic Circle? That was the problem which the nineteenth
century set itself to solve, and has very nearly succeeded in the
solution. For the Arctic Circle we now possess maps that only show
blanks over a few thousand square miles.

This knowledge has been gained by slow degrees, and by the exercise
of the most heroic courage and endurance. It is a heroic tate, in
which love of adventure and zeal for science have combated with
and conquered the horrors of an Arctic winter, the six months'
darkness in silence and desolation, the excessive cold, and the
dangers of starvation. It is impossible here to go into any of
the details which rendered the tale of Arctic voyages one of the
most stirring in human history. All we are concerned with here is
the amount of new knowledge brought back by successive expeditions
within the Arctic Circle.

This region of the earth's surface is distinguished by a number
of large islands in the eastern hemisphere, most of which were
discovered at an early date. We have seen how the Norsemen landed
and settled upon Greenland as early as the tenth century. Burrough
sighted Nova Zembla in 1556; in one of the voyages in search of the
north-east passage, though the very name (Russian for Newfoundland)
implies that it had previously been sighted and named by Russian
seamen. Barentz is credited with having sighted Spitzbergen. The
numerous islands to the north of Siberia became known through the
Russian investigations of Discheneff, Behring, and their followers;
while the intricate network of islands to the north of the continent
of North America had been slowly worked out during the search for the
north-west passage. It was indeed in pursuit of this will-of-the-wisp
that most of the discoveries in the Arctic Circle were made, and
a general impetus given to Arctic exploration.

It