uly 1879 the
ice broke up, and two days later the _Vega_ rounded East Cape with
flying colours, saluting the easternmost coast of Asia in honour
of the completion of the north-east passage. Baron Nordenskiold
has since enjoyed a well-earned leisure from his arduous labours
in the north by studying and publishing the history of early
cartography, on which he has issued two valuable atlases, containing
fac-similes of the maps and charts of the Middle Ages.

General interest thus re-aroused in Arctic exploration brought about
a united effort of all the civilised nations to investigate the
conditions of the Polar regions. An international Polar Conference
was held at Hamburg in 1879, at which it was determined to surround
the North Pole for the years 1882-83 by stations of scientific
observation, intended to study the conditions of the Polar Ocean. No
less than fifteen expeditions were sent forth; some to the Antarctic
regions, but most of them round the North Pole. Their object was
more to subserve the interest of physical geography than to promote
the interest of geographical discovery; but one of the expeditions,
that of the United States under Lieutenant A. W. Greely, again took
up the study of Smith Sound and its outlets, and one of his men,
Lieutenant Lockwood, succeeded in reaching 83.24 deg. N., within 450
miles of the Pole, and up to that time the farthest north reached
by any human being. The Greely expedition also succeeded in showing
that Greenland was not so much ice-capped as ice-surrounded.

Hitherto the universal method by which discoveries had been made
in the Polar regions was to establish a base at which sufficient
food was cached, then to push in any required direction as far as
possible, leaving successive caches to be returned to when provisions
fell short on the forward journey. But in 1888, Dr. Fridjof Nansen
determined on a bolder method of investigating the interior of
Greenland. He was deposited upon the east coast, where there were
no inhabitants, and started to cross Greenland, his life depending
upon the success of his journey, since he left no reserves in the
rear and it would be useless to return. He succeeded brilliantly
in his attempt, and his exploit was followed up by two successive
attempts of Lieutenant Peary in 1892-95, who succeeded in crossing
Greenland at much higher latitude even than Nansen.

[Illustration: CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE]

The success of his bold plan encouraged Dr.