t to mention the voyage
by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the _Dorothea_,
accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the _Trent_. It was Sir John
Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions. This trip forms the
subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey.

On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a
point of Iceland. Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic region,
whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the circumference.
In connection with this district there is a remarkable fact; that by the
agency of subterranean forces, a large portion of Norway and Sweden is
being slowly upheaved. While Greenland, on the west coast, as gradually
sinks into the sea, Norway rises at the rate of about four feet in a
century. In Greenland, the sinking is so well known that the natives
never build close to the water's edge, and the Moravian missionaries more
than once have had to move farther inland the poles on which their boats
are rested.

Our Phantom Ship stands fairly now along the western coast of Greenland
into Davis Straits. We observe that upon this western coast there is, by
a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. That is a rule generally.
Not only the configuration of the straits and bays, but also the earth's
rotation from west to east, causes the currents here to set towards the
west, and wash the western coasts, while they act very little on the
eastern. We steer across Davis Strait, among "an infinite number of
great countreys and islands of yce;" there, near the entrance, we find
Hudson Strait, which does not now concern us. Islands probably separate
this well-known channel from Frobisher Strait to the north of it, yet
unexplored. Here let us recall to mind the fleet of fifteen sail, under
Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, tossing about and parting company among
the ice. Let us remember how the crew of the _Anne Frances_, in that
expedition, built a pinnace when their vessel struck upon a rock, stock,
although they wanted main timber and nails. How they made a mimic forge,
and "for the easier making of nails, were forced to break their tongs,
gridiron, and fire-shovel, in pieces." How Master Captain Best, in this
frail bark, with its imperfect timbers held together by the metamorphosed
gridiron and fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did depart up the
straights as before was pretended." How a terrific storm arose, and the
fleet par