“Zarya,” hoping to reach Sannikofi Island, the most northern
and still unvisited portion of the New Siberia group. In
August 1902 he reached Bennet Island with the astronomer
Seeberg and two men, he found the island to be a plateau about
1500 ft in elevation. and remained there until November studying
the geological features Nothing more was heard of the expedition,
and a relief expedition in 1904, under Lieuts. Brusneff
and Kolchak, failed to find any trace of the explorers beyond
a record left on Bennet Island, which gave a summary of their
movements up to the time of leaving the island.
In 1901 Captain Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, who had been mate on the “Belgica” in her Antarctic voyage, planned Amundsen an expedition to the area of the north magnetic pole visited by Sir James Ross in 1831, in order to re-locate it, and as a secondary object he had in view theAmundsen. accomplishment of the North-West Passage by water for the first time, M‘Clure not having carried his ship through from sea to sea. A small Norwegian sealing sloop, the “Gjöa,” the cabin of which measured only 9 ft. by 6, was fitted with a petroleum motor engine of 59 h p for use in calm weather and strengthened to withstand ice-pressure. She left Christiania on the 17th of June 1903 with a total company of six men, second in command being Lieut. Godfred Hansen of the Danish navy She passed through Lancaster Sound and worked her way down the west side of Boothia Felix in August, and took up “inter quarters in Gjöa Harbour at the head of Petersen Bay in King William Land Here the little vessel remained for two years xx hile magnetic and meteorological observations were carried out, and sledging excursions were made to the magnetic pole and along the coasts of Victoria Land, which was charted up to 72° N In August 1905 the “Gjöa” proceeded westward along the American coast but was frozen in off King Point for a third winter On the 11th of July 1906 she got free, and after much difficulty with the ice reached Bering Strait on the 30th of August and entered the Pacific, the first ship to pass from ocean to ocean north of Patagonia.
Danish explorers have continued to concentrate their attention on the problems of Greenland, and especially the geography of the east coast Lieut G. D. Amdrup, in a series of expeditions between 1898 and 1900, charted the coast-line as far north as 70° 15′ N and made important scientific observations and collections From time to time Whalers reached the east Greenland coast at points in high latitudes The duke of Orleans in the “Belgica,” under the command of Captain Gerlache, made an important voyage in 1905, in the course of which he cruised along the coast of Germania Land between 76° and 78° N, and fixed the general outline of the land up to that latitude. This expedition did a large amount of scientific work, especially in oceanography. The stream of sea-ice which presses outwards from the polar basin every summer bears close against the east coast of Greenland, and exploration by sea has always proved exceedingly difficult and precarious, success depending very much on the occurrence of chance leads amongst the ice Taking advantage of all previous experience, the most important of the Danish expeditions was planned by L. Mylius-Erichsen Mylhm in 1905, the expenses being partly raised by private subscriptions and partly provided by the DanishMylius-Erichsen. government. He sailed in the “Danmark” in June 1906 and found winter quarters in Danmarkhaven, 75° 43′ N, where the ship remained for two years, while systematic magnetic and meteorological observations were kept up at the base and the main work of exploring to the northward was carried on by sledge From existing maps it was believed that about 620 m of coast separated the winter quarters from the northern point of Greenland, but when the sledge expedition went out in 1907 the coast was found to curve much farther to the eastward than had been anticipated, and the outward journey extended to 800 m Having left the winter quarters on the 28th of March 1907 Mylius-Erichsen, with Captain Koch, Hagen, an educated Eskimo, Bronlund and two others, reached North-East Foreland, the eastern extremity of Greenland (81° 20′ N, 11° 15′ W) Here they divided; Koch with Berthelsen and the Eskimo Tobias went north-westward to explore the east coast of Peary Land, and succeeded in reaching the northernmost extremity of the land beyond Cape Bridgman in 83° 30′ N. From this great journey he returned in safety to winter quarters, arriving on the 24th of June. Meanwhile Mylius-Erichsen, with Hagen and the Eskimo Bronlund, followed the coast westward into what was believed to be the Independence Bay seen from a distance by Peary; this turned out to be a deep inlet now named Danmark Fjord. Keeping to the coast, they entered the great channel separating the mainland of Greenland from Peary Land, and surveyed Hagen Fjord on the southern shore and Bronlund Fjord on the northern shoie of the strait. They had pushed on to Cape Glacier in 82° N. and 35° W by the 14th of June 1907, within sight of Navy Cliff, which had been Peary's farthest coming from the west side, and here the softness of the snow kept them all summer. When they could travel, more than a fortnight was wasted adrift on a floe in the effort to cross Danmark Fjord. Here the sun left them, while they were without food, almost worn out and more than 500 m. from the ship. It was impossible to attempt the long journey round the coast, and the only chance of safety, and that a very Slender one, was to make away southward over the inland ice and so cut off the eastern horn of Greenland which the expedition had discovered. Under the most terrible difficulties, with only four starved dogs, and their equipment going to pieces, they accomplished the feat of marching 160 m. in 26 days, and reached the east coast again in 79° N . Hagen died on the way; Mylius-Erichsen himself struggled on until he nearly reached the provisions left on Lambert Island on the northern journey; but he too perished, and only Bronlund reached the supplies. He was frost-bitten and unable to proceed further, and after recording the tragedy of the return journey in his diary, he died also alone in the Arctic night. His body and the records of the great journey were discovered in the following year by Koch, who started on a relief expedition as soon as travelling became possible. The results of this expedition are a splendid monument to the courage and devotion of the leader and his followers. The channel between Spitsbergen and Greenland was shown by their efforts to be far narrower than had previously been supposed, and the outline of Greenland itself was fixed for the first time, and that by an extremely accurate survey.
There only remains one further episode to bring the history of polar exploration up to 1910, but that is the crowning event of four hundred years of unceasing effort, the attainment of the Pole itself; and it was accomplished by the undaunted perseverance of one man who would never acceptPeary. defeat. After the return of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, Lord Northcliffe presented the “Windward” to Lieut. Peary, who resumed in 1898 his systematic explorations of the Smith Sound region in the hope of finding a way to the Pole. He was not restrained by the precedents of earlier travellers and made some long sledge journeys in the winter of 1898–1899, having his feet badly frost-bitten and losing eight toes. Even this crippling did not stop his work. He wintered amongst the Etah Eskimo in 1899–1900 and next spring made a successful journey to the most northerly land north of Greenland in 83° 35′ where the land had an abundant flora and fauna, and he pushed north over the sea-ice for twenty miles farther, reaching 83° 54′ N. Peary wintered again at Fort Conger in 1900–1901, and for the fourth year in succession he went through the Arctic winter, 1901–1902, at Payer Harbour. In the spring of 1902 he made a great journey to Cape Hecla in the north of Grant Land and thence northward over the frozen sea to 84° 17′ N. in 70° W. Frequent open leads of water and the moving of the ice-floes made further advance impossible, and after an unparalleled sojourn in the farthest north, Peary returned to the United States The Peary Arctic Club of New York, formed to support this indomitable explorer, provided funds for a new expedition and a ship differing in some respects from those hitherto employed and named the “Roosevelt” In her he proceeded in the summer of 1905 through Smith Sound and the northern channels to Cape Sheridan on the north coast of Grant Land,
