West Passage Research Articles

The Evolution of Arctic Airways

When men of the first Elizabethan era looked to the Arctic, they dreamed of a North–West Passage over the sea to enable them to reach by a short cut the fabulous riches of the Far East. Between 1576 and 1578, Martin Frobisher doggedly took three expeditions beyond Greenland to explore what he thought was an open channel but which in reality is the bay of Baffin Land and today bears his name—as tribute to a great pioneer. Others to take unsuccessful expeditions North were Davis, Baffin and Hudson, and their names too have been immortalised in the geography of the Arctic. These men had to contend not only with the severity of the elements and with inadequate equipment in their frail sailing craft; mutiny at sea was prevalent in those days. Thus in the huge bay which now bears his name, Hudson with eight of his companions was put ashore by a mutinous crew and abandoned to his fate. Not until 1847 came Sir John Franklin's triumph in which he and his expedition perished after the moment of discovery, his two ships Erebus and Terror being crushed in the ice.

Sound Emitted by Dolphins

With reference to Dr. Kullenberg's observation in Nature of November 8, p. 648, on sounds emitted by dolphins, the following quotation from Capt. Parry's “Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of the North West Passage”, 1821, is relevant. It concerns the white whale (Delphinapterus leucas), p. 35. “Mr. Fisher described them to be generally from 18–20 feet in length; and he stated, that he had several times heard them emit a shrill, ringing sound, not unlike that of musical glasses when badly played. This sound, he further observed, was most distinctly heard, when they happened to swim directly beneath the boat, even when they were several feet under water, and ceased altogether on their coming to the surface.”

The Discovery of Canada

DR. L. J. BURPEE was well known as an authority on the exploration of Canada, and in this work naturally draws on his own researches. But the book is much more than repetition. It covers a long period, from the rather vague discoveries of the Norsemen to the voyage of Sergeant Larsen through the North -West Passage in 1940–42. It includes biographical notes on one hundred explorers and a detailed bibliography. A useful outline map forms the end papers. The Discovery of Canada By Lawrence J. Burpee. Pp. x + 280. (Toronto: The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd., 1944.) 12s. 6d.net.

Sledge Dogs

We have been fortunate, in this issue, in finding three such experts on the subject of the sledge dog and dog-driving as Captain Helmer Hanssen, Dr Seymour Hadwen, and Mr Andrew Croft, willing to contribute their views on the subject. The first on the list, Captain Helmer Hanssen, needs no introduction; he will be remembered as one of Amundsen's companions on his South Polar journey, and on the North West Passage Expedition on board the Gjoa. Dr Hadwen, the second on the list, has gone deeply into the matter both from the point of view of a veterinary surgeon, and of a lover of the animals, and a dog-driver. He has incorporated in his article the results of practical experience in Alaska, as well as more academic work in the Eastern Arctic. Mr Croft spent a winter in Western Greenland, prior to Martin Lindsay's expedition, learning dog-driving from the best exponents of the art in Greenland. He was in charge of the dogs both on the British Trans-Greenland expedition, 1934, and again in 1935–36, with the Oxford University Arctic expedition in North East Land.

New books

Abstract ASIA. India on Trial. By J. E. Woolacott. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1929. Price 10s. An Avatar in Vishnu Land. By Stanley Warburton. London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Price 12s. 6d An Indian Journey. By Waldemar Bonsels. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1929. Price 7s. 6d. Oriental Encounters: Palestine and Syria (1894–5‐6). By Marmaduke Pickthall. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1929. Price 3s. 6d. The Pagans of North Borneo. By Owen Rutter, F.R.G.S., etc. With an Introduction by Professor C. G. Seligman, F.R.S. London: Hutehinson and Co. Ltd., 1929. Price 30s. net. AFRICA. Angolan Sketches. By T. Alexander Barns, F.B.G.S., F.Z.S. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1928. Price 12s. 6d. net. The Low‐Veld: Its Wild Life and its People. By Lieut.‐Col. J. Stevenson‐Hamilton. London: Cassell and Co. Ltd., 1929. Price 12s. 6d. AMERICA. A Canadian Panorama. By Yvonne Fitzroy. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1929. Price 10s. 6d. net. Combing the Caribbees. By Harry L. Foster. London : John Lane (The Bodley Head, Ltd.), 1929. Price 12s. 6d. Maps and Sketches: used by Sir Henry Clinton while in command of the British Forces operating in North America during the war for Independence, 1775–1782. ... A descriptive list of the original Manuscripts and Printed Documents now preserved in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. By Randolph G. Adams. Ann Arbor: The William L. Clements Library, 1928. Price $1.50. AUSTRALASIA. The. Early History of New Zealand. By T. M. Hocken. Wellington, N.Z.: Government Printer, 1914. Price 5s. net. POLAR. The Voyage of Captain Thomas James for the Discovery of the North‐ West Passage, 1631. By Commander R. B. Bodilly, R.N. London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1928. Price 6s. GENERAL. The New British Empire. By L. Haden Guest, M.C. London : John Murray, 1929. Price 7s. 6d. net. The Leardo Map of the World, 1452 or 1453. In the collections of the American Geographical Society. By John Kirtland Wright, Ph.D., Librarian American Geographical Society. With a note on the reproduction of the map by A. B. Hoen. New York: American Geographical Society, 1928. Price with map, $15.00; book only, $1.50. The Statesman's Year‐Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the Stales of the World for the Year 1929. Edited by M. Epstein, M.A., Ph.D. Sixty‐sixth Annual Publication. London : Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1929. Price 20s., The Life of Charles M. Doughty. By D. G. Hogarth. London : Humphrey Milford (Oxford University Press), 1928. Price 18s. Some Notable Surveyors and Map‐Makers of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries, and their Work: A Study in the Art of Cartography. By Sir Herbert George Fordham. Cambridge : at the University Press, 1929. Price 6s. Science of the Sea: an Elementary Handbook of Practical Oceanography for Travellers, Sailors, and Yachtsmen. Prepared by the Challenger Society for the promotion of the study of Oceanography. Originally edited by G. Herbert Fowler, B.A., Ph.D. Second Edition edited by E. J. Allen, D.Sc., F.R.S., Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1928. Price 15s. The Coral Beef Problem. By William Morris Davis. New York: American Geographical Society, 1928. Price $6. Richard Hakluyt and the English Voyages. By George Bruner Parks, Ph.D. American Geographical Society Special Publication No. 10. New York: American Geographical Society, 1928. Price, $5. William Dampier. By Clennell, Wilkinson. London: John Lane (The Bodley Head Ltd.), 1929. Price 12s. 6d. EDUCATIONAL. New Regional Geographies. Book IV. The World. By Leonard Brooks. University of London Press Ltd., 1927. Price 7s. 6d. Longmans New Geographical Series. The World: A General Geography. By L. Dudley Stamp, B.A., D.Sc, F.R.G.S. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. Price 5s. A Geography of Western Europe. Written by five members of the Publications Sub‐Committee of the Standing Committee for Geography in Public Schools. Edited by E. D. Laborde. London: University of London Press, 1928. Price 8s. 6d. A Geographical Grammar. By C. C. Carter, M.A., Assistant Master, Marlborough College. London : Christophers, 1929. Price 3s. 6d.

Bronzezeit am Jenissei: ein Beitrag zur Urgeschichte Sibiriens

A BRIEF but very interesting account of the A Bronze Age cultures of the Minussinsk area, and a review of the literature on the subject, is given in the work under notice; the author has also some rather revolutionary ideas to put forward. The region is one of peculiar interest, lying as it does far up the Yenisei valley and forming an island of steppe country cut off on three sides from intercourse with the rest of the prehistoric world, for to the south lie mountains and to the east and west were formerly forest lands. To the north, however, lay a natural east west passage way formed by the more or less connecting river systems of the Obi, Ket and Angara leading to Lake Baikal. The author stresses the contention that the early Bronze cultures of the district owe nothing directly to the west, i.e. to the Bronze cultures of the Ural mountains, though both may originally have had a common source. He believes that it was not until very late that any western connexion was established, and that similarities in the two cultures can then be explained by a parallel reception of Scythian influences. Bronzezeit am Jenissei: ein Beitrag zur Urgeschichte Sibiriens. Von Gero v. Merhart. Pp. 190 + 12 Tafeln. (Wien: Anton Schroll und Co., 1926.) 12s.

Roald Amundsen's "The North West Passage"

Roald Amundsen's "The North West Passage"

Amundsen's North West Passage

Amundsen's North West Passage

On the North West Passage and the Circumnavigation of America

On the North West Passage and the Circumnavigation of America

X. Observations on the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and on the intensity of the magnetic force; made during the late voyage in search of a North West Passage

The dipping needle used in these observations is the property of Henry Browne, Esq.; it was made by Messrs. Nairne and Blunt, and is similar in construction to one made by the same artists, and described by the Hon. Henry Cavendish in the 66th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, as used in the house of the Royal Society. Previously to delivering it into my charge, Mr. Browne had adjusted the balance of the needle by means of the screws on the cross of wires attached to its axis ; so that no alteration took place in the indication of the dip, on reversing the poles.

L. Track of His Majesty's armed brig Lion from England to Davis's Streights and Labrador, with observations for determining the longitude by Sun and Moon and error of common reckoning; also the variation of the compass and dip of the needle, as observed during the said voyage in 1776

We anchored in Porcupine Harbour, where we staid until the 26th of September, and from thence proceeded to England; which being a common rout, I shall conclude with a few general observations on this part of the world, so little known and so terribly represented by people who, in order to raise their own merit, make dangers and difficulties of common occurrences; merely because the places are unknown, and there is little or no probability of their ever being contradicted. I do not mean this as a personal reflexion; but having discoursed with many of the masters of Greenland vessels, as well as their employers, and heard such dreadful stories of those who from a laudable principle would be benefactors to their country, but are deterred from it by such representations; and I appeal to shoe series of facts for the truth of my assertion. The weather in Davis's Sraits is, in the spring and autumn, boisterous; the seas run irregular, like the Gulph of Lions, and other places I could instance (that is short and high); occasioned (I imagine) by the narrowness of the Straits, the many impediments it meets with from the ice, and its being open to the southern parts of the Atlantic Ocean. As the south winds are always the strongest, bring thick weather, and the greatest sea, so the northern ones bring find clear weather, and are seldom strong. I shall here finish these observations, with the particulars of them, &c. and shall communicate observations on the ice, the atmosphere, the land of Forbisher, and the probability of a north west passage, in a short time.