The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted

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James Eastburn ... Abraham Paul, printer, 1818 - Arctic regions - 187 pages
 

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Page iii - Ross, as to his visionary Croker Mountains, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. As early as the year 1527, the idea of a passage to the East Indies by the North Pole was suggested by a Bristol merchant to Henry VIII., but no voyage seems to have been undertaken for the purpose of navigating the...
Page iv - ... seems to have been undertaken for the purpose of navigating the Polar seas, till the commencement of the following century, when an expedition was fitted out at the expense of certain merchants of London. To this attempt several others succeeded at different periods, and all of them were projected and carried into execution by private individuals. The adventurers did not indeed accomplish the object they exclusively sought, that of reaching India by a nearer route than doubling the Cape of Good...
Page 52 - When the Ice is fixed upon the Sea, you see a snow-white brightness in the Skies, as if the Sun shined, for the Snow is reflected by the Air...
Page 123 - Spitsbergen, in 80° 30', which indeed is one of their most common latitudes for catching whales, whilst all of them suppose the sea to be generally open in those parts; and many of them proceed several degrees beyond it.
Page 39 - For it is well known to all that sail Northward, that most of the Northern coasts are frozen up many leagues, though in the open sea it is not so, no, nor under the Pole itself, unless by accident.
Page 180 - The following is a copy of the oath taken by the master, and als» by the owner, of Greenland ships : ". Master of the ship maketh oath, that it is really and truly his firm purpose, and determined resolution, that the said ship shall, as soon as license shall be granted, forthwith proceed so manned, furnished, and accoutred, on a voyage to the Greenland seas, or Davis's Straits, or the seas adjacent, there in the now approaching season to use the utmost endeavours of himself and his ship's company...
Page 124 - Mr. Tooke hath been assured by several persons who have passed the winter at Kola in Lapland, that in the severest weather, whenever a Northerly wind blows, the cold diminishes instantly, and that, if it continues, it always brings on a thaw as long as it lasts.
Page 32 - I once met [date not given, but of course prior to 1662] upon the coast of Greenland, a Hollander that swore he had been but half a degree from the pole, showing me his log-book, which was also tested by his mate ; where they had seen no ice or land, but all water.
Page 25 - ... and he added, that the weather was warm, the sea perfectly free from ice, and rolling like the Bay of Biscay. With these favourable appearances, Daillie pressed the captain to proceed farther ; but he answered, that he had already gone too far, by having neglected his station, for which he should be blamed in Holland ; on which account also he would suffer no journal to be made, but returned as speedily as he could to Spitsbergen. Nothing but the deserved estimation in which Mr.
Page 57 - Guy now declared, that he had never been so far to the Northward before, and crawled up to the maintopmast head, accompanied by the chief mate, whilst the second mate, together with Mr. Adams, went to the foretopmast head, from whence they saw a sea as free from ice as any part of the Atlantic Ocean, and it was the joint opinion of them all, that they might have reached the North Pole.

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