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POLAR REGIONS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 954 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POLAR REGIONS  , a See also:

general See also:term for the regions about the See also:North or See also:South See also:Pole, otherwise called the See also:Arctic or See also:Antarctic regions . The ancients had no actual knowledge of See also:History of the Polar regions . They had probably heard rumours Arctic of the See also:light summer nights and the dark See also:winter Exploration. nights in the north, as is shown by See also:Homer's description of the Laestrygons having the See also:short nights and the Cimmerians living in perpetual darkness . By astronomical speculations the Greeks had come to the conclusion that north of the Arctic Circle there must be midnight See also:sun at midsummer and no sun at midwinter . The general view was that the Polar regions, north and south, belonged to the uninhabitable frozen zones; while according to a less scientific notion there was a happy region north of the north See also:wind (See also:Boreas), where the sun was always shining and the See also:Hyperboreans led a peaceful See also:life . The first traveller of history who probably approached the Arctic Circle and reached the See also:land of the midnight See also:Pytheas. sun was the See also:Greek Pytheas (q.v.), from Massalia (See also:Marseilles), who about 325 B.C. made a voyage of See also:discovery northwards along the See also:west See also:coast of See also:Europe, which is one of the most remarkable in history . He visited See also:England, See also:Scotland, the Scottish isles, and probably also See also:northern See also:Norway, which he called See also:Thule . He moved the limits of the known See also:world from the south coast of England northward to the Arctic Circle . It seems probable that he made two or perhaps several voyages . He also discovered the northern coasts of See also:Germany as far See also:east as See also:Jutland . We hear of no other voyages towards the Arctic regions before the Irish See also:monk See also:Dicuil, See also:writing about 825, mentions the discovery by Irish monks of a See also:group of small islands (the Irish Faeroes), and a greater See also:island (See also:Iceland), which he Discovery calls Thule, where there was hardly any See also:night at of Iceland . midsummer .

It is possible that Iceland and the Faeroes were inhabited by a small See also:

Celtic See also:population before the Irish monks came thither . The fact that Irish monks lived in Iceland before the Norsemen settled there in the end of the 9th See also:century is verified by the Icelandic sagas . In his See also:translation of See also:Orosius, See also:King See also:Alfred inserts the interesting See also:story of the first known really Arctic voyage, told him by the See also:Norwegian Ottar (Alfred calls him Ohthere), who Ottar . about 87o rounded the North Cape, sailed eastwards along the Murman coast and discovered the See also:White See also:Sea, where he reached the south coast of the See also:Kola See also:Peninsula and the boundary of the land of the Biarmians (Beormas) . Ottar told King Alfred that "he chiefly went thither, in addition to the seeing of the See also:country, on See also:account of the walruses." After Ottar's See also:time the king of Norway took See also:possession of all land as far east as the White Sea and the land of the Biarmians, and the native " Finns" had,to pay him See also:tribute . Many voyages, mostly of hostile nature but also for See also:trade purposes, were under-taken from Norway to the White Sea, and even See also:kings went as far . It is told of King See also:Eric, called Bloodyaxe, who died as king of See also:York in England, that he made such a voyage, and fought with the Biarmians, about 920, and about 965 his son Harold Graafeld defeated the Biarmians and killed many See also:people in a See also:great See also:battle near the See also:river See also:Dvina, where See also:Archangel was built later . After having settled in Iceland in the end of the 9th century, the Norsemen soon discovered See also:Greenland and settled there . The first who is reported to have seen the coast of Greenland was a Norwegian, Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, who on his way to See also:Ice-land was See also:storm-driven westwards . He came to some islands, afterwards called Gunnbjornskier, and saw a coast, but, without exploring the new land, he had evidently continued his way till Prlct6eRed.he reached Iceland . The real discoverer and explorer of Greenland was the Norwegian, Eric the Red, who, with his See also:father had settled in Iceland . As he and his men had there been declared outlaws for having killed several people they had to leave Iceland for three years, and he went westward to find the land which Gunnbjorn was reported to have seen .

He explored the west coast of Greenland for three years, probably about 982-985 . He then returned to Iceland, but founded the following See also:

year a See also:colony in Greenland (q.v.) . Many colonists followed, and two Norse settlements were formed, viz, the Eystrabygd (i.e. eastern See also:settlement) on the south-eastern See also:part of the Greenland west coast, between Cape Farewell and about 61° N. See also:lat., where Eric the Red had his See also:house, Brattalid, at the Eiriksfjord; and the Veslrabygd (i.e. western settlement) in the region of the See also:present Godthaab See also:district, between 63° and 66° N. lat . The Norse settlers carried on their See also:seal and See also:whale-See also:hunting still farther north along the west coast beyond the Arctic circle, and probably in the region of Disco See also:Bay . A runic See also:stone was found in a See also:cairn on a small island in 72° 55' N. lat. north of Upernivik, showing that Norsemen had been there . The stone probably See also:dates from the 14th century . About 1267 an expedition was sent northwards along the west coast and may possibly have reached some distance north of Upernivik . The last known communication between the Norse settlements in Greenland and Norway was in 1410, when some Icelanders returned, who four years previously had been storm-driven to Greenland . After that time we possess no reliable See also:information about the See also:fate of these settlements . When Greenland was rediscovered in the 16th century no descendants of the Norse settlers were found . The See also:probability is that having gradually been cut off from all communications with Europe, the remaining settlers who had not returned' to the motherland were obliged to adopt the See also:Eskimo mode of life, which in those surroundings was far See also:superior to the See also:European, and by inter-See also:marriage they would then soon be absorbed amongst the more numerous natives . There is See also:evidence to show that an expedition was probably sent from See also:Denmark or Norway to Greenland Pinlugand in the latter part of the 15th century (perhaps about scolvus 1476) under Pining and Pothorst (by See also:Purchas called " Punnus and Pothorse ") ; and perhaps with Johan Scolvus as See also:pilot .

It is probable that this expedition had inter-course with the natives of Greenland, and possibly even reached Labrador, but it is unknown whether any remains of the Norse settlements were found on the Greenland west coast . It is reported by See also:

Adam of See also:Bremen (about 1070) that the Norwegian king Harold Haardraade (in the lrth century) made an expedition into the Arctic Sea (probably north-wards) in See also:order to examine how far it extended, but we know nothing more about this voyage . The Icelandic See also:annals See also:report that a land called Sealbardi was discovered in 1194 . The name means the See also:cold See also:side or coast . The land was, according to the sagas, situated See also:Spitsbergen. four days' sailing from north-eastern Iceland north- wards in the Hafsboln (i.e. the northern termination of the sea, which was supposed to end as a bay) . There can be no doubt that this land was Spitsbergen . The Norsemen carried on seal, See also:walrus and whale hunting, and it is believed on See also:good ground that they extended their hunting expeditions eastwards as far as Novaya Zemlya and northwards to Spitsbergen . On his way to Greenland from Norway in the year See also:rood Leif Ericsson found See also:America, probably Nova See also:Scotia, which he called Wineland the Good . A few years later Thorfinn Karlsefni sailed from Greenland with three See also:ships to make a settlement in the land discovered by Leif . They first came to Labrador, which they called Helluland, then to See also:Newfoundland, which was called See also:Markland (i.e. woodland), and then to Cape See also:Breton and Nova Scotia (See also:Vinland; Wineland) . After three years they had to give up the undertaking on account of hostilities with the natives, probably Red See also:Indians, and they returned to Greenland about xoo6 . We know of no later expedition of the Norsemen that reached Greenland; it is stated that Eric Uppri, the first See also:bishop of Greenland, went in 1121 to seek Vinland, but it is not related whether he ever reached it, and the probability is that he never returned .

The Icelandic annals See also:

state that in 1347 a small Greenland See also:ship which had sailed to Markland (Newfoundland) was after-wards storm-driven to Iceland with seventeen men . This is the last known voyage made by the Norse- Newfound.. men of Greenland which with certainty reached land . America . The discoveries of the old Norsemen extended over the north-ern seas from Novaya Zemlya in the east to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the west; they had visited all Arctic lands in these regions, and had explored the White Sea, the See also:Barents Sea, the Spitsbergen and Greenland Sea, See also:Davis Strait, and even some part of See also:Baffin Bay . They were the first navigators in history who willingly See also:left the coasts and sailed across the open ocean, and they crossed the See also:Atlantic between Norway and America, thereby being the real discoverers of this ocean, as well as the pioneers in oceanic See also:navigation . They were the teachers of the navigators of later centuries, and it is hardly an See also:accident that the undertakings of England towards the west started from See also:Bristol, where many Norwegians had settled, and which from the beginning of the 15th century had much trade with Iceland . See also:John See also:Cabot, sent out by the merchants of Bristol, rediscovered the See also:American See also:continent in 1497 . He came to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, probably the same land where John cebor . Leif Ericsson had landed Soo years before . John Cabot started on a new expedition towards the west in 1498, but no more is known of this expedition, not even whether Cabot returned or not . There is no reliable evidence to prove that John Cabot or his son See also:Sebastian ever discovered Labrador, as has been generally believed . The Portuguese Gaspar See also:Corte-Real rediscovered Greenland in 1500 .

He sailed along its east coast without being able to land on account of the ice . Whether he visited the come-Real. west coast is uncertain . In 1501 he made a new expedition when he also rediscovered Newfoundland . One of his ships returned See also:

home to See also:Lisbon, but he himself and his ship disappeared . His See also:brother went in See also:search of him the following year, but was heard of no more . Cabot's and Corte-Real's discoveries were followed by the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador See also:fisheries, King Harold . and a whole See also:fleet' of See also:English, Portuguese, Basque and Breton fishermen was soon met with in these See also:waters, and they probably went along the Labrador coast northward as far as See also:Hudson Strait, without having left any report of their discoveries . It is believed, on good grounds, that expeditions (combined English-Portuguese) were sent out to the newly discovered regions from Bristol in 15or and 1502 . It is unknown what their discoveries were, but they may possibly have sailed along the coast of Labrador . It is possible that John Cabot's son, Sebastian Cabot, made an Arctic expedition in 15o8-1509, in search of a short passage to See also:China towards the north-west, and later, in 1521, King See also:Henry VIII. made an See also:attempt to persuade the merchants of See also:London to support him in sending out an expedition, under Sebastian Cabot, to the north-western countries . It is uncertain whether it ever started, but it is certain that it achieved nothing of importance . John Rut sailed from See also:Plymouth in 1527, in order to seek a passage to China through the Arctic seas towards the north- west, following the See also:suggestion of See also:Robert See also:Thorne of Joha Rut .

Bristol . He met ice in 53° N. lat. and returned to Newfoundland . Several other expeditions were sent out from various countries towards the north-west and west during this See also:

period, but no discoveries of importance are known to have been made in the Arctic regions . There are rumours that the Portuguese, as See also:early as 1484, under King John II., had sent out an expedition towards Novaya Zemlya in search of a north-east passage to See also:India . Center one . The Genovese See also:Paolo Centurione probably proposed to King Henry VIII. of England, in 1525, to make an expedition in search of such a passage to India north of See also:Russia, and there is evidence to show that there had been much talk about an undertaking of this See also:kind in England and at the English See also:court during the following period, as it was hoped that a new See also:market might be found for English merchandise, especially See also:cloth . But it led to nothing until 1553, when Sebastian Cabot was one of the See also:chief promoters . Three ships and 112 men under See also:Sir See also:Willoughby . See also:Hugh Willoughby sailed from Ratcliffe on the loth (loth) May 1553 . See also:Richard Chancelor commanded one of the ships, which was separated from the two others in a See also:gale off northern Norway on the 3rd (13th) See also:August . Willoughby, after having sighted land in various places, probably See also:Kolguev Island, where they landed, the coast near the See also:Pechora river and Kanin Nos, came on the 14th (24th) See also:September to a good See also:harbour on the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula . His one ship being leaky, Willoughby resolved to winter there, but he and all his men perished .

Chancelor, after his Chancelor. separation from the two other ships, rounded the North Cape, to which he or his sailing-See also:

master, See also:Stephen See also:Borough, gave this name . He reached VardShus, and after having waited there in vain for Willoughby, he followed the route of the Norsemen to the White Sea and reached the bay of St See also:Nicholas, with a monastery of this name, near the mouth of the Dvina river, where Archangel was built later . Chancelor undertook a See also:journey to See also:Moscow, made arrangements for commercial inter-course with Russia, and returned next year with his ship, which was, however, plundered by the Flemings, but he reached London safely with a See also:letter from the See also:tsar . In spite of the disaster of Willoughby and his men this expedition became of fundamental importance for the development of English trade . Chancelor's success and his so-called discovery of the passage to the White Sea, which was well known to the Norwegian traders in that region, proved to people in England the See also:practical utility of polar voyages . It led to a See also:charter being granted to the Association of See also:Merchant Adventurers, also called the Muscovy or Russia See also:Company, and gave a fresh impulse to Arctic discovery . Chancelor undertook a new expedition to the White Sea and Moscow in 1555; on his way home in the following year he was wrecked on the coast of Scotland and perished . In 1556 Stephen Borough (Burrough), who had served with Chancelor, was sent out by the Muscovy Company in a small See also:pinnace called the "Search-See also:thrift," in order to try to reach theriver Ob, of which rumours had been heard . Novaya Zemlya, Vaigach Island, and the Kara Strait leading into the Kara Sea, were discovered . Borough kept a careful See also:journal of his voyage . In 158o the company fitted Borough. out two vessels under See also:Arthur Pet and See also:Charles Jackman, with orders to See also:sail eastwards north of Russia and See also:Asia to the lands of the See also:emperor of See also:Cathay (China) . They penetrated through the Kara Strait into the Kara Sea; they Pet. possibly saw the west coast of Yalmal, but met with much ice and were compelled to return .

The two ships were separated on the way home, Pet reached London on See also:

December 26th in safety; Jackman wintered with his ship in Norway and sailed thence in See also:February, but was never heard of again . About 1574 the Portuguese probably made an attempt to find the north-west passage under Vasqueanes Corte-Real . They reached "a great entrance," which may have been Hudson Strait, and they "passed above twentie Corte- Real eaJ . Corte-. leagues" into it, "'without all impediment of ice," "but their victailes fayling them, . . . they returned backe agayne with ioy." After the expeditions in search of the north-east passage achieved the success of opening up a profitable trade with Russia, via the White Sea, new life was inspired in the under-takings of England on the sea, at the same time the See also:power of the Hanseatic merchants, called the Easterlings, was much reduced . It was therefore only natural that the See also:plan of seeking a north-west passage to China and India should again come to the front in England, a.nd it was much discussed . It was Sir See also:Martin See also:Frobisher who opened that See also:long See also:series of Frobisher. expeditions all of which during three See also:hundred years were sent from England in search of the north-west passage until the last expedition, which actually accomplished it, sailed from Norway . " Being persuaded of a new and neerer passage to Cataya" (China) towards the north-west, Frobisher "determined and resolved wyth himselfe, to go make full See also:proof e thereof .. . or else never to retourne againe, knowing this to be the onely thing of the worlde that was left yet undone, whereby a notable mind mighte he made famous and fortunate." After having attempted in vain for fifteen years to find support for his enter-prise, he at last obtained assistance from See also:Ambrose See also:Dudley, See also:earl of See also:Warwick, and through him the See also:interest of See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth was also secured . The Muscovy Company was now obliged to give a See also:licence for the voyage in 1574, and the necessary See also:money was found by London merchants . Aided especially by See also:Michael Lok, an influential merchant and diligent student of See also:geography, Frobisher sailed, on the 7th (17th) of See also:June 1576, from See also:Deptford with two small vessels of 20 and 25 tons, called the" See also:Gabriel" and "Michael," and a small pinnace of to tons; the crews amounted to 35 men all told . On the 8th (18th) of See also:July they lost sight of the pinnace, which was seen no more .

On the rrth (21st) of July they sighted a high, rugged land, but could not approach it for ice . This was the east coast of Greenland, but, misled by his charts, Frobisher assumed it to be the fictitious Frisland, which was the fabrication of a Venetian, Niccolo See also:

Zeno, who in 1558 published a See also:spurious narrative and See also:map (which he pretended to have found) as the See also:work of an ancestor and his brother in the 14th century . The Zeno map was chiefly fabricated on the basis of a map by the Swede Olaus See also:Magnus of 1537 and the map by the Dane See also:Claudius Clavus of the 15th century . It was accepted at the time as a work of high authority, and its fictitious names and islands continued to appear on subsequent maps for at least a century, and have puzzled both geographers at home and explorers in the See also:field . These islands had also been introduced on the charts of See also:Mercator of 1569 and of See also:Ortelius of 15701 which were probably used by Frobisher . Evidently frightened by the sight of the great quantities of ice off the Greenland coast, one ship, the " Michael," left him secretly, " and retourned home wyth greate reporte that he was See also:cast awaye . " The gallant Frobisher continued his voyage towards the north-west in the "Gabriel" alone, although his See also:mast was sprung, his topmast blown overboard, and his "mizen-mast" had had to be cut away in a gale . On the 29th of July (Aug . 8) he sighted high Sebastian Cabot . land which he called Queen Elizabeth's See also:Foreland . This was the See also:southern part of Baffin Land (See also:Resolution Island) in about 62° N. lat . He was stopped by ice, but nearly two See also:weeks later he reached the coast and entered an inlet which he considered to be the strait of the north-west passage, and he gave it his own name (it is now Frobisher Bay on Baffin Land) .

The land was called "See also:

Meta Incognita." Frobisher was not well prepared for going much farther, and after his See also:boat with five men had disappeared he returned home, where, unfortunately, some "See also:gold-finders" in London took it into their heads that a piece of dark heavy stone brought back contained gold ore . This caused great excitement; it was now considered much more important to collect this See also:precious ore than to find the north-west passage, and much larger expeditions were sent out in the two following years . As many as fifteen vessels formed the third expedition of 1578, and it was the intention to See also:form a colony with a hundred men in the gold land, but this See also:scheme was given up . Frobisher came into Hudson Strait, which was at first thought to be Frobisher Strait and therefore called Mistaken Strait . There was an open sea without any land or ice towards the west, and Frobisher was certain that he could sail through to the "See also:Mare del Sur" (Pacific Ocean) and " Kathaya," but his first See also:goal was the " gold mines," and the vessels returned home with full loads of the ore . One of them, a See also:buss (small ship) of See also:Bridgwater, called the "See also:Emmanuel," reported that on her voyage home she had first sighted Frisland on the 8th (18th) of September, but four days later she had sighted another land in the Atlantic and sailed along it till the following See also:day; they reckoned its southern end to be in about 571° N. lat . This land soon found its See also:place on maps and charts south-west of Iceland under the name of Buss Island, and as it was never seen again it was after 1745 called " the sunken land of Buss." The explanation is that, misled by the maps, Frobisher assumed Greenland to be Frisland of the Zeno map and Baffin Land was afterwards assumed to be the east coast of Greenland . When the buss on her way home sighted Greenland in about 62° N., she therefore thought it to be Frisland, but when she four days later again sighted land near Cape Farewell and her dead reckoning probably had carried her about two degrees too far south, she naturally considered this to be a new land, which puzzled geographers and navigators for centuries . Owing to a similar See also:mistake, not by Frobisher, but by later cartographers and especially by Davis, it was afterwards assumed that Frobisher Strait (and also Mistaken Strait) was not in Baffin Land but on the east coast of Greenland, where they remained on the maps till the 18th century . John Davis, who made the next attempt to discover a north-west passage, was one of the most scientific See also:seamen of that See also:age . Davls . He made three voyages in three successive years aided and fitted out by See also:William See also:Sanderson and other merchants .

Sailing from See also:

Dartmouth on the 7th (17th) of June 1585, with two ships, he sighted on the loth (3oth) of July " the most deformed, rocky and mountainous land, that ever we sawe." He named it the Land of Desolation, although he understood that he had rediscovered " the See also:shore which in See also:ancient time was called Groenland." It was its east coast . He visited the west coast, where Frobisher had also landed mistaking it for Frisland . Davis anchored in a place called See also:Gilbert's See also:Sound in 64° 10' (near the present Danish settlement of Godthaab) and had much intercourse with the Eskimo . He then, See also:crossing the strait which bears his name, traced a portion of its western shore southwards from about 66° 40' N. lat. and came into See also:Cumberland Sound, which he thought to be the strait of the north-west passage, but returned home on account of contrary winds . In the second voyage (with four ships) Davis traced the western shore of Davis Strait still farther southwards, and sailed along the coast of Labrador . In the third voyage (with three ships) in 1587 he advanced far up his own strait along the west coast of Greenland in a small leaky pinnace, the "Ellin," and reached a lofty See also:granite island in 72° 41' N. lat., which he named See also:Hope Sanderson . He met with ice in the sea west of this place, butreported that there was not " any yce towards the north, but a great sea, See also:free, large, very See also:salt and blew, and of an unsearcheable See also:depth." By contrary winds, however, he was prevented from sailing in that direction . He sailed into Cumberland Sound, but now found that there was no passage . He also passed on his way southwards the entrance to Frobisher Strait, which he named Lumley Inlet, and Hudson Strait, without under-See also:standing the importance of the latter . When Davis came to Labrador, where his two larger ships were to have waited for him, they had sailed to England . The little "Ellin" now struck a sunken See also:rock and sprung a leak, which was repaired, and he crossed the Atlantic in this small leaky See also:craft . He still believed in the existence of a passage through Davis Strait, but could find no support for another Arctic voyage .

Davis was not the first to discover this strait; it was well-known to the Norsemen . Gaspar Corte-Real had possibly also been there, and Frobisher had during his voyages crossed its southern part every year . The result of Davis's discoveries are shown on the See also:

Molyneux globe, which is now in the library of the See also:Middle See also:Temple; they are also shown on the " New Map " in See also:Hakluyt's See also:Principal Navigalions (1598-1600) . When Davis was trying to reconcile his discoveries with the previous ones, especially those of Frobisher, he made fatal mistakes as mentioned above . As early as 1565, by the intervention of a certain See also:Philip Winterkonig, an See also:exile from Vardohus in Norway, Dutch merchants formed a settlement in Kola, and in 1578 See also:Brunel. two Dutch ships anchored in the mouth of the river Dvina, and a Dutch settlement was established where Archangel was built a few years later . The leading See also:man in these under-takings was See also:Olivier Brunel, who is thus the founder of the White Sea trade of the Dutch; he was also their first Arctic navigator . He had travelled both overland and along the coast to See also:Siberia and reached the river Ob; he had also visited Kostin Shar on Novaya Zemlya . He propounded plans for the discovery of the north-east passage to China, and in 1581 he went from Russia to See also:Antwerp to prepare an expedition . He probably started with one ship in 1582, on the first Arctic expedition which left the See also:Netherlands . Little is known of its fate except that it ended unsuccessfully with the See also:wreck of the ship in the shallow Pechora Bay, possibly after a vain attempt to penetrate through the Yugor Strait into the Kara Sea . In 1583 we find Olivier Brunel in See also:Bergen trying to organize a Norwegian under-taking, evidently towards' the north-east, but it is uncertain whether it led to anything . The Dutch, however, had begun to see the importance of a northern route to China and India, especially as the routes through the southern seas were jealously guarded by the Spaniards and Portuguese, and after 1584 all trade with See also:Portugal, where the Dutch got See also:Indian goods, was forbidden .

By Brunel's efforts their See also:

attention had been directed towards the north-east passage, but it was not until 1594 that a new expedition was sent out, one of the promoters being See also: