. Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-6 in ships ' Alert' and 'Discovery' [microform]. Alert (Ship); Discovery (Ship); Alerte (Navire); Discovery (Navire); Natural history; Sciences naturelles. I INTIJOPUCTIOX. XXXI was initiatLHl, and pcrliaps l)roiiglit to tlio higliost state of piTfectioii it is susceptible of, during tlie jn'ogressof tliis lontr scarcli. As nuieli as four luuidred miles in a direct lin(^ on an outward journe}' had been acconi- l)lish('(I bv these means, each mail drairirini; between two and three Innidred j)()unds, including his j)ro- visi(ms, clothing,
. Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-6 in ships ' Alert' and 'Discovery' [microform]. Alert (Ship); Discovery (Ship); Alerte (Navire); Discovery (Navire); Natural history; Sciences naturelles. I INTIJOPUCTIOX. XXXI was initiatLHl, and pcrliaps l)roiiglit to tlio higliost state of piTfectioii it is susceptible of, during tlie jn'ogressof tliis lontr scarcli. As nuieli as four luuidred miles in a direct lin(^ on an outward journe}' had been acconi- l)lish('(I bv these means, each mail drairirini; between two and three Innidred j)()unds, including his j)ro- visi(ms, clothing, and erpiij)ment, and being absent from the ii'o/.eii-iii shij)s frequently from ninety to a hundred days. It was manifest, then, that if such distances could be accoinj)lislu'd in search of men in distress, they ciuild bi' eriually well pcrfornu'd in the pursuit of geographical discovery, and no stronger ar<»ument than this could have been used in lu-ounji; upon the Government the expediency of further ex- j)lorations. The effort, however, was a long and uphill one, and after the abandonment of the Franklin search, Arctic dis(;overv, so far as this country was concerned, slumbi'red for over twi'Uty years. Yet its advocates never losi lieart. They caimot be said to have been numerous, but they were enthu- siastic and inlluential ; and perhaps there is no more striking instance of perseverance on record than that wit]I which, year after year, successive presidents of the lioval Geoizraphical iSocietv forced their favourit^e project on the notice of that po|)ular assembly, until it ])ecame almost a point of national honour tluit it should be carried out. It would be incorrect to say that Arctic enterprise had been strictly a popular sentiment since the loss of the Fi'anklin Expediticii ; indeed, in many respects it was the reverse. The ])ublic press, with few exceptions, gave no counten- ance to it : the leadiuLT journals were either avowedly oj)posed or kept silence; science
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
