If we examine a map of North America constructed in recent times, we shall find that between Greenland and Canada an immense extent of coast-line has been charted. A vast archipelago covers this part of the northern world. Or, if the strangely-complicated coastlines which have been laid down really belong to but a small number of islands, the figures of those must be of the most fantastic kind. Towards the north-west, however, we find several islands whose outlines have been entirely ascertained. Thus we have in succession North Devon Island, Cornwallis Island, Melville Island, and Port Patrick Island, all lying north of the seventy-fifth parallel of latitude. But we are not to suppose that these islands limit the extent of our seamen’s researches in this direction. Far to the northward of Wellington Channel, Captain de Haven saw, in 1852, the signs of an open sea—in other words, he saw, beyond the ice-fields, what arctic seamen call a ‘water sky.’ In 1855 Captain Penny sailed upon this open sea; but how far it extends towards the North Pole has not yet been ascertained. It must not be forgotten that the north-west passage has been shown to be a reality, by means of voyages from the Pacific as well as from the Atlantic. No arctic voyager, however, has yet succeeded in passing from one ocean to the other. Nor is it likely now that any voyager will pursue his way along a path so beset by dangers as that which is called the north-west passage. Long before the problem had been solved, it had become well known that no profit could be expected to accrue to trade from the discovery of a passage along the perilous straits and the ice-encumbered seas which, lie to the north of the American continent. But Sir Edward Parry having traced out a passage as far as Melville Island, it seemed to the bold spirit of our arctic explorers that it might be possible, by sailing through Behring’s Straits, to trace out a connection between the arctic seas on that side and the regions reached by Parry. Accordingly, M’Clure, in 1850, sailed in the ‘Investigator,’ and passing eastward, after traversing Behring’s Straits, reached Baring’s Land, and eventually identified this land as a portion of Banks’ Land, seen by Parry to the southward of Melville Island. It will thus be seen that the unexplored parts of the arctic regions are limited in this direction by sufficiently high latitudes.