A Group of Greenland Eskimos A View in the Interior of Greenland Sledging across Greenland Skating off the Coast of Greenland The Launching of the “Fram” Boat attacked by Walrus Nansen and Johansen leaving the “Fram” Setting Fox Traps Red Cliff House after the Storm Godthaab The “Tent” Meteorite Andrée begins his Journey Peary in Arctic Costume Moonlight in the Arctic Regions Eskimo Dogs [Illustration: THE AURORA BOREALIS.] THE FROZEN NORTH I. INTRODUCTION The north polar regions lie within the Arctic circle, and at their center is the North Pole. The distance from the circle to the pole is more than fourteen hundred miles. Intense cold and the hardships of ice navigation have made the discovery and exploration of this region very slow and hazardous. It is believed that Norsemen from Norway and Sweden, after colonizing Iceland, made settlements on the Greenland coast and carried their seal hunting beyond the Arctic circle, far into the polar regions. But in 1347 a plague broke out in Norway, and the people forgot their far-off colonies. For more than a hundred years after this no attempt was made to enter the Arctic circle. It is a singular fact that the famous voyage of Columbus in 1492, although made toward the south, should have influenced to some extent discovery in the north polar regions. After Columbus had really proved that the earth was round, navigators believed that by sailing westward far enough they might reach the rich lands of India and Cathay (China). The only route then known from Europe to India was through the Mediterranean Sea. At Constantinople, the cargoes of metals, woods, and pitch were unloaded and sent on by caravan to the East, while returning caravans brought silks, dyewoods, spices, perfumes, precious stones, ivory, and pearls, to be shipped from Constantinople. When the Turks, through whose country the merchants passed, began to realize how valuable the Eastern trade was, they sent bands of robbers to seize the caravans, making traffic by this route more difficult and more dangerous as time went on; so that European merchants tried to find some other way of reaching that part of the world. [Illustration: SEBASTIAN CABOT.] John and Sebastian Cabot, two English navigators, set out in 1497 to sail westward, but finding their way blocked by the American continent, they returned. In 1498 Sebastian Cabot made a second voyage, with the object of finding a passage north of America which would lead to the Spice Islands and rich Cathay. In this way the long hunt for the northwest passage was begun. The Cabots did not find the northwest passage; and though many voyages were made in search of it by other navigators during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, nobody met with success. The severe cold, added to the difficulties of a voyage through the ice of ages, prevented further investigation in that direction for some time.