At that time the search for "The Indies" was so diligently pushed that mariners tried every way of getting to the West. Failing to find any short route to the South, their attention was turned to the idea of passing around north of the new continent which we now call America, and this desired route was spoken of as the Northwest Passage. Expeditions have passed westward a long way in open water north of the continent, and, coming through to the Pacific, have reached the far East, but there still remains a largely unexplored and almost impassable icy barrier. As an instance of the aim of the early expeditions, the following quotation from the old records may be interesting. It describes the object of an expedition which left England in 1553 as being "For the search and discovery of the Northern parts of the world, to open a way and passage to our men for travel to new and unknown kingdoms." All the nations that had shipping interests were active in this search, the English especially. The Dutch sought the short cut for their merchantmen because the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope was very dangerous, being controlled by Spanish and Portuguese, who unhesitatingly preyed upon the merchant vessels that tried to pass that way. The result of the Dutch expeditions into the North was the discovery of the possibilities of the whaling industry, which they may be said to have originated, and which was a source of great profit to them for a very long period. They established a number of settlements, and explored much that had been unknown before. Among the English expeditions, those of most importance to us in America were Henry Hudson's. He made his first voyage in 1607, representing the Muscovy Company of England. He explored the coast of Greenland on this voyage, and again in 1608; while on his third voyage he explored the coasts of North America and discovered the Hudson River. At this time he was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. Again, in 1610, his efforts were crowned with success, and he discovered what is known as Hudson Bay. From that time voyage after voyage was made, largely by Englishmen, and the knowledge of geography grew every year, each captain bringing back some new items of information. Meanwhile the Russians, who had acquired Siberia, sought a Northeast Passage and explored the northern coast of their vast new territory, which reaches into the Polar regions. Although many efforts were made to pass through to China in this way, it was not accomplished until 1879, when a Russian explorer reached Bering Strait and the Pacific from the West.