This was an ably conducted expedition, and should have shown the folly of attempting to approach the pole by trying to make headway against ice drifting south, without the refuge of a land-floe. But it did not. Captain Phipps published an interesting narrative of the voyage, prefaced by a review of former attempts, with some valuable scientific appendixes. He succeeded to the barony of Mulgrave on his father’s death in the following year, and marrying into an old naval Yorkshire family, Cholmley of Howsham, left an only daughter when he died in 1792. Captain Phipps was among the ablest of our scientific Arctic explorers[104]. One important interest connected with the expedition of Captain Phipps is the presence of Nelson as a midshipman on board the _Carcass_. The future hero thus gained his first naval experience in the Arctic regions, as other naval heroes of lesser fame have done before and since his time. Nelson’s continued friendship for, and correspondence with, his old captain show that his Arctic work was not forgotten in after life. It is this phase of exploration that has the highest importance. Great as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for distinction to young naval officers in time of peace. CHAPTER XX RUSSIAN ARCTIC DISCOVERIES The Russians have taken no inconspicuous part in Arctic discovery. If we look at a map of 130 years ago, such an one as is used to illustrate the book of Daines Barrington or Scoresby’s _Arctic Regions_, we shall see the whole continuous coast line delineated in the Siberian quadrant, while in the American quadrant there is nothing beyond Icy Cape but the mouths of the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers. Moreover, in the achievement of their discoveries, the Russians often had to overcome even greater dangers and hardships than their fellow explorers in the other quadrants. In the earlier period of the occupation of Siberia by the Russians, the Arctic portions were discovered by Cossack leaders engaged in the reduction of northern native tribes, the Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tunguses, and later the Tchuktches. As early as 1610 a Cossack had reached the mouth of the Yenisei. In 1636 the Lena and the mouth of the Yana were discovered, and by 1644 the Cossack Stadukhin was on the banks of the Kolyma, and gave the first account of the Tchuktches. Two years afterwards Issai Ignatieff and some fur-hunters made the first attempt to navigate beyond the mouth of the Kolyma.