The Norsemen, and afterwards the Danes, have been the colonisers, undertaking the hardest and most difficult work of all, and they furnish a record of commercial success and civilising influence on the natives which places them in the first rank among Arctic labourers in a hard but fruitful field. Next come the English adventurers seeking for a shorter route to India by the north-west, the north-east or the north; and thereafter the period of fishers and trappers, when it was shown of what immense value were the products of the Arctic regions. First the Dutch established whale-fisheries in Spitsbergen and Davis Strait, and then the English who, in the person of Scoresby, combined commercial profit with scientific research. The labours of these daring whale-fishers enriched and gave prosperity to numerous communities, while beginning later, but working contemporaneously, we see the Hudson’s Bay Company opening up the wilderness, accumulating wealth, and largely influencing Europeans and natives for good. The Russians, too, achieved a great work in delineating the whole northern coast of Siberia. Then came the great era of Ross, Parry, and Franklin; a time of heroic effort, of vast discoveries, and above all of the ceaseless training of men in ice-work, the training of men, that is, alike for science and for war. In this Arctic work we see the nursery of a Nelson, a Riou, a Nias, a Sherard Osborn, and such men as Sabine, Beechey, and Foster. The expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and his gallant companions raised Arctic work to the highest plane it has yet attained. The motive was the highest that has ever actuated polar or any other discovery, the cause of humanity. Very extensive discoveries were made and the art of sledge travelling with men was brought nearly to perfection. After the completion of the Franklin search and the return of the Nares expedition, Americans, Norwegians, Swedes, and Austro-Hungarians stepped in. The best of the American Arctic leaders were Greeley and De Long, although their expeditions ended in misfortune, for they were instructed officers, with a strong feeling of responsibility and of the obligations of duty. The work they did was well done and reliable. The expeditions of Nordenskiöld and Nansen stand by themselves owing to the personality of those leaders. The Swede was a man of high scientific and literary attainments, the Norwegian alike a man of action and a profound student, an unusual combination. He is endowed with rare gifts. His ideas almost amounted to prescience, and he was equally sagacious in working them out to practical conclusions. He drew back the veil which had concealed the Arctic secret. Although the English occupy the first place in Arctic discovery, yet it was begun and was completed by Scandinavians--by Erik the Red and Fridtjof Nansen.