“In 1854 the American, Kane, and his lieutenant, Morton, went in search of Franklin. They returned, but their ship, the _Advance_ did not return. “In 1859 Sir Leopold MacClintock discovered a document from which it appeared that no survivor remained of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ expedition. “In 1860 Hayes left Boston in the schooner _United States_, crossed the eighty-first parallel, and returned in 1862 without being able to advance farther, notwithstanding the heroic efforts of his companions. “In 1869 Captains Koldewey and Hegeman, both Germans, left Bremerhaven in the _Hansa_ and _Germania_. The _Hansa_ was crushed in the ice a little below the seventy-first parallel, and the crew had to take to their boats to reach the coast of Greenland. The _Germania_ was more fortunate, and returned to Bremerhaven, but she had not been able to get higher than the seventy-seventh parallel. “In 1871 Captain Hall left New York in the steamer _Polaris_. Four months afterwards, during the terrible winter, he died. A year later the _Polaris_, caught in the floes after reaching the eighty-second parallel, was crushed by the ice. Eighteen of her men, under Lieutenant Tyson, took refuge on an ice-floe and reached the continent after long drifting about in the Arctic Ocean. “In 1875 Sir George Nares left Portsmouth with the _Alert_ and _Discovery_. It was in his memorable Arctic campaign that winter quarters were established between the eighty-second and eighty-third parallels, and that Captain Markham, in a dash to the northward, stopped within four hundred miles of the Pole, no one up to then having been so near. “In 1879 our great citizen, Gordon Bennett—” Here there were three cheers given for the proprietor of the _New York Herald_. —“Fitted out the _Jeannette_, which he confided to Captain De Long. The _Jeannette_ left San Francisco with thirty-three men, passed through Behring Straits, was caught by the ice at Herald Island, and sank at Bennett Island, near the seventy-seventh parallel. The men had only one resource; to make southwards with the boats or journey over the ice-fields. Misery decimated them. De Long died in October. Many others succumbed, and twelve only returned from the expedition. “In 1881 Lieutenant Greely left St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the steamer _Proteus_, to establish a station on Lady Franklin Bay, a little below the eighty-second degree. There he founded Fort Conger, whence he sent out expeditions west and north, one of which, under Lieutenant Lockwood and his companion, Brainard, in May, 1882, claims to have reached 83° 35′, being fifteen miles nearer than Markham’s furthest. That is the nearest yet obtained. It is the Ultima Thule of circumpolar cartography.” Here there were loud cheers in honour of the American discoverers.