ARCTIC DISCOVERY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 646, 10 March 1879, Page 2

ARCTIC DISCOVERY.

A notable Arctic discovery has just been made by the Swedish traveller Nordenskjold ; no lesß a one than the solution of the great problem of the North-East passage, which has veied voyagers and geographers for centuries. This traveller has long been convinced that it was possible to pass the mouths of the Obi and Yenisei arid to communicate with Behring's Straits, and a short while back fitted out an expedition, to determine the question. In spite of dense fogs and dangerous coasts, large icebergs and frozen seas, the little steamer forced its way onwards, and m the middle of last August saw, reached, and doubled Cape Tscheljuskin, the northernmost point of the old world, never before passed by any other navigator. That Nordenskjold will reach Behring's Straits is now a matter of certainty,' and m all probability we shall soon receive a telegram from him from some port on the Pacific Coast. Apart from the glory of the discovery, and the valuable scientific results of the drsdging and trawling incessantly carried on, there is now open to the rich countries of the East a direct market with European Russia, and Archangel which will become a port of vast importance. The results that will flow from this momentous voyage can hardly be over-estimated. From another quarter of the Arctic Seas news comes that there is almost a certainty of the remains and relics of Sir John Franklin being found at last. And thus m this eventful year the two great problems of Arctic voyaging bid fair to be finally solved.