That is where we differ from our forefathers.

They commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril for the search of gold ore, or for a near road to Cathay; but our peril is encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service that can now be rendered to the human race.
Before we leave the Northern Sea, we must not omit to mention the voyage by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the _Dorothea_, accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the _Trent_.

It was Sir John Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions.

This trip forms the subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey.
On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a point of Iceland.

Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic region, whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the circumference.
In connection with this district there is a remarkable fact; that by the agency of subterranean forces, a large portion of Norway and Sweden is being slowly upheaved.