Step by step energetic explorers, principally Russian, had been mapping the arctic coasts of Europe and Siberia until practically all the headlands and islands were well defined.
Nordenskjold, whose name was already renowned for important researches in Greenland, Nova Zembla, and northern Asia, in less than two months guided the steam whaler _Vega_ from Tromsoe, Norway, to the most easterly peninsula of Asia.

But when barely more than 100 miles from Bering Strait, intervening ice blocked his hopes of passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific in a single season and held him fast for ten months.
No resume of polar exploration is complete without mention of Wm.
Barents (1594-96) who, for the Dutch of Amsterdam, made three attempts to accomplish the Northeast Passage around Nova Zembla; Wm.

Baffin, who discovered Baffin Bay and Smith Sound (1616); Wm.

Scoresby, Sr., who reached by ship 81 deg.

30' N., 19' E.( 1806), a record till Parry eclipsed it; Wm.