This two-volume work by the nineteenth-century Arctic explorer and artist Julius von Payer (1841-1915), originally published in German and translated into English almost immediately in 1876, documents his experiences during the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition, which he commanded from 1872 to 1874 with his colleague Karl Weyprecht. Early into the expedition, of which the original aim was to find a north-eastern passage, their ship, the Tegetthoff, became trapped in ice, and its resultant drifting into unknown territories led to the discovery of Franz-Josef Land. Volume 1 explores the climate and terrain of the Arctic region, the navigational strategies employed by the crew, and the challenges they faced as perilous conditions led them to abandon ship. The author also pays tribute to Weyprecht for his courageous attempts to free the vessel. The work contains both maps and paintings, the latter by von Payer himself.

This two-volume work by the nineteenth-century Arctic explorer and artist Julius von Payer (1841-1915), originally published in German and translated into English almost immediately in 1876, documents his experiences during the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition, which he commanded from 1872 to 1874 with his colleague Karl Weyprecht. Early into the expedition, of which the original aim was to find a north-eastern passage, their ship, the Tegetthoff, became trapped in ice, and its resultant drifting into unknown territories led to the discovery of Franz-Josef Land. Volume 2 describes the crew's exploration of Franz-Josef Land by sledge, and their survival by means of bear-hunting, rationing of food, and making clothes from animal skins, in severe weather conditions, and encountering the challenges posed by icebergs and glaciers, until they were able to make their way to safety. The work contains both maps and paintings, the latter by von Payer himself.

In 1895, naturalists Henry J. Pearson (1859-1913) and Colonel H. W. Feilden (1838-1921) set out to Norway for the first time, aiming to study Arctic bird life, geology and botany. This book, first published in 1899, is a collection of their diary entries and papers. Full of humour and written almost novelistically, Pearson's diary describes his ornithological findings and the other noteworthy features of their voyages - he includes an anecdotal account of the process of catching a whale, and describes their own less than ideal ship, and the many difficulties of travelling in the often inhospitable and little-explored North. In the second half of the book, Feilden focuses on geology and botany in three technical papers accompanied by his own photographs. A remarkable account of an ambitious project, this book forms part of the nineteenth-century genre of scientific travel literature, and contains still-relevant information about the Arctic environment.

The British Vice-Admiral and Arctic explorer Sir George Nares (1831-1915) received several honours for his contributions to science, including a fellowship of the Royal Society. He attended the Royal Naval School, New Cross, before joining the service in 1845. After a varied early career and the successful Challenger scientific expedition in the Atlantic, he took command of the British Arctic expedition of 1875-6 that hoped to reach the North Pole. Nares' popular two-volume account of the journey was published in 1878. Volume 1 describes the journey north, and covers the discovery of the channel later called Nares Strait, and the remarkable dog-sled expedition of second-in-command, Albert Markham, that set a new record for the farthest distance north achieved. Nares' official report of the expedition and Markham's account of the journey, The Great Frozen Sea, are also available from the Cambridge Library Collection.

The British Vice-Admiral and Arctic explorer Sir George Nares (1831-1915) received several honours for his contributions to science, including a fellowship of the Royal Society. He attended the Royal Naval School, New Cross, before joining the service in 1845. After a varied early career and the successful Challenger scientific expedition in the Atlantic, he took command of the British Arctic expedition of 1875-6. The expedition's attempt, led by second-in-command, Albert Markham, to reach the North Pole by dog-sled set a new record for farthest distance north achieved. This book, the second of Nares' popular two-volume account of the journey, published in 1878, describes the perilous return journey. It includes extensive appendices written by H. W. Feilden, giving details of the expedition's scientific discoveries, and features a cumulative index. Nares' official report of the expedition, and Markham's account, The Great Frozen North, are also available from the Cambridge Library Collection.

In 1897, the triumphant return of the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition revived widespread enthusiasm for Polar exploration. Within days of the expedition's arrival in London, newspapers ranging from the Boy's Own Paper to the Graphic were full of articles relating to the endeavours and findings of this intrepid undertaking. The demand for information did not abate and, in 1899, this two-volume account by Frederick G. Jackson (1860-1938) of his travels in Franz Josef Land was published to wide acclaim. Hailed by The Morning Post as 'a record of solid achievement accomplished by dint of steady perseverance in the face of hardship and difficulty', Jackson's journal describes a forbidding terrain of ice and snow. Illustrated by maps and numerous anthropological and zoological images, Volume 1 opens with the voyage north and goes on to recount the team's accommodation - a wooden hut named 'Elmwood' - bear-hunts, and arduous but inspirational journeys by sledge.

In 1897, the triumphant return of the Jackson Harmsworth Arctic expedition revived widespread enthusiasm for Polar exploration. Within days of the expedition's arrival in London, newspapers ranging from the Boy's Own Paper to the Graphic were full of articles relating to the endeavours and findings of this intrepid undertaking. The demand for information did not abate and, in 1899, this two-volume account by Frederick G. Jackson (1860 1938) of his travels in Franz Josef Land was published to wide acclaim. Hailed by The Morning Post as 'a record of solid achievement accomplished by dint of steady perseverance in the face of hardship and difficulty', Jackson's journal describes a forbidding terrain of ice and snow. Richly illustrated, Volume 2 includes accounts of new lands, dark winters, and a famous encounter with Nansen. It is supplemented by a substantial appendix containing geographical and scientific observations.

W. H. B. Webster (1793 1875) studied medicine and surgery in London, and in 1815 signed up to serve in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. Because it was peacetime, however, he did not secure a position until 1828, when he was posted as ship's surgeon on the South Atlantic scientific mission of H.M.S. Chanticleer under Captain Henry Foster (1796 1831), a Fellow of the Royal Society with extensive experience of surveying expeditions. Published in 1834, this is Webster's two-volume account of the Chanticleer voyage, the objectives of which included work on longitudes, and carrying out gravity pendulum experiments at various latitudes to attempt more accurate calculation of the shape of the earth. Volume 1 covers the first two years of the voyage, and records Webster's impressions of South America, South Shetland (including some of the earliest scientific experiments in the Antarctic), South Africa, St Helena and Ascension Island."

W. H. B. Webster (1793 1875) studied medicine and surgery in London, and in 1815 signed up to serve in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. Because it was peacetime, however, he did not secure a position until 1828, when he was posted as ship's surgeon on the South Atlantic scientific mission of H.M.S. Chanticleer under Captain Henry Foster (1796 1831), a Fellow of the Royal Society with extensive experience of surveying expeditions. Published in 1834, this is Webster's two-volume account of the Chanticleer voyage, the objectives of which included work on longitudes, and carrying out gravity pendulum experiments at various latitudes to attempt more accurate calculation of the shape of the earth. Volume 2 describes Central America and Panama, where, after successfully completing longitude measurements using rockets, Captain Foster tragically drowned. The second half of the volume summarises the scientific observations made during the voyage, and contains the cumulative index."

Cornish-born writer, traveller and controversialist James Silk Buckingham (1786 1855) spent much of his early life as a sailor in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and went on to publish accounts of his extensive travels to India, Palestine and Persia. His criticisms of the East India Company and the Bengal government led to his expulsion from India in 1823. In the 1830s he became a Member of Parliament and campaigned for social reforms and for the promotion of the temperance movement. He founded several journals, including the periodical The Athenaeum, covering a wide range of topics from literature to popular science. In this work, first published in 1821, Buckingham describes his journey from Egypt by sea to Syria and then to Palestine. He ascended Mount Tabor and visited the Holy Sepulchre, but considered his experiences in Bashan and Gilead, east of the Jordan, to form the climax of his journey.

This works is an account by John Bacon Sawrey Morritt (1771-1843), traveller, classical scholar and friend of Sir Walter Scott, of his Grand Tour during the years 1794-6. His letters home were edited by G. E. Marindin (1841-1939) and published in 1914. In 1790 Morritt inherited the Rokeby estate, County Durham, and came into a considerable fortune. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, he graduated in 1794, and soon afterwards set out for the continent. Visiting Constantinople, Troy, the Greek islands, Crete, Naples, Rome and Venice, Morritt developed a lifelong passion for European art and culture (he purchased the Rokeby Venus in 1813). He was well-read in Greek and Latin literature, had a considerable taste for antiquarian research, and was undeterred by the dangers of traversing Europe during the French Revolutionary Wars. According to his editor, 'it would be difficult to imagine a better traveller'.

This journal, published in 1819 and generally attributed to Alexander Fisher, assistant surgeon of the Alexander, describes Sir John Ross' abortive expedition to search for the North-West Passage. Ross' own report of the voyage (also reissued in this series) was highly controversial, and William Edward Parry (1790-1855), who had commanded the Alexander, was sent by the Admiralty early in 1819 to continue the mission instead of his former superior. Fisher's account, which he insists is 'strictly true', begins with details of the generous provisions and special cold-weather equipment on the ships (including a form of central heating, and wolf-skin blankets issued gratis to all personnel). He vividly describes Baffin Bay, icebergs, and 'dismal' black cliffs, identified by regular compass bearings. Later, the author expresses surprise at Ross' ship turning around and leaving Lancaster Sound, although no land was visible ahead; this incriminating detail may explain Fisher's preference for anonymity.

In 1829, Thomas Simpson (1808 1840), born in Dingwall, Scotland, joined the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company. Under its auspices, he was the junior officer of a successful survey expedition along the North-West Passage, beyond the limits of Franklin's disastrous 1819 22 attempt. The Royal Geographical Society awarded Simpson their Founder's Medal; however the Company refused his request immediately to lead an expedition further east along the coast. Simpson, ambitious and furious, set out for London, hoping to secure approval there, but before he reached the Atlantic, he was shot in the head. The men who had accompanied him alleged that he went mad, and killed two of them before committing suicide. Simpson's own account of his explorations was edited by his brother, Alexander, and published in 1843 in an attempt to restore his reputation. It sheds light on Simpson's difficult character and also on the contribution of trade interests to exploration.

The explorer and geologist Adolf Erik Nordenskioeld (1832-1901) led the expedition that first successfully navigated the North-East Passage and circumnavigated the Eurasian continent. This famous expedition took place in 1878-80, on the steamship Vega. However, prior to this expedition, Nordenskioeld had been on a number of voyages to the Arctic, where comprehensive scientific surveys were carried out. This book, first published in 1879, describes his previous voyages, including those to Spitzbergen and Greenland. It was compiled by Alexander Leslie using Nordenskioeld's own reports, and contains a great deal of historically valuable information. It details encounters with natives met during the voyages and contains the official report of the Medical Officer, Dr Envall, on the health, hygiene and care of the sick during the Swedish Polar Expedition 1872-3. It also includes a list of books and memoirs relating to the Swedish Arctic expeditions and biographical information about Nordenskioeld.

Vitus Bering (1681-1741) was a Danish-born Russian navigator. He enlisted in the Russian navy and fought during the Great Northern War (1700-21) against the Swedish Empire. In 1725 he received a commission from Peter the Great to discover whether there was a land bridge between Russia and America. He sailed through what would later be called the Bering Strait, but was unable to reach America on this first attempt. He succeeded on his next voyage, later named the Great Northern Expedition, and set about mapping significant sections of North American coastline. He also charted the Arctic coast of Siberia, 'discovered' Japan from the North and became the first European to explore Alaska. Published in English translation for the American market in 1889, this sympathetic biography by the historian and geographer Peter Lauridsen (1846-1923) had originally appeared in Danish in 1885. It includes extensive notes and an index.

In 1875, Sir George Strong Nares (1831-1915) set out for the Arctic in command of the ships Alert and Discovery, hoping to reach the North Pole and find the rumoured Open Polar Sea that surrounded it. The Official Report, published in 1876, recounts his fifteenth-month journey in lively and often harrowing detail, describing freezing temperatures, frostbite and scurvy, vast, uncharted landscapes and treacherous, ice-choked waterways. It records the progress of the British Arctic Expedition with the scrupulous detail of a ship's log, providing valuable insights into the logistical complexities and human costs of Polar exploration. 'We had arrived on the shore of the Arctic Ocean finding it exactly the opposite of an Open Polar Sea', Nares notes ruefully. A two-volume popular account of the voyage, published in 1878, is also reissued in this series.

George W. Melville (1841 1912) was a member of an 1879 American Arctic expedition seeking a northern passage from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic. Its ship was trapped in ice for nearly two years, and was eventually crushed and sank. The crew, stranded in three small boats, were left with few provisions and little hope of rescue. Melville was the only boat commander to bring his men to safety, assuming leadership of the survivors after landing in Siberia in 1881. He returned to search for other survivors, trekking over a thousand miles, but found only the bodies of his former companions in a frozen campsite, from which, however, he recovered the expedition's records. This account also includes details of Melville's role in the Greely Relief Expedition of 1884, from which he returned shortly before the book's British publication in 1885, and a detailed proposal for reaching the North Pole.

Robert Peary (1856-1920) was an American Arctic explorer. For much of the twentieth century, he was for many years credited with being, in 1909, the first man to reach the North Pole, although this has recently been questioned. Born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, Peary graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877 and joined the US Navy in 1881. He began his Arctic expeditions in 1886, exploring Greenland for a number of years in search of a route to the Pole. Published in 1893, this illustrated book consists of two parts. Drawing on the diaries of the expedition's surgeon, Robert Keely, Part I describes the journey that took Peary to Greenland in 1891. Part II uses the journal of the botanist William Meehan to describe the 1892 expedition to bring the exploring party home. The book includes transcripts of the logs of Richard Pike, captain of the Kite on both voyages.

After joining the Navy at thirteen, William Edward Parry (1790 1855) spent three years protecting the whale fisheries of Spitzbergen. He was later appointed to several Arctic expeditions. Although his first voyage in search of the North-West Passage ended without success in 1819, it provided valuable scientific data and experience. The expedition of 1821 3 was longer, with two winters spent on the ice, but also ended without success. Parry's account of that second voyage, first published in 1824, provides insights into the early days of Arctic exploration and the character of one of its pioneers, noted for his care for his men, his precision in navigation and scientific observations, and his ability to quickly find solutions to difficult problems. The book also includes descriptions of the 'Esquimaux' encountered by the explorers, and their communities as well as a vocabulary of their language.

William Edward Parry (1790 1855) spent the early part of his naval career protecting the whale fisheries of Spitzbergen. He was later appointed to several Arctic expeditions, including three in search of the North-West Passage. This 1821 publication, reissued here in the unchanged second edition from the same year, describes the first of these voyages. Although unsuccessful, it provided valuable scientific data and experience that shaped subsequent expeditions. Noted for his care for his men, and his ability to quickly find solutions to difficult problems, Parry realised during this expedition the importance of keeping his explorers occupied during the winter, and started a newspaper and a theatre group. This first expedition established that, contrary to John Ross's 1819 account (also reissued in this series), a westward route through Lancaster Sound did in fact exist. It also began to map the many islands in the region.

Sir Albert Hastings Markham (1841-1918) was a British Admiral and Arctic explorer. He joined the Royal Navy at fifteen and after postings in China, the Mediterranean and Australia he was promoted to Commander in 1872. For the next six years he took part in Arctic exploration, later writing fascinating accounts of his experiences. He was appointed as Naval Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria in 1888, and in 1903 he received a knighthood and was promoted to admiral. Published in 1878, this is the first of several editions of Markham's fascinating first-hand account of the British Arctic expedition of 1875-6. It describes the first passage through Nares Strait, named after the expedition's leader George Nares, and the intrepid dog-sled journey ,led by Markham, that took the party further north than any previous Arctic explorers. Nares' own account of the voyage is also reissued in this series.

Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen (1867-1913) was a Norwegian Polar explorer. He accompanied Nansen on the Fram Expedition of 1893-6 and took part in a number of explorations of the Svalbard archipelago. He later participated in Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole in 1910-12, although he was written out of the official history following a bitter dispute with Amundsen. Johansen's account of Nansen's Fram Expedition appeared in Norwegian in 1898, and this English translation was published the following year. It describes Nansen's attempt to drift north in a deliberately ice-bound ship and then ski to the North Pole, and reveals the dangers and challenges faced by the crew during their three-year journey. Although they did not reach the Pole, they set a new furthest-north record that stood for several years. Nansen's own account of the expedition, Farthest North, is also available as part of the Cambridge Library Collection.

The Norwegian businessman, shipping magnate and whaling entrepreneur Henrik Johan Bull (1844-1930) led the first expedition to make a confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainland, at Cape Adare, in January 1895. Bull's highly readable account of the expedition, published in 1896, reveals both the scientific and the commercial motivations for early Antarctic exploration. His voyage, financed by Svend Foyn, the inventor of the harpoon gun, was mainly for commercial purposes, to investigate reports of right whales in the Ross Sea. Bull, however, insisted on aiming for Antarctica, despite encountering technical problems after the vessel ran aground, and the preference of the ship's master for hunting seals to make the trip financially profitable. A part-time scientist on the expedition was Carsten Borchgrevink (1864-1934), who collected the first specimens of vegetation from the Antarctic, and later, with the Southern Cross expedition, set up the first winter base on the continent.

Augustus Earle (1793-1838) was a professional watercolour artist specialising in colonial themes. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from the age of thirteen and in 1815 travelled to the Mediterranean. He spent the next fifteen years touring the world and in 1832, when this book was published, was briefly employed by Darwin on H.M.S. Beagle, though he left that expedition in Montevideo owing to ill health. The first part of the book describes Earle's experiences in New Zealand, where he observed in detail the lifestyle of the pre-colonial Maori and the early European settlers. The second part tells how in 1824 Earle, travelling from Rio to Cape Town, found himself left behind on the Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha and spent eight months sharing the simple life of the tiny British community there and tutoring their children until finally a rare passing ship took him on board.

Sir Harry Johnston (1858 1927), was a British artist, explorer and colonial administrator. He was a key figure in the so-called 'Scramble for Africa', the invasion and colonisation of Africa by major European powers in the late nineteenth century. This book, first published in 1903, is Johnston's wide-ranging history of Nile exploration, beginning with the Ancient Egyptians and the Greeks and continuing into the Victorian period. As well as charting the development of ancient civilisations in the Nile region, Johnston also discusses its wider role in world history and its appeal to powerful leaders from Alexander the Great to Napoleon. As a contemporary of many significant participants in nineteenth-century Nile exploration, Johnston was perfectly situated to provide detailed insights into the personalities and achievements of explorers such as Burton, Stanley and Speke. His absorbing and accessible account provides a fascinating late Victorian perspective on the subject.