North East Passage

North-East Passage, The. The discovery by Stephen Brough in 1656 of a strait between Novaya Zemlya and the mainland gave rise to projects for finding a north-east passage from Europe to China. Attempts in that direction were made in 1568 and in 1580 by the Company of

Merchant Adventurers, and in 1594 by Barentz and Linschoten. Barentz made a second effort in 1595, and a third in 1596. In the course of this, after discovering the north-east coast of Spitzbergen, he perished. His discoveries, which were pushed farther and farther by successive whaling expeditions, were perfected by Wrangell in 1822 and by Long in 1867; but the route, owing to the ice, is impracticable for commercial purposes. North Sea, an extension of the sub-polar or Norwegian Sea, to which it lies open on its north side. The lands surrounding it are Norway, Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein on the E., Great Britain oa the W.; and Prussia, Holland, Belgium, and France on the S. It communicates with the North Atlantic by the Strait of Dover, the Pentland Firth, and the passage between the Orkneys and Shetlands, and with the Baltic by the Skager Rack and Cattegat. Its limits are lat. 51° and 61° N., and long. 2° 30' and 8° E. Its greatest length is about 600 miles, its greatest breadth (from the Firth of Forth to Jutland) about 400 miles, and its area about 150,000 square miles. The sea is shallow, especially towards the south and east, where the shore is low and flat. In general, the height of the cliffs varies directly with the depth of the neighbouring water. Excepting in the trench or belt, 50 miles in width, called the "Norwegian Gully," which encircles the south coast of Norway, the depth nowhere exceeds 100 fathoms; in the gully soundings of 400 fathoms are not unknown. In the south central part of the sea there are numerous "pits" or "banks," the most important being the Dogger Bank, midway between North England and Schleswig, above which the average depth is only 12 or 15 fathoms. The formation of these banks is ascribed to the detrital matter remaining from the glacier which filled the sea during the glacial period. Near the coast, shoals and sandbanks are formed from the terrigenous deposits brought down by the great rivers. The tides of the North Sea as far south as the Thames are regulated by the north branch of the great Atlantic tidal wave, which sweeps round the north coast of Scotland, and causes high water on the shores of Scotland and Norway at almost exactly the same time. From time immemorial this sea has been an important commercial highway. It abounds in food-fishes, crustaceans, and molluscs, and the fisheries are both extensive and valuable.