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!■■■
■■■H
THE
IMPRACTICABILITY
,0F
A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
1
FOR
SHIPS.
IMPARTIALLY CONSIDERED.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY A. J. VALPy, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
1824. ■
/:t*J' 1^ ':
JK
I i
PREFACE.
Being what is termed " a sea-faring man,*' I am
frequently asked questions concerning the North-
AVest Passage, which, perhaps, would puzzle
much wiser heads to answer; I have therefore
been induced to read a little of what has been
published on the subject, especially within the
last seven or eight years, by those, who are sup-
posed to have considered it most, or have detailed
the results of their experience in the Arctic re-
gions.
I was the more disposed to amuse myself in this
way, from a desire to judge for myself if possible,
why all former adventurers, as well as Captains
Ross, Buchan,and Parry, have failed in an enter-
prise, which the Quarterly Review has repre-
sented as " of no difficult execution,*' and merely
" the business of three months out and home ;'*
and also from seeing it mentioned in the public
papers that another attempt is to be made this
year, by Captains Parry and Hoppner, in the
Fury and Hecla, by way of Lancaster Sound, and
•tVl:
i'lii
IV
Prince Regent's Inlet, along the northern shores
of America.
Without pretending to give any decided opi-
nion of my own, on this " interesting question,"
I am free to say, that the facts stated, and (of
course) believed by the authors from whom I have
quoted, and who have advocated the practicability
as well as the existence of a North- West passage,
appear to me to show its impracticability for ships,
even ^/* there be one for water and fish (for the river
Thames, if frozen over, would still be a river, but
unnavigable), and to render its very existence
more doubtful than ever.
Whether, or not, the inferences I have drawn
from the DATA furnished chiefly, if not entirely^
by those advocates themselves, be fair and legiti-
mate, I leave to the decision of those unbiassed
(particularly nautical) readers, who are most com-
petent to form a correct judgment on and dis-
posed to give their attention to such a subject.
SCRUTATOR.
London, Qoth March, 1824.
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" A PLAIN MATTER-OF-FACT MAN WISHES FOR DATA
RATHER THAN WILD HYPOTHESES."
-n/U i«. . f
r?J hiiirt '"'; vh ii> -ti.V i» Quart. Rev. xxviii. 398. :
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:oR.
After a lapse of about twenty-six years, the ques-
tion of the Existence, as well as the Practicabillti/, of a
Passage for ships, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was
revived ; and the attention of the public excited in the
year 1817, by the writer of an article headed ** Lord
Selkirk, and the North-West Passage," in No. 31. of ** a
popular criticalJournal." Having introduced the latter
subject by an examination into the authenticity of
'* Voyage de la Mer Giaciale ; par le Capitaine Laurent
Ferrer Maldonado, I'an 1588," the Reviewer says,
" Destitute as we consider the relation of Maldonado
to be, both of veracity and authenticity, we are by no
means inclined to suppose that such a voyage, as it
describes, is impracticable. We Jirmly believe^ on the
contrary, that a navigable passage doese^rist, and may be
of wo difficult execution. Why then, it may be asked,
have all the attempts made at different times, from both
sides the continent of America, failed ? — Because, not
one of them was ever made near that part of the coast
of America round which, it is most likely, the passage
would lead into the Frozen or Northern Ocean. The
distance between Baffin s Sea and Behring's Strait, is not
Data. A
I
i
t
more than 1200 miles. Could we only be certain that
Hearne and Mackenzie actually arrived at the shore of
the Northern Ocean, the existence of a passage would
amount nearly to a certainty. The solution of this im-
portant problem is the business of three months out and
home. The space to be examined, at the very utmost,
is from the 67th to the 71st parallels, or 4° of lati-
tude ! ! If lae continent of America shall be found to
terminate, as is most likely, about the 70° of latitude, or
even below it, we have little doubt of a/rce and practi-
cable passage round it, for seven or eight months in every
year ; and we are much mistaken if the North-west Com-
pany would not derive immediate and incalculable ad-
vantages from a passage of th?^ee months to their estab-
lishments on Columbia river, instead of the circuitous
voyage of six or seven months round Cape Horn ; to
say nothing of the benefit which might be derived from
taking their cargoes of furs and peltry for the China
market at Mackenzie's and Copper-mine rivers, to which
the northern Indians would be too happy to bring them,
if protected by European establishments at these, or
other places, from their enemies the Esquimaux."
What flattering prospects are here held forth to the
North-west Company of" incalculable advantages,"and
to the ** northern Indians" of being made even *' too
happy ! !" Nothing like a fear is expressed, of obstacles
to be met with and surmounted. On the contrary, all
is plain sailing through •* a free and practicable passage
for seven or eight months in every year." The
language of the foregoing extracts is calculated to raise,
not only the hopes, but the expectations of the public,
as high as those which the writer himself no doubt in-
dulged in, as to the success of any future attempt ; pro-
vided it should be made where he recommends, near the
'11
¥
noi'th-east part of America, He seems, however, to have
been aware of there being some little difficulty in get-
ting hold of that part of America, for he informs us a
little further on, at page 169, that, " Hitherto, most of
our adventurers have worked their way through Hud-
son's Strait, which is generally choked up with ice,
then standing to the northward, they have had to con-
tend with ice drifting to the southward, with contrary
winds and currents. These inconveniences," he adds,
" would be obviated by standing JiV^/ to the latitudes of
71° or 72°, and from thence southerly and westerly, till
they saw the north-east coast of America, which would
go far to complete the discovery, or, till they reached
Hudson's Bay, which would decide the question in the
negatived' Here, in the most direct terms, this reviewer
records his disapprobation (and with good reason) of a
route through Hudson's Strait and Bay, in quest of the
north-east part of America ; nay his belief, at the time
he wrote, that no passage could be found out of Hud-
son's Bay, (and consequently even through the Welcome
or Repulse Bay) into the Polar sea. Inasmuch as he
says, that if the more northerly route he recommends,
should (by a southerly and westerly deviation after-
wards) lead any future adventurer into Hudson's Bay,
That " would decide the question in the negative." And
yet in the same article, at page 162, this reviewer would
seem to doubt the veracity of Middleton ; " who," he
informs us, ** looked into (he says, sailed round,) what
he (Middleton) was pleased to call Repulse Bay," It is
indeed very amusing to compare some of the notions
of this anonymous writer, in different numbers of this
'* popular critical journal," on points connected with
the question of a north-west passage. For instance, in
this Number 31, at page 170 ; he says—" It is a com-
V
i
P:
mon, but we believe an erroneous opinion, that the tem-
perature of c.r climate has regularly been diminishing,
and that it is owing to the ice having permanently fixed
itself to the shores of Greenland, which in consequence,
from being once a flourishing colony of Denmark, is
now become uninhabitable and unapproachable. We
doubt both ihefact and the inference. It is not the cli-
mate that has altered, but we who feel it more severe as
we advance in years ; the registers of the absolute de-
gree of temperature, as measured by the thermometer,
do not warrant any such conclusion ; and more attempts
than one to land on the coast of Greenland must be
made, before we can give credit to its being bound up
in eternal ice — which is known to shift about with every
gale of wind, to be drifted by currents, and to crumble
and consume below the surface of the water,'' -KviKf
Now, this is all very probable, and perhaps would not
have been questioned by any body, but the reviewer
himself. He, however, having a favourite hypothesis
to maintain, which he seems to have founded on
imaginary assumptions^ at variance, with each other, rather
than on known facts and experience, tells us quite a dif-
ferent thing in No. 35, of the Quarterly Review, in an
article written preparatory to the fitting out of the two
expeditions in the beginning of the following year 1818 ;
as it was very necessary to clear away (at least by pen
and ink) as much as possible of the ice, which some igno-
rant folks might suppose would otherwise impede their
progress through the Polar regions, towards Behrings
Strait ; he therefore admits^ in the first place, " that, for
the last four hundred years, an extensive portion of the
eastern coast of Old Greenland hasheen shut up, by an
impenetrable barrier of ice, and with it the ill-fated Nor-
wegian • Danish colonies ; and who were thus cut off at
once from all conmunication with the mother-coun-
try ;"— that " various attempts have been made, from time
to time, to approach thi« coast, but in vain ; the ice beinij
every where impervious ; and that all hope being at
length abandoned, th?t part of this extensive tract of
land, which faces the east, took the appropriate name
of lost Greenland. The event to which we have alluded
is the dititappearance of the whole, or greater part of this
barrier of ice. How the Danes can now pretend to
doubtj as one of their writers affects to do, whether there
ever were a colony on the eastern side is, to us, quite
inexplicable, unless it^beto palliate theirnegligence at the
first approach of the ice, and their want of humanity
since." In short, the reviewer has, nonv, no doubt of this
extraordinary fact, for nothing could have happened
so qpportunely ; and he therefore adduces the authority
of many persons in various places to prove it, and even
assigns as ** the most probable cause, for the sudden
departure of all this ice, its having broken loose by its
own weight ! !" Having thus " established beyond any
doubt, the fact of the disappearance of the ice," he
asks, whether any, and what advantages may arise out
of an event which, for the first time has occurred,
at least to so great an extent, during the last four
hundred years ? and answers, first. The influence which
the removal of so large a body of ice may have on our
own climate.
2ndly. The opportunity it affords of enquiring into
the fate of the lon^-lost colony on the eastern coast of
Old Greenland.
3rdly. The facility it offers, of correcting the very
defective geography ofthe Arctic regions in our western
hemisphere, and (►f attempting the circumnavigation
of Old Greenland, a direct passage over the Pole, and
6
the more circuitous one along the northern coast of
America into the Pacific. He then takes pains to prove
deterioration of climate to have taken place in Iceland,
Switzerland and Pennsylvania, and that '* it must be
equally clear liierefore, that our oxvn climate^ though in a
less degree, must have been affected by this vast accumu-
lation of Ice on the coast of Greenland :" and gives
" reasons for believing, that previously to the fifteenth
century England enjoyed a warmer summer climate than
since that period ! r ^r/i^,
The reviewer having, as we have seen in a former
number, expressed hisbelief of theprflc/icflf/)i/%, as well
as the existence, of a passage for ships from the Atlantic
to the Pacific through Behring's Strait ; he proceeds to
explain his grounds for that belief,
1st He asserts the existence of *' a perpetual current
setting down from the northward, (sometimes with
a velocity of four or even five miles an hour) along the
eastern coast of America and the wrestern shores of Old
Greenland ;" and thereon assumes " an uninterrupted
communication, between Davis Strait and the Great
Polar Basin," the consequent insularity of Old Green-
land, and the non-existence of Baffiii's Bay.
2ndly, That vast quantities of drift wood were floated
down by this current from the northward, consisting of
trees the produce of Asia and America (some, perhaps,
through Behring's Strait), by means of his " circum-
volving current," between the Pacific and the Atlantic,
" round the north coast of America." As these
grounds were noi; satisfactory, and much other matter
contained in this article appeared rather vision?iry, and
calculated to raise the public expectation of success too
high, by annihilating probable, or at least possible dif+
ficulties, an anonymous writer was induced to publish
a reply to it in the Naval Chronicle for the month of
March, 1818, just before the expeditions sailed, under
Captains Ross and Buchan. In extracting it here, I
shall adduce such facts and experiments, made known
to us by those who have since written on the subject,
or visited the Arctic regions, as tend to prove, or dis-
prove, the opinions of either of these writers.
The letter of Phoca, in the Naval Chronicle, is dated
Hull, 27th Feb. 1818. I shall be excused for making
copious extracts from it ; particularly as it happened
to be inserted in a work of very limited circulation
at the time ; and the correctness of many of his opinions
has been practically proved, so far, by the failure
of every expedition by sea, since he wrote this letter.
He says, " The appearance of an article in the Quar-
terly Review, for this month, on the subject of the ex-
peditions, now fitting out, to explore the Arctic regions,
has led me to consider some of the matters therein
stated, and to enquire into the solidity of some of the
writer's notions on this interesting topic." After a few
preliminary observations on the fact of the late reported
disappearance of ice, from the eastern coast of Old
Greenland, and its supposed connexion with the phae-
nomena of Magnetism, Electricity, and the Aurora
Borealis, he proceeds : ** The removal of this ice being
* cotemporaneous with the period when the western de-
clination of the magnetic needle became stationary,' is
certainly * a remarkable coincidence.* At all events,
in whatever way the supposed connexion may be,
between the removal of the ice, and these phaenomena,
it seems not unfair to infer, that the departure of the
immense mountains and fields of ice which for so many
centuries have covered the Arctic seas, ma]/ have had
some effect in stopping the career of the western decli-
".t'v'
-f
8
nation of the needle." But we may as fairly draw the
same inference from a similar cause, though probably of
much less extent ; and all we can know^ till the whole of
the A.'ctic Regions is explored, viz. the departure of,
perhaps, a very small portion only, of those ** immense
moumains and fields of ice, which had collected in the
y'lcimty of Greenland, What may still remain in the
Arctic seas, we are yet to learn ; and concerning which,
like every thing else, where facts and local experience
are wanting, our opinions can only be formed on fixed
and re^aived principles. The fact, however, of the dis-
appearance of so7ne large mountains and fields of ice
from part of the Arctic regions, being admitted, the Quar-
terly Reviewer's enquiry as to its supposed influence
on our climate, is thus treated: " On the benefits
we should derive from an amehoration of our climate^
there can be but one opinion. That our Summer sea-
sons have been colder than usual, in the latter years,
for instance, and from the caufses he assigns, few will
doiibt But the effect produced may not continue*
JFor though the principal cause of the chilliness of our
climate, compared with what it appears to have been
centuries ago, may be removed/w the present, yet, the
grand primary cause which produced the ice, whose
approximation deteriorated our climate, it is presumed
will continue to operate ; and what has happened by the
established general law of nature, may happen again.
Therefore, though it may be hoped, it certainly would be
" unreasonable to presume^" that, mprely on account of
the present accidental removal of some portion of ice,
" our Summer climate (and Winter too, when the
wind blows from the western quartej-) may henceforth
improve. Though no doubt it will iinpripve, if the ice
does not again collect in the pla^e from .vyljepqe ij;
9
ice,
i
has lately been dislodged. But surely we have more
reason to fear it may^ because it has done so before, than
to presume we shall 'henceforth' have no more huge
icebergs drifting down to the southward in the wind's
eye of our island, and that therefore our climate may
improve. For whilst the universe continues to be gOf
verned by the unerring and unalterable laws of God,
mountains and fields of ice will doubtless continue to
be formed in the Polar regions of the north ; and when-
ever the winters are successively severe there, they
must accumulate, and no doubt find their way to the
southward, as they have done,
"With respect tp * the opportunity which the local
disappearance of the ice affords, of enquiring into the
fate of the long lost colony, on the eastern coast of Old
Greenland, it must be admitted to be favorable. And
should the east coast of Greenland continue to be as
free from ice as it is said to have been last year, it is
probable tl^e object may be attained.' — Great part of
fhis coast has since been visited and laid down by
Mr. Scoresby,' and also by Captain Sabine in His
M^esty's ship Griper. ;f
> *' The reviewer's third object is, *the facility the remo-
val of the ice offers, of correcting the very defective
geogrs^phy of the Arctic regions in our western hemi-
sphere; o( attempting the circumnavigation of Old
Greenland— a direct passage over the Pole — and the
n|iore circuitous one along the northern coast of Ame-
rica, into the Pacific' Certainly, ' any event that tends
to| encourage the attempt to amend the very defective
' Mr. Scoresby has published an account of bis observations on
this coast ; which has also since been visited bj Captain Sabine in His
Majesty's ship lue C;::per.
Data.
- * •-«ir»#-«"-Hf ^ - w
1, ,*
'%
^
10
geography of the Arctic regions, more especially on the
side of America, may be hailed as an important occur-
rence.* But let us see whether what itiay be Qnly
a localy and very partial, removal of ice collected in the
vicinity of Greenland, is likely to facilitate more, than
an examination of its eastern coast, or at most its cir-
cumnavig ation; and perhaps, of exploring the coast
of America, some distance io the north-west of Cum-
berland Island, if not to its north-east extremity. It is
very true that several circumstances may be adduced
in support of the opinion, that Greenland is either an
island, or an archipelago of islands, and none stronger
than the * perpetual ctirrent stated to set down to the
southward along the eastern coast of America, and the
western shores of Greenland.* *•" ' •' •*'
" But this current, though affording * a strong pre-
sumption' that * between I>avis* Straits and the great
Polar basin,' there is some communication, surely it
does not authorise us to presume, that there is an
^uninterrupted commmncation.* On the contrary, it
seems probable that there must be islands or shoals be-
tween the north-west coast of Greenland and the north-
east coast of America, among which small masses of
ice, trees, and whales too, as Wfell as current, mat/ find
passage down Davis' Straits from the * Polar basin f
but which may be, and probably ere, so blocked up, geiie-
rally, by mountains and large fields of ice, as to present
an impassable barrier /or Ships, On account of this cur-
rent (if it exist,) it is certainly fair to presume that Ih6
northern part of Davis' Stiraits J^ mis-named iti the
charts as *a Bay;' for, if it were one, * it would be diffi-
cult to explain how a current that runs to the southward
perpetually (as we are told),' and sometimes with a
II
velocity of four or live miles an hour, could originate in
the bottom of it !"
I mufit observe here that the reviewer's head seems
to have been so full of tlie ideal belief of an " open sea to
the northward of Davis' Straits, and extending all the
way to Behring's Straits, so as to allow of a communica-
tion, free and uninterrupted for ships between the Atlan-
tic and Pacific," as well as for his imaginary circumvolv-
ing current, that he never once allowed a fact to enter,
which would at once have destroyed that belief. — If he
had examined thelog-books of some of the Davis' Straits
whale-ships, he would have discovered, that for days
together, when laying.to, under little or no canvas, their
bearings of points on the west coasts lof Greenland, do
not alter perhaps a point of the compass either way ;
and therefore that no such ejptraordinary current could
possibly exist." Thi» simple fact must have struck Pho-
ca's mind as a seaman at once ; and though it seems to
have made him sceptical, he does not venture to contra-
dict the reviewer positively, but merely reserves himself
ior further proof y and pursues his subject with caution. —
" If'\ says he, " there is * an uninterrupted communica-
tion', that is, if there is no land, no shoals in the whole
space between Greenland and America, it appears very
probable that greater quantities of ice would pass
through that space with a current of such velocity, and
less find its way round Greenland.
" But we must first endeavor to decide, as well as we
can, how, and where the ice in the Polar regions is
formed ; in what directioa it is ^'oM/j/i irapelled by
winds and currents ; how these winds probably
•a
•lii' \
i5; ■ f^KUl iXlVQitVi*
* Its non-exi»teace hsis been since proved by Captains Ro»s and
Parry.
prevail in summer and wint^ ; and how the current
probably sets underneath as well as at the surface of the
water. For notwithstanding the writer of the article 1
am examining, apprehends * it will be found that the
currents of the ocean are entirely suj)erficial, where no
land intervenes ;' and though he says, * it would be
difficult to explain the perpetual egress of a current
from the Polar basin into the Atlantic, without admitt-
ing a supply through the only remaining opening
(Behring's Straits,) into that basin to supply the demand
of the current,' I yet firmly believe that there must be a
continual underflmo of water in the ocean, as well as su-
perficial currents ; otherwise * that universal motion of
the great deep' which he and all must allow, cannot sa-
tisfactorily be accounted for. How, then, it may be
asked, are these lower currents to be accounted for ? The
question is much easier to be put, than solved to the
satisfiiction of others. But I will endeavor to explain
the ideas I have on the subject, as well as I can; and
that too with all the diffidence of one, who knows that
though conjectures may perhaps be well founded, their
truth depends on experiment. -.n:
** The conjectures I venture to offer are, however,
founded on the known and acknowleged properties of
Heat and cold. Heat is known to be the general cause
of the expan»on of air and water, and cold the cause
of compression. — Heat rarefies, and cold condenses.
The influence of the sun in ralrefying the atmosphere to
the greatest degree, between the tropics, together with
the earth's rotation ovi its axis, from w^t to east, would
produce a constant wind from east to west all round
the globe, j/' no land intervened ; because, the points of
greatest rarefaction being successively westward ; and
those eastward of eaph other, parting successively, as
M
i'-li:
f'»
the Sim sets in their horizons, with part of the heat re-
ceived in bis passage over them, the motion of the at-
mosphere nearest the surface of the water must neces-
sarily be from east to west, following the apparent mo*
tion of the sun. We find this proved by fact, on those
portions of the gkjbe where the general law is not ob-
structed by causes of an opposite nature, arising from
terrene influence : viz., in the Pacific Ocean, between
America and the east coast of New Holland, and also
in the open sea between Africa and America. The
central medium line of greatest rarefaction, is the equa-
tor ; but according to the sun's declination north or
south, it will be more to the northward or southward.
The air thus rarefied in the lower regions of the atmo-
sphere surrounding the earth, and comprised within the
limits of the sun's path between the tropics, must be
continually ascending into the higher, and thence, north
of the equator, advancing towards the north pole;
and south of the line, towards the south pole ; till some^
wherCf in its passage, it acquires that degree of con-
densation by cold, which compels it again to return, in
the lower strata, to the point of greatest rarefaction, to
undergo the same process. -^
" This seems to be the grand general law of nature's
operation on the atmosphere, that by * universal mo-
tion, it may be preserved in a state of purity/ V } ir»t '*•
" Let us now enquire, whether Ibis salne law ii; not
equally applicable to that universal motion f>{ the gre^t
deep, which must be equally ^nedessary to its puritj,
and which we may therefore certainly presume does
' This counter-flux from the equator to the poles, and vice versOt
is demonstrated by Mr. daniel iti his l^/eteorological Essays^ publisbisd
in 1823, who explains why, *<This i6teirchiin^ef 6f tUe p6ilkr ihd
equatorial atmospheres must tend to an equalisatioik of temperature.*'
t:
1 ■
14
take place on some general principle. We indeed al-
ready know, that the watery of the Pacific Ocean, and
of the Atlantic, between the tropics, where least ob-
structed by land, move {^t and n^ar the surface, in a si-
milar direction, nearly and genprs^lly, to that of the
wind. — When obstructed by lands, they take the vari'
ous turnings and windings, which ^he forms and tren-
dings of those lands, and other local causes, impose
on them. ..^r.., |>ir,r,.« ^jr >o> R.Mhr»» Iwi^^
" If it be allowed, * that ihe influence of the sun, ixx,
rarefying the atmosphere to th^ greatest degree, between
the tropics, together with the earth's rotation on its axisj
from west to east, would produce (if no land interven-
ed) a constant wind from east to west,' may we nojt
suppose, if the same causes operate similarly, but
proportionally, on the waters of the ocean, that ///ey
must produce a similar effect, aQd oblige them to take
a like direction — that is, from east to west, at and
near the surface all round the globe, within the limits
of the sun's declination ? — If this general effect, then, be
admitted, on the ground it rests, we may presume, that
if there were a passage through the Isthmus of Darien
for the immense body of water, which continually
flows from east to west into the Caribbean Sea and Gulf
of Mexico, what is called the gulf-stream would no
longer exist. And as it seems probable, that the sur-
face of the water must be somewhat higher ' on the
eastern side of America thereaboutSt than on the other»
owing to the land's obstruction to the natural course of
the great equinoctial current, and the necessity impose^
^"^ From the observations made by Humboldt at the mouth of the Rio
Seoa in the Atlantic, and on the coast of the South Sea, it appears
*' there is a difference of level between the two seas, not exceeding
6 or 7 metres^or about 19 or 22 feet." , ,.v .
15
if>«
on it, to find vent th though the Gulf of Florida, into the
Atlantic ; it is n6t unreasonable to conclude, that if this
accumulation of water was at liberty to flow through
the 'Continent of AmeWca, into the Pacific Ocean, the
sni'face of the sea, on this side (next the Atlantic) would
be lower than it now is ; so that parts of land, now
uhder water, Would be opposed to view. This effect
^duid, hoWfever, be injurious to commerce with the
West Indies ; for it would render the homeward-bound
passage more difficult. Instead of a constant weather
current, to assist ships, it is pretty certain there would
b^ a lee one from the north-east, along the ea&t
cbast of Florida ; and its influence would most proba-
bly be felt, far up to the north-east ; from whence the
current of colder water would flow, nearier the surface
tban it now can, covered superficially as it is by the
warmer gulf-stream. The high degree of temperature
which this great body of water acquires, by the sun's
constant action upon it, being slowly reduced, during
it^ propelled progress to the north-east, it is probable,
that it may advance even beyond the banks of Newfound-
land, before it is reduced to the colder temperature of the
fluid beneath it, which must be flowing from the north-
ern regions of condensation towatrds the points of great-
est rarefaction and evaporation between the tropics, to
supply the place Of that, which the heat is as constantly
evaporating ^nd rarefying ; and so sending back in the
upper strata of the atmosphere, to the colder regions. —
The gulf-stream, thus propelled by lisiteral pressure, tip to-
wards the banks of Newfoundland, is seldom fbiind to
affect a ship, beyond those banks ; at the same time, it
is possible, that some of it may advance farther to the
northward, before that reduction is effected in its tem-
perature, which gives it a tendency to the southward .
I.
^
i
Fqr, many articles, the produce of tropica) climes, and
somp, knmn to have been from the West Indies, have
|l)eei^ cast ashore on the coasts of Europe. Some of
these places being situated to the N.E. of Newfopnd*
land, it is difficult to believe that these articles could
liave been driven thither by the winds, and the swell pf
the sea only. For these, prevailing nearly as much froni
N.W. as S.W., would give them about an east direc^
tion. And if they were immersed sufficiently to feel the
influence of the great underflow of cold fluid, from
the north, which brings the icebergs down to 39° qx
40° of latitude, they would move in an east-southerly di-
rection. It seems therefore reasonable to suppose, that
there may still be the remains of a northerly movement
of \yater at, and very near the surface, to cause bodies
floating there to make a course, as some have dom^ to
the northward of even E.N.E. from Newfoundland.
The great body of the gulf-stream is, however, much
reduced in temperature about the banks of Newfound-
land ; and in proportion as it feels the cold of the great
underflow from the north, it is turned gradually to the
eastward and southward, past the Western Islands.
Whether any part of it reaches the coast of England,
France, Portugal, or Spain, is a point much disputed.
It is possible^ however, that it may ; diverging, as it
appears to do, to the eastward, and southward. Sotne
of the fluid that composed it may find its way to the
northward of Cape Finisterre, and add something to the
great body o( vi^ater which the western swell heaves
into the Bay of Biscay ; and proceeding to the north-
ward, along the coast of France, sets over from Ushant
beyond Cape Clear ; till meeting with a fluid belov^^ of
a colder degree than its own, it perhaps gradually jp^ins
the polar stream to the southward according to its depth
I
17
and temperature. Some ofthe waters of the gulf stream,
it is possible (though hardly that), may assist in supply-
ing the water expended by evaporation in the Mediter-
ranean, whose tusrfaicej therefore, it is presumed, must be
lower than that of the Atlantic, as the constant current
setting into it seems to prove. Some philosophers,
indeed, suppose that the quantity of water, continually
admitted through the gut of Gibraltar into the Mediter-
ranean, is greater than can be expended by evapora-
tion ; and that, therefore, there must be a counter current
setting out underneath. To establish this opinion, it
seems necessary, first, to prove that the temperature of
the Mediterranean is 16wer generally than that of the
Atlantic. For if it be higher (as is most probable), the
surpf^xs, \f there were any, and allowing their surfaces to
be equal" (and Phoca should have added, their specific
grtroitiesthe same)," wo\i\dj I presume, runout at the sur^
face, and the supply be received in underneath, which
is contrary to fact. Though I have supposed it barely
possible that some of the gulf stream may cross the At-
lantic, I by no means say that it is so. On the contrary,
it is little felt by ships, far to the eastward of the
Azores ; but in the vicinity of thoseislands, the south-
east portion of it gradually tarns to the southward,
and as it advances in that direction, soon feeling the
impulse again ofthe grand equinoctial current, is com-
pelled to partake of its westerp motion : thu^ forming
a sortof circular eddy, which rtfiiy be comprised between
the latitude of about IB** pi^ Id* North, and the parallel
ofthe Western Islands'; and from about the longitude
of 2^" to 43° West. Within these limits, the gulf weed is
found, floating on the surface, where I suppose it origi-
nates, lives its appointed time, and ' decays, like any
other vegetable production; and I believe it is i^rely
Data. C
1
>l
or never met with beyond these Hmits. Though 1 hare
admitted the bare possibility, that some of the gulf
stream may enter the strait of Gibraltar, I cannot agree
with the writer of the article in the Quarterly Review,
when he says (speaking of the gulf stream), that it is of
sufficient force and quantity to make its influence be felt
in the distant * Strait of Gibraltar.' Thus, implying (if
I understand him right), that this ' force and quantity'
of the gulf stream are primary causes of the constant
current into the strait. On the contrary, thinking, as
I do, that the causes of this constant flow of water into
the Mediterranean are of a purely local nature, connect-
ed exclusively with that sea ; I therefore think it most
probable that if the great equinoctial currentflowed (as I
presumeitwould, were there a sufficient passage) through
the Continent of America, into the Pacific ; and conse-
quently annihilated the present gulf stream, there would
still be the very same flow of water into the Mediter-
ranean as there is now, as long as the sun's power con-
tinued, and the localities exclusively belonging to that
sea remained the same. In short, I am of opinion that
the waters of the Atlantic (approximate to the Strait of
Gibraltar) feel the influence of purely Mediterranean
causes ; and that neither * the force' nor * quantity' of
the gulf stream have any effect whatever in causing the
current that runs into the Mediterranean. It is well
known, by experience, that this current is strongest
with easterly gales ; in the hottest weather, with wind at
the same time ; and is diminished during the prevalence
of westerly winds, and is weaker in winter generally
than in summer.* But to return : — The winds and sur-
' The opinions of men of science are still divided as to the cause of the
constant current which runs into the Mediterranean, through the strait
of Gibraltar. In turning over the Annual Register for the year 176O,
19
as
face currents in the Pacific Ocean are influenced,
generally, in a similar way, by the sun's power, as tho^^e
a short time ago, I observed an essay, written by Mr. Waiz, of the
Royal Society of Stockholm, to exphiin this cause. It is ingenious,
but not quite satisfactory, because his facts are at variance with each
other. Mr. Waiz computes that " the water, which is received annually
into the Mediterranean, by the straits, and from the Nile, and all the
rivers which fall into the Black Sea, and flow through the strait of Con>
stantinople, cannot raise its surface less than thirty feet : and the annual
evaporation to lower it s^bout f orty-f our feet." He then says that *' if
the Mediterranean had lost annually, since it first existed, this quan-
tity of water, by evaporation, it would, long before now, have been
reduced to a vast mass of indurated salt." And yet, he adds, " in the
many thousand years, since this sea has been known, this metamor-
phosis has not taken place, but even its waters, as far as we know,
are not become more salt." He therefore feels himself obliged to give
up evaporation, and " seek some other expedient to get rid of its
redundant waters." What redundant waters ? Has he not computed
the evaporation to be sufficient to lower its surface 44 feet, and its
supply through the strait of Gibraltar, and the Dardanelles, as well as
by all the rivers, which flow into it, as only sufficient to raise it annu-
ally 30 feet? Thus, so far from there being any redundancy of water
io the Mediterranean, an annually increased supply would be required,
and not an expedient to get rid of what he himself proves it cannot
have. The expedient he has recourse to, however, is a double current,
which be first proposes to ascertain with all possible exactness, and
then to reconcile it to the laws of hydrostatics. As a proof (to him)
of the existence of this under current, from east to west, out of the
Mediterranean (which he assumes to be salter and heavier), he men-
tions (and others have repeated it) a story of a " Dutch transport
vessel having been beaten to pieces by a French ship of war, in the
middle of the strait of Gibraltar, between Tariffa and Tangier ; the
wreck of this vessel, with some casks, and other /tg-A^ things, appeared,
after some days, on the surface of the water, four English miles to the
westt towards the Spanish sea." Mr. Waiz then observes, ** If the di-
rection of the current were the same at the bottom, as on the surface,
from west to east, these wrecks could not have raised themselves
against the current, so as to swim at top." If we may here assume
that Mr. Waiz believed, that this wreck, with the casks and other
20
between Africa and America, making however due
allowance for the difference of the formation and posi*
I
light things, did not float on the surface, but immediately wnArdown
to the Bottom (the term he uses) , or at least into a fluid of that de-
gree of saltness and gravity which (as he aiterwards attempts to prove,
by experiment) must give it a direction to the west, and carry these
light articles along with it, — I would ask, then. If the fluid at the sur*
face were, as he must allow, less salt, or specifically lighter than that
beneath it, in proportion to its depth, yet still how could these light
articles sink to that convenient depth, unless their specific gravity was
greater than it V And if greater (which however can hardly be ad"
mitted), by what law could they, when carried far enough to the west-
watxi, as conveniently rai^e themselves again to the surface, and be
observed floating in a medium, that could not support them before 1
But the truth is, the fact, if it be one, proves, if it prove any
thing (taking it for granted, that the light substances specified would
have floated in the surface fluid), that they must have been driven
within the influence of that surface counter current, which every man
who has had experience in the strait of Gibraltar, knows, does set to
the westward, close in, both on the Barbary and Spanish shores.
Mr. Waiz, on the authority of Count Marsigli, assumes the exist*
ence of an under and surface current (in opposition to each other)
through the strait of Constantinople. He says, " that the salt water
enters at the bottom into the Black Sea, and is then rendered lighter
by the quantity of fiesb water that runs into it ; after which, it flows
again in the same strait, above the salt water, into the Mediterranean,
as is seen in the strait of Gibraltar." He also says, " The currents
are stronger at Constantinople than at Gibraltar, because the differ-
etice in the degrees of saltness, of the water which comes in and that
which goes out, is greater, namely, according to Marsigli, 73 to 62 1
whereas it is not so great in the strait of Spain."
The tbfcory of this under current, in the strait of Gibraltai is
thus explained by Mr. Waiz: *' As there is a continual and copious
discharge of salt water into the Mediterranean, a great part of this
water deposits its salt by evaporation ; therefore what is left always
remains more salt, and consequently more weighty. Supposing then
the surfaces of the two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, to
be efuaF (a supposition, however, without facts to support it), ** their
gfavitj would not be equal ; but the water of the Mediterranean, as the
m\ IS
ipious
this
wayb
then
. to
their
sthe
•(
21
lions of intervening lands. For these obstract thd
uniform general tendency of the winds and carrents
most weighty, would press on that of the Atlantic, and the two seas
wonld run together, till the waters became of equal weight, so that
the Mediterranean would necessarily be lowest. When this happens,
the water of the Atbntic, which is highest, cannot take its course
through the strait but by a higher current, by rae&ns of which it
spreads itself in the Mediterranean ; but this would augment th<i
weight, ahready the greatest, of the water of the latter, which cannot
get away, but by opening itself a passage underneath, and forming au
inferior opposite current in the strait. This is sufficient to produce
the two currents, and to perpetuate them wifhout interruption."
The experiment to prove this hypothesis to be in agreement with
the laws of hydrostatics, is then thus described by Mr. Waiz. " Take a
long box, divided into two by a board fixed id the middle ; let there
be a small hole in the board which you can shut at pleasure. Fill one
end of the box with water, and the other with oil, to an equal height.
On hastily opening the hole, in the board thafdivides them, the water,
which is the heaviest, will be seen to run into the end of the box
where the oil is. On the contrary, the oil will be carried in the same
manner, and at the same time, into that end where the water is, over
which it will spread itself. It may indeed be objected, that, as oil
cannot mix with water, it must get at top, but the same thing happens
to two waters of unequal gravity, when one is coloured and much
Salter than the other."
This hypothesis of Mr. Waiz stands on pretty sure ground, and
may be applicable to the Mediterranean, if its waters are proved to
be Salter, and consequently heavier, than those of the Atlantic. Some
philosophers, taking this for granted, have adopted and supported it,
in preference to that of Dr. Halley, who was of opinion that the
quantity of water cvaj>orated from the Mediterranean, exceeds tli«
supply every way necessary to equalize its surface with that of the
Atlantic. This Mr. Waiz also admits to be the fiict ; and sets out by
proving \i.
Colonel Capper, whose " Observations on the Winds and Monsoons,"
tlK igh published in the year 1801 I never happened to meet with
till last week, says, at page 202, on this question of evaporation being
the cause : " In summer the land is always much hotter than water,
and the surrounding air on land is much more dry ; consequently the
i r
m-
22
M
from east to west ; therefore from the east coast of
New Holland to the east ccast of Africa, and within
evaporation of all Mediterrauean or inland seas must be infinitely
geater thrin that of the ocean, in the same parallels, where the air is
already saturated, and continues in the same temperature many days
successively. Besides, it roust be remembered, that the water evapo-
rated from Mediterranean seas, is immediately in summer conveyed to-
wards the land, where great part of it remains, being there precipita-
ted in rain, for the benefit of the earth, or retained on the summit of
the mountains in the form of ice and snow ; and even the remainder
is but slowly returned into the different seas and lakes, through the
channels of the adjacent rivers. The quantity of water thus raised in
vapour, and retained there, for these beneficial purposes, can only be
supplied by a constant current from that part of the north Atlantic,
with which it immediately communicates.
** Should this hypothesis, on further examination, be considered as
well founded, it will serve also to account for the equatorial currents ;
for during the equinoxes, and for some weeks preceding and following
them, the evaporation near the equator must be very considerable ;
the water adjacent will therefore flow in to supp'y the deficiency, and
consequently in all parts of the ocean, where it is not obstructed by
land, will produce, at this season, opposite currents from the two poles
to the equator. But an exact account of the currents in the Atlantic,
kept for one year, would verify or refute this system ; and the strength
of the current at different sea ions, frim the ocean to the Mediterra-
nean, through the strait of Gibraltar, would afford very useful infor-
mation on this subject."
Among those who appear to have adopted the theory of Mr. Waiz,
is a writer in a popular critical review. No. 28, for May 1 8l6. He says :
** We mean not tc support the truth of Dr. Halley's theory ; we know it
is liable to a multitude of objections, from which the old notion of an
under current, setting out of the strait, is entirely free ; and if it has
been proved experimentally, what should be the case theoretically,
that the water of the Mediterranean is more salt, and consequently of
greater specific gravity than that of the Atlantic, it is as necessary
that the former should rush out underneath, and the latter rush in
above, as that the flame of a candle should be driven by the cold air
through [under] the bottom of a door into the room, while the more
rarefied air carries t outward at the top of the door. This under
!';
23
the limits of the sun's declination, the winds and cur-
rents are periodical, according to his place. But it
curreut, and the two lateral currents which Tofino" (and every one
has) " found constantly setting outwards, along the shores of Europe
and Africa, at new and full moon, afford a more satisfactory solution
of the problem, than the unequal effect of evaporation."
Now it appears to me that all he facts we do know are in favour
of Dr. Halley's theory, and against that of a counter under current,
which is tenable only after it shall be proved that the surfaces of the
Mediterranean and Atlantic ever were, or are, equal ; and that the
waters of the former are specifically heavier (and colder too) at
equal depths than those of the Atlantic.
At present, these two necessary data are little better than supposi-
tions. But sound arguments are not to be built on suppositions.
The first supposition, Mr. Waiz, in particular, had no claim to make
as a groundwork for his hypothesis : for he sets out with computing
" the quantity of evaporation as sufficient to lower the surface of the
Mediterranean about 44 /eef annually ; but the supply received into
it, as only sufficient to raise it 30 feet annually." So that by his owq
showing, so far from his being entitled to suppose the surfaces of the
Mediterranean and Atlantic to be, or ever to have been, equal ; that
of the former, if his computation were correct, would have been lowered
14 feet, every succeeding year. Now, so great a disparity between
the annual supply of water to the Mediterranean, and its expenditure
by some cause, be it what it may, is disproved by past and present ex-
perience. For no such diminution of the water in the Mediterranean
has taken place. Its surface is of the same height n ' 'v as it has
been in all ages. That its surface is lower generally than that of the
Black Sea, and of the Atlantic, we want no calculation to show : the
constant flow of the first through the Strait of Constantinople, and of
the Atlantic into it through the Gut of Gibraltar, are facts before our
eyes which prove it agreeably to the laws of hydrostatics. And accord-
ing to the same laws, if ever the supply to the Mediterranean should
so far exceed the expenditure by evaporation, as to realize Mr. Waiz's
supposititious theory of equal surfaces, then the effect he showed by
his box experiment may take place, provided the waters of the Medi-
terranean be specifically heavier, salter, and colder, at equal depths,
than those of the Atlantic. Butif they are nearly of equal specific gravity
(which, notwithstanding a few partial experiments to the contraryj
^
f
I
would be leadii^ us too far out of the way, to attempt
to trace the currents in the Indian seas, influenced as
they are, so variously, and oppositely, in their direction
and velocity, at different seasons, by tfaie Monsoons and
the bodies of land within their limits. Suffice it to say
what more particularly applies to the North Padficand
will lead us again to the Arctic fegions* "< - ^ ' » ^ '^^ ^
** Having said, that the air is rarefied and raised in
the atmosphere, and that the greatest degtee of evapo-
ration is effected between the. west coast of Afriea; and
the east coast of America; and tbat»or^/t of tJie liiie» the
fluid is so returned towards the North Pole, and being
condensed somewhere in its passage by cold, it perhaps
supplies with water some of the rivers which discharge
into the seas of the temperate zone or into the North
Polar Ocean ; and, whether falling in rain, hail, or snow,
upon the earth or not, it ultimately finds its way into
the Ocean. And according to the temperature propon-
tionate to its depth, the water takes a direction towards
the regions of equatorial heat ; is again raised by that
beat to the surface, and again evaporated. Experiments
in the Ocean have proved, that when xl.e temperature
of the atmosphere exceeds that of the surface of the sea,
the superiicip] water is generally warmer than that at
certain depths beneath it (I say generally^ because 213
soundings, and confined waters, local causes effect many
w probably the case), and the surface of the Mediterrauean be at all
times UmtT than tlwt <^the Atlantic, then the perpetual How of the
snrface <}f llie latter into the Mediterranean must be the c^seqaence,
as ocft^al^ as any other effect follows its proper antece^itnt cause.
Nay, ei«a if ^^w^RmI Setf had any channel of communication with the
McdhemnMB, iU waiers also wookl flow into it, because the sur&ce
•f the RedSea, I should sHppose>mi»l be higher than that of the other,
iai obvioas reasons."
i
I
25
e:vc€ptions to this general rule), and, in all probability, the
greater the depth the colder the fluid in that case. And
as we know that when the air (or water) receives an in-
crease of heat, its parts will be put in motion towards
that heat, it follows, that the colder water throughout its
whole depth must have a tendency to flow towards the
point of greatest heat, and therefore be continually
rising towards the surface in the equatorial regions. — •
This probably is the routine of the general movement of
the atmosphere, and the waters of the Ocean, between
Europe, Africa, and America, and from the arctic re-
gions to the equator.' And it seems no less probable,
' Colonel Capper, in his " Observations on the Winds and Mon-
soons," sa}'s, at page 130, " In the next place, I shall attempt to show
by what means the atmosphere is supplied with water; in what man-
ner the winds are rendered the vehicle for conveying this moisture to
the earth ; and by what means these waters are again returned to the
sea, carrying with ihem the salts from the land, so as to keep up th^
saltness of the ocean.
" In the absence of the sun in the winter solstice, immense masses
of ice and snow are collected, in the polar regions, which by these
means become so many reservoirs of water, de}Sosited there by the
hand of Nature, in a solid form, until the return of the sun, when they
are in part dissolved, and being again put in circulation, serve to in-
crease the quantity of the water in the sea.
"During the whole of the summer solstice, in each hemisphere, in-
cluding the three hottest months, the quantity of ice and snow thus
dissolved must be prodigious. If when this operation is performing
the sun was suddenly to disappear, and this mass of water to be again
immediately congealed, the first dissolution would have taken place
in vain : but the course of the sun is gradual, and as he continues his
progress, either north or south, one atmosphere is progressively
warmed, whilst the other is proportionably cooled : with the former a
vacuum is formed, which is filUd up by the cold denser «ir put i6
motion by its gravity to restore the equilibrium: this motion of the
air consequeutly conveys with it the increased body of water /rom th«
polar regions, and carries this additional mass towards the (mpics and
the equator.
Data. P
.1:1
^ !•
U
that in the Pacific they are subject to the same general
laws. For there also the great equatorial current is in
constant motion to the westward ; and like the gulf-
stream, and from causes, too, in some points similar, it
gradually turns to the northward when it approaches
the lands to the northward of New Guinea and the
Philippine Islands, being perhaps at the same time in-
fluenced by currents setting in a different direction;
more particularly during the prevalence of the south-
west monsoon in the Indian and China seas. Near the
coast of Japan the current has been found to set N.E.
by N., at the rate of five miles an hour : at 18 leagues
distance, about three knots, in the same direction ; but
at a greater distance from the land it inclined more to
the eastward ; and at t»0 leagues from the land it set
E.N.E., three miles an hour ; then (Hke the gulf-stream)
inclinhig gradually to the southward ; so that at the
distance of 120 leagues from the coast of Nipon, its
direction was S.E., and its rate not more than a knot.
From this current setting generally to the N.E., along
the coast of Japan, more or less strong, according to
the season of the year, it appears that the motion
of the air and waters, between the west coast of
America and New Holland, and all the lands north-
ward towards Behring's Strait, is similar to that north
of the Equator, between Africa, Europe and America.
It is therefore presumable, that though a superficial cur-
rent may run into Behring's Strait, there must also be
one running out of it underneath^ if there be no obstruc-
,^.," When the polar currents of air and water, if we may use this ex-
pression, reach the torrid zone, the constant heat of the sun, which
Is increased likewise by the heat of the earth as it approaches the
land', causes a considerable increase of evaporation, or in common
language, a distillation of the sea water, leaving behind in the ocean
.all its saline qualities."
^
lerica.
il cur-
Iso be
Istruc-
tion, and the principles this theory rests on are correct.
But the writer of the article I am examining is of opi-
nion that * the constant circular motion, and inter*
change of waters between the Pacific and the Atlantic '
must be by Behring's Strait ; otherwise ' it would be dif-*
ficult to explain the perpetual egress of a current from
the Polar basin into the Atlantic, without admitting a
supply through the only remaining opening into that
basin, to answer the demand of the current/ I admit
the probability of a surface current into the Strait, for
the reasons already given, and believe there may be
one, because it is mentioned thus in Cook's Voyage :
* We were now convinced that we bad been under the
influence of a strong current setting to the north, that
had caused an error in our latitude of 20 miles. In
passing this Strait last year we experienced the same
eflfect. On the 12th of July, when within the Strait, in
latitude 69*. 37', and half way between the two conti-
nents, the current was found to set N.W. at the rate of
one knot.' This proves there was a surface current*
though a small one, both at the entrance and to the
northward of the Strait. But what have we to found
the supposition on, that the waters may be * rushing
out ' (that is, in from the Pacific, I suppose is meant)
* with the greatest violence under the Floodgatey which
means * the impenetrable barrier of ice which stopped
the progress of Cook's successors ? '
** The author of the article in question supposes
that * if the Polar basin should prove to be free from
land about the Pole, it will also be free of ice,' and
that this may be the case is not improbable, in the
summer season : not, however, because Of the non-ex-
istence of land, but for other reasons, which shall be
explained by and by. He also supposes that th^
m
lii.i
sd
barrier of ice which stopped the progress of Cook's suc-
cessors was moveable, or no where touched the bottom.
The writer of Cook's Voyage was of the same opinion
as to the ice nearest the ship, though that opinion rested
on a foundation that might not, perhaps, equally apply
to the larger masses of ice further to the northward, and
not seen. His words are : — ' We had twice traversed
the sea, in lines nearly parallel to the run we had just
made, and in the first of those traverses we were not
able to penetrate so far north, by eight or ten leagues,
as in the second ; and that in the last, we had again
found an united body of ice, generally about five
leagues to the southward of its position in the preceding
run. As this proves that the large compact fields of
ice which we saw were moveable, or diminishing, at the
same time, it does not leave any well-founded expecta-
tion of advancing much further in the most favorable
season.'
. " Though this proves that the floating ice seen
shifted its position, both to the northward and to the
southward, but chiefly the latter, as will be soon further
proved — yet it does not prove that the larger masses
to the northward, perhaps, which they did not s6e,
m.^ght not be immoveable, by grounding on the bottom,
if the water became shoaler in that direction, as our
navigators found it wast as far as they advanced. Now
should there have been any immoveable masses of ice
to the northward, it would in some degree explain
why the current, which the writer in the review sup-
poses to set with such * violence * from the Pacific,
0hould not have carried the ice away with it towards
the Pole, where there may be none. But, if the whcde
of this ice was moveable, it proves that whether there
was a small current setting to the northward, or not.
29
and whether at the surface or the bottom, or both,
there must have been a stronger current from the north-
ward, or something else, which still more powerfully
impelled the ice to the southward, in defiance of the
other, as well as of the wind, which appears to have
been generally from the south-west when strongest. It
is said in Cook's Voyage, * It may be observed, that in
the year 1778> we did not'meet with the ice till we ad-
vanced to the latitude of 70", ofi the 17th of August ;
and that then we found it in compact bodies, extend-
ing as far as tha eye could reach, and of which a part
or the whole was moveable ; since by drifting down upon
us (from the northward) we narrowly escaped being
hemmed in between it and the land.' On the Asiatic
side they encountered extensive fields of ice, and
were sure to meet with it about the latitude of 70°,
quite across, whenever they attempted to stand to the
northward. On the 26th of August they were ob-
structed by it in 69i°, in such quantities as made it
quite impossible to pass either to the north or west.
In the second attempt they cOuld do little more, for
they were never able to approach the continent of
Asia higher than 67** ; nor that of America, in any part,
than 68°, or 68°. 20' north. But in the last attempt
they were obstructed by the ice three degrees further to
the southward, and their endeavors to push further to
the northward were principally confined to the mid
space between the two coasts. ?
** Now all this does not seem to favor the supposition
of a current * rushing in' from the Pacific through Behr-
ing's Strait, with such velocity, as it may fairly be sup-
posed a body of water would have, of sufficient quan-
tity to supply the southerly current, * setting perpetu-
ally into the Atlantic on both sides of Gmenland, not
30
'
only when the ice is melting, but when the sta isfreez'
ing* Indeed, if we do but consider for a moment the
quantity of water that may be supposed to flow through
so extensive a space as Davis's Strait, * with a ve-
locity of four, and sometimes even five miles an hour;*
and then add to that the amazing quantity setting as
constantly to the southward, in the still greater space
to the eastward of Greenland and Spitzbergen, it does
certainly appear to be improbable, nay, impossible, that
a current of at least equal, or of double velocity, and
occupying the full extent in depth and breadth of
Behring's Strait, would be at all adequate to answer the
demand ; much less, so trifling a current as we are
warranted hy facts to believe there ii. For in Cook's
Voyage, the remarks on this matter are thus summed
up : — * By comparing the reckoning with the observa-
tions, we found the currents to set different ways, yet
more from south-west than any other quarter. We
again tried the currents, and found them unequal, but
never exceeding one mile an hour. Whatever their
direction might be, their effect was so trifling, that no
conclusion respecting the existence of a passage to the
northward could be drawn from them.'
It is presumed, that all the currents here spoken
of were superficial ; but even admitting they extended
quite across the Strait, and flowed the same way
throughout its whole depth, still it seems quite beyond
the bounds of possibility that the quantity of water so
admitted, and with a rate of flow * so trifling,' could be
sufficient for the supply of the currents *>■ setting to the
southward perpetually, through the other /aw open*
tng», (Baifln's sea being doubted then) into the At-
Jftntic.*^'^ "y^'^^^-v^ •''/.;
^' Judging from such facts as are before us, that* a
part, and but a very small part, of the demand to sup-
ply the southern current, comes in from the Pacific
through Behring's Strait, it is necessary to inquire, From
what sources then is all the water so flowing out of the
polar regions derived ? I have supposed the currents
to bo produced (at least the motion of the great deep)
generally by evaporation in the equatorial regions of
heat, and by cold returned in various ways in the
atmosphere, by land and by sea, into the northern re-
gions, even as far as the Pole. For though * tlie way
of the Almighty is,' as tlie Psalmist says, * in the sea,
and his path in the deep waters,' yet it is also as
surely in the clouds of heaven. And though his foot-
steps are not known certainly, yet it is permitted us
humbly to endeavor to trace them.
" Whether or not there be any increase of water from
the melting of the ice in the Polar sea, so as to cause a
current to the south, appears not to be very material,
and perhaps has little to do with the general quantity
in the * Polar basin.* In all probability, it remains
nearly the same at all times, whether there is more or
less ice ; that is, taking the ice and water together to
make up that quantity. I agree with the reviewer, that
* those who could suppose the melting of the ice to
afford such a supply, would betray a degree of igno-
rance greater, perhaps, than that of not being aware
of the very little influence which an arctic 'summer
exerts on fields of ice, perpetually surrounded as they
are by a freezing atmosphere created by themselves!'-
However, there is no subject, perhaps, on which opi-
nions have been more at variance than on the melting
of the ice in the polar regions, as well as where and
how it is formed. St. Pierre went so far as to suppose
it was the cause of the tides \ but he does not appear
m
;'.4|
I
■
II
to have been a * plain matter-of-fact man/ but of fancy
and imagination.
"Others think the ice does not melt at all, or at
least very little, even in summer. If ice, when once
formed (be it how it may) round and along the coasts
of these regions, does not melt at all, there must be a
constant increase, so long as that ice is ' surrounded
perpetually by a freezing atmosphere created by itself,'
which the reviewer tells us it * mostly is, even in sum-
mer :* and if so, we may fairly presume it always is
in winter, •
" At this rate, with the exception of what may make
its escape through Davis's Strait, and to the eastward
of Greenland, it would necessarily be always advancing
towards the Pole, (admitting the land to be the place
of its first formation) and close over it ; unless we can
find some probable cause counteracting this effect of
perpetual frost. And perhaps we are warranted in
supposing that there exists some such cause. Indeed
it seems more than probable, that the process of freez-
ing and melting may be going on in the arctic regions,
on the same body of ice, (if of magnitude to be suffici-
ently immersed,) at the same timey and perhaps in the
winter, as well as the summer.
" Water is a compound of ice and caloric. The
temperature of ice is 32° ; and whilst surrounded by a
temperature equal, it will remain ice. But whenever
the temperature of the atmosphere exceeds 32°, and
continues so long enough for the body of ice to receive
a sufficiency of caloric to effect its dissolution, it will do
so. It is probable, that the temperature of the atmo-
sphere, even in the arctic regions, in summer will some-
times exceed 32°, and the more, perhaps, the nearer the
Pole; and whenever it does, sufficiently, the effect on
ice is obvious.
i
I
*' This seems suficicnt to be said, on the probability
of ice above water meltinj;^ in the Arctic regions in
summer, if the temperature of the atmosphere ever
sufficiently exceeds 32". In the winter, as the tempe-
rature of the atmosphere must be constantly below
that, of course the freeaing above water will be as
constant, though the surface of the sea itself will pro*
bably not freeze tiU at a temperature much below 30°,
even in a motionless state. The same body of ice,
whilst freezing abore water, that is, increasing in size
and extent by snow, hail, and the salt water freezing
in washing over it, may perhaps, at the same time, be
melting under water ; and this process will probably
be accelerated according to the magnitude of the mass,
and the depth of its immemon. For, when the at-
mosphere is colder than the surface of the sea, the
water will (in proportion, perhaps, to its depth) be
found warmer by some degrees, than at the surface ;
and though few experiments have yet been made to
establish the fact, yet sufficient lO warrant this conclu^
sion. Thus in summer, if the temperature of the at*
mosphere should be 32°, and the surface of the sea
{clear of land and soundings) three or four degrees
higher, that of the water below would probably be
much higher still ; so that the portion of a large mass
of ice, aboive the surface of the sea, would remain ice,
and augment ; and the other portion of it betoiWy being
immersed in a temperature exceeding the point of
congelation, tvould probably be melting and decreas-
ing. The well attested facts, of large bodicfii of ice
having been seen to capsize or turn bottom up, prove
that their centres of gravity are altered, by either an
increase of their bulk aboive, or a diminution of it
below, according to the excess of either effect. Upoii
Data. £
34
the whole, however, il seems probable, that in the Arc-
tic regions the; process of freezing in the atmosphere
exceeds that of melting under water, particularly on
those smaller masses of ice which are immersed the
least, and therefore there must be a general increase
of ice in the * Polar basin,' from the Pole (if the ice
originates U -re) towards the lands surrounding the
* basin ;' or from those lands (if the ice first forms there)
up towards the Pole. On this question, too, opinions
ha> e been various. Every circumstance seems to weigh
cgainst the opmion of its greatest formation being about
the Pole, except one, and that is, because the sea
water there will probably contain ^east salt. I am
disposed to believe that it must also be much colder
in the winter, at the surface of the sea near the PoiCf
than any where else. In the part of the Polar basin
further to the southward, where it is bounded by land,
it is to be presumed that the general prevailing winds
are from S.W. to N.W., particularly the former, in bad
weather ; northevly, and easterly, when most settled and
fine. If so, it is to be supposed there will be a current
generally prevailing from the westward to the east-
ward, partaking at the same time of that general
tendency of the fluid to move southward from the Pole,
which I imagine it will be found to have, from the
coldness of its temperature " [meaning, I suppose, as
compared with the progressively increasing general
temperature of the sea from the Pole towards the Equa-
tor]. "These two general combined impulses, ope-
rating on moveable bodies, floating on the surface of
the Arctic seas, must impel them in an east-southerly
direction, all round the globe : being, in fact, that
* circumvolving current,' v/hich the reviewer mentions,
* as carrying fir, larch, aspen, and other trees, the pro-:
■K.
ope-
ice of
therly
that
lions,
pro-:
iluce of bolh Asia and Amenca, from the Polar basin
through the outlet into the northern ocean." The
* puzzling' diagram, as Phoca terois it, as well as the
remarks he makes on the reviewer's ingenuity, in hav-
ing so happily * assisted ' the reader in the explanation
of the notions he entertained on this interesting sub-
ject, I do not deem it necessary to repeat here. Phoca
continues : " Having, for the reasons before given, pre-
sumed, that there is a circumvolving current in the
Arctic sea, from west to east, but southerly withal^ it
leads me to inquire into the probable effect of it, and
the winds together, upon floating masses of ice.
" In the first place, (let the ice be formed where it
may) its general direction will in all probability be from
west to east, with a ter-dency at the same time to set
to the southward, too strong to be counteracted by the
force of any winds from that quarter: its bulk imder
being greater than that above the surface.
" If we cast our eyes on a chart of the north Polar
regions, no opening is seen for the egress of ice to the
southward, out of the ' Polar basin,' from Norway and
Lapland to the eastward, a^ong the whole coast of
Asia, till we come to Behring's Strait. Through this
strait it does not appear at all probable that much of
the ice can pass, v^n account of its comparative small
extent ; and the depth of water being perhaps insuffi-
cient to float the bodies of greatest magnitude. There
may also be * a trifling current,' as I suppose ; or one
of the * greatest violence,' as the Quarterly Reviewer
supposes, running in from the Pacific, to oppose its
passage through the Strait.
" From Behring's Strait, then, all along the coast of
America, we find no opening for the ice to escape till
we get to 'Baffin's Sea!' and Davis's Strait. Through
Mr
i 1?
■'<•'
30
dhis Strait, if there be an uninterrupted communication^
it is not unfair to pi^sume that immense quantities
wculd be carried by a current 'running perpetually
with a velocity, as it is stated, of four, and sometimes
of iCTen five miles an hour f I am, however, inclined
to think, that either from the interruption of lands, or
shoals, between Greenland and America, a comparative
small quantity passes from the ' Polar basin' through
Davis'S Strait ; and that much of the ice, as well as
currents, may have Hudson's Bay for their origin. If
any Obstruction do exist to the free egress of ice
through Davis's Strait, the consequence must be a
vast accumulation of it, in a mass more or less conso-
lidated, from about Nova Zembla, all the way to the
eastward, as far as Greenland, and extending north-
ward from every part of the coasts of Asia and A? re-
rica, at least to the parallel of latitude in which u^
north 'point of Greenland may lie. For whatever
masses of ice cannot pass through Davis's Strait must
be pressed continually by others,, brought from the
westward and northward, by the circumvolving cur^
rent, alonf, the north part of the more connected ice.
" If its progress to the southward, through Davis's
Strait, were not somehow impeded, it would pass through.
If impeded in its <:ottrse to the southward (let the im-
pediment be what it may), it is yet still more impeded
in its progress to the eastward, by the west side of
Greenland ; and therefore must accumulate against
this solid ban-ier, as far at least to the northward as
Greenland extends. Then, and not till then, can ice
of any comparative quantity drive further to the east-
ward, or find any passage down to the southward.
All the ice farthest to the northwar-d of Greenland is
tijuBn at liberty to mov« on towards Spitsbergen ; whilst
m
t!ie ice that may he in motion dosest in with the land,
when rounding the nortti^east part of Greenland, mil
take a tui^ to the southward, and in towards the coast
withal ; because it will be within the influence of an
eddy, that must necessarily be produced in the stream
of waters passing nearest to the north-east part of that
land. There it must collect, and if it consolidate,
extend to the siiores of Iceland, or even Spdtzbergen ;
or else ' burst its letters,' as it is said to have done
lately, axid drift away to the southward, iiato the At*
lantic. '
" This is sufficient lo account for the ice between
Greenland and Spitzbergen having a general ra.ove-
^nentto the south-west. And there is the same i-ea-
8on to suppose, that the ice nearest to tlae north-east
and east coast of Spitzbergen, has skso a similar mxwe-
ment. But it will not warrant the conclnsion, ^of there
being a carrent in the same direction, aUt amy conside-
rable distance to ihe : northward and eastward of
Spitzbergen. On the contrary, it seems most probable,
that any masses of ice found m that direction, to the
northward of 82" or 83% will be more within the influ-
ence of the general ciroumvolving current ; and there-
fore make an east-sa lerly drift towards l*^ova
Zembla, and perhaps clear of its NE. point. Green-
kvid and Spitiibergen, being situated so much further
■ (J the northward than any other known land in the
* relic regions, form an impenetrable barrier agadnst
the movement, to the eastward, cf any ice but what
may be to the northward oS them both.
** Much of this northernmost surplus ice finding its
way lo the southward, is one reason why it seems very
likely, that ice in the greatest quantity, and most com-
pact, will be fo4ind from about Nova Zembla, all along
'M
>i ',
36
»
1^
the coasts of Asia and America, and extending to the
northward as far, generally, as the noj^th part of
Greenland; and that, perhaps, less and less ice will
be found to the northward of its parallel, as the Pole is
approached. That is, adopting the opinion that the
ice is first produced near the surrounding lands, and
accumulated afterwards at sea, so as to extend its sur-
face from those lands northerly till it reaches the pa-
rallel of the north point of Greenland, which the surplus
ice must roundj before it can pass into the Atlantic, if
Davis's Strait be obstructed. ..j.I
" Greenland and Spitzbergen forming so powerful a
bar to the progress of the ice to the eastward, with the
circumvol i*'^ current, renders it extremely probable
that there is . ays less ice between Nova Zembla and
Spitzbergen than any where else in the same parallel j
and perhaps still less, the nearer the Pole in summer, )\[i
" Whether the ice during the winter encompasses the
Pole or not, can only be matter of conjecture ; and, in
all probability, the fact will never be decided by man.
In that season, if the cold is intense in proportion to
the nearness to the Pole, it is possible the ice may ad-
vance to it. But yet, as it is more probably drifted
out of the * Polar basin,' as fast as it collects, to the
northward of Greenland, it seems more reasonable to
conclude that it seldom reaches beyond the latitude of
82° or 83°, in any very extensive or consolidated bodies,
all the year round. On this ground, for one, rests the
opinion I hold in common with the writer of the article
in question, of the probability of the vicinity of the Pole
being free of ice in the summer ; not, however, as a con-
sequence of there being no land there, but whether
there shall be any land or not. For I have supposed
it likely, that the temperature of the atmosphere, in the
39
con-
lether
)Osed
n the
•Arctic regions, sometimes may exceed 32°; and the
more, perhaps, the nearer the Pole is approached.
First, because there may be less ice, for the reasons I
have given. — And if there be ice, there will probably be
a warmer atmospheric temperature, to dissolve it, at the
"Pole itself, than any where else to the southward of it,
as far as 80° or 75° : because, when the sun's rays first
strike the Pole, they will be felt there incessantly for
six months ; but with what force and effect, we have
yet to learn. On all other parallels, in proportion to
their distances from the Pole, the duration of the sun's
influence will be shorter. And though the sun's power,
during the periods they feel it, may perhaps be greater
than at the Pole, yet being interrupted whilst he is below
the horizon, it is perhaps probable, on the whole^ that
the greatest effect of the sun's heat may be at the Pole ;
as, there, he is above the horizon for six months ; in
the latitude of 84°, about five months; and in 78^,
about four months only at a time.
" We are next to inquire, what facility the late dis-
appearance of the ice from the east coast of Old Green-
land offers — first, for attempting a direct passage over
the Pole; and secondly, the more circuitous one, along
the northern coast of America, into the Pacific.
" As to the first, according to the view I have taken of
the subject, it appears to me that the facility this event
offers for attempting a direct passage over the Pole,
would be very nearly the same, whether more or less ice
be collected, not only on the eastern coast of Old Green-
land, but all round it, and even between it and Iceland,
and towards Spitzbergen. That is, provided the attempt
is to be made, as it is to be hoped it will be, to the east-
ward of Spitzbergen; because, for the reasons I have
4ofiered, it is probable the least quantity of ice will be
i
40
found thercj clear of the land. At all events, whatever
masses may be found there, they will m all prohabiHty
be of less magnitude, and more detached from each
other, because the space for them to more in is
least confined. If any of the vessels fitting out be
destined to take this route, the probability is, that gf
they advance beyond Vie latitude of 82" or 83* north,
the ice will less and less impede their progress to the
Pole ; amd to reach it will perhaps be the least difficult
part of the enterprise. To the northward of 82" or 83%
up to the Pole, it is likely that the weather in the sum*
mer will be for the most part fine, but hazy generally.
Thick fogs will be frequent. The winds are likely to
be moderate, shifting often round from north to east,
by south, to west, and north again, but prevailing
chiefly from the eastward and northward. Jf our
Polar navigator pass the Pole without any great di^
ficulty, and find the true south course he has steered
to be on or near the 170° west meridian, and so leading
him towards Behring's Strait, he will, in all probability,
soon get to the southward as far as 80^, or perhaps 78%
where it is as probable he will find his further progress
stopped by ia*. perhaps impenetrable. . .
*' From this part of the expedition, therefore, / see no
very reasonable ground for entertaining * lively hopes,'
that a practicable passage for ships will be discovered
into the Pacific, though there does not seem to be the
least doubt of there being one for water andjish.
" As to the second, viz. * the more circuitous pas*
sage, along the north coast of America into the Pacific^'
the prospect of success is still more unfavorable than the
other ; because the navigators are destined, in the first
place, * to struggle against the ice, currents, and tides,
in Davis's Strait, and on the east coast of America^
;i
41
which the writer of the article I have been examining
tells us himself * are of course never free from moun-
tains and patches of ice ;' and to which he attributes
the failure in every attempt, either to make this {very)
passage, or to * ascertain its impracticability;' so thpt
the highest point former navigators ever reached is the
arctic circle, or at most the 67th parallel !' But even
allowing that the present adventurers do reach the
north-east point of America, and discover a passage
through what is * gratuitously called Baffin's Bay,'
they will then have to make no less than one hundred
degrees of westing, most probably through immense
fields of ice, fixed, or moving with the circumvolving;
current as well as the winds, both prevailing in a ge-
neral direction from west to east, against them. If
there be any ground to hope that a practicable passage
for ships can be discovered between the Pacific and the
Atlantic, along the north coast of America, the chances
are, that it will be done (if ever it be) from Behring's
Strait to the eastward ; and therefore, it is much more
likely to be accomplished by the Russian officers, said
to, be making the attempt this year, than by ours ;
because most of the obstacles opposed to the progress
of our navigators^ from east to west, will be in favor
of the Russians the other way."
It appears in the preface to Captain Ross's account
of his unsuccessful Voyage, that as early as the 4th of
December, 1817, he was informed that two ships were
to be sent out to ascertain the existence or non-exist-
ence of a north-west passage. On the 15th of January,
1818, four ships were commissioned, viz. the Isabella,
Alexander,. Dorothea, and Trent; the two former for
the north-west, and the latter two for the Polar expedi-
tions. On the 16th of April the Isabella and Alex-
Data. F
■t ■■
t- Si
Ml
42
ander reached the Nore, and on tlie 2&th their pilots
quitted them off Cromer. The Dorothea and Trent
joined them at Lerwick on the 1st of May, but did not
accompany them to sea on the 3d. The instructions to
Captain Ross, who commanded the N.W. expedition,
(as exhibited in his account of his Voyage) were dated
on the 31st March, 1818; and from their general
tenor it would seem that the Quarterly Reviewer had
been consulted, and many of his suggestions adopted,
as to the most eligible route to be pursued. The
reviewer denied, or at least doubted the existence of the
land seen by Baffin, and what had been hitherto * gra-
tuitously called Baffin's Bay; ' and assumed the belief of
an open sea to the northward of Davis's Strait, and
the existence of a * perpetual current through that
Strait, from the northward, with a velocity of four, and
sometimes even of five miles an hour.' In conformity
with these assumptions. Captain Ross is instructed, in
tha first place, * to make the best of his way into Davis's
Strait, through which he will endeavor to pass to the
northwardf without stopping on either of its coasts,
unless be should find it absolutely necessary.' The
instructions add — * From the best information we have
been able to obtain, it would appear that a current of
some force runs from the northward towards the upper
part of Davis's Strait, during the summer season, and
perhaps for most part of the winter also. This current,
if it be considerable, can scarcely be altogether supplied
by streams from the land, or the melting of ice ; there
■would therefore seem reason to suppose it may be
derived from an open sea, in which case Baffin's Bay
cannot be bounded by land.' The reviewer supposes,
as we have seen in a former page, that the north-east
point of America may be situated in latitude from 70"
it
tu 7*2° N., and says, that all former attempts at a north
west passage failed, because none of them were ever
made near that part of the coast ; but he apprehends
difficulty in approacliing it by way of narrow SlraitSy as
' they are generally choked up with ice, which incon-
venience would be obviated by standing first to the
northward to the latitude of 7!" or 72°.' Agreeably to
this, it is suggested ' in the instructions to Captain
Ross/ as a general observation, that a passage through
fields of ice is most likely to be found where the sea
is deepest^ and least connected with land ; as there is
reason to suppose that ice is found to be more abundant
near the shores of the continent and islands^ in narrow
straits, and deep bays.' By the by, I wonder
whether this observation (which is really a very sound
one) suggested itself to the person (whoever he was)
who drew up the instructions for Captain Buchan, to
pursue his course in the * Dorothea and Trent, in a di*
rection as due north as may be found practicable
through the Spitzbergen seas.' If it had, that officer
would in all probability have been more fortunate ink
making his attempt to the eastward of Spitzbergen, for
the reasons given by Phoca, and which the reviewer
himself must admit to be correct, even on his own prin-
ciple ; though to be sure the reviewer says, * The fai-
lure of the Polar expedition was owing to one of those
accidents to which all sea voyages are liable, more es-
pecially when to the ordinary sea risk is superadded
that of a navigation among fields and masses of ice/
Captain Ross is further instructed, after reaching * that
part of the sea to the northward of Davis's Strait'
which, if reports may be relied on, is generally free
from * field ice,' to stand Weil to the northward before he
edge away to thr westward, in order to get a good
11
i
i :
offinj^, in rounding the north-east point of the continent
of America ; whose latitude has not been ascertained,
but which, if a conjecture may be hazarded, from what
is known of the northern coast of that coniment, may
perhaps be found in or about the 72nd degree of latitudt .*
* In the event of his being able to succeed in rounding
this point, and finding the sea open,' he is instructed
• carefully to avoid coming near the coasts where lie would
be most likely to be impeded by fixed or floating ice ;
but, keeping well to the northward, and in deep water,
to make the best of his way to Behring's Strait.'
After these expeditions had sailed, two more articles
appeared on the question of this north-west passage ;
one in the Quarterly Review, No. 36, for June, 1818,
in favor of its accomplishment of course; and the
other in the Edinburgh, No. 69, for the same month,
quite as full of that * scepticism,' which its more or-
thodox opponent approves of — not in * matters of reli-
gion' — but of * science, which, by provoking inquiry,
frequently leads to the detection of error, and always
stimulates to the discovery of truth.'
As some passages in both these rival reviews appear
to have occasioned a more than common quantum of
this laudable scepticism on the mind of Phoca, he was
induced to publish another letter in the Naval Chro-
nicles for September and October, before the two ex-
peditioi 3 returned j being * An Attempt to prove, from
Circumstances and Facts stated by Philosophers, that
a Passage for Ships from the * Polar Basin ' to the Pa-
cific through Behring's Strait, must be impracticable.'
"Mr. Editor, Hull, 5th Sept. 1818.
" Locke tells us, that * false or doubtful positions,
relied upon as unquestionable maxims, keep those in
45
the dark from truth who build on them ; arid to be in-
different which of two opinions is true, is the ri^^ht tem-
per of mind that preserves it from being imposed upon,
and disposes it to examine with that indifferency until
it has done its best to find out the truth ; and this is the"
only direct and safe way to it.' •
*' In examinin{]f subjects of science and philosophy,
as well as of religion, this indifferency is particularly
requisite ; and the mind should be entirely divested of
that prejudice by which individuals as well as parties
are so liable to be misled. •
" On a subject of the former kind, w'hich has for the
last few months attracted so much of the superficial
notice and curiosity of the public, and perhaps the
serious consideration of a few, it seems peculiarly ne-
cessary to have the mind thus prepared for its discus-
sion — I mean the pending expeditions to explore the
arctic regions. Some points connected with them, sd
strongly asserted, and attempted to be proved by one
set of philosophers, and as strongly opposed, and
denied by another, seem calculated to distract the
judgment, even of those who happen to be prejudiced
in favor of either party, without convincing any who
think the matter worthy of their attention, and feel dis-
posed, without bias, to inquire into the solidity of the
arguments used by either, to prove their assertions and
conjectures well founded, or stated facts to be true^
which appear discordant. •
" The grand and chief point, on which these philo-*
sophers are at issue, appears to be, whether Behring's
Strait * is merely the entrance of a vast bay or inland
sea?* or * the separation of two vast continents V Each
seeming to rest their opinion, as to the success or failure^
of the expeditions, mainly on that question. ^
lid
4G
It'
** Captain Burney, in his Memoir, proposed to show,
that * there does not exist satisfactory proof of such
separation ; and, secondly, from peculiarities which have
been observed, there is cause to suppose the fact to be
otherwise; that is to say, that Asia and America are
contiguous, and parts of one and the same continent.' j
" As it is clear that we have no positive proof of the
junction of the two continents of Asia and America,
let us examine the nature of those peculiarities from
which Captain Burney concludes * there is cause to sup«
pose them contiguous, and one and the same.' rnj:
" These peculiarities were — First, *The sudden dis-
appearance of tides, on arriving in Behring's Strait. — •
Secondly, There was little or no current, nor could it
be perceived that the tide either rose or fell. — Thirdly,
That to the northward of the latitude of 68° 4^' N. the
soundings were observed to decrease.' It will then be
proper to inquire how far these * peculiarities ' autV 'se
the supposition? And lastly, whether the very sar ^^j-
tuliarities could exist if the continents do not join ?
• " The philosophers of the north argue in support of
the supposition, chiefly on the grounds stated by Cap-
tain Burney. Those of the south not only seem to dis-
credit the existence cf the * peculiarities ' observed per-
sonally by Captain Burney himself, but on an hypothe-
sis of their own, as well as from some of the facts stated
by that officer, they endeavor to establish their opinion
of the separation of the two continents, and the exist-
ence of a perpetual current from the Pacific thro»)gh
Behring's Strait into the Arctic Sea ; finally declaring,
that they *have less apprehension of the passage through
Behring's Strait being closed against our navigators
(except by ice) than of the difficulties they may have to
encounter on this side of America.' , ^
i '\
47
ejcist-
ro»)g;h
aring,
rough
ators
ve to
i t-^t
** On the subject of currents Jn general, and particii*
larly what is called the gulf-stream, as well as tkis sup-
posed one through Behrings Strait, as asserted in the
Quarterly Review before, I was induced to make a few
observations on the 27th of February last. On these
questions, therefore, I do not mean to enlarge here ;
though, regarding what has been further said, in that
Review for June last, on the extraordinary effects of
currents, and their assumed direction, I may perhaps
offer a few remarks as I go along.
** The philosophers of the north have not considered
it worth while to notice these points, and only observe,
that * the notion of a stream rushing beneath a frozen
arch cannot be admitted.' But to return to the ques-
tion of the separation or junction of Asia and America*
Jf Behring's Strait is * merely the entrance of a vast
bay or inland sea, ' the failure o'" both expeditions, as
well by way of the Pole as Davis's Strait, must be cer-
tain, even were they to surmount all the difficulties in
their progress by either route ; the object of both being
to pass through that Strait in'.o the Pacific.
" But even if Beh ring's Strait should be ' the sepa-
ration of two great continents/ a further anii no less
important question arises, viz. Whether another local
impediment does not exist, which must, of necessity, be
as impassable as land, at least for ships^ and therefore
occasion some, if not all, of those very peculiarities,
from the personal observation and knowledge of which.
Captain Burney concludes 'there is cause to suppose that
Asia and America are contiguous, and parts of one and
the same continent.'
'* Feeling no bias towards the opinions or the suppo-
sitions of either party, and regardless of the fact, either
of the junction or separation of Asia and America, my
4«
m
U'
object in. this. examination is to attempt to prove, asfar
as kno^vnfacfs, qnd.pth^pcircnm^tanc^s^ stated and
agreed in by both parties, can prcvCj that the passage
for ships from the Polar Sea into ii.° Pacific, by way of
Behring's ^Strait, is as ivipraQticablq ,^^ if ^s^a and Ame-
rica were known to join^ ■jrhojigh W ^^ P?''h2ips. war-
ranted in giving full crecJi|.to^,tl?e,acco!qi|)t Captain ^u|-
ney gives pf the ' p^c\||ijarities^^ h^ Qbs^rye,d;jet it n^ay
be as well to e3f,amii^g„^fiQ„(^ts s^fited jiji (JJook's ?J)4
Clarke's V9pg^s, injvHPP/^fj; 9,())is^.^:yi#^c^';;a^ w^U
as some 9/ the 9ir^!^no|s^pcef,, ^^tivflejj^ \^f^^ v Qi^^r^
terly Revie^w in.;:efut£^ti(^n,p|it.,^,^ .. . . .-■ _,;
^ "The first^.fi^ct potiqed^by C^^ptain JBurney is vthe
sudden dis?Lpp^ar9.ppe of ^ tides pn arriving in Behrjpg's
St^mi ^^/^^^tj(i|jS^pQpd|jjJ)i|^ prno qpfr
rent ; no|; cpi^ld ^iji^^ perceiyed that the tide either rogp
prfelUf^
?c . >ty •;Ji^*> mifffn lUsii vf-^v vjlsif^a»'«j ^i
■(mU
f ,-; — tc >rw;ji^*> mifun lujji YT^jv vuKi^^anj ^' u^im
" In CjarKe's Voyage it is stated, that 'on Thur^qajy
the l§t of July, Mr. Bligh, the master of the Resolution,|
^jJ^villg. moored a small keg with the deep sea lead in
75 fathoms water (oflf Thad^us' Noss), forud that the
ship made a course north by east about half a mile an
hpur.' This was attributed by h'.n * to the effect of the
spMtherly swells rather than to any current.' ;
,,/* In Cook's Voyage, when at anchor in G fathoms,
with the Peaked Mountain, over Cape Prince of Wales,
bearing S. 10'' W., on the 1 Ith of August, it is remark-
ed, * Weperceived little or no current, nor did we perceive
that the tide either rose or fell.' Again, on the 21st of
August, in lat. 69" 30', it is said, * During the afternoon
Wf had but little wind, and the master was sent in a
boat tp observe whether there was anv current, but he
found none.' In Clarke's Voyage, when off Cape East,
ijjj.th^ 5th p^f sfi^ly, jt jisj.ema^ked^ VWe wer^ now cpp-
49
W
vinred of our having been under the influence of a
strong current, setting to the north, which had occa-
sioned an error of 20 miles in the computation of the
latitude at noon. At the time of our passing the Strait
last year, we experienced a similar effect.' On Monday,
the 12th of July, in latitude 69** 49* N. within the Strait,
on the Asiatic side, it is remarked : — ' On examining the
current, we found it to set north-west, at the rate of
half a mile an hour.' And finally, in describing the
local circumstances generally, within the Strait, the ac-
count of the tide or current is thus given: — * We found
but little tide or current, and that little came from the
westward ;' that is, athwart the Strait's mouth, from the
coast of Asia towards America, and neither into njr out
of the Strait. These extracts all prove the fact of there
being little or no current within the Strait ; and also, that
there was generally very little more outside, or even
at the entrance. For the set of 20 miles observed on
the 5th of July, though called * strong* can barely de-
serve the term ; at all events, it does not convey the
idea of ci * violent current rushing in with the greatest
velocity.'
" The writer of an article in the Quarterly Review for
June last, concludes, (and hypothetically enough) that
because there were tides so strong near the Aleutian
Islands (at least 5 or 600 miles off) as to run at the rate
of seven or eight miles an hour, the water * must be
carried to the northward by these extraordinary tides ;'
conceiving that these tides, and the ^creat body of the
northern Pacific, which he asserts ^ all navigators have
found to be in motion towards Behring's Strait, ' * are
the strongest indications of an open and uninterrupted
passage for water (uninterrupted e.vcept by ice) through
that strait into the Polar sea ; and a decisive argument
Data.
G
50
1^
against any such bay as Captain Burney has imagined
to be formed by the junction of the two continents of
Asia and America.'
*'That these strong tides, observed among the Aleutian
Islands, extend to the northward as far as Behring*s
Strait, seems to be only an imaginary assumption, and
till facts have proved that such currents are known to
exist, • rushing in to the funnel-shaped mouth of the
Strait,' it is unnecessary to reply to the question,
* What becomes of all the water carried to the north-
ward by these extraordinary tides V If, indeed, such
currents were known to exist, * rushing in to the funnel-
shaped mouth of the Strait,' they would doubtless oc-
casion a rise and fall, no less remarkable than that which
takes place * in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of
Tonquin.' But facts and experiments having shown
that there is little or no current either within, or out-
side* near the entrance of Behring's Strait; consequently,
no such effects are produced on the waters within the
Strait, for this simple reason — the want of such a cause,
as effects the ' remarkable rise and fall in the Bay of
Fundy and the Gulf of Tonquin.'
*f' " It is therefore needless to have recourse to the chi-
merical supposition of the existence of a communication,
under the ice, between the Pacific and the Polar sea,
in order to account for the well authenticated fact ^ of
there being little rise or fall of water within Behring's
Strait.
*' Besides, if the temperature of the water in the Pa-
cific be (as I presume we may conclude it to be) warmer
than that within Behring's Strait, it must of course
and necessity flow in (if it does at all) at the surface, as
I observed before when treating this subject last Feb-
mary ; and the philosophers of the north have told us
ot
i^ince, in the Edinburgh Review for June last, that ' when
water grows warmer it expands, and consequently
floats incumbent, communicating; afterwards its surplus
heat, with extren.e slowness, to the mass below,'
" Though such sage authority would alone seem suf-
ficient to prove that any little current there may be
from the Pacific into Behring's Strait, must flow in at
the surface (as what little there was did in/ac/), and not
underneath, it is, however, as well to try how far the
philosophers of the south are borne out by facts, in as-
serting so positively that * all navigators have found
the great body of the northern Pacific to be in motion
towards Behring's Strait ; and that a current sets in
that direction along the coast of America on one side,
and those of Japan and Kamtschatka on the other.'
They acknowledge, however, at the same time, * that
as the observations of the currents on these coasts have
been few, and the currents observed might therefore
be local and partial, they mean not wholly to rest their
argument on them, but to have recourse to other and
less eqmvoc^\ proofsj for the general umvement of the
Pacific towards the north.' They consider this * to
he indisputably proved by the ii nense quantities of
drift wood, thrown up on the souiuern shores of the
Aleutian lalands, consisting of fir, larch, aspen, and
other trees, the pommon produce of the two continents
of Asia and America.' But as a proof of the more
southerly parts of the northern Pacific partakin of
the same motion, they present to notice ' p* curious fact
mentioned by Stephen Glottof, that among other float*
ing bodies thrown up on the Aleutian Islands, is fou u
the true camphor wood, and another sort, very white,
soft, and sweet-scented.' t,^ »
^,. " Nothing is more possible than that this camphor
) !
52
^ood might come from the Asiatic islands, or some
parts of tropical Asia ; for the south-west monsoon
in the Indian and China seas is known to blow from
May till October, through the sea of Japan, and even
up to the head of the Gulf of Tartary, occasioning
strong currents to the northxvardt smd which might carry
the camphor wood through the sea of Japan, the Straits
of Matsmai, or Perouse, and among the Kurile Islands ;
from whence a south-west swell, with gales of wind
from that quarter and the southward, might drift it
upon the Aleutian Islands, without assuming a conti-
nuation of the general current so much further to the
northward.
*' Perouse, after passing Tobaco Ximc, about the
end of April, says, * a strong current to the northward
was experienced.' On the 6th of April, near the
Island of Kumi, he found ' the current set to the north-
ward with extreme rapidity,^ When at anchor in the
bay of Ternai, on the 22d '^f June, he observes, * The
ebb and flood have no effect upon the direction of th^
current half a league in the offing : what we felt at ouir
anchorage varied only from south-west to south-east,
and its greatest velocity was only a mile an hour.' The
wind was constantly from the southward during his
stay in the Gulf of Tartary, till the 2d of August,
when he sailed from the Bay de Castries.
" After passing the strait which bears his name, we
find no mention of any Cu. rent to the northward ; but,^
on the contrary,'oii the 10th of August, when off Cape
Crillon, he says, * We found ourselves a little to the south-
ward of our reckoning, but only ten miles.' When near
the Kurile Islands, he remarks, * Our observations on
the 23d informed us that we had been drifted to the
westward t forty miles in two days ; ad we ascertained
5.1
the accuracy of these obaervations on the 24th, by setting
the same points we had observed on the 21st, and find-
ing them exactly where they ought to be, according to our
longitude observed/ On the 81st he found he had
been carried * ten leagues to the south'east^ On his
passage from the Kurile Islands to Kamtschatka, no
mention is made of a current to the northward. It appears
probable therefore, from the facts stated in the voyage
of this navigator t that the northerly set of current, even
during the south-west monsoon^ does not extend further
(except in the Gulf of Tartary) than the latitude of 46** or
47° N. And by referring to Clarke's or King's Voyage,
we shall find how it set on the east side of Nipon.
It is thus described : * On the 1st of November, at a
time when we were 13 leagues to the eastward of White
Point, the current set at the rate of three miles an hour
to the N.E. by N. On the 2d, as we made a nearer
approach to the shore, il continued in a similar A\mc*
tipn, but was augmented in its rapidity io Jive miles ail
hour. As we receued from the coast, it again became
more moderate, and inclined towards the east. On the
3d, at the distance of 60 leagues from the shore, it sol
at the rate of three miles an hour to the £.NkE. i Ok
the two following days, it turned to the south warrf^
and at 120 leagues from the coast its direction was
south-easty and its rate did not exceed one mile a»d
a half an hour. It again on, the 6lh aad?7t(i shifted to
the N.E., and its force diminished gradually till the Sttii
at which time we could no longer perceiyi& any ourrenttfo
?" It may therefore be said[,thatithe nottk^east ourrenk
does not generally set further to the nortliward,> at amy
time of the year, in the western part of the* noitherii
Pacific, than the pjar^le^s of 46° or 47°;daidin allpro^
bjaJbiJity not so fiii^.f 9;^iYi owi «i ^^inti vm* Mw^m^^
X
54
II'
Hi '
('i
** On the 2d of July, Captain Krusenstern, when in
latitude 34° 3' N. and longitude 190° 8' W. says : * By
observation, we found we had been carried by a current
S7 miles to the N.E. by N. in the space of three days*
On the 29th of June, the last day on which we had
observed, the current ran 13 miles to the south.'
" In this part of the Pacific the current may fairly be
supposed to be itrongeat in its northerly direction at
this season; because the sun being in that hemisphere,
all the winds in the southern Pajoific blow from the 8.£. ;
those in the western and north-western part of that
ocean, rounding gradually, in the vicinity of New Hol-
land and New Guinea, to the southward, and S.W.
north of the Equator, where they are incorporated with
the S.W. monsoon, which then blows from the Indian
find China seas. Yet, even here, the current ran at the
rate of a little more than half a mile an hour ; and
indeed, as it set * to the south, with a greater velocity;
three days before, it may be termed variable, rather
than * perpetual.'
'* From the month of September or October, till the
month of March, ' the sfreat body of water of the north-
em Pacific' appears still less likely to be ' in a state of
perpetual motion towards Behring's Strait ;' at least all
that part of it which is to the northward of 20° N. ; be-
cause winds more from the N.W. than the S.W. prevail
generally quite across the ocean, as far at least to the
southward as that latitude. The sun being then in the
southern hemisphere, tli© N.E. trade wind is rarely
steady beyond the latitude of 15° or 16° N. in the
neighbourhood and westward of the Sandwich Is*
lands ; and, eastward of them, perhaps not so far. In
the north-west part of the Pacific the winds in these
months (from October till March) areall from the N.E.,
55
i I
generally from about the latitude of 40* N. and the
coast of Nipon, down to the Equator ^ and the more
northerly, as it is approached. And from the Equator
to the latitude of at least 16° or 18° S. the N.W. mon-
soon in this rainy season there prevails almost as steady
to meridians beyond the Society Islands, as it does from
Madagascar . j Endeavor Strait.
*' Navigators know (or ought to know) that currents
depend generally on the direction given to prevalent
winds by the power of the sun ; therefore, as the winds
in this ocean are locally variable and periodical, though
chiefly so to the southward of the Equator, the currents
likewise must be periodically changeable, to the north-
ward or southward, though having ?l general tendency
to the westward, on both sides the Equator, at all times ;
but especially north of the Line, as far as the tropic of
Cancer ; and such we find to be the case from the testi-
mony of navigators.
" After Perouse quitted Kamtschatka, in the month of
October, in running to the eastward, in about the paral-
lel of 37^° N. as far as the longitude of 180°, he experien-
ced strong gales from the south-westward ; and he says,
* the birds appeared to me to come from the south, driven
by the violence of the wind ;' and, * since quitting Kamts-
chatka we had constantly a very heavy swell : at one
time the sea washed away our jolly-boat, which was
lashed to the gangway, and we shipped more than a
ton of water.'
" Nothing is more possible than that winds like these
and a heavy swell would drive the * camphor wood,*
or other floating bodies, upon or even beyond the
Aleutian Islands, towards Behring's Strait ; without
supposing the existence of a * perpetual current,' so far
in that direction, to account for the fact And though it
i
■[ml
ki;i
56
I
I ;.
„ I
is very possible that all the drift wood spoken of ' does
not stop at the Aleutian Islands,' and that some, taken
up by Captain Clarke in Behring's Strait, might have
come from thence ; yet, as the Quarterly Reviewers
* have not been able to trace the * camphor wood' beyond
the Aleutian Islands,' it is a circumstance rather
against, than in favor of, their hypothesis. For as the
camphor wood was a floating body too, as well as the
other drift wood, and the famous * log of mahogany,*
which they traced so marvellous a distance ; whatever
earned the one, might have carried the other. It is
therefore just as possible, that these trees of various
kinds, the productions * of North America, and north, as
well as tropical Asia,' may be driven by tides, winds,
and swell together, in all directions, among the Aleu-
tian Islands, and to the south, as well as to the north.
And this in fact we find to be the case ; for both Cap-
tains Cook and Clarke make mention of * pine trees
being driven upon the Sandwich Islands,' which in
all probability came from places -either to the N.E. or
N.W. of those islands.
"Captain Lisianski 'found lying on the beach' of
the small island which bears his name, ' several large
trunks of trees, the largest of which measured twenty-
one feet in circumference at the root ; and he says, * they
were like the red-wood tree, that grows on the banks of
the Columbia river * in America ;' and if they ever grew
there, they must have had the assistance of a southerly
and westerly cun'ent to enable them to reach Lisianski
Island, in defiance of the northerly one, which the
Quarterly Reviewers suppose must have carried the
Mog of mahogany' all the way from the Isthmus of
Darien, all along the coast of America, 'through
Bebring's Strait, and thence along the north coast of
67
America, and down^ Baffin's Sea' to Disco. But indeed
Lisianski, when be passed between Agiiian and Tinian
on the Idth of November, Says, *From Sitca (on the
uorlh-w68t coast of 'America) to the Ladrone Islands
we bad the'Ctiiv6nts> from NwE. to the S.W. The last,
whitch was tfaei strongest^ 1 carried ns 140 miles to the
s$k4tkwardi and2iO(^Uniheiwe^w}>rd, Its force was very
^leat'nebbT^be tropic, but on. o^iproaching the Marian
laland9kv>it shifi^d toi< thet westward. ;t Though this
paAsag&'is oddlytrworded^'^Tetat seems to imply that
J|he<curr9at6 w<er6^foimd>toU^;frora the norths-east
towards* the« 80uth-»we9t,'iElll titeway from Sitca to the
L<adrone Islands^ loA iviro/i i<>' Hui^ii'o/txmj ►vr- -i., . ■,
V I »^ The Quarterly Retiewens, howetei', stedfastly belie v-
ing m the existence of thir per[)etual current, of their
awH creatiorii infer that^ logs and trees of the preceding
year'sdrift had passed throi^h the Strait (Behring's) with
the ice into the * Polar basin,' and attempt to prove
that * the ice, like the drift wood, has a progressive mo-
tion to the northward ;' because on the 17th of August
Captain Cook fell in with it in lat. 70** 41' N. and
Captain Clarke, * on the 6th of July following, in 67**
N.' Now, as far as I can see, this does not seem to
prove any ^hing more than what the facts themselves
show — namely, the different situations in which the ice
was found at two distinct periods in diffei^ent years. It
may indeed be presumed, perhaps, that, because Captain
Cook fell in with it a montli later one year than Cap-
tain Clarke did another, the sun's power might have
dissolved it further la the northward; or, that the pre-
ceding winter might have been less sevsre,; and therefore
the ice had not extended so far to the southward. But
with, respect to the movement of the ioe itsflf, to the
•f
H
58
fiorihtvard in either ye.ir, the words of both Captains
Cook and Clarke are expressly to the contrary.
"Captain Cook says, on the 21st of August, 'We
were at present in lat. 69° 32' N. and in longitude 195"
48' E., and as the main ice was not far from us, it is
evident that it now covered a part of the sea, wliich a few
days before had beenyree from it, and that it extended
further towards the south than where we first fell in with
it.' Certainly it did, no less than sixty-nine miles ; for
he fell in with it in lat. 70° 41' N. ^
" Captain Clarke says, in July the following year,
• We had traversed this sea since the 8th of the month,
and that, in lines parallel with the course we now steered ;
the first time, we were unable to penetrate so far north
as the second, by eight leagues, and that this last time
a compact body of ice had been observed, commonly
five leagues further south than before. This clearly
proves that the vast and solid fields which we saw were
decreasing or moveable.' Again, in the year 1778^
* we did not discover the ice till we advanced to the
- latitude of 70°, on the 17th of August, and we then
, found it in compact bodies, which extended as far as
the eye could reach ; and of which the whole or a part
was moveable, since, by its drifting down upon us (from
the northward), we narrowly escaped being hemmed
in between it and the land.' * On the 26th of August,
in lat. 69j° N. and longitude 184° E., we were ob-
structed by it in such quantities, that we could not pass
either to the north or west. In our second attempt we
never had an opportunity of approaching the continent
of Asia higher than 67° of latitude, nor that of,America
in any part, except a few leagues between the latitude
68° and 68° 20' N. But in the last attempt, we were
obstructed by it three degrees further to the southward,^
ii
** From these passages it is clear, that these navigators
«lid find the movtahle ice, in fact, further and further to
the southward, from some cause, during the time they
were among it, in both years. Their judgment on the spot
was, that it moved in that directiotiy and in this they
could not be mistaken with respect to the ice they saw
nearest the ships ; for it compelled them to recede from
it further to the southward. If it did not move (south-
ward), it must have extended itself, even in these
summer months, by augmentation, hoi\\ in quantity and
superficies, from some (perhaps fixed) mass beyond it
to the northward, which they could not see ; a point
which I shall leave the philosophers of the south to de-
cide for themselves, but which 1 believe to be most im-
probable, and those of the north will of course pronounce
impossible : for they have just told us, what I am sure 1
little suspected, and I dare say will be no less surpris-
ing to our arctic navigators when they return, that * the
fields or shoals of saline ice which during the greater
part of the year covey the arctic seas, are annually
formed and destroyed, and during the thaw, which com-
monly lasts about three months, the heat of the solar
rays is adequate to the dissolution of all the ice pro-
duced in the course of the autumn, the winter, and the
spring ! !' So that as our polar navigators fortunately
have been in, those arctic seas during these 'three
months of thaw,' they will nqt have been at all im-
peded by * the fields or shoals of saline ice,' as they are
' all thus annually formed and destroyed ;' but will merely
have to work Tom Cox's Traverse among the icebergs.
And, as the philosophers of the south inform us, that
* the sea through which these massy mountains float,
must be open, -and where they can float a ship will find
no difficulty in sailing,' they must have made great
11,
m ■■'. ■
00
I!
r
M
w I ■
progress by this time in a navigation thus cleared so
* completely of all obstruction (at least from ice\ which
the ignorant and unlearned among us have foolishly
supposed to be the most formidable bar to their success.
** Of course, too, none of the ice seen by Captain Cook
and his successors (which the Quarterly Reviewers
term * an impenetrable barrier') could have been of this
* saline' quality; for when they quitted it, the ice re-
mained nearly in the same state as they found it, undis-
solved, and apparently undiminished, at the end of the
summer. What Captain Cook saw on the 17th of
August, in lat. 70° 41' N. is described by him as * per-
fectly impenetrable,' and extended from \V. by S. to
E. by N. as far as the eye could reach. And on the
27th, we are told that * there being little wind, Captain
Cook went in the boat to examine the state of the ice.
He found it was as impracticable for ships to pass it as
if it had been so many rocks. He particularly remarked
that it was all pure transparent ice except the upper
surface, which was rather porous. It seemed to be
composed of frozen snow, and to have been all formed
at sea. None of the productions of the land were found
incorporated or mixed with it. The Captain judged
that the larger pieces reached thirty feet, or more, under
water. He thought it highly improbable that this ice
could have been the production of the preceding win-
ter ; he was rather inclined to suppose it to have been
the production of many winters. It was equally im-
probable, in his opinion, that the little that now remained
of the summer could destroy even the tenth part of what
remained of this great mass, for the sun had already ex-
erted upon it the full force and influence of his rays.
The sun indeed, according to his judgment, contributes
very little towards reducing these enormous masses ;
■f
61
for though that luminary is above the horizon for a
considerable while, it seldom shines out for more than
a few hours at a time, and frequently is not seen for
several successive days." And I dare say, if poor
Captain Cook were alive now, he would still be of the
same opinion. Neither would it be in the power of
the philosophers of the north to make him believe that
to be true, which is cont.*ary to the evidence of his
senses and experience on the spot. And yet those of
the south say, ' it does not appear that Captain Cook
entertained any doubt of a passage through Behring's
Strait, into the Arctic sea.' 1 will not venture to say
that he did entertain doubt, but I will say that itappearsr
evident, on the face of these extracts, that he could not
have entertained the least hope of finding any such
passage.
" Having thus far disposed of the question of ' a
perpetual motion of the great body of the northern Par-
cific towards Behring's Strait,' 'along the coasts of Japan
and Kamstchatka,' let us next see what facts say to
its general direction a)ong the west coast of America. —
It has been shown that, at the entrance of Behring's:
Strait, Captains Cook and Clarke found * very little or
no current.' When at anchor near Sledge Island, Cap-
tain Cook observes, * the tide of flood came from the
eastward, and set to the westward, till between the
hours of ten and eleven o'clock ; from which time, till
two o'clock in the morning, the stream set to the east-
ward, and the water fell three feet : the flood running
both stronger and longer than the ebb, we concluded
there was a westerly current, besides the tide.' Fur-
ther to the southward, off Shoalness, he remarks that
'the tide of flood set to the north, and the ebb t&
the southward,' 'and among the Aleutian Islands
/
62
the tides were strong and regular.' The general set
was W.S.W., and E.N.E., clear of tbcin ; and various
among them, according to the directions of the chan-
nels. Subsequent navigators appear to have found
' them the same, not only there, but every where else
(though setting in directions according to localities),
all along the N.W. coast of America, /row these Islands
as far down to the southward as 40° of latitude. Nor
do any ,of the navigators on that coast (as far I find)
mention the. prevalence of a northerly current at any
time of the year.
'* On the 11th of October, the day Captain Vancou-
ver sailed from Nootka Sound for Monterey, he says,
* when in J 00 fathoms water, by the lead when on the
ground, the vessel seemed to lie as if at anchor.' So
that there was 7io current at all here at that time, and
little or none seems to have been observed all the way
down to Monterey. After quitting that port on the
2nd of December, he observes, on passing the Island of
Guadaloupe on the 8th, * The observation made on
that and the preceding day exactly agreed with the
ship's run by log.' On the 23rd of December, when
in lat. 13° 50' N. and longitude 100° 55' W., Captain
Vancouver says, 'During our passage thus far from
Monterey, it did not appear that we had been much
affected by currents ; the log and observations having
agreed very nearly, and the difference between the lon-
gitude by dead reckoning and that which I considered
to be the true longitude, had not exceeded half a degree ;
the dead reckoning having been in general to the east-
ward of the truth. The wind in the north-western
quarter continued to blow a steady breeze, and as we
advanced to the south-eastward increased in force.'
*From this position, the current set towards the south
(>3
and east, and sometimes to the northward of east (oc-
casioned no doubt by an indraught towards the Gulf
of Panama), particularly near the Island of Cocos, and
from thence to the Galepagos Islands ; but after passing
them^ the currents shifted, and ran to the southward,
and to the westward. I have been tempted to accom-
pany Captain Vancouver thus far down the coast, to
try to discover, if possible, that current on whose sup-
posed existence the philosophers of the south ground
their extraordinary conclusion that the mahogany plank
which the Governor of Disco's table was made of, and
also a tree of logwood found there, * could only have
reached the spot on which they were found, along the
coast of America from the Isthmus of Darien.' How
they got there, God only knows ! But if Captain Van-
couver's account of the currents he met with along that
coast are to be credited, it is impossible they could
have gone thither by the route supposed, or ever have
reached Behring's Strait; even admitting it possible
that these logs had been drifted from the Gulf of Pa-
nama by the equatorial current, quite across the Pacific,
and afterwards driven all the way up to the northward
along the coasts of Nipon and Kamtschatka. Indeed
it seems much more possible, and probable too, that
these very logs of mahogany found their way to Disco
somehow or- o|;her from the Gulf of Mexico. It is very
clear that the gulf-stream might have carried them up
to, or perhaps beyond Newfoundland, from whence, it
is not impossible that by other currents or local tides
they might have got into eddies close in along the coast
of Labrador, and even into Hutlson's-Bay, and out again
through some o^ the openings furthest to the northward,
and so across Davis's Strait to Disco. They might
also, as well as the other log of mahogany * picked up
(34
n
I
J
It
by Admiral Lewenorne,' have been driven from some
part of the northern Atlantic, by southerly gales, and
heavy seas. For, floating at the surface, they would not
feel the influence there of the perpetual underflow from
the north, which brings the icebergs down to the south-
ward, against the heaviest gales, because they are
deeply immersed in it. And if thus driven near the
S.W. part of Greenland, they might be carried by the
eddy and regular tides which have been observed on
the west side of it.
** But even admitting the possibility of these logs
entering Behring's Strait by the marvellous long route
supposed, another obstacle perhaps lies in the way
of our belief of their reaching Disco from thence. It is
true, the philosophers of the south have cleared the
way for them=»at once, by assuming as a fact without
sufficient evidence, that Davis's Strait is open to the
northward because it has been stated that 'a perpetual
current runs there to the southward ; sometimes with a
velocity of four or even of five miles an hour.' This may
be so: but I apprehend that well-established fact and ex-
periment will prove this statement not to be quite correct.
Nor will any seamen who know what a current of five
knots is, believe that such a current can exist where whale
ships can keep on their fishing ground for weeks toge-
ther, without the least difficulty. But, as I observed
before on this subject last February, it is highly pro-
bable, that either from the interruption of lands, or
shoals, between G eenland and America, a compara-
tively small quantity of current passes from the * Polar
basin,' through Davis's Strait, and that much of the
ice, as well as the current, may have Hudson's Bay for
its origin.
" I shall only add here, what the philosophers of the
65
north say to Davis's Strait being open, or closed hy
land to the north. • They are of opinion that ' Baffin's
last voyage showed that Davis's Strait is absolutely
shut all along the north side ; and proved that either
no passage exists on its western coast, or none which
is for the shortest time of the year practicable ;' thus
leaving the poor * log of mahogany' no chance of
having reached Disco that way, from Behring's Strait.
" The 3d peculiarity mentioned by Captain Bumey
was, that ' the bottom not being swept by streams, was
of soft oaze ;' and in Clarke's Voyage we read, that * the
bottom towards the middle was of soft slimy mud ; and
near either shore, a brownish sand intermixed with a
few shells and small fragments of bones.'
• " With regard to this fact, it is however sufficient to
observe, that perhaps few seamen who have had much
experience of tides and currents in soundings, will con-
sider a bottom of oaze or slime as any proof of its not
being swept by streams ; or admit that a bottom, over
which the strongest tide or current runs, must therefore
be stony, sandy, or gravelly ; for they cannot but be
acquainted with many examples to the contrary. One
of the most remarkable that occurs to my recollection
just now, is the Gulf of Martaban ; in which the almost
entire bottom is composed of the softest slimy mud,
though tides at the springs run at the rate of 7 or 8
knots an hour.
"The 4th and last peculiarity noticed by Captain
Burney, and perhaps the strongest of all, is, that * the
soundings were observed to decrease to the northward
beyond the latitude of 68° 45' N.' The Quarterly Re-
viewers have endeavored to prove the contrary, though
perhaps not satisfactorily ; at least not according to
my apprehension of Captain Burney's meaning. Both
Data. . . }.
ill
:^ij
M
66
£
^^^
he and they must be near the truth, as it lies some-
where between thera, in the small space of 12 feet only.
The fact is, the bottom is not very uneven where the
soundings vary only a fathom or two in as many leagues ;
and in this place they were certainly very regular.
" When Captain Burney says, that * in steering to
the westward, they did not find the depth to increase,'
he seems clearly to mean, when at a considerable dis-
tance from the land, towards mid-channel. And when
Captain Cook * states distinctly,* that in approaching
the American coast * the water shoaled gradually;' and
when he was obliged to anchor in 6 fathoms, it was
found that the water shoaled gradually towards the
land, ' he as clearly alludes to soundings very near
the land of America. And again, when in 6 fathoms,
he says, * as we advanced to the westward the sound-
ings deepened,' (as of course they must to mid-channel,
where the depth is 28 and 30 fathoms,) it does not at all
bear upon the question of there being more or less water
generally from south to north, on which the Quarterly
Reviewers are at issue with Captain Burney. That the
•depth of water midway between Asia and America
was about 29 or 30 fathoms, and, as Captains Clarke
and Gore state, 'decreasing gradually as we approached
either continent,' (traversing on a parallel,) is very true.
But how can this affect Captain Burney'e statement
of the fact of the general depth being less to the north-
ward ? Though in some particular spots to the north-
ward of ()8° 45', a little more water was perhaps found,
yet still the general depth might certainly have been
less. And as Captain Burney judged on the spot, from
various circumstances, as well as all the soundings at
the time, his opinion on that matter is certainly more
likely to be correct, than one formed from the perusal
67
of journals, where most probably all the soundings are
not inserted ; or the examination of charts, where still
fewer may be laid down.
" Upon the whole, then, taking it for granted that
the 4th and last fact is established, or at least, if there
is not less, there certainly is nearly the same depth, as
far as the ships advanced to the northward, in Behring's
Strait ; let us now inquire how far the peculiarities
observed by Captain Bumey warrant the supposition of
the junction of the two continents, even admitting that
the soundings did positively decrease to the northward.
" Captain Burney grounds his supposition chiefly,
if not entirely, on these peculiarities ; and the philoso-
phers of the north, after enumerating them, conclude
their article in these words: — * These are obviously
distinct indications of an inclosed sea.' -^ >
" But it may be inclosed without the existence of any
land between Asia and America; for as to the fact of
the depth of water decreasing to the northward, that
cannot be admitted as proof of there being land in that
direction connecting the two continents ; because the
very same decrease would take place upon the acclivity
of a bank extending east and west, whose shoalest part
might be at, or near the surface at some, yet undefined,
distance to the northward, beyond where the ships ad-
vanced ; and thence deepening again, probably as gra-
dually^ to the north. And when two different facts
may result from circumstances in all respects not exactly
alike, the supposition of one or the other is equally well
bottomed. If such a bank exist near the surface, it
would doubtless occasion peculiarities the very same
as those observed ; and if there be such a bank at some
depth under the surface ; or even, if the depth of 30
fathoms or more continue, as is most probable, far
:,:«
^m^mm
08
beyond the parallel reached by Captain Cook, there
is much reason (and fact too) to conclude, (as I have
observed before on this subject,) that the ice itself must
as completely inclose an expanse beyond Behring's
Strait, so long as Nature holds her course, as land itself
would ; and consequently all the peculiarities observed
by Captain Burney must, on that account, equally
exist.
*• In attempting to prove this inclosure by ice, I shall
argue chiefly from the facts, stated and agreed in, and
therefore, it is presumed, accredited fully by both parties
of philosophers.
" Those of the south have informed us, that ' icebergs
or mountains of ice are generated on the land, either
in valleys, or against steep shores :' and those of the
north agreeing on this point, minutely describe the pro-
cess of their formation, and consider them to be the
gradual production of perhaps ' many centuries,' and
* the accumulation of ages.'
.i. " The philosophers of the south have named New Si-
beria as * the probable source of the icebergs which come
down Davis's Strait, through which they assume * an
uninterrupted communication' with the Polar basin*
But those of the north believing that Baffin's last voyage
* showed that Davis's Strait is absolutely shut all along
the north side,' it is inferred, I presume, by them, that
the icebergs * which appear most frequently in Davis's
Strait, all originate there, particularly along the western
coast of Greenland, 'from whence every year, but es-
pecially in hot seasons, they are partially detached from
their seats, and whelmed into the deep sea.' Now on
this joint doctrine of both parties, as to the formation
of icebergs in valleys, and against steep shores ; as the
Arctic sea m bounded chie/li/ by the coasts of Siberia
?
■fe-
09
and America, where there perliaps may be * valleys and
steep shores,' it may be presumed that icebergs must
be produced there also, as well as at New Siberia, in
Baffin's Bay, and on the west side of Greenland. And
as the remarkable fact, stated by one party, that allihe
ice brought by the S.VV. current round Spitzbergen \s field
ice, is .not denied by the other, (for indeed they say that
icebergs are seen floating only in Davis's Strait,) a ques-
tion arises; viz. If it may be allowed probable, or even
possible, on these grounds, that icebergs may also be
formed on some parts of the lands extending from
Nova Zembla eastward to Greenland, pray what be-
comes of them, if they cannot pass through Davis's
Strait, and be not brought by the south-west current
round Spitzbergen, and be very seldom met with in
the eastern Greenland sea ? »
" Not being composed of that saline ice, which we
are told ' is annually formed and destroyed,' they must
remain, and drive about in all directions, as long as
they have sufficient depth of water to float in, not till
they *are divided, scattered and dissipated,' as 'the
shoals of ice in the Arctic seas commonly are, before
the end of June, nor till they are dissolved. For one
party tells * how little the influence of an Arctic summer
is, even, on fields of ice, perpetually surrounded as they
are by a freezing atmosphere created by themselves.'
On their hypothesis therefore it is evident, that as part
of these immense masses must remain at the end of the
summer, to that part the ensuing winter must add
something. When speaking on this subject on a former
occasion, I supposed it probable that the process of
melting and freezing may be going on in the Arctic re-
gions on the same body of ice (if of a magnitude to be
sufficiently immersed) at the same time ; and perhaps
m
t <
m
rfl ■. '*'
70
in winter, as well as in summer, owing to the increasing
temperature of the water from the surface downwards
in proportion (perhaps) to its depth. The philosophers
of the north have since * demonstrated that the Polar
seas are always ready, under the action of any frosty
wind, to suffer congelation; and though the annual
variations of the weather are in these seas expended
on the superficial waters, without disturbing the vast
abyss below ;' yet as the water drawn up from a con-
siderable depth is warmer^ within the Arctic circle than
what lies on the surface, the floating ice, accordingly,
begins to melt * generally on the under side, from the
slow communication of the heat sent upwards.' Though
we are told, ' that before the end of June the shoals of ice
in the Arctic seas are commonly divided, scattered and
dissipated, and a few weeks are commonly sufficient
to dissolve the floating ice ;' and though ' during the
thaw, which commonly lasts about three months, the
heat of the solar rays is adequate to the dissolution of
all the ice produced in the course of the autumn, the
winter and the spring ! !' yet it is to be presumed
that the icebergs are not meant to be included in this
*all.' Indeed it is observed, that *some of them are
2000 feet high ;' and, supposing the surface of the sea to
be at 52°, (which I dare say it never was, nor ever will
be in the Arctic seas,) an iceberg having only 600 feet
elevation would require one hundred and fifty days for
its dissolution, and double that time, if the temperature
of the sea it floats in should be at 42**. Even at this
rate it cannot dissolve, for it would require at least
ten months. But being indeed informed further, that
* within the Arctic circle, the surface of the ocean, being
never much warmer than about the IT of Fahrenheit's
scale, is, in the decline of summer, soon cooled down
71
to the limit at M'hicli congelation commences,' it seems
that even such an iceberg could never be dissolved
there.
" And as * in the space of a few weeks only, visited
by the slanting and enfeebled rays, frost resumes its
tremendous sway, and it begins to snow as early as Au-
gust,' the conclusion (at least on such data) seems evi-
dent, that icebergs even while they float within 'the
Polar basin,' and can find no passage thence into a
warmer temperature, are more likely to augment their
bulk, by the effect of frost, sncw, and hail above^ than
to be diminished below the surface of the sea. This
increase will be much greater still on such icebergs as
may take the ground, on the bank if there be one, but if
there be nol, in the shoal water (which is very insuffi-
cient to float them) extending from Asia to America ;
for the temperature of the water being of course colder
there, the effect of dissolution under the surface will be
greatly diminished ; whilst the augmentation above will
be the same as if it floated. So that every fall of snow
and hail, adding to masses of ice thus situated, must
form, collectively, one * impenetrable barrier,' as Captain
Cook termed what he saw. A barrier that doubtless
has been, and will remain there for ages, fixed to the
bottom by its own inertia, extending probably compact
and immoveable far to the northward of the parallel
reached by Cook ; and perhaps rising in mountains,
as far as soundings extend, and thence declining to-
wards its margin, which may be subject to continual
disruption, by the swell of the sea in deeper water : or,
it may present to the north a rugged perpendicular
front, bidding stern defiance to the roaring of the winds
or the raging billows of the sea, and mocking the vain
attempts of man to pass it.
t !«
.•■(
72
it
" That there must exist such a barrier as this, inclos-
ing an expanse to the northward of Behrinj^'s Strait (//
there be no hind there), appears to me to be little
less than certain, and whicli mast be kept still more
compact, along its northern boundary, by the constant
pressure aj^ainst it of the Polar stream from the north,
which I have supposed on a former examination of this
subject, and which therefore can find no egress from the
Polar sea, down to llie regions of equatorial heat,
except to the eastward of Greenland and Spitzbergen.
'* Another circumstance, amounting almost to a proof
of the passage by Behring's Strait being closed up, even
against fish of large size, much more against ships, is,
that none of our navigators (at least as far as 1 know)
have mentioned seeing a single whale within the Strait,
where the water is not deep, and the ice abundant. It
of course does not foilo^v that because they sazv none,
there were not any ; yet T there had been any, it is
more than probable that our navigators would have
seen some of them during their stay there. And the
philosophers of the south remark, ' that whales are gene-
rally found in those parts of the Arctic seas where ice
most abounds, and where it has taken the ground on
shores and banks.' They have also mentioned a ' cir-
cumstance of whales struck with harpoons in the sea
of Spitzbergen or in Davis's Strait, being found on the
north-west coast of America!' They consider this as
affording an additional argument for a free communi-
cation between the Atlantic and Pacific, by way of
Behring's Strait.
" Though I have endeavored to prove that an ex-
panse to the northward of Behring's Strait is thus per-
petually inclosed by a conglobation of icebergs, on the
supposition of their formation on other lands surround-
i
73
I'l
I
ing the Polar sea, as well as at New Siberia and in
Davis's Straits ; yet even allowing that this supposition,
on the ground it rests, is improbable^ and admitting that
none of these stupendous masses are so formed, but only
such ice as Captain Cook saw, whatever might be its
quality or kind ; yet it seems to me no less clear, that
even ice of that kind, collected as it is between two
lands, must by its annual augmentation have formed an
equally 'impenetrable barrier:* for what our naviga-
tors saw was evidently as abundant at the close of each
summer as they found it on their first arrival among it.
This fact shows that * all the ice produced there in the
winter, the autumn, and the spring, is not dissolved,'
nor even * dissipated,' though * divided and scattered.'
Therefore, the quantity dissolved each summer being
evidently lesSj generally, than what is * produced in the
autumn, the winter, and the spring,' the consequence
must be (by congelation at least) an increase on the
whole of that solid mass further to the northward, which
I presume is immoveably fixed on the bottom. It is very
true, that much of the ice along the southern margin may
be partially dissolved by the rays of the summer sun ;
and being subject to disruption by the motion of the sea,
in gales of wind (from the southward), may therefore
move about in an extent of many leagues to the south-
ward of the main body, as our navigators found it did.
" Much of the ice may be of that saline quality whi( h
is said to be * annually formed and destroyed,' but the
greatest part of what Cook saw was not ; for he says, * it
seemed to be wholly composed 6f frozen snow.' In
another place he says, on the 17th of August, when in
lat. 70° 41' N. * We were at present close to the edge of
the ice, which was as compact as a wall, and appeared
to be at least 12 feet high ;' Captain Cook particularly
Data. K
• ii
l'
m
if
ill
remarked, that the ice was all pure and transparent,
except the upper surface, which was rather * porous.*
And as the philosophers of the north have assured us,
that pure transparent ice projects one tenth, as it swims
in the sea, even this part of the ice must have been im-
mersed to within 12 fathoms of the bottom : but Cook
observes, * further to the northward it sdemed to be much
higher ; and in all human probability, the ice at no
great distance to the northward, beyond what he saw,
was immoveably fixed at the bottom, and continued so
as far as soundings extend. For it is mentioned in Clarke's
Voyage, that the height of the highest ice they saw * was
estimated at 16 or 18 feet,' which therefore must have
been immersed to within two or three fathoms of the
bottom, according to the soundings they had at the time.
" It is also worthy of remark, that the water was
found to be somewhat shallower on the coast of
America than that of Asia, at an equal distance; our
navigators were therefore able to penetrate near three
degrees further to the northward, on the side of
America, * because they came up with the ice in both
years sooner, and in larger quantities, on the coast of
Asia.' This strong fact seems of itself almost suffi-
cient to prove, that the heavy ice further to the north-
ward must have been aground in some depth ; for if
it were all water-borne, and moveable, as the ice was
which our navigators saw nearest the ships, why should
it not move as far to the southward on one coast, as
it did on the other, so long as it could float? The only
reason can be, because its progress in that direction
was sooner stopped, by the bottom being nearer the
surface on the coast of America, than it was on that
of Asia, and consequently giving to the main body of
fixed ice, a general direction of about E.N.E. and
75
i-
I
W.S.W., according to tlie probable lino of equal doptli
of water.
" Whether this barrier may at any time of the year
reach as far as to the Pole itself, is a question I have
offered my surmises on before, rej^arding the winter ; and
I agreed in opinion with the philosophers of the south,
that the sea will be (/ only say ??iay be) there found free
from ice in the summer ; * presuming that there is proba-
bly a warmer summer temperature to dissolve it at the
Pole itself, than any where else, to the southward of it,
as far as 75° or 80° ; because, when the sun's rays first
strike the Pole, they will be felt there incessantly for
six months ; but with what force and effect I had
then to learn. For this information we are now,
however, indebted to the philosophers of the north.
They assure us, that * it may be shown that, under the
Pole, the action of the solar light is, at the time of the
solstice, one-fourth part greater than at the Equator,
and sufficient in the course of a day to melt a sheet of
ice one inch and a half ihick.' They further inform us,
that * it may be proved by experiment, that, under the
Pole itself, the power of the sun at the solstice could,
in the space of a week, melt a stratum of five inches
of ice. We may hence fairly compute the annual effect
to be sufficient for thawing to the depth oi forty inches.
It should likewise be observed, that owing to the ha-
ziness of the atmosphere in the northern latitudes,
those singular emanations, which are now found al-
ways to dart from an azure sky, and in the more tempe-
rate climates to diminish the calorific action of the sun,
often by one-fifth part, can scarcely exist. On this
account, perhaps, the estimate of the annual destruction
of the polar ice may be swelled to the thickness of
four feet.'
76
V-
K'5'j,
I
511 1
ri;?
" There appears to be some mistake or discordance
in this computation ; for, in the first case, as * the so-
lar lijrht can be shown to be sufficient in the course of
a day to melt a sheet of ice of an inch and a half
thick,' it could in the space of a week melt a stratum
of ten inches and a half^ instead of ^fwe : and by the
same rule the annual effect may be sufficient for thaw-
ing to the depth of eighty-four inches and a half, in-
stead of * forty ; or perhaps the estimate of the annual
destruction of polar ice may be swelled to more than
eight feet instead of* four/ If, on the other hand, it be
allowed, that only * five inches' are melted ir the space
of a week, there cannot be so much as an inch and a
half melted in the course of a day, as is stated in the
first case.
" Whether either of these computations will be * proved*
to be correct by the e^vperiments Captmn Buchan is gone
to make in that quarter this year of our Lord, God
knows ; but, if he should have proceeded between Green-
land and Spitzbergen^ I fear not ; for the route to be pur-
sued towards the Pole with most probability of success,
must doubtless be midway between Spitzbergen and Nova
Zembla, for the reasons I have before given. Even the
philosophers of the south acknowledge that * the lands
are usually surrounded with ice,' and therefore recom-
mend that * ships, instead of coming near the lamlj and
endeavouring to pass through narrow straits^ ought to
avoid the land, and keep as * much as possible in the
open sea. and in or near the edge of the current, where
the sea may be expected to be free.' Those of the
north indeed go still further, and tell us, that a * few
weeks are commonly sufficient to disperse and dissolve
the floating ice, and tlie sea is at last open for a short
and dubious interval to the pursuits of the adventurous
77
i:
mariner.' Their opinion as to tiie practicability of
reaching the Pole seems, upon the whole, rather slender ;
though not that it is impossible : for though they say,
* as the cold increases but very little in advancing to
the higher latitudes, the vast expanse of ice which covers
the Polar basin may be nearly dissolved at the close of
every summer ; and if the intrepid navigator, therefore,
could seize the short and quivering interval, he might
push on to the Pole itself;' yet * they consider the scheme
of penetrating to the Pole itself as more daring' than
' the project of finding a N. W. passage to China ; which
they must at the same time suppose to be impossible, if
they believe that the peculiarities observed by Captain
Burney are, as they assert, ' obviously indications of an
inclosed sea.'' Of the success of either plan their hopes
are confessed .to be ' extremely slender ;' but the ground
they have taken leaves them in fact as much without
any hope at all, as I confess I am, of success.
" There is another point on which these men of sci-
ence and learning differ so materially, that those who
have read one review, and perhaps felt disposed to pin
their faith upon it, without much consideration, are
astonished, on perusing the other, to find almost every
thing denied, or apparently refuted ; leaving them just
as wise as they were before, or perhaps still worse, in
a state of indecision and doubt between both, or with
no opinion at all. The question I mean is, whether
the remarked chilliness of our climate in the years 1816
and 17 was in any degree owing to the influence of ice-
bergs passing in the Atlantic, which there has been so
much talk about ? The philosophers of the south say,
• it would be a waste of words to enter into any dis-
cussion on the diminution of temperature, wliich must
J
78
necessarily be occasioned by the proximity of large
mountains and islands of ice ; and therefore it is equally
clear, that our climate must have been affected by the
vast accumulation of ice on the east coast of Greenland.
It can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that the remark-
able chilliness of the atmosphere, in the summer months
of 1816 and 1817, was owing to the appearance of ice
in the Atlantic'
** Now my own sensations assure me, that a northerly
wind is coiJ, and the thermometer that they have not de-
ceived me. I also suppose this wind to be cold here,
because it comes from regions where ice is known to
abound. And if there were as much ice due west of us,
and the wind came from it towards us, I dare say the
atmosphere under the lee of it would be chilled by it
to a certain degree, according to the distance from it ;
but how much and how far, I shall leave to the philo-
sophers of the not'th to '• compute.' Though these philo-
sophers deny all this, yet at the same time they seem to
me to acknowledge it.
" After most ably explaining the * true principles
which regulate the distribution of heat over the globe, in-
dependent of every hypothesis, by the direct appeal to
experiment and observation,' they assure us, that * what-
ever may be the vicissitudes of the Polar ice, they
cannot in any sensible manner affect the climates of the
lower latitudes ;' that * the idea is quite chimerical that
any winds could ever transport the Polar influence to
our shores.' Some persons • have imagined that the
mountains or islands of ice which are occasionally
drifted into the Atlantic ocean must be sufficient by
their frigoritic influence to modify the character of our
climate ; but a little reflection will convince us that
large
I
79
such remote influence on our climate must be quite in-
significant.' ' '
** After enlarging at length, and with great ingenuity,
they remark, that * the three last seasons, which have
been reckoned very open, have succeeded to winters
notoriously cold and protracted ; for our severe winters
are occasioned by the prevalence of northerly winds,
which must arrive at the Polar sea. from the south, and
consequently transport so much warmth as may check
the usual rigor of the frost ! !'
"Now, though it is possible that these northerly
winds might have come all the way from the Pacific
ocean, and * have transported so much warmth as
might check the usual rigor of the frost,' yet it by no
means follows of course that they must ; or that our
northerly winds were ever entitled, by having traversed
so extensive a track, to the denomination of south.
For it is just as possible, and much more probable, that
these northerly winds originated and commenced their
journey somewhere in our hemisphere on this side the
Pole. But whether they did, or did not, come all the
way from the Pacific, as southerly winds, to the Pole,
whence they became northerly as to us here, it is, however,
clearly, though perhaps inadvertently, admitted by these
philosophers, that these said northerly winds had posi-
tively acquired a frigorific ' character,' somewhere, and
somehow, on the passage to our 'lower latitudes.' For
it is acknowledged that * their prevalence occasioned {on
account of their * frigorific influence'it may be supposed)
our * severe winters:' an acknowledgment apparently
at variance with the former opinion, that * whatever may
be the vicissitudes of the Polar ice, they cannot in any
sensible manner affect the climates of the lower lati-
tudes ;' and that * the idea is quite chimerical, that any
I
1,1!
80
winds could ever transport the Polar influence to our
shores.'
** These northern philosophers have satisfactorily ex-
plained the true principles which regulate the distribu-
tion of heat over the globe, particularly regarding the
tf?mperature of the earth, at certain depths. But in
apfilying these principles to the temperature of the sea,
some of the conclusions appear not so well to accord
with experiment and observation. Tbey say, that * in
the more temperate regions of the globe, the superficial
waters of lakes an J seas, as they grow warmer, and
therefore specifically lighter, still remain suspended by
their acquired buoyancy ; but whenever they come to
be chilled, they suflfer contraction, and are precipitated ;
hence the deep water of lakes and seas is a.rs:, con-
siderably colder than what floats at the surface, [Query,
— Would not the deep water of a frozen lake jt sea in
the more temperate regions be warmer than at the sur-
face, for the same reason that it is so in Polar regions ?]
It is then said, that ' the gradation of cold is distinctly
traced to the depth of 20 fathoms, below which the di-
minished temperature continues nearly uniform, as far
as the sounding line can reach.' »
*' Though the sea, as well as the land, may have its
isothermal lines, yet at what various depths, according
to the temperature of the atmosphere, climates, and
other mutable circumstances, has not yet been disco-
vered ; but certainly generally far below the di^pth ol
ttccnlyfdlhoms. For it would seem that there must be
at the surface, on two parallels, somewhere between the
Equator and the Poles, two stations, or points, not fixed,
but changeable, and dependent on the atmospheric tempe-
rature over them : between which stations, or points,
and the Equator, \\\<d\swieY will be progressively colder,
4
01
to our
rily ex-
istribu-
nj5 the
But in
he sea,
accord
hat * in
)erficial
?r, and
ded by
:ome to
)itated ;
con-
Query,
r sea in
the sur-
gions ?]
stinotly
the di-
2, as far
liave j:s
wording;
3S, and
I disco-
epth ul
nust be
een the
otfived,
c tempe-
points,
colder,
in proportion perhaps to its depth ; and between each,
and its respective Po/e, the water will be warmer in
proportion perhaps to its depth from the surface. But
i\\h general rule will not, of course always hold good,
where there are soundings^ or in confined waters near
land.
" The following experiments will prove that between
the tropics, and in the temperate zones at sea, when
the temperature of the atmosphere exceeds that of the
surface of the sea, the superficial water is generally
warmer than that at certain depths beneath it (I say
generally, because in soundings and confined waters
locAl causes may etfect many exceptions to this rule),
and in all probability, the greater the depth the colder
the fluid in that case. ' , ^ .
" On the 23d of Feb., in lat. 52° S. and about the
longitude of 50° W., Captain Krusenstern says the tem-
perature of the air was 12° Reaumur, of the surface 10°,
and at the depth of 55 fathoms 83°; the whole depth ul
the time being 75 fathoms. — On the 9th of March, in
lat. 50° 20' S. and longitude 72° 45' \V . the temperature
of the air was 4° R., the surface 21°; at the depth of
(iO fathoms 2.^°; and at 100 fathoms 1^°.— On the 24th
of May, 56 miles south of the Equator, and in longitude
140' \Ql \V. the temperature of Uie air and surface were
tY|i.\d at 221° ; and at the depth of 100 tathouTs 12^.
f^i the 22d of June, on the tropic of Cancer, in the Pa-
cific, th^r* tefnperature of the surface was 20"^ 5' R. ; at the
iWpth ot 25 fathoms 19° .^ ; at 50 fathoms 17° 2' ; and at
125 fathoms 13° 3'; so that there was a progressive
♦decrease of temperature of 1° in 25 fathoms ; 3° 3' in
iO fathoms, and 7° 2' ai 125 fathoms. Many more
examples might be g!>en to the same efleot, if it were
necessary. One vcjy remarkable one is mentioned by
Data. L
82
1
it- .
M<
III
if'
Mr. Clarke Abel in his recent work. He informs us
that Captain Wauchope of H. M. S. Eurydice, when
within a few leagues of tlie Equator, put his apparatus
overboard, and allowed it to descend till it had run
out 1400 fathoms of line, but he estimated the perpen-
dicular depth at 1000 fathoms. The temperature of
the surface was 73". On drawing- up the instrument,
he found the thermometer marking 42° ; a difference
of temperature of 31°. And there can be no doubt
but that the difference of the temperature was progres-
sive from the Surface down to that depth.
" The philosophers of the north observe : * That in
shallow seas, the cold substratum of liquid is brought
nearer to the surface ;' but though as a general axiom
this may be true, yet it may not be relied on in particu-
lar cases, much less * that the increasing coldness of
the water drawn up from only the depth of a few
fathoms, may therefore indicate to the navigator who
traverses the wide ocean, his approach to banks or
land.' Indeed no navigator who has had any experi-
ence in the matter would, I apprehend, place the least
dependence on so precarious a guide ; for he must
know that many experiments would show its falli-
bility. -^ .; '. <■- . : •
" Some instances^ in proof of this, may be collected
from the journal of Captain Hall of the Lyra, lately
published, who made some experiments on the tempe-
rat'ire of the surface near the Loochoo Islands, and in
the Yellow Sea. ^
** On the 19th of July, when off Chusan in, 32 fathoms
water, the temperature of the surface of the sea was
78° and 80° ; and on the 22d, in 43 fathoms, it was only
77° and 72° ; but when at anchor in 3i fathoms, in the
Gulf of Peecheelee, in latitude 38° 42' N., and longi-
f^
No
1
1
h
2
3
4
1
5
1
6
m
83 .
tude 117" 49' W., on the 27th of July, the temperature
of the surface was as high as 82°. Also on the .'id of
August, when at anchor off Peiho, the surface was 82"
at noon, and 80° at midnight, and ihereit was generally
warmer than the atmosphere itself. When at anchor
in Napakiang harbour, the general temperature of the
surface of the sea was about 83°, but out at sea, oft' the
Island of Loochoo, when in latitude 26' 36' N. and
longitude 127° 56' W. the surface was 4 or 5 degrees
colder, being on the 14th and 15th only 79^° and 78°.
Again, on the 20th of October, at anchor in Napakiang
harbour, when the autumnal cold had lowered the
temperature of the sea's surface there to 75 1° and 75°,
(or 7 or 8 degrees below what it was when anchored
there before) yet in the Japan sea the surface was also
lower, being 74° and 73°. Thus in these particular
instances, the water became warmer (at the surface at
least) the nearer the land was approached, and also as
the depth of water ^ecreajefif. /: ,;/ ,? ;
" Mr. Clarke Abel has also published the result of
a few experiments made by him on the temperature of
the sea, in soundings, both at the surface and bottom,
which, though useful and satisfactory, are not conclu-
sive. They are shown in the following table.
•
•
-a
•
£
.■«
a.
Q
Place.
Tempe-
niture.
Difference of
Temperature
Date.
5
4-*
a
in
u
•
g
3
30
CO o
(UCQ
%_ a
O '=*
.i: E
II
Cl>
No
1
2
3
4
5
July 1816.
23 8 A.M.
24 Noon.
25 8 A.M.
8 P.M.
26 6 A.M.
2711P.M.
o '
35 01
.36 24
37 30
37 58
38 12
'
123 46
122 69
122 40
121 34
120 30
40
15
20
is
15
15
Open Sea.
do.
do.
do.
Amongst the
Mectaw Islands.
Gulf of Pee-
cbeelee.
76
7.5
72
74
74
75
o
74
71
67
69
67
74
65
67
62
66
66
72
o
2
4
5
'7
7
1
9
4
5
3
1
2
o
n
8
10
8
8
3
I
84
" From these experiments (Mr. Clarke Abel observes)
it appears ; * 1st. That the sea diminishes in its tem-
perature in proportion to its depth.' * 2d. That the
difference of the temperature of the surface and any
given depth, within a certain range, is greater at sea
than 7iear the land.' ' 3d. That the difference of the
temperature at the surface and bottom is greatest when
that of the air and surface is least.' *
**The 1st and 3d positions appear evident on the
face of the experiments, but the experiment No. 3
seems to affect the correctness of the 2d position ; for
the difference of the surface, and 20 fathoms depth,
vi'as 5 degrees, and by that of the 1 st experiment, made
further from the land, there was a difference of 9° only
in 40 fathoms ; which was less in proportion than near
the land. It is remarkable, however, that all these
experiments (except the 3d) prove, as far as they go,
that in the depth of 15 fathoms the water at the bottom
was invariably warmer, than it was found to be at the
depth of 40 fathoms * in the open sea ;' and in the
Gulf of Peecheelee, where the 6th experiment was
niade, it was no less than 1" degrees warmer at the
depth of 15 fathoms.
•V-.:.f
•i ;y
"The lower state of the atmosphere when the 3d
experiment was made, would seem to account for the
temperature of the water at the bottom being so much
below what it was found to be by the others. '
" There is also a much greater proportional difference
of the temperature of the air and water at the depth of
20 fathoms, than there was by the rest of the experi-
ments.
•« These experiments also prove, that in these ' shal-
low seas,' however, the cold substratum of liquid, ivas
mt brought nearer the surface, at this season of the
85
was
year ; so that in these instances, there was rm increas-
ing * coldness of water drawn up from the depth of only
a few fathoms, to indicate to the navigator, wlio tra-
verses the wide ocean, his approach to land or banks ;'
but the reverse.
"After this digression from the chief point of my
inquiry, I shall now conclude, by merely observing,
that as the success or failure of both expeditions
ultimately depends upon there being a passage {practi-
cable for ships) or no passage, from * the Polar Basin'
into the Pacific, — a point, on which so much has been
said and written by philosophers — on which scarcely
two persons are found to agree — all have their doubts,
and none have any positive knowledge, — it would really
seem that thiSf of all others, from its superior import-
ance, ought to have been first determined, and not left
as the last, and in all human probabiUty the most diffi-
cuk to be solved by our Polar navigators. And that
too (if ever they reach so far) near the long-hoped for
close of a toilsome voyage, when they may be reduced
by sickness or deaths ; or at least so worn down by
anxiety and fatigue, as to be unable to return the way
they came, or to surmount the difficulties opposed to
their furtiier progress. ; ,
" The despatching these expeditions by the way they
are gone, to explore a passage through Behring's Strait,
seems as if a pt.-rson were ordered to enter a certain
labyrinth, by a well known passage on one 6ide, but to
pass out of it on the opposite by another, which one half
the world supposed there might be, and the other half
that there might not — of whose existence most were in
doubt, and none knew any thing, except a few, who had
twice tried, but could find uo passage beyond a certain
barrier which they found to be insurmountable.
t
''\\
«?; I
86
P
hi
m
ml
.*.*'
IW
!«'
* " Now if this very barrier sliould happen to he gene-
rally considered as Ihe probably chief obstacle to be sur-
mounted, and could, without much difficulty, be a|)-
proached from the side where it lay ; certainly the most
rational, the most prudent and advisable course should
seem to be, first of all to have this barrier examined on
that side, and its nature and extent fully ascertained,
before the person be sent on what people of common
sense would perhaps call * a wild-goose-chase,' without
such information.
*' However, though this part of the expeditions may
fail, yet if our navigators return, let them have reached
where they may, they will at least bring back with
them more correct hydrographical information than
any we can have at present. And in all probability
the observations they may have l)een enabled to make
in the Arctic regions will enlarge the bounds of sci-
ence ; and for that alone, though no other benefit
should be derived from them, it was highly befitting a
country like this to send them out."
In the month of October, 1818, the Dorothea and
Trent arrived, after the most strenuous, but unsuccess-
ful endeavors to penetrate towards the No'th Pole,
betwee7i Greenland and Spitzbergen. The Isabella and
Alexander also returned to Deptford on the 21st of
November ; and in the beginning of the following year
Captain Ross published an account of his voyage.
A writer in the Quarterly Review, No. 41, published
in May 1819, in criticising that work, speaks of the
two voyages in these terms : ''The failure of the Polar
expedition was owing to one of those accidtnts to
which all sea voyages are liable, more especially when
to the ordinary sea risk is superadded that of a naviga-
tion among fields and masses of ice." Now, as a mere
87
looker on, I am inclined to think, with Phoca, that if
Captain Biichan had been ordered to make his attempt
to the eastward of Spitzbergen, he might perhaps have
advanced further than he did ; though even if it had
been possible for him to pass the Polar Axis of the
Globe, he never would have reached Behring's Strait.
" Of the other Voyage (says the Reviewei-; we
hardly know in what terms to speak, or how to account
for it." He does, however, in the sequel, seem to ac-
count for it pretty well. And, after belabouring the
Captain to his heart's content with his goose-quill, he
consoles himself under "the disappointment he ex-
perienced in common with the rest of the world, at the
failure of tha two expeditions, which bade so fair to set
at rest the long agitated question of the existence or
non-existence of a north-west passage," &c., with a
glance " at the advantages which have resulted from
it." The first and most prominfent of them is thus
candidly acknowledged ; " We are 7iozv quite sure that
there is such a Bay, or rather inland sea, as that of Baf-
fin, though neither so wide, nor of the same form, as it
is usually represt-nted in charts," — a fact, by the by, that
few or none, exr pt himself, perhaps had ever doubted,
any more than lu y helievi. i in the existence of his ima-
ginary current of " four or five knots velocity, through
Baffin's Sea,' which this recent confirmation of poor
Baffin's veracity has gone far to annihilate, and with
it one of the Reviewers strongest arguments in favor of
a practicable passage for ships ; as I shall endeavor to
show by and by.
In consequence of the failure of both these expedi-
tions, a; question of a practicable passage, either by
way of ibe Pole, or through Davis's Strait to the
northwhiii and westward, and through Behring's
m
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Photographic
Sciences
Corporation
2j west main street
webster, n.y. 14580
(716) 872-4503
7
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I
88
Strait into the Pacific, of course remained in precisely
the same doubtful state as it did before they sailed.
Captain Ross had been deceived by a reliance on his
own eyesight, and therefore did not examine, with all
due care and attention, the entrance and extent of
Lancaster Sound, which many of the Officers of the
Expedition believed to be open to the westward ; it was
therefore thought proper to send out another expedi-
tion to explore it completely.
Many were sanguine enough to think it would be
found to lead into the Polar Sea, or along the North
Coast of America, whence the long-sought for passage
through Behring's Strait would be accomplished, and
none more so than our Reviewer.
In the Quarterly Review, No. 35, at pages 211, 212,
he took much pains to show that his " perpetual c ir-
rent to the southward through Baffin's Sea did exist,
because Baffin's Bay did not ; as it would be difficult to
explain how any current could originate at the bottom
of such a Bay, much less a current that is stated to
run scnetimes with a velocity of four and even five
miles an hour ;" and the fact of " several vessels having
been as high as Baffin, without observing the least ap-
pearance of land, removed all doubt as to th6 non-
existence of the Bay, as drawn in the charts." From
his own mind it certainly did.
In the Quarterly Review, No. 36, for June following,
while the two Expeditions under Buchan and Ross
were pending, he " discussed the points on which the
probability of their success might be calculated ; and
which he thought would mainly depend on two circum-
stances^ the existence of a circumvolving current
from the North Pacific into the Atlantic, which would
prove the communication ; and of a great Polar Sea
m
cisely
s.
without land,'' As to any obstruction from ice there, it
does not seem to have entered at all into his contem-
plation. He considered " the important, and indeed the
onli/ point to be ascertained, was the general and perma*
nent direction taken by the grea^ body of the Pacific."
' Though he stems to have been perfectly satisfied
himself, with " having traced the waters of the Pacific
through Behring*s Strait," and along with it a plank of
hiahogany all the way to Disco ; yet the movement of
those waters towards Behring s Strait seems to be com-
pletely disproved by Phoca's statement of facts, though
he admits, on the words of Cook and Clarke, of there
being a trifling superficial current to the northward in
that Strait ; and which has since been confirmed by
Lieutenant Kotzebue. But as the Reviewer has con-
fessed that he does " now know there is such a Bay, or
rather inland Sea, as that of BalBin," he must admit the
impossibility of the mahogany plank having drifted
down to Disco, through his " Baffin's Sea." And yet,
notwithstanding this Reviewer's acknowledgement mm,
h^ there being indeed such a Bay as that of Baffin,
he still clings to his favorite current, as part of the
circumvolving one between the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans, and will not give it up, although he formerly
declared "it would be difficult to explain how any
current could originate in the bottom of such a bay ;"
protesting in the Quarterly Review, No. 41, that
" whatever Captain Ross may say or think to the con*
trary, there cannot remain the slightest doubt that the
great body of the water in Baffin's Bay has a motion'*
to the southward.
. This pertinacious adherence to a long cherished
favorite notion, is very natural in one who had been
*' so circumstantial with regard to this current, as its
Data. M
Mr
90
I
ejtislence (said he) affords, in our opiriioii, the best fidpc
for the success of the Expeditions now engaged in ex*
ploring a passage."
. Unwilling to place much confidence in the states
ments of the conductor of the Expedition through
Davis's Strait, the Quarterly Reviewer preferred the
(pinion of the officers of the Alexander, "that a
southerly current had been experienced, Ion g before
they approached the entrance of Cumberland Strait,'*
on their return to the southward. But on this subject,
in its proper order, I shall have occasion to give the
opinion of the officer who then commanded the Alex-
ander, and has had further experience, since that time,
of the set of the currents, or tides, in Davis's Strait, as
far to the northward, at least, as Lancaster Sound.
The result of Ross's Voyage having rendered a pas-
sage through ** Baffin's Sea" rather hopeless in a high
latitudey and the supposed current at all events very
doubtful, though the Reviewer rested his " best hope^^
for the success of the Expedition on its existence ; the
search was now to be made for this " best hope" further
to the southward, in Sir James Lancaster's Sound.
The Hecla and Griper were commissioned for this
service about the latter end of January 1819, the
former by Lieutenant Edward William Parry, and the
Griper by Lieutenant Matthew Liddon, They left
Deptford on the 4th of May, and sailed from the Nore
jon the 11th. Lieutenant Parry was instructed, as
Commander of the Expedition, ** to make the best of
his way to Davis's Strait. On his arrival in tWs Strait,
his further proceedings were to be regulated chiefly
by the position and extent of the ice; but on finding
it sufficiently open to permit his approach to the
.western shores of the Strait, and his advance to the
I>l
.01
north ward« as far as the opening in Sir James Lan-
caster's 8ound, he was to proceed in the first instance,
fo that; part of. the coast, and use bis best endeavois
to explore the bottom of that Sound ; or in the event
of its proving a Strait opening to the westward, he \vas
to use all possible means, consistently with the safety
of the two ships, to pass through it, and ascertain its
direction and communications ; and if it should be
found to connect itself with the northern sea, he wad
to make the best of his way to Behring's Strait." The
finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was
the main object of this expedition. Another expedi-
tion proceeded also under the command of Lieutenant
Franklin, late Commander of the Trent, from Fort
York, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, to trace the
Copper Mine River to its mouth, and the coast of
America from thence to the eastward or northward;
as tlie case might be, in order to settle the long-sought-fer
N,E. point cf that Cmtinent. Lieutenant Parry re.
turned from his Voyage on the 3d of November 1820,
of which he has published a well-written account'.
Captain Franklin returned some months before him=,
and both were justly promoted for the ability and peN
severance with which they endeavored to accomplish the
grand objects of the Expeditions they were respectively
intrusted with the command of. But though they both
failed in attaining the two chief ultimate objects of their
search, owing to the existence of physical impediments
which had not been foreseen, and perhaps no human
power could possibly have suripounted ; yet they did
as much as men could do, and brought back with
them a great accession of knowledge respecting the
Arctic regions, and many experimental facts, which will
be found, I fear, wher* we come to examine them
92
closely, to bear rather against than in favor of the exist*
ence of a practicable N.W. passage for ships, though
both these officers have recorded their opinions of its
practicability.
Though Captain Parry had the good fortune to find
a navigable passage, from the entrance of Lancaster
Sound, along the southern shores of a chain of lands,
lying in an east and west direction, and sufficiently
contiguous to keep that passage free at least of the
heavy polar ices, by impeding their further progress
between or to the southward of those lands ; yet
when he approached the S.W. end of the westernmost
of them, named by him Melville Island, he found it
utterly impossible to succeed in his most strenuous at-
tempts to pass that point. When near this point.
Captain Parry says, he sent Lieutenant Beechey to
measure a mass of ice which had drifted close to the
. ship, who found its thickness to be 42 feet ; and he
says, " as it was a piece of a regular floe, this mea-
surement may serve to give some idea of the general
thickness of the ice in this neighbourhood. There were
some, however, which were of much larger dimensions ;
an immense floe, which formed the principal, or at leii.si
the nearest obstruction to the westward^ was covered
with large hummocks, giving to its upper surface the
appearance of hill and dale. The thickness of this floe,
at its nearest edge, was six or seven feet above the sea,
and as about six sevenths are usually immersed, the
whole thickness would appear, in the common way of
reckoning, to have been from 40 to 50 ieei, which cor-
responds with that actually measured by Lieutenant
Beechey. But the hummocks were, many of them at
least, from 15 to 25 feet above the level of the sea, so
that the solidiiy of this enormous floe must have been
\'i
D3
infinitely greater than any thing vre bad seen before.
It was the opinion "f Messrs. Allison and Fyffe that it
very much resembled the ice met with at Spiizbergen,
but according to the account of the two latter, was
much heavier than any which thei/ had seen there.'*
Captain Parry then observes — ** It now became evident,
from the combined experience of this and the preced-
ing year, that there was something peculiar about the
S.W. extremity of Melville Island, which made the
ici/ sea there extremely unfavorable to navigation, and
which seemed likely to bid defiance to'all our efforts
to proceed much further to the westward in this paral-
lel of latitude. We had arrived off it on the 17th of
k^eptembar 1819, after long and Leavy gales from the
north- v^estward, by which alone the ice is ever opened
on thi^ coast" (meaning, I presume, the south or lee>
ward coast with those winds), ** and found it in unusu-
ally heavy and extensive fields, completely closing in
with the land, a mile or two to the eastward of wher6
we were now lying. We again arrived herein the early
part of August ; and though the rest of the navigation
had been remarkably clear for the 50 miles between this
and Winter Harbour, seeming to afford a presumptive
proof that the season was rather a favorable one than
otherwise, the same obstruction presented itself as
before ; nor did there appear, from our late experience^
a reasonable ground to hope that any fortuitous cir-
cumstance, such as an alteration in winds or currents,
was likely to remove the formidable impediments which
we had to encounter. The increased dimensions of the
ice hereabouts would not alone have created an insur-
mountable difficulty in the navigation, but that it was
very naturally accompanied by a degree of closeness
which seldom or never admitted an open space of
i- ■ ■;• '■*
clear water of sufficient size for a ship, or even a boat,
to sail on it. We had been lying nearlj^ in our present
situation, with an easterly wind, and blowing fresh, for
thirty-six hours together, and although this was consi*
derably off the land, beyond the western point of the
land now in sight, the ice had not during the whole
of that time moved a single yard from the shore ; afford*
ing a proof that there was no space in which the ice
was at liberty to move to the westward** Captain Parry,
at page 297 of his Voyage, after again admitting that
** there is something peculiar about the S. W. end of Mel-
ville Island, extremely unfavorable to navigation, yet it
is also certain, that the obstructions we met with from
ice, both as to its thickness and extent, were found ge-
jierally to increase as we proceeded to the westward
after passing through Barrow's Strait," endeavors to
account for this ' peculiar something,' as well as this
increased obstruction from ice, in a way that I should
rather have expected from the Quarterly Reviewer than
him. Captain Parry says, " That we should find this
to be the case, might perhaps have been reasonably
anticipated ; because the proximity to a permanently
open sea" (the Pacific I presume) " appears to be the
cir<!;umstance, which of all others, tends the most to
temper the severity of the Polar regions, in any given
parallel of latitude. On this account, I should always
expect to meet with the most serious impediment about
midway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; and
having once passed that barrier, I should as confidently
hope to find the difficulties lessen, in proportion as we
advanced towards the latter sea ; especially as it is well
known that the climate of any given parallel on the west
side of America is, no matter from what cause, very
jpany degrees more temperate than on the eastern
^m
m
f dust.'" This in a very fair theoretical mode of account-*
jng for the peculiarity of the obstructions near the
S.W. end of Melville Island, though the Quarterly
Reviewer gives a much better reason for it He sayg,
♦* All their efforts proved of no avail to get beyond the
S.W. extremity of Melville Island. There is something
peculiar in the situation of this point that prevents the ice
from leaving the shore, as had in every other part of the
voyage been found to be the case ; it was owing proba*
bly to the disconlinuance of land, or to the prevailing
northerly winds having driven down the main body of ice,
and wedged it in among the Islands." Nothing can be
more evident than that it was owing to both these
causes ; and which Mr. Fisher, the Surgeon of the
Hecla, seems very clearly to have considered so on the
spot. He says, in his Voyage of Discovery to the
Arctic regions, at page 127, on Friday 17th Septem-
ber, 1819, '* We cast off again this morning, and stood
to the westward, until we came to the ice, which we
found to be nearly in the same situation where we
were stopped by it yesterday. It was observed to be
much heavier than what we have generally met with
before, being somewhat like that which they describe
the Greenland ice to' be; so that I think it is most
probable that it is not formed here, but drifts down from
higher latitudes, or what may be termed the Polar Sea,^*
The day before this, the ship had been " made fast to a
hummock of ice aground in fifteen fathoms water,"
Avhich must therefore have been at least 100 feet thick.
In the following year again, when in latitude 74* 26^,
and longitude 113' 46', very near the S.W. extremity of
Melville Island, on the 15th of August, he says, at page
234 : " With respect to the state of the ice, I could
perceive no material difference in it to-day fi-om what
it has been for this week past : close in with the land.
&a
13
it is broken up into small pieces ; but at the distance of a
mile (or two at the farthest) from the coast, commence
a line of floes, that extend to the -westward and south-
ward as far as the eye can penetrate from the most
elevated situation in this neighbourhood, and leaving
no clear space except a few pools." "Without di-
gressing much from my narrative, I may remark, in
this place, that the reason generally given why so much
heavy ice should lie off this part of the coast is,
because we are near the west end of this island, so that
the ice which comes from the northward lodges here.
The land (Banks's) that we see to the southward and
westward (at the distance of 17 or 18 leagues) may be
considered also as 'another locality that tends to keep
this place always hampered with ice." Mr. Pisber*s
opinion as to the origin and cause of this heavy ice in
this place, is doubtless most correct ; and from what
he says, it would appear to have been generally en-
tertaimd on board the ships at the time. It seems in-
deed, from the following passage, to have been even
the opinion of Captain Parry himself, that discontinuity
of land westward of Melville Island was one reason
why this insurmountable icy impediment, of so new a
character, was found about the western extremity of
that island ; and which therefore necessarily involves
ladmission of the other primary one, viz. the so far xxur
o\iBixvLcieA drift oiiheice from the northward. At page
250 he says, " On the 16th of August, in order to have
^ clear and distinct view of the state of the ice, after
24 hours' wind from that (western) quarter. Captain
tSabine, Mr. Edwards, and myself, walked about two
miles to the westward, along the highest part of the
land, next the sea ; from whence it appeared but too
evident that no passage in this direction was yet to be
!
97
eof a
nence
south-
I most
saving
ut di-
rk, in
much
ast is,
;o that
i here.
:d and
aay be
keep
^isher's
ice in
, what
ly en-
ims in-
even
itinuity
reason
new a
aity of
ivolves
far un-
t page
;o have
e, after
'aptain
at two
of the
)ut too
)t to be
expected. The only clear water in sight, was a chan-
nel of about three quarters of a mile wide in some
places, between the ice and the land, extending as far as
a bold headland bearing N. o2° W. distant two miles
and a quarter, and was called Cape Dundas. The ice
to the W. and W.S.W. was as solid and compact to
all appearance as so much land; to which, indeed,
the surface of many of the fields, froni the kind of hill
and dale I have before endeavored to describe, bore
no imperfect resemblance. I have no doubt that, had
it been our object to circumnavigate Melville Island, or,
on the other hand, had tlie coast continued its westerly
direction^ instead of turning to the northward, we should
have contrived to proceed a little occasionally, as op-
portunities offered." As to the first, it is very ques-
tionable ; but of the latter there can be no doubt at all,
because, if the land had continued its westerly direction,
no such impediment as was found, for want of its pro-
tection on the north, could have existed, as far as it
might have extended. Indeed, if a chain of lands such
as the North Georgian Islands extended from Melville
Island all the way to the meridian of Behring's Strait,
on the same parallel, the passage from thence to that
•Strait would be attended with no more difficultv than
that was from the entrance of Lancaster Sound to Mel-
ville Island, and for exactly the same reason. But it
is from the improbability (amounting almost to a certain-
ty) that any such lands can be reasonably expected to
exist in a direction parallel to the north coast of Ame-
rica, so contiguous to each other, in that whole extent^ as
to afford to ships the same protection from the polar
ice, as the Hecla and Griper received from the North
Georgian Islands, that 1 am compelled to infer the
non-existence of a practicable N.W. passage for ships.
It being much more probable (even admit ting that all
the lands thut may extend from the west side of Green-
land towards tlie coast of America, as far even as ley
Cape, are insulated^ that spaces, quite as extensive as
that to tlie westward of Melville Island, may intervene,
so as to admit the polar ices between lands so sepa-
rated, and thereby cause the very same kind of obstruc-
tion as was met with at the S.W. extremity of Melville
Island.
Nothing can prove more clearly than the foregoing
extracts, that the ices described therein ivtre what Mr.
Fisher very justly considered them, polar ices, (if there
be no land to the northward) and that such ices have,
as I will endeavor to prove they must necessarily have,
a constant tendency to drift to the southward, under
the impulse given to them by the polar current, and the
prevailing northerly winds, until they are impeded by
the northern shores of intervening lands, upon which
they must consequently lodge ; as was found to be the
case by Captain Parry, when he made his journey
across Melville Island. He says, at page 191, "As soon
as we had gained the summit of this point, which was
about 80 feet above the sea, and was named after Mr.
Nias, we had an additional confirmation that it was the
sea which we had now reached ; the ice being throiun up
under the point, and as far as we could see to the west-
ward, in large, high, irreguhir masses, exactly similar to
those which had so often afforded us anchoras^e and
shelter upon the southern shores of the Island." *' A
continuous line of very large hummocks of ice extended
from Point Nias about two miles and a half in a N.E.
direction. They were the kind of humjnocks which
always indicate the ice having met with resistance by
grouh Jng. The whole of the shore, as far as I could see
90
with a p:1ass, bore evident marks of that tremendous pres-
sure which is? produced by tiehls of ice when set in mo-
tion." He further observes, "The ice on this coast, as
compared v\ith tliat in Winter Harbour, heing double the
thickness of that of the otlier, may at lirst sight appear
to be an indication of a tJiore severe ciunate on this than
.on the southern coast of Melville Ishmd." Thoujrh it
may appear very hke presumption to question the
opinion and judgment of Captain Parry, in this in-
stance, yet 1 shoukl imagine there can be no doubt of
the fact of the north side of Melville Island being colder
than the other, for the same reason that it would be
warmer near the south side of a high brick-wall, than it
possibly could be on the other ; especially if extensive
fields of ice lay to the north of it, and the winds prevailed
nearly two-thirds of the year from that quarter, as it
appears they do at Melville Island. And i\\e proof oi
this is, that the radiation of heat from the southern
shores of Melville Island dissolved the ice from those
shores, but the northern continued to be encumbered
with it ; and in all human probability will remain so
till doomsday.* However, Captain Parry says, *' this
circumstance is, as we know by experience, the formation
of a single winter ; whereas, on an open and e.vposed
beach, like that of Point Nias, the last years or sea ice
is at liberty to fix itself in the autumn, forcing up the
masses which we see aground in all such situations,
and increasing in the course of the ensuing winter to the
* Mr. Fisher, at page 209, sajis, " With respect to the nature of the
country on this side the island, there is as little to be said, in favor of
its fertility, as any we have seen ; in fact it is as barren as it is possi-
ble for land to be : even the hardy Poppy, i\mt abounds on the south
side of the island in the worst soil, is not to be seen here,"
li
I
ICO
thickness wliich we found it to be. Had we acci-
dentally come to any bay or harbour, secur^e from the
access of the floes from without, and of the same depth
as Winter Harbr^ar, / doubt not we should have found
the ice in it of nearly the same thickness." I am free to
confess that I verv much doubt this inference; for
though a bay on the north side of the island, " secure
from the floes from without," and " of the same depth
as Winter Harbour," would be, so far, similar ; yet the
situation of one, being to the north, open to the winds
which are found so generally to blow from that frigid
quarter, and the other on the south, having intervening
land to shelter it more from them, there would doubtless
be a difference of general temperature in favor of Win-
ter Harbour. However, though this may be only mat-
ter of opinion, yet the matters of fact which the forego-
ing extract contains, are much more to my purpose, and
speak a languagethatcannot well be misunderstood. The
first of these is, that heavy masses of ice had heen forced
up, on an open and exposed beach — open to the north.
Frohi this first fact 1 infer the existence of a cause (or
causes) let it be what it may, which is in constant or
general operation of power sufficient to impel those
masses /ro»2 north to south, and to force them by " tre-
mendous pressure up on the beach." That the same
cause will impel these polar ices down to the south-
ward, even on to the coast of America, wherever they
can float, and do not meet with any obstruction to their
progress; or aie rot dissolved. That if any of the
masses furthest to the southward be in fact dissolved,
the space they covered is imperceptibly occupied by
those next to them, which are continually pressed on
towards the south, by others still further to the north-
ward of them. For this reason, the north shore of
^
lOl
Melville Island was encumbered with such polar ices,
from the beach, as far out to sea, towards the north, as
the sight extended at its highest elevation. And for
the same reason, there can be no doubt that the north'
em shores of all lands situated between Greenland
and any part of the north coast of Amer ^a, must be
encumbered in like manner, unless they be protected
from the polar ices by other lands to the northward
of them. Besides, ices so lodged aground may, instead
of diminishing, perhaps augment annually, as Phoca,
with proper caution and diffidence, only inferred sls pos-
sible^ because (what was considered) the best amkority,
at the time, informed him, "that, owing to the great
depth at which ice floats in water, it must take the
ground at considerable distance from the shore, where
it becomes a nucleus for floating patches to form round
it ; and the summer sun having little power on such
enormous masses, they accumulate in magnitude, and
spread over a wider surface from year to year ; and if
large fragments were not frequently torn from them,
and borne away by the currents, the whole surface of
the straits and narrow seas would, in process of time, be
covered with ice. The most northerly straits and islands,
which form the passages into Hudson's Bay, are of course
never free from mountains and patches of ice ; and yet
all navigators proceeding on discovery have either enter-
ed those Straits and had to struggle against the ice, and
currents, and tides on the coast of America; or, have
keptsocloseto the land, on the west coast, of Greenland
as to encounter the same obstacles." All this was very
true, no doubt, as regarded the past, and, taken prophe-
tically, has been proved unfortunately to be but too cor-
rect,bythe result of the several attempts which havesince
beenmadotonavigatethese * wore;?0ri//er/j/5fm/*.' Phoca
i
;:?r
102
i
f
1:
Avas told too, " how little the influence of an Arctic sum-
mer, even, is on fields of ice, perpetually surrounded by a
freezing- atmosphere created by themselves ;" and this
Captain Parry has furnished us with facts quitesufficient
to confirm ; particularly the one observed by him on the
open and exposed beach of Point Nias. There, he says,
" the last year s or sea ice, is at liberty to fix itself in the
Tiutwmn, forcing up the masses seen aground in all such
situations, and increasing in the ensuing zvintery to the
thickness which we found it to be." Now here is the
acknowledgement of one year's ice being increased by the
nej't ensuing. Then why not an annual increase, till
doomsday ? — / do not presume to say that such can be
the result. But, on such authority, who will be bold
enough toquestionthelegitimacy of the inference, as far at
least as it is applicable to ice aground on northern shores
of Arctic lands ? It is true, that Phoca, before his mind
was enlightened by the knowledge of recent facts, took
it into his head that there must be some probable cause,
counteractive of the Quarterly ^e\iewer's perpetual frost ;
and explained his ideas on that subject in one of his
letters. He came to the conclusion that " it was more
than probable, that the process of freezing and melting
might be going on in the Arctic regions, on the sfime
body of floating ice (if of magnitude to be sufficiently
immersed) at the same time, and perhaps in winter as
well as in summer ;" for, from a few recorded facts, he
deduced the probability of the pj^ogressive general decrease
of the temperature of the sea from the surface downwards
in the torrid and temperate zones ; and its progressive
increase downwards in the frigid zones ; both however
being dependent on the atmospheric temperature at the
time. He was further confirmed in this opinion by the
results of two simple experiments, made in a deep
103
wooden vessel with a tin bottom. This being filled
with common pump water, a red hot plate of iron was
held close to its surface, to try the first case ; and a
large piece of ice was used for trial of the second case.
He reserved to himself exceptions to these two s;sneral
results, in the event of experiments being made on the
sea's temperature, in soundings ^ and confined waters, near
land : because each general result was found to be ma-
terially affected by putting ice to the outside of the
boitom of the vessel, whilst heat was applied to the sur-
face, in the first case ; and by putting heat at the bottom,
whilst ice was applied tothesurface, in the other case: and
therefore thought it probable that the high temperature
of the lands in the torrid, and perhaps the ternperate
zones, might in some degree be communicated to the
bottom, in soundings, more especially in shoal and
confined waters, and thereby cause exceptions to the
general rule, similar to those in the first case ; and in
theArctic (and Antarctic) regions, under like circum-
stances of locality, those similar to the second case.
At page 448, in No. 36, Quarterly Review for June
1818, an extract from Davis's " World's Hydrographi-
cal Description" is given, in confirmation perhaps of an
opinion expressed by the Reviewer, five or six months
before, as to " tlie litile efiect of even an Arctic summer,
on fields of ice perpetually surrounded by a freezing
atmosphere created by themselver ;" to establish also
his doctrine of " the perpetuitj/ of the southern current"
through ** Baffin's Sea ;" and to prove that *' those who
have formed their notions of this current from the re-
veries of Saint Pierre, on the melting of the polar ice,
have adopted very erroneous ideas on the subject :"
for he attempts to show, on the authority of Mr.
Scoresby's Meteorological Journal for 1812, to which
:llf.
104
lie refers Malte-Brun, (who liad dared " to convert an
ice mountain into a marine current, bj' the effect of the
solar rays,) that as much ice as the solar rays decom-
posed on one side of such a moimtain, would be re-com-
posed, probably, on the other." This is at least one
step towards self-refutation, as it admits the probably
equal and' simultaneous operation of the two opposite
powers of heat and cold above water, on tloating ice,
which would consequently keep the quantity then
equal at all times. *■
But the Reviewer noxv wishes, it seems, to go further ;
and having since had a glimpse of some " new light,"
from " Mr. Scoresby's communication to Sir Joseph
Banks," and the " observations made in the Greenland
seas on the temperature of the water at the surface,
when that of the atmosphere, he takes it for granted,
(but why^ he does not say) was at or below the freezing
point," which are inserted at page 453 and 4, he thinks
it as well to look a little deeper. And also nozvy for
the first time, perhaps, looking to the fair inference
ih^i has been already, or might be, drawn from his doc-
trine of progressive everlasting congelation in the Arctic
regions, he calls old Davis from the " vasty deep" to
help him out with some fact to show that there is
some other counteracting power in operation, under
water also, to prevent that accumulation of ice, which
** otherwise, in process of time, would freeze up the
globe." Fortunately, and most opportunely, he was
furnished with this by old Davis, who tells him that
he had seen ** an Ylande of Yse turne up and downe be-
cause it hath melted so faste under water." On this
grand and seemingly unejcpected discovery, the saga-
cious critic, in the name of his brethren, exclaims in
rapture, " We have no doubt that Davis is right, and
105
J,.
ight,"
saga-
(hat the action of the salt sea on ice, and not its decom-
position by the solar rays, prevents an accumulation
which would otherwise, in process of time, freeze up
the globe ! ! " It would seem, however, entirely to have
escaped the notice of this sage critic that Davis did
not account for this melting of " the yse so faste under
water," because the sea was salty but owing " to his
heate oi power to dissolve yse." The Reviewer might as
well have told us what he meant by " the action of the
salt sea on ice." It may have been the increased tem-
perature of the sea, shown by the experiments of Dr.
Irving and Mr. Scoresby; but if so, why apply the
needless term salt to the sea? He was not quite sure^
then, perhaps, of the fact of an increasing temperature of
the sea downwards ; as he deems ** the few experiments
in Phipps's Voyage wholly unsatisfactory," yet they
must have made some impression on his belief. How-
ever, he very prudently declines hazarding " an opinion
as to the cause of this warm stream," but leaves it to his
readers "to ascribe it" to the " submarine geysers " of
Pennant, or to " the heated current from the Pacific,
which probably loses nothing of its temperature in its
passage among the active Volcanoes of, the Aleutian
Islands," and thence through Behring's Strait, and the
Frozen Ocean, into the bargain ! ! Bless us ! what an
advantage it is to be a man of learning and a great
traveller! what daring flights it enables the mind to
take on the wings of a lively imagination I The Edin-
burgh Reviewer, in No. 59, observes on this subject,
" that, contrary to what takes place under milder skies,
the water drawn up from a considerable depth is warmer
within the Arctic circle than what lies on the surface.
The Jloating ice accordingly begins to melt generally on
the underside, from the slow communication of the heat
Data. O
%
I .'la
106
[
sent upwards." The Quarterly Reviewer says, "but
we are rather inclined to consider it as the lighter water
rising from an extreme depth to the surface." Mr.
Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic regions, published
in 1820, says, at page 184, "As far as experiments
have hitherto been made, the temperature of the sea
has generally been found to diminish on descending.
But in the Greenland sea, near Spitzbergen, the contrary
is the fact. The results of the experiments he made
for determining this interesting point were highly satis*
factory ; the water being invariably warmer than that at
the surface." A series of these experiments are ex-
hibited in a table at p. 187. " They were all made in
deep water, clear of land, and out of soundings^ the tem-
perature of the air at the times being generally below,
and seldom above 32 degrees of Fahrenheit." So much
for the fact, which (being an unlearned man) is all /
dare meddle with ; but as others may wish to see whe-
ther Mr. Scoresby 's attempts to account for the cause
are more clear and satisfactory than those of the two
rival Reviewers, I shall insert what he says at page
209, &c. " From the fact of the sea near Spitzbergen
being usually six or seven degrees warmer ^ at the depth
of 100 to 200 fathoms, than it is at the surface, it seems
not improbable that the water below is a still farther ex-
tension of the Gulf streamy which, on meeting with
water near the ice, lighter than itself, sinks below the
surface, and becomes a counter under current." And
again, " From the circumstance of an under stratum of
water, in the Spitzbergen sea, being generally warmer,
by some degrees, than that at the surface, though of
similar specific gravity, it would appear that the warmer
water is, in this case, the most dense^ or why does it not
rise and change places with the colder water at the
107
surface ?" I am sure / cannot saj' why ; and, my good
reader, if you are not able to do so, perhaps one or other
of the critics will assist you ; though I apprehend the
Quarterly Reviewer will be somewhat puzzled by the
question For his warm water, brought all the way
from the Pacific Oc an, happens to be lighter than that
at the surface in the Arctic regions, and at an extreme
depth too (as he of course can give a good reason for) ;
but Mr. Scoresby's warm stream from the West Indies
is heavier than that at the surface (or " of similar spe-
cific gravity," for it is hard to say which he means),
and therefore sinks underneath it, instead of rising like
the Quarterly Reviewer's circumvolving current, "from
an cjctreme depth to the surface." In the Edinburgh
PhilosophicalJournal, No. 4, for April 1820, is inserted
an abstract of Mr. Scoresby's results ; also some ob-
tained by Lieutenant Beechey, on board the Trent, in
the Spitzbergen seas ; and others by Mr. Fisher on
board the Dorothea.
From these and other experiments made by Dr.
Marcet, the Editor of that Journal observes, " In
Baffin's Bay, the Mediterranean sea, and the tropical
seas, the temperature of the sea diminishes with the depth,
according to the observations of Phipps, Ross, Parry,
Sabine, Saussure, Ellis, and Peron ; but it is a remark-
able fact, that in the Arctic or Greenland seas, the
temperature of the sea increases with the depth. This
singular result was first obtained by Mr. Scoresby, in
a series of well-conducted experiments, and has been
confirmed by the later observations of Lieutenants
Franklin, Beechey, and Mr. Fisher." I however appre-
hend, that the correctness of the Editor's observations
will sometimes, perhaps, be impeached, by results a
little at variance with both these general rules, owing
;^,' t
108
to the circumstances of locality as to land, depth of
water, and the temperature of the atmosphere, com-
pared with that of the surface, at the time of making
experiments on submarine temperature. Some few
instances in proof of such exceptions to the first general
rule, appear by the experiments made by Captain Hall
and Mr. Clarke Abel, near the coast of China, and
were noticed by-Phoca in his second letter ; and other
exceptions to the second rule are to be found among
the experiments made by recent voyagers in the Arctic
regions. One is particularly noticed by Mr. Scoresby,
in his " Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale
Fishery," published last year, 1823. He says, at page
237, "At 10 A.M. being in latitude 72" 7' and longitude
19° 11' west, we ohtmned soundings in 118 fathoms;
muddy bottom. ^ The temperature of the sea at the
surface was 34", and within five fathoms of the bottom,
by a Six's thermometer, it was 29°: the air at the same
time wan 42°. In all former experiments upon the tem-
perature of the Gieenland sea, I have invariably found
it to be warmer below than at the surface. This exception
therefore is remarkable :" and Mr. Scoresby might have
added singular ioo'^ for it is perhaps the only experi-
ment he ever made in soundings, which is quite suffi-
cient to account for the exception. Mr. Scoresby adds :
" On ray first trial, made in 1810, in latitude 76° 16',
and longitude 9° east, the temperature at the depth of
1380 feet was found to be 33° 3' (by the water brought
up), whilst at the surface it was 28° 8'. In one instance
(the latitude being 79° and long. 5° 40' E.) there was
an increase of 7° of temperature on descending 600
feet; and in another series of experiments, near the
same place, an increase of 8° was found at the depth of
4380 feet. What renders this increase of temperature
109
^P
on tlescending in the, Spitzbergen sea the more extraor-
dinary, is the fact, that in almost all other regions of the
globe, as far as observations have been made, a contrary
law prevails, the sea being colder below than at the
surface." But few or no experiments have been made
yet in the Antarctic sea ; and whenever they shall be, I
have very little doubt but it will be found to be the same
as it is in the Spitzbergen sea, progressively warmer in
proportion to the depth, cvcept in straits^ deep bays^ or
inletSf and perhaps in soundings near land ; and that
the cause, whatever it may be (as Mr. Scoresby says),
which occasions the peculiar warmth in the Spitzbergen
sea, will produce the same effect in the Antarctic sea,
though there we cannot have recourse, either to the
circum vol ving current, from the Pacific, of the Quarterly
Reviewer, or the Gulf stream of Mr. Scoresby, to assist
us to account for it. It was on the firm expectation
that this warm temperature of the Arctic seas would
be found (though it appears Mr. Scoresby had dis-
covered it to possess this, some time before), that Phoca
presumed it might be continually dissolving ice under
water ; yet still, on the whole, there might, by the process
of freezing above, be an increase of ice in the frozen sea,
but that the surplus was brought out by the Polar current
round the N.E. part of Greenland; and that consequent-
ly, " the general quantity of water in that sea remained
itearly the same at all times ; that is, taking the ice and
water together, as an aggregate quantity." Though
Capt. Parry has, as we have seen, acknowledged • an
increase of ice on the northern shores of Melville Island,
he seems to be of opinion that the quantity oi floating
ice is generally the same nearly, from what he observed
in Winter Harbour.
When there,' on the 6th of July 1820, he says, at
im
r1
ii.
110
page 217, " In all cases we found the ice to be first
thawed and broken up in the shoalest water, in con-
sequence, I suppose, of the greater facility with which
the ground, at a small depth below the surface of the
sea, absorbed and radiated the sun's rays ; and as it is
in such situations that water generally freezes first, this
circumstance seems a remarkable instance of the pro-
vision of nature for maintaining such a balance in the
quantity of ice annually formed and dissolvedi as shall
prevent any undue or extraordinary accumulation of it
in any part of the Polar regions of the earth. Among
the means also which nature employs in these regions
to dissolvCt during the short summer^ the ice which has
l)een formed upon the sea by the cold of winter^ there
appears to be none more efficacious than the numerous
streams of water produced by the melting of the snow
upon the land, which, for a period of at least «> or seven
weeks, even in the climate of Melville Island, are con-
tinually discharging themselves into the ocean. On
this account it would appear pix)bable that the high
land is more favorable to the dissolution and disper-
sion of ice near its shores, than that which is lower,
because it supplies a never-ceasing flow during the
whole of the thawing season." Considering the quan-
tity of land, already known to exist between the west
side of Greenland and the coast of America, and gene-
rally described high, this abundatit dissolution there-
from must, during that period, increase the quantity of
fluid, and consequently occasion some current towards
the south. I merely mention this now, as I shall per-
haps in the course of this inquiry be, able to bring
forward the testimony of Captain Parry to prove the
fact ; but not that the ** short summer" dissolves all
" the ice formed on the sea in winter."
Ill
We have already seen that the grounds originally
taken by the Quarterly Reviewer in favor of the exist-
ence and practicability of a N.W. passage (of both
which he did not then, still less does he now, entertain
any doubt) are the following, which I shall again call
to the reader's attention.
1st. The existence of a perpetual current setting down
from the northward, from the Polar Basin, through
Baffin's Sea, and Davis's Strait, into the Atlantic, with
a velocity of four, and sometimes of five miles an hour.
*2d. The non-existence of Baffin's Bay, as drawn in
the charts.
3d. A ci scum vol ving current, setting as perpetually
" from the Pacific through Behring's Strait" into the
Polar Basin, and out of it into the Atlantic; and
** whose existence in his opinion affords the best hope
for the success of the expeditions engaged in exploring
a passage into the Pacific" — by way of the Pole, as
well as along the north coast of America.
4th. A great Polar sea, /ree/row* ice, near the Pole, if
free from land*
Mr. Barrow, one of the secretaries at the Admiralty,
appears, from what he says in his account of the voyages
to the Polar regions, published in 1818, to have taken
up the question precisely on the same grounds as the
Reviewer.
Mr. Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic regions,
published in 1820, enumerates some of these, and also
considers them as probable grounds for supposing that
such a passage viay exist, Ellis's reasons, he says, ap-
pear to him to be " the most satisfactory." One of
these, rather a curious one to be so ** satisfactory," is
" the direct testimony of the Indians, which tends to
prove that they have seen the sea beyond the mountains,
112
and observed vessels navigating thereon ! /" Where, in tlie
name of Heaven, could these vessels have come from ?
or how could any have been there^ unless they were the
canoes of Esquimaux ? which it may be presumed Ellis
did not understand these Indians to mean by what he
termed vessels.
Mr. Scoresby, on the whole, however, is rather scep-
tical on the practicability of such passage, " and even if
it were discovered, he conceives it would be at intervals
only of years that it would in all probability be open
at all." Like a man of much experience and judgment,
he says, " the most certain (and I dare say he might
have added the only) method of ascertaining the exist-
ence of a communication between the Atlantic and
the Pacific, along the northern shore of America, would
doubtless be by journeys on land." ^his hint has
been taken, and as far as it goes, successfully acted on.
If followed up as it is now reported it will be, this
" grand question," I have not- the slightest doubt, will
be solved: but by any ship or ships, without the aid of
expeditions by land — it will remain as it now is, a
matter of doubt.
Let us now examine the four grounds of argument in
favor of the practicability of a N.W. passage for ships.
Phoca attempted, in the first instance, before the ex-
peditions sailed, to disprove them all, (and I think with
some success) except the 4th, which he thought proba-
ble, but desired further proof, which is still wanting.
Mr. Scoresby disputed none but the 4th, and his
reasons for not believing that there is an open sea clear
of ice about the Pole, I shall examine in the proper
place. But let us first try the validity of all these four
grounds or arguments, by the test of the experience of
113
IS, a
those navigators, who have recently visited the north
Polar regions. ■ .
Ist. " The existence of a perpetual current, setting
down from the northward, from the Polar Basin, through
Baffin's Sea, and Davis's Strait, into the Atlantic, with
a velocity of four, and sometimes five miles an hour."
Although the already noticed candid declaration of
the Reviewer, that * he noxo knows there is such a bay as
thatof Baffin,' &c. and he said, befpre he believed it, that
{/"there were such a bay, * it would be difficult to explain
how any current could originate at the bottom of it,'
would seem to render it superfluous to prove that there
is no such current, yet though I shall produce the testi-
mony to that effect, of one whom he has had no reason
to doubt, I must state the currents as I find them
mentioned in Captain Ross's Voyage, from the day he
passed the parallel of Cape Farewell, during his passage
up to the head of Baffin's Bay, and down it again till
he got off the entrance of Cumberland Strait.
On 23d of May, in lat. 57° 2' and longitude
43** 2', Captain Ross says : * This evening I remarked the
appearance of a current, and the next day ascertained
by hoisting out our boat, that it set W, N. W. (true) at
the rate of a quarter of a mile an hour.' On the 24th
* the N. W. current was still manifest.* On the 26th
of May, in latitude 58° 36', and long. 51^ W. *The
latitude agreed, but we had been set by a current a few
miles to the westward' On the 27th, ' a copper cylinder
with a detail of our situation was thrown overboard
near a very large iceberg, in lat. 61" N. and long. 53°
25*, which we passed at 9 p.m. It apparently drifted
to the westward, though we could perceive no current.*
June 1st, in lat. 63° 41', long. 55° 42', 'no effect of a
current was apparent, and having gained three niiles
Data. . P
■;?l
114
m
of latitude, it seemed evident there could be no current :
which appeared surprising, as the wind had blown for
three successive days directly down the strait,' that is,
from the northward. On the 5th of June, lat. 65° 46',
and long. 55° W. * a boat was anchored to try for a
current, but none was perceptible.' July 3d, in lat.
71" 33' and long. 56° 2', * by mid-day we had made a
degree of latitude through a channel apparently void of
ani/ current,' July 1,9th, ' we continued in the midst of
the ice, which /as canying us fast to the no7'thward.'
August 13th, lat. 75° 54', long. 66" 53', * it is worthy of
remark, that here, as on the whole of this coast north-
ward of 70°, we found the deepest water near the land,
and that no current was found.'
August 23d, * the sun's meridional altitude was ob-
served on the iceberg, and the latitude found to be 76°
37', the iceberg having drifted three miles to the north-
ward: September 1st, lat. 73° 37', long. 77° 25', * to
observe the current, the line was dropped over again,
and the transit bearings of two objects on the land set ;
these however did not vary in the least, nor did we find
any current by the line.' * My orders to stand well to
the north' had been already fully obeyed, and no current
had been found ; and if * a current of some force' did
exist, as from ' the best authorities' we had reason to
believe was the fact, it could be no where but to the
southward of this latitude:
On the 6th of September, in lat. 72° 23', and long.
73° 7', ' no current was found!' September 30, lat. 64°
10', and longitude 63° 5', * we found by our reckoning
that the current had set us twenty-five miles to the N,E,
during the last 24 hours.' Thus, according to Captain
Ross, no current from the northward was ever experienced ;
but, on the contrary, when any could be detected, it set
either /o the West, N,W.y Norths or N*E,
115
long.
Let us now see what Captain Parry discovered in
his subsequent voyage, as far to the northward as the
entrance of Lancaster Sound. #
On the 26th of June 1819, 'in lat. 63° 59' and
longitude 61° 48', in 125 fathoms, the deep sea line in-
dicated a drift to the S. by W.' July 11th, * we sounded
at noon in 202 fathoms, lat. 69° 24' and longitude 58°
16'; not allowing current, which for the three preceding
days ha.d appeared to set the ships to the S.S.E. at from
8 to 13 miles per day.' July 20th, lat. 72° 57', long. 58°
41', in 120 fathoms, the ships drift to S.S, W: July 24th,
lat. 72° 59' and longitude 60° 8', * sb ;>s drift to S. 1°
E. 4| miles in 24 hours, depth of water 260 fathoms.'
On the 30th July, noon, latitude 74° l', * being the
first meridional altitude taken for four days, and differ-
ing only two miles from the dead reckoning ;' which is
remarkable, considering the sluggishness of the com-
passes ; and would seem to afford a presumptive proof
that * no southerly current exists in this part of Baffin's
Bay.' Further to the southward, however, in the narrow-
est part of Davis's Strait, he appears from the foregoing
extracts to have met with a very small set of current
from the northward. We will now refer to his observa-
tions when returning from Lancaster Sound, homeward ,
bound.
On the 3d of September, in latitude 71° 24', 'being
only 2 miles and ^ to the southward of the dead reckon-
ing in three days, we considered that there could be no
current of any importance setting in that direction on this
part of the coast.' September 4th, * the latitude observed
was 71" 2' 42", agreeing to within a mile of the account ;
so that no current could well have existed since the pre-
ceding day's observation.' September 9th, in latitude 69°
24', long. 67° 5', in 35 fathoms, 5 or 6 miles from the land,
%
•»f
m
I
116
Captain Parry says, 'found the curi^ent running some-
what less than a mile an hour, in 3. S.hE. direction. At
4 30' P.M. it was again tried, and found to set to the
S.E. at the vate of I of a mile per hour ; and at 7 o'clock,
when we hove to near Cape Katerfor the Griper to join
us, we found it to be slack water ;' which proves this to
have been a tide stream^ and not a current. On the 11 th
of September, at noon, in lat. 69'' 19', and long. 6&' 5',
in 275 fathoms : * It must here be remarked, that for
each of the last three days, and for these only^ we had
found the ship between 7 and 8 miles to the southward
of the reckoning.' September 25th, at noon, in latitude
QQI" 13', ' being 2 miles and | to the southward of the dead
reckoning, which difference had occurred on each of the
12 preceding days.' From all these facts it is quite
clear that no such current as the Quarterly Reviewer
imagined, was found — indeed scarcely any worth men-
tion; and certainly, what little was detected either in
Baffin's Bay, or Davis's Strait, could hardly have origi-
nated in his circuravolving current from the Pacific
through Behring's Strait and the Polar Sea : nay, there
was no such thing as a permanent current/roTW the west-
nyard found in any part, even of Lancaster Sound, and
Barrow's Strait, if the authority of Captain Parry is suf-
ficient to show it. He sums up the matter in these
words : " Of the current which we experienced in
Davis's Strait, and Baffin's Bay. It would appear that
during the Summer and Autumn^ there is in this part a
considerable set to the southward. In judging of the
causes which produce this general tendency of the *M/>er-
Jicial current, it will be proper to bear in mind two facts,
which we have had occasion to remark in the course of
this and the prCx^eding voyage; first, that in a sea
much encumbered with ice, a current is almost invaria-
117 ,
bly produced, immediately on the springing wp of every
breeze of wind ; and, secondly, that in several instances
where the ships have been beset in the ice, the direction
of the daily drift has been the point of the compass di-
rectly opposite to that of the mnd, whether the latter was
from the northward or the southward.
' " It appears to me, upon th^ whole, that the southerly
current which we have been enabled to detect, is not
more than may be caused by the balance of the northerly/
winds, added to the annual dissolution of large quantities
of snow, which finds the readiest outlet into the Atlan-
tic. In the Polar sea, to the westward of Barrow's
Strait, no current has been found to exist beyond that
which is evidently occasioned by different winds. In every
nart which we had an opportunity of visiting, the tides,
though smallf appear to be as regular as in any part of
the world." Thus the Reviewer's firat ground has been
annihilated by proof positive. The second he has
himself confessed to be so, by the same proof. With
respect to the third, " a circumvolving current setting as
perpetually from the Pacific through Behring's Strait
into the Polar basin, and out of it into the Atlantic," &c.
the foregoing facts show that none of it was found
in the whole space between the west coast of ,C' ^nland
aud the meridian of 113" 46' 43" 5 in lat. 74'' 46^ 25",
which was the farthest point Captain Parry reached ;
when the Reviewer says, *' After struggling till the 16th,
Captain Parry determined to return to the eastward
along the edge of the ice, with the intention of availing
himself of any opening that might occur, to get to the
southward, and, if possible, upon the coast of America."
Not perhaps, for the purpose of *' seeking,'' like Captain
Ross, as the Reviewer tells him, " for ^i* circumvolving
current ;" but for, what Captain Patry considered a
J J
118
I
i
nil
III
much betiei' reason^ which I shall have occasion to
mention by-and-by, as he assigned it at the time, and
on a subsequent occasion ; especially as the Reviewer
has repeated it in terms of approval and acquiescence.-
He may also have an eye to the discovery of this favo-
rite current of his ; for as it had not been found, either
by. Ross or Parry, any where within the limits I have
before mentioned, its progress from Behring's Strait (if
it exist beyond it) through channels of communication,
between the " Polar basin" and the Atlantic must, of
course, be sought for hereafter, on parallels between Mel-
ville Island and the coast of America : for we cannot
be surprised at the Reviewer's anxiety to get hold of a
current, "whose" very " existence in his opinion aftbrds
the best hope for the success of the expeditions engaged
in exploring a passage into the Pacific." That there
certainly is a temporary and " trifling*^ superficial cur-
rent in Behring's Strait to the northward, Phoca has
admitted ; and so do I, though totally inadequate to
supply that which is known to set to the southward,
continually, out of the Polar sea, through the Spitzber-
gen sea, into the Atlantic ; even if it were possible to
believe that the waters of the Pacific composed any
part of it. Mr. Scoresby appears (as I before observed)
to believe in the existence of the Reviewer's circumvolv-
ing current, or at least that of " a sea communication"
between the Pacific and " the Atlantic." As to the
latter, for water and fish, I admit it may be very possi-
ble, somewhere in the space between Melville Island
and the north coast of America, which yet remains to be
explored, Mr. Scoresby is of the same opinion as the
Reviewer, chiefly for the same reasons; one of which
is, because " it is presumed that worm-eaten drift-
wood, found in the Arctic countries, is derived from
A
119
a trans-polar region," as he supposes one log was which
** he observed in 1817, on the Island of Jan M? yen."
Now, at page 209 of his " Account of the Arctic Re-
gions," Mr. Scoresby has informed us, that " From
the coast of Britain, the northern branch of the Gulf-
stream probably extends superficially along the shore
of Norway. About the North Cape, its direction ap-
pears to be changed by the influence of a westerly
current from Nova Zembla, so that it afterwards sets
to the N. W. as high as the borders of the ice, and thus
operating against the polar current setting to the south-
ward." I should like to know Mr. Scoresby's authority
for this movement of the superficial waters towards the
fV, and N.W. fro?7i Nova Zembla, However, as he of
course believes, or knows it to be so, I would ask him
if, by the aid of such a medium, the worm-e^ten drift-
wood he saw on Jan Mayen's Island might not have
been brought from the West Indies, by this much
shorter^ and more probable route than the other? The
polar current, Mr. Scoresby (page 4,) informs us, " flows,
he is well assured, during nine months of the year, if
not all the year round, from the N.E., towards the S. W.
The velocity of this current may be from 4 to 20 miles
a day, varying in different situations, but is most con-
siderable near the coast of Old Greenland." Here, then,
is the perfectly well authenticated fact of a perpetual
current out of the Polar sea. It is acknowledged by
the Reviewer in various parts of his writings, and par- .
ticularly pointed out by Mr. Barrow, at page 377 of his
Voyages to the ** Polar Regions." — Now, this perpetual
current to the southward, out of the Polar Sea, must
have a cause. That cause, whether it be what Phoca
attempted to prove it to be, or any other, would, doubt-
less, produce a similar current from the Polar sea to-
^^
120
^aitd» the Atlantic, through an;^ channels of communis
cation which maif exist from the west side of Greenland
to the coast of America, in quantity and velocity propor-
tionate to the dimensions of such channels. — Phoca^
disbelieving the existence of any such current in the
space called " Baffin's Sea," by the Reviewer, rationally
concluded that therefore there must be either land or
shoals north of that space.
', The subsequent proof of Baffin's veracity, and con-
sequently there being in fact no such current, either
there, or in. the space westward, as far as Melville
Island, proves, that there can be no channels of communi-
cation in that space between the Polar Sea and the
Atlantic, even for water in any considerable quantity ;
much less Worships, The Reviewer, however, is of a very
different opinion. He thinks there may be a passage to
the northward into the Polar sea through Wellington
Channel ; because, when the ships passed its southern
entrance, it was " free from every particle of ice, as far
as the eye could reach, on a remarkably clear day;"
and therefore, if the ships had proceeded up that chanp
nel, wherever it led to, the sea beyond would also have
been as clear and open. I admit it to be very possible,
that the northern opening of such channel may be
found clear of ice, as well as the southern ; provided other
lands lie to the northward of it. For one of my argu-
ments is, that the northern shores of all Arctic lands, as
well as the northern entrances of all channels formed
between them, if no land exist north of them, are, and
of necessity must be, continually more or less encum-
bered with heavy polar ices ; extending from those
lands towards the north polar axis of the globe. And
that too, whether around it as a centre, there may be
some expanse of open sea, as the Reviewer, and many
■ vi».<«l1
121
others suppose, without ice^ or whether there be, as Mr.
Scoresby concludes, (page 311,) " A continent of ice-
mountains, existing in regions near the Pole, yet unex-
plored, the nucleus of which may be as ancient as the
earth itself, and its increase derived from the sea and
atmosphere combined" — for it is quite immaterial to my
argument which theory may be correct. The only facts
I require are, first, the existence of heavy polar ices ;
xnd, secondly, the certain general movement of these
ices, from the north towards the south, in all the regions
surrounding the Pole, as long as they are at liberty to
do so, by the combined influence of the polar current,
and winds prevailing from the same quarter. These
facts, it is quite notorious, all parties are agreed in ;
and have been acknowledged, over and over again, by
the Reviewer, Mr. Scoresby, Mr. Barrow in his
Voyages into the Polar Regions, Mr. Fisher, and Capt.
Parry, in their respective publications. The Quarterly
Reviewer, in his notice of Capt. Parry's Voyage,
seemed to be more than ever confirmed in his opinion of
an open Polar Sea by that of Dr. Brewster, who, '* after
comparing the results of the expedition under Capt,
Parry with those he had drawn from a previous theory,"
is of opinion " that the hopes which have been so rea-
sonably entertained of reaching the Pole itself, are
thereby encouraged ;" concluding that " the mean tem-
perature of the Pole of the globe will be 1 1°, incom-
parably warmer than the regions in which Capt. Parry
spent the winter." The Doctor adds, " if the Pole is (be)
placed in an open sea, the difficulty of reaching it
entirely ceases. ^^ ''
Thus supported in his opinion of a clear, open, and
navigable Polar Sea, by that of " all the Greenland-
men," {except Mr. Scoresby), and the theory of the
Data. Q .
122
learned Doctor into the bargain, and baving assured us,
that he considered ** the knowledge acquired on th^
late expedition to have afforded a sanguine hope for
the complete solution of the interesting question of a
north-west passage," I must confess I expected he
had perhaps recommended the higher powers to make
another attempt by way of the Pole : especially as alt the
original motives for sending Captain Buchan that way,
must have been evidently strengthened in his mind, by
the recently acquired knowledge. Nothing in fact
having happened that could possibly tend to weaken
them, except Capt. Buchan's failure, owing " to one of
those accidents to which all sea voyages are liable;"
unless indeed Mr. Scoresby's book may have acted as
a sort of damper to the " sanguine hope" in that
quarter, if ever the Reviewer has condescended to read
such passages as these.
At page 49 of Scoresby's account of the Arctic
Regions, he says, " Were the mean temperature of the
Pole, indeed, above the freezing point of sea water,
and the mean heat of latitude 78** as high as 33° or 34**,
then the circumpolar seas would have a chance of be^
iLg free from ice: but while the temperature of the
former can be shown to be about 18°, and the latter
1 1" below the freezing temperature of the sea, we can
have no reasonable ground, I conceive, for doubting
the CO itinual presence of ice in all the regions imme-
diately surrounding the Pole." And at page 54 : "If
the masses of ice which usually prevent the advance of
navigators beyond the 82nd degree of north latitude be
extended in a continued series to the Pole (of which,
unless there be land in the way, I have no doubt), the
expectation of reaching the Pole by sea must be alto-
gether chimerical" Now, if we take Mr. Scoresby to be
\
123
right in his conjecture that ** there is a continent of ice-
mountains in the regions near the Pole, unless there be
land in the way," what must there be between it and
the place where Capt. Parry wintered at, which, accord-
ing to Dr. Brewster's theory, is W or 12" colder than
the Pole, or, as the Reviewer says we may conclude,
" one of the coldest spots on the face of the globe ?" Ac-
cording to Mr. Scoresby, in this case there must be a
frozen Ocean, north of lands surrounding that Ocean,
if there be 720 other land between them and the pole ;
which is very far beyond what Phoca has ventured to
suppose the Jce extended. On the other hand, our
oracle the Reviewer says, " If we suppose that clusters
of Islands continue to be scattered over it (the Polar
Sea) on all sides, to the very Pole, or its vicinity, we
shall in that case probably not be far from the fact, in
concluding the whole of this extensive sea to be shal-
low, choked up with ice, and unnavigable." According
to this authority, then, this Polar Sea is to be choked
up with ice, if there be land. So that, take either view,
or combine both, we can come at nothing but ice, ice,
ice, all along the northern shores of Arctic lands, and
a frozen ocean to some indefinite extent to the north-
ward o( the northernmost oHhose lands. Being obliged,
at this rate, to give up the idea of any further attempts
being intended by way of the Pole, as perhaps the
Reviewer himself had done long before, I next con-
sidered what other particular knowledge had been ac-
quired on the late expedition, to afford this " sanguine
hope," and whereabouts the Reviewer could reasonably
expect it to be realized. I could hardly suppose he
would recommend another trial to be made to the
northward in Baffin's Bay ; " because it is now known
that there is such a bay." Nor by the route last pursued
ff
4
124
by Capt. Parry, although, so/ar, successfiilly ; because
" he did not think that the strenuous, but unsuccessful
endeavors of the late expedition, in two different sea-
sons, to penetrate to the westward of Melville Island,
afforded any hope that the passage will ever be effected
in i/tat particular parallel of latitude : nor by the Wel-
lington Channel " in the first instance," though he says
" it viaj/ be desirable to look at the state of the Polar
sea beyond it, hereafter." But, above all others, it
never could be supposed that he would recommend the
attempt to be made by way of Hudson's Strait and
Bay, who had reprobated the very idea from the first.
Nay, he had recorded his decided opinion that " all
former attempts had failed, because not one of them was
ever made near that part of the coast of America, round
which, it is most likely the passage would lead into the
northern or frozen ocean," a frozen ocean (by the by),
which he then believed to be without ice. And because
"hitherto most of our adventurers have worked their way
through Hudson's Strait, which is generally choked up
with, ice ; then, standing to the northward, have had to
contend with ice drifting to the southward^ with contrary
winds and currents ;" and " the most northerly straits
and islands, which form the passages into Hudson's
Bay, are of course never free from mountains and
patches of ice ; and yet all navigators proceeding on
discovery have either entered these Straits and had
to struggle against the ice and currents, and tides on
the coast of America, or, &c."
If we may judge from the late second fruitless at-
tempt of Capt. Parry, to discover a passage that way,
the Reviewers early judgment, in this particular in-
stance, has unfortunately been but too correct.
For although Captain Parry did not, as far as the
125
newspapers tell us, meet with any greater difficulties
than the annual ships of the North- West Company gene-
rally do, in Hudson's Strait ; yet, after entering Hud-
son's Bay, he, like most of our adventurers, had to con-
tend, not merely '* with ice drifting to the southward,"
but was obstructed in his advance towards the N.W.
by the Repulse Bay of Middleton, whose testimony to
its existence, it appears, was doubted by himself as well
as the reviewer, who says, Middleton " looked into what
he was pleased to call Repulse Bay :" a name, however,
which has now become doubly appropriate, as well as
the Bay of Baffin. It may be allowed us to presume,
that the Quarterly Reviewer, who recorded his decided
judgment against making any future attempt, where
all former ones had failed, could not have been consulted
before it was resolved to send Captain Parry by that
very route. For as nothing had been done, or become
known, between the years 1817 and 1821, to alter the
grounds of his judgment in that particular, he could
not, it may be supposed, have been so inconsistent as to
have approved in the latter year, what he so decidedly
condemned in the former. He may, however, have been
persuaded to concur in the opinion of others, contrary
to what appears to have been his own better judgment
in this particular instance. Indeed the writer of the
critique on Captain Parry's first Voyage, in the 49th
No. of the Quarterly Review, says, (whilst the last ex-
pedition was pending,) Captain Parry " has recorded
his opinion in favour of its accomplishment, and his sug-
gestion has no doubt been adopted on the present voy-
age:" and " it can scarcely h Joubted then, that the
attempt is now about to be made, as recommended by
Captain Parryy in a more southern latitude, and close
along the north coast of America, where they may rea-
1^
^1
12f]
1^
soD'dbly hope to meet witli a better summer climate, and
a longer season for their operations, by at least six
weeks."
Here then we find that the * sanguine hope* was
fully expected to be realized on the north coast oj America,
if Captain Parry had been fortunate enough to reach it
by way of Hudson's Bay, and any of its northern straits.
But he found those he examined blocked up with ice,
which the Reviewer told us long ago they were * never
free from.' I have not heard whether any of the Re-
viewer's * mountains of ice* w^re met with there. How-
ever, we shall hear when Captain Parry's account of his
last voyage comes out, which I am very anxious to see,
in the hope of getting some more light thrown on the
subject ; though I must confess thpt hope is not very san-
guine as far as regards what may, or may not, be here-
after effected along the north coast of America. In the
mean time, whilst the next expedition is pending, which
I am told is to proceed by way of Lancaster Sound and
down Prince Regent's Inlet, towardstbat coast, let us try
the strength and solidity of the reasons given by the
Reviewer, in* his critique on Captain Parry's voyage, as
well as those published by Captain Parry himself. The
Reviewer in many passages has nearly quoted that offi-
cer's words, and as some of his opinions are the same,
(though others very difFeromt,) they may be considered
as jointly belonging to bcth : the one by original sug-
gestion, and the other by adoption. I shall quote from
both, and occasionally compare them together, drawing
such conclusions from the data they furnish, as shall
appear to me to be fair and legitimate ; and wherever
these are at all at variance with, or tend to undermine,
their own arguments, such discordance shall be pointed
out. . »«
127
I, and
8t six
was
erica f
ach it
traits,
h ice,
never
le Re-
How-
; of his
to see,
)n tUe
rif san-
i here-
in the
which
ad and
t us try
by the
age, as
If. The
lat offi-
i same,
Bidered
lal sug-
te from
I rawing
SIS shall
herever
ermine,
pointed
f In the first place, Captain Parry says, at page 142,
" I began to consider whether it would not be advisable,
whenever the ice would allow us to move, to sacrifice a
few miles of the westing we had already made, and run
along the margin of the floes, in order to endeavour to
find an opening leading to the southward ; by taking ad-
vantage of which we might be enabled to prosecute the
voyage to the westward in a lower latitude. I was the
moreincHnedtomake this attempt fromitshavinglongbe-
come evident to us, that the navigation of this part of the
Polar Sea is only to be performed by watching the occa-
sional openings between the ice and the shore : and that
therefore a continuity of land \s essential, if not absolutely
necessary for the purpose. Smh a continuity of land,
which was here about to fail us, must necessarily be fur-
nished by the northern coast of America, in whatever
latitude it may be found." Again, at page 297, Captain
Parry says, " Our experience, I think, has clearly shown
that the navigation of the Polar Seas can never be per-
formed with any degree of certainty without a continuity
of land. It was only by watching ♦he occasional openings
between the ice and the shore that our late progress to
the westward was eflected, and had the land continued
in the desired directiony there can be no question that we
should have continued to advance, however slowly,
towards the completion of our enterprise." " In this
respect therefore, as well as in the improvement to be ex-
pected in the climate, there would be a manifest advantage
in making the attempt on the coast of America, where we
are sure that land will not Jail us." In both these ex-
tracts it is declared that a continuity of land is essential,
if not absolutely necessary. A continuity, where? and
how situated, as to the westward course to be steered by
ships ? Why a continuity, such as the North Georgiam
'[U
i
1 .
128
Islands, lying contiguous to each other, nearly east
and west, on a parallel, norths or on the starboard hand
of that course. But vhy should it lie in that direction;
jand be situated north of thai course ? Because such a
continuity did in ft t enable the ships to proceed as far
only to the westward as it extended, but no farther. How
did it enable them to do so ? By protecting them from
polar ices, such as were met with at the west end of Mel-
ville Island ; where., Captair. Parry says, " hadi\\e land
continued in the desired direction, there can be no question
that we should have continued to advance towards the
completion of our enterprise." TLa Quarterly Reviewer
says, "the heavy ice found there was owing probably
.to the discontinuance of land, or to the prevailing northerly
mnds having driven down the main body of ice and
wedged it in among the Islands." This was a discnntinu'
€nce of latid on the north of the ship's course; and the
acknowledgment of the ice •' having been driven
down" implies the belief that there must be a fertile
supply from that quarter, and what Captain Parry terms
a power in constant operation of " enormous pressure"
to have thus " wedged it in among the Islands."
Mr. Fisher, whom I have quoted before, seems to have
had a much clearer conception of this matter, at the time
and place, than any of his shipmates. His words are
decidedly to the point, at page &9 : " I think it is pvo-
bable, as long as we find land to the northward, to stop
the polar ice from drifting down upon us, that we shall
find a passage to the westward along the land. I do
not mean, however, to say that a passage will, without
any interruption, be constantly found to exist between
the land and the ice: on the contrary, I am aware that
a southerly wind may give us occasional checks, by
farcing the ice in with the coast; but immediately the
V29
wind changes to the opposite direction, it will neces*
sarily have the contrary effect. This is not indeed a
matter of speculation, nor do I intend it to be consi»
dered as such ; for both this and the last year's experi-
ence have afforded us so many instances of the truth
of what I have said, that jL have no hesitation in giving
it as my opinion, that the viciniiy of land to the north-
ward will always be in our favor. My object in being
so particular on this point is, because there are some
amongst us of quite a different opinion *" Mr. Fisher
does not particularly name any who thus differed from
him in this opinion, which he had so justly formed ; but
it would appear that Captain Parry himself, before he
reached Wellington Channel, regarded this " continuity
of land to the northward" of him, with " uneasiness, prin-
cipally from the possibility that it might take a tura
to the southward and unite with the coast of America ;"
not being then aware, as he afterwards learnt by ex-
perience that such continuity was " essential, if not ab-
solutely necessary, for the navigation of this part of the
Polar Sea ;" and as I dare say it vill be for the navi-
gation of that part of it, from the meridian of Prince
Regent's Inlet to that of Icy Cape. . •
We have seen alread j where and what this continuity
was, as well as its importance to the ships, as far as it
extended. That importance was fully proved by the
insurmountable icy obstruction which they met with
at its western extremity. And yet Captain Parry says,
and the Reviewer repeats it : '* Such continuity of land
as was here about to fail us, must necessarilybe furnished
by the northern coast of America, in whatever latitude
it may be found."
** There would be a manifest advantage in making the
attempt on the coast of America, where we are sure
Data. B,
4.
130
that land will not fail us/* If the Reviewer alone had
made such ah observation as the first, it need not have
surprised one ; hut that Captain Parry himself, with the
facts of his experience before him, should not only have
written but published the same, is indeed somewhat
unexpected ; for the two cases cannot possibly have
any feature alike, except as regards the term continuity
applied to them, and perhaps being so, in both having
a direction nearly east and west. Though there must
be continuity of land on the coast of America, yet surely
it cannot be ^wcA a continuity as that formed by the
^lorth Georgian Islands, which failed Captain Parry at
the west end of Melville Island : because the coaat of
America is on the larboard hand, or to the southward oi
ships steering to the westward, and consequently to
leeward, as the prevailing winds are from the northward.
On the contrary, the continuity formed by the North
Georgian Islands is to the northward, or on the star-
board hand, of ships so steering, and therefore to wind'
ward. As to siuation, then, they are only as opposite
as north and south. Bui in other and far more im-
portant points they are quite the reverse of each other.
The chain of landj extending from Baffin's Bay,
on the north of the passage discovered by Captain
Parry, acted as a barrier against the polar ices, which,
it is confessed by all the authorities I quote, are driven
from north to south by the combined power of the polar
current and "the prevailing northerly winds." The
southern shores of those lands being weather shores,
(or having the wind blowing from them,) were conse-
quently found to be comparatively free from ice. Nor
in truth was there, in the whole extent of that passage,
any such heavy polar ice met with, as was found near
the west end of Melville Island. But what was the state
of the northern coast of Melville Island, which was a lee
131
shore, as the winds are proved to prevail ? Captain Parry
has told us what he observed at Point Nias. Nay, what
was the state of the shores facing the north of the lands
forming the south side of that passage, and extending
from Prince Regent's Inlet to Banks's land, at what-
ever distance those lands may be from the North Geor-
gian Islands ? Those lands were not seen all the way
in continuity, but there must be land there sufficiently
contiguous to prevent the field ice even from moving fur-
ther to the southward than it was observed to do from the
North Georgian Islands ; and if there should be no land
nearer to those Islands than che coast of America itself,
that coast must be the impediment, and the ice will be, in
all human probability, found to be continuous quite to
that coast. Now, let us see what answer Captain
Parry will furnish to the last question^ as to the state of
the ice to the southward.
It has already been seen, at page 142 of Captain
Parry's Voyage, that, when he first met with such
decided obstruction, necr the west end of Melville
Island, he " was desirous of finding an opening in the
ice leading to the southward, by taking advantage of
which, he might be enabled to orosecute the voyage to
the westward in a lower latitude. At page 250, he de-
F riiMis the ice to the W. and W.S.fV, of Cape Dundas,
I * V hence, it being 1000 feet high, the view of it
mub save been very extended. " It was as solid and
compact as so much land ; no passage in that direction
was yet to be expected ; the only clear- water in sight
was a channel of about three-quarters of a mile wide,
between the ice and the land." — At page 259, on the
26th of August, when he cast off from the ice, and
^nade all sail to the eastward, he says, *• We kept close
' the ice, which w
•''K
ioug the edge
^uite compact
132
the southward, without the smallest appearance cf an operh
ing to encourage a hope of penetrating in that direction"
At page 261, when ii? lat. 72° 2' 15" and long. IDS'*
14' 20", he says, " A constant look-out was kept from
the crow's-nest, for an opening to the southxvard ; but not
a single break could he perceived in the mass of ice which
still covered the sea in that direction" And on the fol-
lowing day, the 28th of August, he adds, " The ice to
the southward, along which we continued to sail this
day, was composed of floes, remarkable for their extra-
ordinary length and continuity : some of them not
having r single ^»reak or crack for miles together, though
their height abi ' I'le sea was generally not more
than 12 inches, au^ their surface as smooth and even
as a bowling-green ; forming a striking contrast to the
ice to which we had lately been accustomed more
westerly." On the 30th of August, he says, " Having
now traced the ice the whole way, from long. 1 14" to
90" without discovering any opening to encourage a hope
of penetrating to the southward, I could not entertain
the slightest doubt that there no longer remained a
possibility of effecting our object." Does Captain
Parry then, with facts like these before his eyes, really
mean to say, that a continuity of land, south of the
westerly course to be steered towards Behring's Strait, is
in aqy point, except the two I have mentioned, such as
one to the north of it ? Suppose, for instance, that,
after he entered Lancaster Sound, there had been no
land whatever to the northward, between him and the
Pole, and that the land to the southward from Cape
Byam Martin to Banks's Land, or even to Behring's
Strait, was continuous ; I would ask him candidly, to
say, if he believes he could have advanced to the west-
ward beyond even the 80th degree of longitude?
13a
Would he have found that continuity such as the one
to the northvmrd, whose existence alone enabled him to
reach the 1 14th meridian ? But the Quarterly Review
would perhaps answer for him : " Yes, he would not
only have made as much westing as he did, but he
would have reached Behring's Strait; because he would
have entered mi/ * Polar basin,^ where there would have
been no ice to impede his progress." , And yet the
Reviewer acknowledges that *' the ice found about the
S.W. extremity of Melville Island, was owing proba-
bly to the discontinuance of land, or to the prevailing
northerly winds having driven down the main body, and
wedged it in among the Islands !" May I ask him then
to give me any sound reason, why the same combined
causes should not have produced the same effects, i/'that
discontinuance had taken place in the same parallel on
any other meridian, between Baffin's Bay and 114"
west longitude? and why it may not take place at
the west end of Arctic lands, on any meridians west of
that longitude, and in parallels even south of Melville
Island, IF NO other lands should happen to be
situated to the northward of them again ? He, how-
ever, I dare say, will not allow the inference that must
be drawn from his own admission : for in the face of that
admission, and in support of his firm belief still, that
there is an open Polar Sea, notwithstanding ice " is
driven to the southward" from thence, where the supply
must consequently come /row, he gives the authority of
Captain Parry, who, he says, " has no doubt of an open
sea to the westward of Melville Island ; as whole fields
of ice, interminable to the sight, were observed to be
moving bodily to the westward for days together."
Captain Parry may have told him so, for aught I know ;
but as far as I can find, what he has published in his
m
li
■li
!l
>34
Voyage does not seem to me to amount to quite so much
as this. At page 86, Captain Parry does, to be sure,
say something about a strong westerly current, which
by-the-by, though perhaps it was only a temporary
one, is not much in proof of the existence, there at
least, of the Reviewer's famouG circumvolving current
between the Pacific and Atlantic from west to east, if,
as he supposes, there be a passage for it. But this fact is
not at variance with Phoca*s circumvolving current in
that direction. For he does not insist on there posi-
tively being a passage for it (though there may be,) any
where, but along the northern shores of circumpolar
lands, j/" it cannot pass bettueen them, till it rounds the
north point of Greenland, and finds its way down its
east coast towards the Atlantic. Captain Parry says,
" On the 17th September, the current, which for the last
two days had been setting to the westward, and which
could not possibly have escaped our observation had it
existed previously to the late westerly and north-westerly
gales, was here found to be running stronger than we
had before remarked it. — ^This was made particularly
obvious when, having reached the farthest point west-
ward to which we could possibly venture to carry
the ships, we were obliged to heave to, in order to
watch for an opening that might favor our views ; the
ships were at this time drifting to leeward through the
water, at the rate of about a mile and a quarter an hour,
in spite of which, they went so fast to the westward by
the land, that Lieutenant Beechey and myself estimated
the current to be running at least two miles an hour in
that direction. I must here remark, that besides the
current to which I have now alluded, and by which
the floes and heavy masses appeared to be affected,
there was, as usual in this navigation, a superficial cur-
135
rent atso, setting the smaller pieces past the others, at
a much quicker rate. Of the causes which now pro-
duced this strong" westerly current, at a time when the
contrary might rather have been anticipated, it is of
course not easy, with our present limited experience
of this part of the Polar Sea, to offer any very probable
conjecture; but the impression on our minds, at the
time, was, that it was perhaps caused by the reaction
of the water, which had been forced to the eastward,
in the early part of the late gales, against the ice, with
which the sea was almost entirely covered in that direc-
tion. Be this as it may, we did not fail to draw from it
one conclusion, which was favorable to the object we
had in view, namely, that the drift of so large a body
of ice for days together in a westerly direction, indi-
cated a considerable space of open sea somewhere in
that direction." As to this open space of sea to the
westward, it is only necessary to observe here, that as
it appears, from other previous remarks, that the tides
were here very regular, though it is not made to appear
so clear at times, whether the Jlood was from east or
west ; at all events the floating ice was carried by them,
sometimes one way, and sometimes the other. The
currents also are stated, as setting sometimes to the east-
ward, and as such ice must have been carried by them, in
that direction, " the large body of it which was drifting to
the westward, for days together," might have been only
returning back, to fill up the space it had before per-
haps occupied there, by means of what Captain Parry
calls " the reaction of the water, which had been forced
to the eastward in the early part of the late gales." In
the following year, when Captain Parry had gained
more experience in the "vicinity of the S.W. extremity
of Melville Island, he speaks very differently on the
130
subject of an open sea to the westward of Melville
Island. He says : " We had been lying near our pre-
sent situation, with an easterly wind blowing fresh
for thirty- SIX hours together, and although this was
considerably o^the land, beyond the western point of
land now in sight, the ice had noty during the whole of
that timet moved a single yard from the shore ; affording a
proof that there was no space in which the ice was at
liberty to move to the westward^ and offering a single and
striking exception to our former experience." Captain
Parry's former experience, however, was not obtained
quite so far to the westward, as it was at the time when
this single and striking exception occurred.
Captain Ross was instructed "carefully to avoid com-
ing near the coast of America, in order to give it a good
offing," for, says the Reviewer, " had it been intended
that he should ascertain its position, his instructions,
we have no doubt, would have directed him to proceed
up the Welcome, and endeavor to pass through Middle-
ton's Frozen Strait ; whereas the object clearly was
to avoid being entangled with the shoals and islands and
ice, on the northern shores of America, which, by the
vague accounts of Hearne /and Mackenzie, are very
similar to the northern shores of Siherldi.*' The Reviewer
too acknowledged that he had less apprehension of the
passage through Behring's Strait being closed against
our navigators, except by ice, than of the difficulties
which they may probably have to encounter on this side
of America." No wonder then, if he had any influence
in the deliberations at the Admiralty, that, in order to
avoid these. Captain Parry was instructed to proceed by
way of Lancaster Sound, and ** if it should be found to
connect itself with the northern sea, he was to make
the best of his way to Behring's Strait;" not at all doubt-
137
ing but that sea would he found free from ice, and na-
vigable the whole way. We have seen the result ofthat
voyage. With that result the Reviewer's resources seem
to have failed him, and he very prudently gives up the
cudgel to Captain Parry ; and though he seems to have
had ?i fearful hankering after Middle tons Frozen St rait ,
or Repulse Bay, which he disbelieved quite as much as
he did the existence of Baffin's Bay, yet after what he
had said and published he could not well recommend
it himself, as a next place of trial. He therefore informs
us that " the attempt was to be made as recommended hy
Captain Parry, in a more southern latitude, and close on
the coast of America,' This was preferred to a route
through Prince Regent's Inlet, on account of the delay
which would necessarily be occasioned by proceeding
so far to the northward, as Sir James Lancaster's
Sound, in order to get into that inlet.
4 This last attempt has also failed, but with this " advan-
tage^' gained, as the Reviewer would say ; that we now
do know there is such a Bay as the Repulse Bay of Mid-
dleton ; and as to ** the difficulties which our navigators
would probably have to encounter on this side of Ame-
rica," he has been a true prophet for once*
And now% as the Reviewer says, " comes the question
to be solved as to the best and shortest route to get
upon the coast of America. From the appearance and
circumstances, at the southern part of Prince Regent's
Inlet, there was not a man in the late expedition, who
was not convinced that it opened out into the sea,
which washes the northern coast of that continent."
This route however did not, it seems, hold out such
a fair prospect of success, as that taken last through
Hudson's Strait, as the latter was " recommended " by
Capt. Parry himself; and the Reviewer '• thought it
Data. S
I:
^>
•rf:
138
probal)le that either Hudson's Strait, Sir Thos. Roe's
Welcome, or Repulse Bay, or all of them, might afford
navigable passages into the Polar Sea." These then,
with " the knowledge acquired on the former expedi-
tion," afforded that " sanguine hope " for the complete
solution of *^ the interesting problem of a north-west pas-
sage." The route which last failed, was then of course
considered " the best and shortest, to get upon the
coast of America." That by way of Lancaster Sound,
and down Prince Regent'vS Inlet, where the present
attempt, it is said, will be made, may therefore be
termed the forlorn hope, whether it may turn out to
be the best or not.
As the last expedition failed in reaching the north
coast of America, the arguments of the Reviewer and
Capt. Parry, in favor of the route along that coast, are
of course equally applicable to it in the attempt now to
be made there. We will therefore proceed to examine
them.
In the first place ; if Capt. Parry should succeed in
getting through Prince Regent's Inlet, and to the south-
ward of the land forming its west side ; and if that land
should, trend nearly on a parallel, so as to be in coft-
tinuity nearly, or to join Banks's Land, he will, in all
probability, find just as little difficulty in advancing as
far as Hie west end of that land, along its southern shore,
as he did to that of Melville Island.
But, if there should happen to be a large space to the
westward of Banks's Land, without any land, and nojic
between it and the north coast of America, it is as proba-
ble that he will find the whole of that space filled with
ices and unnavigable, either to the west or south : and
for the same reasons that he could do neither in the
whole space between Melville Island and Banks's Land.
139
But admitting that Capt. Parry should get on tlie
north coast of America, what then ? Why, he says, and
the Reviewer also, tliere " will he a manifest advantage
gained, in making the attempt along the northern coast
of America, as he will there be certain of a continuity
of land. Arrived on the coast of America, and no ob-
struction from land, we," says the Reviewe" "see no
reason why the passage to Icy Cape, which does not
exceed 1500 miles, might not easily be accomplished in
one scasoji ; about 000 of these were actually run on the
last voyage in six days ;" but that was from the xvest-
w'ardf quite the wrong wa\j. He should have added, that
" it required five weeks to traverse that distance when
going in the opposite direction," lo the ivestward or to-
'ivards Behring's .Strait, as Capt. Parry did. If, as
I think, I have shown that there would have been 7io
advantage gained by making the passage to the ivest-
wardy along the northern s/iores of the lands extending
from Prince Regent's Inlet to Banks's Lam], provided the
North Georgian Islands had not existed ; what " mani-
fest advantage," then, can be expected, on the jwrth
coast of America, if there should happen not to be lands
situated to ihe northward of it again, along its zvhole ex-
tent to Behring's Strait, to keep off those Polar ices,
which it is acknowledged by all do, in fact, drift tc the
southward ? If there should be any extent of it zvith-
out such protection, what is to prevent the advance of
such ices, even to that coast ? I may be told that " the
summer climate there will be so much warmer," that
they will dissolve before they reach it. The Reviewer
says, " Supposing the theory of Dr. Brewster to be correct
which assigns the greatest degree of cold to the mag-
netic meridian, the most serious obstruction from ice
will probably occur from yo"" to 100° of west longitude ;
or (setting aside that theory) about midway of the
J". \
T';'
:fl!
140
coast, as being the most distant point from tlie two
Oceans ; it being well known from experience, that the
proximity of a permanently open sea is a circumstance
which, of all others, in high latitudes, tends the most
to temper the severity of the climate." In this doctrine
the Reviewer and Capt. Parry so perfectly agree, that,
in speaking of it, they are mutual echoes to each other.
But this is only an opinion, a mere assertion, dictated
by hope, rather than founded on experience, in a situa-
tion so remote from either ocean. The Reviewer
*' takes for granted," what scarcely admits of a doubt,
** that the action of the sun's rays, so much more power-
ful and radiated from so much more land, along the
continuous coast of America, than along the passage
discovered by Parry, will produce the same effect of
opening a clear channel of water between the coa'^t
and the ice,"' by effecting its dissolution. Capt. Parry
says, "Should tlie sea on the coast of Americ be
found moderatdi) deep, and shelving towards the e,
(which from the geological character of the known
parts of the continent to the south, and of the Georgian
Islands to the north, there is reason to believe
would be the case, for a considerable distance to
the westward,) the facility of navigation would be
much increased, on account of the grounding of the
heavy masses of ice in water sufficiently deep to allow
ships to take shelter behind them, at such times as
the Jloes closein upon the land." Capt. Parry then, it
would appear, does not expect much advantage to be
gained from the dissolution of the ice, as he admits the
"heavy masses"may^e^Acre to take the ground, and ^^Jloes
to close in upon the land." He is not so sanguine on this
point, therefore, as the Reviewer ; nor can Mr. Barrow
■be, who, having given this subject much of his attention,
may be considered high authority. He says, at page
14t
373 of his Voyages to the Polar Regions, " In fact,
the ice-bergs, and those vast fields of ice which float
about on the sea and are wafted down by currents into
the Atlantic, are chiefly formed on coasts, and in bays,
in jiarrozv straits, and at the mouths of great rivers.
The whole coast of Siberia is a fertile source of tliis
supply," [on the authority of the Russians I dare say:
I wonder what becomes of them all, now the door is
shut against them by the land to the northward of
Davis's Strait.}
" The multitude of large rivers which fall into the
Polar Sea, by carrying down the alluvial earth, have
formed numerous and expansive and shallow bays of
fresh water, which in the course of the winter become so
many solid masses of ice. As the sources of these rivers,
and a great part of their course, are in more southern
latitudes, where they never freeze, the water they sup-
ply is, in the winter, dammed u|> near the mouth, and
ice-bergs are formed, which, when broken loose, are
drifted out to sea. In the same manner the field ice is
formed in the straits, and bays, and on shalloio coasts,
which, when set afloat in the spring, is carried out into the
sea : in this situationit is dri.lted about till, heaped piece
on piece, and driven about, it again fixes itself among
archipelagos of islands, on shallow coasts, and in straits,
bays, and inlets, where each field becomes a nucleus for
• an increasing accumulation, as in the straits of Belleisle
and Behring^for instance, and in every part of Hudson's
Bay down to the latitude of 50°."
Now, to be sure, if this be the case, there can be 7w
dissolution of ices on the north coast of America, and as
the wind, it appears, prevails generally from the north-
ward, they cannot be carried out to sea in its teeth ; so
that at this rate, on such authority at least, it must be con-
142
tinually encumbered with ices, whether those from the
northern ocean find access to it or not. How indeed
can such " an increasing accumulation' of ice be dis-
solved at all, when in Hudson's Bay, so much furUier to
the southward, there is an "increasing accumulation:"
nay, even " in the Strait of Belleisle ! !" But then the
Quarterly Reviewer and Captain Parry will turn round
on Mr. Barrow and me, and say, that all this may be
so, but " it can scarcely be doubted that the climate
on the north coast of America will be found to improve,
and the obstruction become less, as the ships advance
towards the Pacific. Besides, it is well known that the
western coast of every continent and large island (even
of our own) enjoys a higher temperature by many
degrees than the eastern coast in the same parallels of
latitude." As a fact, this is true with regard to northern
extra tropical continents, whose western coasts have
a much higher mean temperature than the eastern.
" This diflerence is extremely striking between the west-
ern roast of North America, and the opposite eastern
coast of Asia. Mr. Daniel explains it, by the heat
evolved in the condensation of vapour swept from the
surface of the ocean by the westerii winds. This general
current, in its passage over the land, deposits more and
more of its aqueous particles, and by the time that it
arrives upon the eastern coasts is extremely dry : as it
moves onward, it bears before it the humid atmosphere
of the intermediate seas, and arrives upon the opposite
shores in a state of saturation. Great part of the vapour
is there at once precipitated, and the temperature of the
climate raised by the evolution of its latent heat." I ap-
prehend, however, that little of this effect will be found
to ameliorate the climate on the north coast of America
much to the eastward of Behring's Strait, owing to the
I
143
probable proximity and immense quantity of ices to the
north, from whence frigid winds prevail to counteract it.
And therefore tliat the rule will not perhaps be found
so applicable to the eastern and western sides o^ Arctic
lands, as it doubtless is to those of extra tropical conti-
nents more to the southward. But before the question
comes to further proof, which there is much reason to
hope it may, by means of the intended land expedition,
let us try it by the test of the few recorded observations
hitherto made on the temperature of the east ccast of
Greenland, in Hudson's Bay, and Behring's Strait, as
extreme points in the case. For the first, we will take
the authority of Mr. Scoresby, in his Voyage to Green-
land, published in 1822, who says, at page 204, after he
had laTuded in Scoresby 's Sound : " The heat among
the rocks was most oppressive, so much so chat my
excursion was greatly contracted by the painful languor
which the uncommonly high temperature produced.
Unfortunately I had no thermometer with me. but I
think the temperature could not be below 70'' ; to my
feelings it was equal to the greatest heat of summer in
England." This was on the 25th of July, to the ?iorth-
wardoflatiiude l(f. In Hurry's Inlet, he says, " that Mr.
Lloyd experienced a degree of heat as oppressive to his
feelings as he ever suffered either in the East or West
Indies, to which torrid regions he had been a frequent
visitor." '' It so far overcame some of his men who had
attempted to climb an adjoining hill, that they could
not proceed, but lying down, fell fast asleep," &c. " The
superior heat of the land to that of the sea was most
remarkable and striking ; when the temperature on shore
was not less than 70°, the thermometer on board the
ship, even near the shore in Scoresby 's Sound, never
rose, I believe, in the shade above 40","
n
5!;:
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144
The Quarterly Reviewer tells us that, "almost every
voyager into Hudson's and Baffin's Seas complains of
the occasional hot weather and the great annoyance of
mosquitoes on the shores. Duncan, when surrounded
with ice, had the thermometer in August at 56" in the
shade, and 82° in the sun." It is not said what latitude
this was in, but it must have been to the southward of
05°. So much for the temperature on the eastern side
of Greenland and America. For that on the west side,
and not further north, we will see what Lieutenant
Kotzebue found it to be in Behring's Strait, and also in
the shalloxv sound bearing his name, which being almost
surrounded by land, may very naturally be expected to
have the temperature of its water, as well as that of the
atmosphere, considerably raised by the radiation of heat
from it. On the 26th of July, when near the St. Lawrence
Islands (situated to the southward of Behring's Strait, and
between Asia and America,) and in latitude 63° N.
the temperature of the air was 53* 8', and of the surface
of the sea, 41° 2'. In Kotzebue Sound, in lat. 63^° and
long. 162°, from the 2d to the 13th of August, the 7we««
temperature of the air was about 63", and that of the
sea water about 52°. On the 19th of August, in latitude
66° 16' N. and a little to the northward of East Cape,
the temperature of the air was 44°, and the sea water
35° 8'. These few facts will not lead any one in his
senses to conclude that the waters of the Pacific, which
at the surface are of a temperature of 70° or 80°, could
possibly have composed any of the fluid here. Neither
do they prove that the climate of the western coast of
America is " higher by many degrees than the eastern,"
at least on equal parallels, though somewhat higher in
latitude 68° than 70° on the east side of Greenland.
This western part of America, forming the east side
w
145
of Behring's Strait ought of course, according to the
rule of the Reviewer and Captain Parry, to be the
warmest part of it or. an equal parailc!. Yet, being o£
so low a temperature as it appears to be, on what
ground can it be believed that there will be a better cli-
mate further to the eastward^ on the north coast, than
there is here ? Nay, by their own rule, must it not be
progressively colder from ley Cape all the way to their
point oi greatest frigidity and obstruction, about " mid-
way of the coast ?" Or to the one supposed by Dr.
Brewster to be ** situated in about 80° N* latitude and
lOO'^W. longitude?"
I must, however, take the liberty of borrowing one of
the Reviewer's own arguments to prove, that the cli-
mate ** from midway," on the north coast of America,
towards the Pacific, can not be milder than it has been
experienced at its western extremity.
In the beginning of the year 1818, he took much
pains to show that the temperature of our climate in
England was lower in the three summer months of
1816 and 1817, by from IT to 20°, than it had been in
corresponding months of 1805, 18^, and 1807 — that
" the remarkable chilliness of the almosphere, in the
summer months of those two years, was owing to the
appearance of ice in the Atlantic" — that ♦' it would be
a waste of words to enter into any discussion on the
diminution of temperature, which must iiecessarily be
occasioned by the proximity of vast mountains, nnd
islands of ice ;" in short, that the westerly winds did
in fact acquire an unusually frigorific character, by
having passed over a few icebergs drifting to th.
southward in the Atlantic, at the distance of some
hundreds of miles from the British Isles. What then
must be the character of winds in the circumpolar
Data, T
140
■t
Arctic sea, if ihey "prevail generally from the north?"
And what their influence on the climate of the whole
north coast of America, upon which they blow, and the
ice drifts ; it being a lee shore ? That the winds, judging
theoretically, should prevail from the northward in the
Arctic regions, is perhaps indisputable ; and, though the
Keviewer has admitted it to be so, yet it is as well to
establish the fact by the testimony of navigators in that
quarter of the globe.
Ml". Scoresby, from a mean of nine years' observation
in the Spitzbergen sea, in the months of April and
May, has "estimated the frigid winds passing over ice,
to be in proportion to the mild winds blowing from the
sea, as 173 N. to 69 S." In Baffin's Bay, it appears
by Captain Ross's register, that the northerly winds
were in proportion to the southerly, as 75 to 59 — the
easterly and westerly, as 62 E. to 65 W. — And on an
examination of Captain Parry's register of the winds
for 448 days between July 18 J 9, and September 1820,
the northerly winds were in proportion to the southerly,!
as 316 N. to 140 S. ; and the easterly to the westerly,
as 118 E. to 245 W. or thereabouts. So that i/any
ice be either formed along the north coast of America,
or drive down upon it by these winds, " prevailing, as
they do, from the northward and westward," and a
Polar current from the same quarter, I should like to
know by what possible means it can be expected to be
cleared of it, ej^cept by the effect of heat ? Or, if that
which perhaps may be so dissolved is, as I believe,
replaced constantly, though probably imperceptibly, by
the tenancy of the whole body to move southward^ (whe-
ther it extends five or ten or any number of degrees
to the northward, towards the Pol ,) how that north
coast, oi; the north or "west coasts o*' any lands> on any
147
parallels and meridians between the N.W. part of
Greenland and Melville Island, can be otherwise than
perpetually encumbered with ice, provided no other land
be between them and the Pole ? But more especially so, if
we admit also the effect of the Reviewer's circumvolv-
ing current from the Pacific, to be " rushing in" through
Behring's Strait with " the greatest velocity :" for as
that current is bound to the Atlantic^ it must set to the
eastward from thence, and carry along with it floating
masses of ice.
Lieutenant Kotzebue says : " The direction of the
current was always N.E. in Behring's Strait, and
stronger on the Asiatic than on the American coast/
I estimate the current on the Asiatic coast in the chan-
nel, at the greatest depth, to be three miles an hour,
when the wind blew fresh from the south. The con-
stant N.E. direction of the current in Behring's Strait
proves that the water meets with no obstruction, and
consequently a passage must exist, though perhaps not
adapted to navigation :" and believing, in consequence
of what our Quarterly Reviewer had told him, that the
current in Baffin's Bay runs to the south, he thought
" no doubt can remain that the mass of water which
flows into Behring's Strait takes its course round
America, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the
ocean." — Mr. Von Chamisso, the naturalist, who was
with Kotzebue in the Rurick, is not quite so positive, nor
so sanguine: for he says, "After we had tried to
prove that a current goes to the north through Behring's
Strait, we must confess that it is too weak, and can force
but too little water through the narrow entrance, to
correspond with those currents which flow from Davis's
Strait, and along the east coast of Greenland, towards
the south." This gentleman too, it seems, believed, at
the time he wrote this, in the Reviewer's current down
1^
% ;i'.
148
*• Baffin's Sea," which we have seen had no existence
but in his own fertile imagination. *
Captain Burney supposed " the current in Pehring's
Strait to be periodical ; were it perpetual," said he, " its
moderate rate through a channel neither wide nor
deep, could contribute little towards a current in the
Greenland seas." Very little, truly — and perhaps has
nothing to do with the current in the Spitzbergen sea.
We have seen, from the testimony of Mr. Scoresby
junior, that the current there is perpetual. Indeed, from
the united testimony of hundreds besides, there can be
no doubt of the fact of a constant current from the
northward, out of the Polar Sea, towards the Atlantic
Ocean : and because it is exactly such an effect as
must of necessity result from physical causes ori-
ginating in heat and cold on the globe. This,
too, being the only effect of that cause hitherto dis-
covered in the Arctic regions, has appeared to me to
be, of all others, the strongest argument against the
practicability at least — nay, almost the existence of a
passage for ships from the Atlantic into (what I under-
stand by) the Polar Sea, on any parallel and meridian,
from the N.TV. part of Greenland to Melville Island.
The space between Melville Island and the coast of
America, to Behring's Strait, still remains to be explored
by. ships. To that space the same argument is appli-
cable under the like circumstances. For, should a
similar effect (the certain result of the same cause) not
be found there, the same conclusion must follow — Im-
practicability.
But further, even if such similar current should
be hereafter discovered flowing from the Polar Sea,
somewhere within that space, towards the Atlantic,
between insulated lands ; it may indeed prove the
existence of a passage, perhaps under the ice, for water
149
and fish, like that between Melville Island and Banks's
Land, without proving its practicability for ships. Be-
cause, as such current must of necessity be from the
north or west, or both, it will in all probability close
up the narrower passages with ice. Even admitting
then the circp^^volving current of the Reviewer (not
from the Paci/itf but) from Behring's Strait to the east-
ward, to be flowing towards the Atlantic by way of
channels yet unexplored between Melville Island and
the coast of America, if these channels should not
be sufficiently wide to allow the heavier masses and
fields of ice to pass through with the current, from the
northward, or westward, or both ; the natural conse-
quence, I should apprehend, must be an accumulation
of icy obstruction at the northern and western openings
of such channels ; as was the case in the space between
the west end of Melville Island and Banks's Land, and
since that time, in the Strait of the Fury and Hecla.
And this, too, on the same principle, and for the same
reason, that a grating placed across a stream would
cause an accumulation of such floating substances as
could not pass through it, on the side nej^t its source.
At the same time, it must be observed, that even the
future proof of such current from tlie northward or
westward, from the Polar Sea, or along the northern
coast of America, will not in the least tend to prove
that either the one or the other has the waters of the
Pacific Ocean for its source^ as has been so wildly con-
jectured : for the waters of that ocean can have no
more to do with it, as a cause of its existence in any part
of the north circumpolar regions, (except through the
medium of evaporation and a northerly movement in
the atmosphere,) than the man in the moon.
It
^ )
d
150
I have not yet been able to learn whether any cur-
rent from the westward, of a permanent character, was
met with under the ice, in the Strait of Fury and
Hecla. But if there was, it may be considered (accord-
ing to the view I have taken of the subject) as a cir-
cumstance unfavorable to success.
There is another fact mentioned in the Appendix to
Captain Franklin's account of his journey to the mouth
of the Copper- Mine River, which tends to prove that
the climate to the westward of the meridian (113" 6') of
Fort Enterprise, is colder than that to the eastward of
it. He says, " The easterly winds predominate in the
country to the northward of the Great Slave Leike ;
and whilst they blow, the weather is milder than
during the westerly winds. The coldest, and I may add
the strongest wind, in every season, in this country, is
the north-west y
Now, if the westerly winds in the summer months
of 1816 and 1817 were so remarkably 'chilled, in their
way to our shores, by passing over a few icebergs in
the Atlantic, as to reduce the temperature of the cli-
mate of Great Britain from 1 1 to 20 degrees, the Re-
viewer can have no objection, I presume, to admit that
the westerly winds to the northward of the Great Slave
Lake must have come from a colder climate, westward
of the 113th meridian, than that could possibly be to
the eastward of it, from whence the winds. Captain
Franklin says, were milder. In short, that they were
frigified toOy somewhere and somehow, on their pas-
sage. And as ice was the cause of the unusual chilli-
ness of our westerly winds here, by the Reviewer's
own argument, therefore, the colder character of the
westerly and north-westerly winds, to the northward
Idl
of the Great Slave Lake, must have been owing to the
same cause too; the abundance of ice in the direction
from whence these winds came. And as even westerly
winds had this cold character, some of this ice, it may
be supposed, was as far to the southward as the coast
of America : for on a flat shelving shore, such as parts
of the " north coast may b6, it is impossible to pre-
scribe how far inland low field ice shall not be driven
by the pressure of other ice, forced by tempestuous
weather towards the land." Captain Burney also ob-
serves, *' that the shallowness of the sea near the north
coast of Asia, the freshes discharged into it from many
large rivers, and the coast fronting the north, render
it more liable to be frozen, than the seas of Greenland
and Spitzbergen in a much higher latitude. The
northern lands in the Icy Sea are impediments to the
dispersion of ice, and hence arises the great difficulty of
navigation in that sea." This passage is partly appli-
cable likewise to the north coast of America. But
Captain Franklin has recorded his favorable opinion
of the practicability of a passage for ships along that
coast. " Our researches," he says, " as far as they
have gone, seem to favor the opinion of those who con-
tend for the practicability of a N.W. passage. The
general line of coast probably runs east and west,
nearly in the latitude assigned to the Mackenzie river,
the Sound into which Kotzebue entered, and Re*
pulse Bay; and very little doubt can, in my opi-
nion be entertained of the existence of a continued sea
in or about that line of direction. A connexion with
Hudson's Bay is rendered more probable from the
same kind of fish abounding on the coast we visited,
and on the coast to the north of the Churchill river.
The portion of sea over which we passed is navigable
'k
I.V2
for ships of any size ; the ice we met with, particularly
after quitting Detention Harbour, would not have ar-
rested a strong boat. The chain of islands affords
shelter from all heavy seas, and there are good harbours
at convenient distances."
There can be no doubt that the chain of islands
seen to the northward of that portion of the coast ex-
plored by Capt. Franklin, from the Copper Mine River
eastward, would shelter ships from heavy seas, if it
were likely there could be any produced there. And
the shelter those nearest, as well as the North Georgian
Islands, afforded to that part of the coast, was the rea-
son why it was not much encumbered with ice, more
especially to the eastward of Detention Harbour ; as
George the Fourth's Coronation Gulf is almost com-
pletely protected by Wilraot's Chain, and other islands
to the northward of it. If a similar chain should
exist from Cape Hearne to Icy Cape, there will proba-
bly be a navigable passage all the way between it and
the coast of America, provided it runs, as Capt. Frank-
lin supposes, east .and west, nearly in the latitude as-
signed to the Mackenzie River, and the Sound into
which Kotzebue entered. But there is some reason to
fear that the coast of America, westward of Mackenzie's
River, will be found to trend more to the northward
than the dotted imaginary line of direction so arbitra-
rily assigned to it by geographers. The late Admiral
Burney said, " an account or notice is given by Kobi-
lef of a great river, in the coast of America, to the north
of Behring's Strait, which river is described to take a
long course in a southerly direction, and its banks to
be full of villages." Can the Sound discovered by
Lieut. Kotzebue to the northward of Behring's Strait,
between Capes Krusenstern and Espenberg, lead to
153
iilarly
ve ar-
ffords
hours
jlands
ist ex-
River
, if it
And
orgian
le rea-
more
ur ; as
L com-
slands
should
proba-
it and
Frank-
ide as-
id into
ason to
ienzie's
thward
arhitra-
Ldmiral
■f Kobi-
le north
take a
anks to
jred by
3 Strait,
lead to
this great river, " described to take a long course in a
southerly direction ?" Though Kotzebue's detail of his
proceedings in this Sound is rather obscure and un-
satisfactory, and so apparently contradictory, in some
parts, as to implant a doubt of its correctness ; yet I
am rather disposed to attribute tiiis to the translation,
which is evidently defective, than to any intention on
his par^, to conceal known facts, for the purpose of
deception. He entered this Sound, named after him,
on the 1st of August. "At 11 o'clock (he says) we
were at the entrance of a broad inlet ; the coast va-
nished in the east, and high mountains showed them-
selves in the north." Here the wind abated, and he
anchored in seven fathoms water, in lat. Qif 42' 30",
and long. 164** 12' 50" : at 7 o'clock he weighed again,
" and steered to the eastward {across^ but as he says)
up the strait." " On the 2nd, at day-break, our ex*-
pectations were at the highest pitch ; there was still
nothing but open sea to the east." The next passage
is rather remarkable. ** As we now saw low land in the
south, the direction of which was likewise to the east,
we could no longer doubt that we were really in a
broad channel, as we always continued to see the open
sea in the east." Now, if there be any channel leading
to the eastward, it must be opposite to his noon position
of this day, which was in lat. 66° 35' 18", and long.
162** 19', in 8 fathoms water, where he says he was
** obliged to idLck^ because the wind turned to the S.EJ"
But if there had been a passage to the eastward, where
he says " the sea continued open," surely the shifting
of the wind, in soundings of eight fathoms, need not
have prevented him from standing on in that dh'ection,
on the starboard tack, to explore an open space in so
promising a quarter, or at least till he had seen the land
Data. U
A
I
164
in continuity, or had shoaled his water, so as not to be
able to proceed further. According to his pubhshed
Chart of this Sound, however, the land must have been
seen to the eastward, from tlie noon position of the
Rurick on the 2d August ; for the whole eastern side of
Kotzebue's Sound is delineated in continuiti/t and a
working track along it is laid down as far to the south-
ward as Chamisso Island. He anchored to the west-
ward of this island, "in eight fathoms water, in an open-
ing five miles broad, where he still cherished the hope
of discovering a passage into the Frozen Ocean ;"
which hope, it may therefore be presumed, had thus far
been disappointed, and as it also was here, " The an-
chor was weighed ; we sailed (to the eastward) up the
Strait, and when we had passed the narrow part, we
again cast anchor in seven fathoms." He then pro-
ceeded to examine the coast eastward with his boats ;
and on the 7th, when in Eschscholtz Bay, he says,
" We had advanced so far at noon, that we could dis-
tinctly observe that the land was united every where. At
the distance of a full mile from the shore, the water had
decreased to the depth oi five feet, and the hope of dis-
covering a river also vanished." But he says, further on :
** I called the Bay after our physician, Eschscholtz.
I do not doubt that there was a river behind the high
mountains, which the shoals, however, would not permit
us to investigate. The ebb tide runs out seven, and the
flood only five hours. They change regularly; the
current sets with more violence out than in, and some-
times runs two knots." These are indications of a river,
but not of a channel leading to a sea; but Kotzebue,
in his Chart, has connected the whole coast round
Eschscholtz and Spafariefs Bays, though it does not
seem quite certain that he carefully examined the latter:
IAS
the
for on the 10th August he says, " We left EschsclioUi
Bay with a fresh S.E. wind. I now wished to ex-
amine the land to the south. It lay at the distance of
seven miles from us:" but his track in the ship is further
off, leading towards Cape Deceit, in a direct line nearly
from Chamisso Island. However, he says, that ** he
steered along the coast W.S.W. because he considered
the examination of the east tinnecessarij ; as he had dis-
tinctli/ seen the connexion of the land from the point of
Chamisso Island." Whether he alludes, in this passage,
to the south part of the Sound eastivard from Cape De-
ceit, round to Chamisso Island, or the east coast it«
self of the Sound, from abreast of the noon position
2d August, southward to the point next to Cha-
misso Island, it is rather difficult to say, but not very
material.
Mr. Barrow, irt mentioning this subject in his account
of Voyages to the Arctic Regions, says, " Kotzebue
entered an inlet in latitude about 67 h to 68°. Its extent •
to the eastward was not determined; but the Rurick
proceeded in that direction as far as the meridian of
160°, which corresponds with that of Norton Sound.'*
From the Indians " Lieut. Kotzebue learned, that at the
bottom of the inlet was a straity through which there
was a passage into the great sea ; and that it required
nine days rowing in one of their boats to reach this
sea. This, Kotzebue thinhsy must be the great
northern Ocean, and that the whole of the land to the
northward of the inlet must either be an island, or '
an archipelago of islands." From what Lieutenant
Kotzebue has published^ it does not appear that what
he learned from the Indians was in the least connected
with any ^^ strait at the bottom of the inlet y' or on the
eastern side of the Sound ; but referred to one situated
on the western side, in the Bay of Good Hope, between
156
h"
Capes Deceit and Espenberg. Kotzebue says, he
' went :n his boats, on the 12th of August, to examine
this strait. " After proceeding about four miles," says
he, " we arrived at a Cape where the land suddenly
took a direction from south to wesc. From a hill I
observed a broad arm to the west, which ran from the
sea into the land, and tliere wandered in several
windings between the mountains." Here, meeting with
an old Indian, " I tool: much pains," says he, " to
make my American comprehend, that I wished to
know how far this branch might extend f He at
last comprehended me, arid made me understand his
answer, by the following pantomime : he seated himself
on the ground, and rowed eagerly with his arms ; this
business he interrupted nine times, closing his eyes as
many times, and resting his head on his hand. Ikarnt
by this that it would take nine days to get to the open
sea, through this branch." And, a few pages further on,
Kotzebue says, " the account given by the American
may be correct, and this branch either extends to Nor-
ton Sound, or joins Schischmareff's Bay." Now, as
Norton Sound lies to the southward^ and Schischma-
reff Bay to the westward of the place Kotzebue was
(Examining, the "Great Sea" to which this strait or
branch led, must have been in one or other of those di-
rections. How then could Kotzebue have *' thought it
«iust have been the Great Northern Oceans that the In-
. dians informed him it required nine days rowing to
reach ?" He does indeed say, afterv^^ards, when speak-
ing of Kotzebue Sound, '* I certainly hope that this
sound may lead to important discoveries next year ; and
though a north-east passage may not with certainty be
depended on, yet I believe / shall be able to penetrate
Uiuch further to the east^ as the land has very deep in-
dentures." Mr. Von Chamisso, who accompanied
157
he
Lieutenant Kotzebue, in liis " remarks," has this pas-
sage : " We observe that that part of the American coast
which we examined to the north of Behring's Strait,
appeared to us to excite the hope of finding a channel
among the entrances and friths which intersect it and
which might lead to the Icy Sea towards the mouth of '
Mackenzie River, without doubling Icy Cape, which
would then be part of an island ;" and in a foot note,
he adds : " Several Journals have published a letter
from the author of these articles (San Francisco, New
California, on the 28th of October 1816,) in which this
opinion was delivered ; an error of the copyist has
altered the sense, so as to make it seem as if this
entrance had really been ejcamined by us.'* These passages
seem to afford some ground to suspect that there may
be an opening on the east side of Kotzebue Sound which
had been seen, but not examined ; or on what can Kotze-
bue have founded his belief, that he should '* be able to
penetrate much further to the east" the following year T
Certainly, from what he has^fliV/, concerning the bottom
of that sound, and an inspection of the chart he has
published, if true, no such belief or even hope can be
excited ; for he has connected the land completely
round it, with the exception of the strait in the Bay
of Good Hope, leading to the westward. Willing to
believe him to be an officer of honorable principles and
veracity, I can hardly bring myself to suppose him other-
wise without further proof. The hope he expressed, (if
he really had any,) of being "able to penetrate further to
the east" out of Kotzebue Sou d, must have rested on
the known existence of some ^Xvrni supposed to lead from
the east side of that sound to the Northern Ocean.
And if what he learned from the Indians did refer to
such a strait, instead of the one on the west side, as it
I
I
I
158
evidently does both in his chart and publication, he
may inadvertently have told the truth to!M r. Barrow on
his arrival in London, and afterwards have been com-
manded by his government to falsify both. However,
I must confess, I \vould much rather attribute this dis-
cordance to some misunderstanding, than allow my-
self to suppose the other to be even possible. If, on the
other hand, there is only a river at the bottom of Esch-
scholtz Bay, " behind the mountains, which the shoals
would not permit Kotzebue to investigate," it could
hardly be expected to communicate with the northern
Ocean, unless by another branch. In that case, it
would not answer to the description of the " Great
River" mentioned by Kobilef, which is said " to take
a long course in a southerly direction." If, therefore,
any such river exist, it must be looked for still further
to the northward, and perhaps beyond Icy Cape.
From some facts stated in the account of Captain
Parry's attempt through Lancaster Sound, and in Cap-
tain Franklin's Journey, it seems doubtful whether
what may be properly termed the Polar Sea has yet
been reached. But it is very possible that each may
have navigated in waters separated from it by conti-
nuity of land, at some yet undefined distance to the
northward and westward ; in which waters, the North
Georgian Islands, and others perhaps to the westward
of them, are situated, and extend perhaps as far as
the 130th meridian; and into which both the Copper-
mine and Mackenzie's rivers disembogue : in short, a
mediterranean sea, communicating with the Bays of
Hudson and Baffin, by various channels, through which
the flood tide finds its way from the Atlantic and
Spitzbergen Sea.
Captain Ross found the flood tide to set from the
159
touthward all the Way up the east side of Baffin's Bay.
The rise and fall decreased gradually, and the times
of high-water at full and change were /a/er, as far as,
he advanced to the northward. The tide of flood set
to the southward and westward on the west side of
that Bay, as he returned along it, to the southward.
Captain Parry, near Possession Bay, in lat. 73° 31' 16",
and long. 77° 22', says, "he found the rise and fall of tide,
as nearly as could be judged from the marks on the beach,
to befrom 6 to 8 feet. While the tide was rising, the
stream came from the northward and westward along
the shore of the Bay. It is more than probable, there-
fore> that the flood comes from the N.W. on this part
of the coast." Whether the flood came from the
west, out of Lancaster Sound, or from the northward
down the west side of Baffin's Bay, it must of course,
at this placet have taken the direction imposed on it by .
the trending of the coast from Cape Liverpool towards
the south-east.
On the 7th of August, when in Prince Regent's In-
let, off Port Bowen, he says, " The whole rise of tide
(being nearly the highest of the springs,) appears to have
been ten feet. The ebb was found to set strong to the
southward in shore. A boat being moored to the bot-
tom, at three miles' distance from the land, at 5 p.m., not
the smallest current was perceptible. From these and
several subsequent observations, there is good reason
to suppose that tlie Jlood tide comes from the southward
in this inlet." Captain Parry adds : ** I have before
observed, that the east and west coasts which form this
grand inlet are probably islands : and on an inspection
of the chart, I think it will also appear highly probable
that a communication will one day be found to exist
between this inlet and Hudson's Bay, either through
m
, 160
the broad unexplored channel called Sir Thomas
Roe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay, which has
not yet been satisfactorily examined. It is also pro-
bable that a channel will be found to exist, between the
western land and the northern coast of America; in
which case, the flood-tide which came from the south-
ward, may have proceeded round the southern part of
the west land out of the Polar Sea : part of it setting up
the inlet, and part down the Welcome, according to the
testimony of all the old navigators." That the east and
west lands forming Prince Regent's Inlet may be
islands, is very likely ; and that it communicates with
Hudson's Bay, appears to be little less than certain :
for (to my mind at least,) it is proved by the flood-tide
running from the southward. '''-"
As I believe this tide has its source in the south and
east, and that it flows from the Atlantic and Spitzber-
gen Sea, through Hudson's, Cumberland, and Davis's
Straits, by channels of communication with them all,
and perhaps by others yet unexplored, still further to
the northward on the west side of Baffin's Bay, that in
Prince Regent's Inlet is consequently a part of it. This
part, when it reaches the north entrance of Prince Re-
gent's Inlet, naturally takes the direction of the east
and west lands forming it ; setting to the eastward on the
former, and to the westward along the latter towards
the Wellington Channel ; and making the times of
high- water, at full and change, progressively later in that
direction, as far as, or perhaps beyond Melville Island:
the other part of the great general flood sets down the
Welcome, along the west side of Hudson's Bay, as it
naturally must, from the trending of the yet known land,
and making the times of high-water at full and change,
on that coast, progressively later to the southward. Tliis
IGl
fact, therefore, can by no means prove, as Ellis and*
others have concluded, that because the flood-tide in
the Welcome sets to the southward, it must necessarily
come from the west, originally, out of the Polar Sea,
and that therefore there must be a navigable passage.
Nor, indeed, if the flood tide shall hereafter be found
to come from the westward, along the southern shores
of the, land west of Prince Regent's Inlet, will it in the
least prove that the Polar Sea is its grand source, as has
been conjectured. For the same fact would occur in an
inclosed sea, by the flood taking the direction of its
circumbounding land. It will no doubt prove the ex-
istence of a channel between that land west of Prince
Regent's Inlet and the northern coast of America, but
nothing more.
Channels of communication are known to exist be-
tween the Atlantic and Baffin's and Hudson's Bays,
and now, there perhaps can be little doubt of one between
them by way of Lancaster Sound, and Prince Regent's
Inlet. There probably are others, though yet undisco-
vered.
As far as can be gathered from the experience of
Captain Parry, and the facts stated by him as well as
Mr. Fisher, in their respective publications, it would ap-
pear that the flood-tide through Lancaster Sound, and
Barrow's Strait, all the way to Melville Island, has its
general^ow,notivova. the west, but from the east, and from
the northward between some of the North Georgian
Islands. The times of high water, too, at full and change,
as far as they can be got at, seem to have been progres-
sively later from east to west, and the rise and fall of tide
was also less and, less in that direction. On the 22d of
August, when off'Gascoyne Inlet, about the longitude of
96% Mr. Fisher says, '* I have only to add one circum-
Data. X
162
stance which I feel less pleasure m relating; it is that we
found the ebb-tide come from the westward ; the tide ebbed
during the time we were on shore, which was about fifty
minutes, between 10 and 1 1 inches." On the 28th of
August, when off Point Gilman, Captain Parry says,
" The tide was rising by the shore from noon till half
past 4, P.M. at which time the boats left the beach, and
by the high- water mark, it was considered probable that
it would rise an hour longer. The time of high water
may therefore be taken at half past 5, which will make
that of full and change about 12 o'clock. Mr. Ross
found, on rowing round the point near which he landed,
that the stream was setting strong against him from the
northward. We had tried the current (tide) in the
offing at noon," (in lat. 75° 3' 12", and long. 103"
34' 37") " by mooring the small boat to the bottom, when
it was found to run in a south direction, at the rate of
half a mile per hour. At 4 p.m., near the same station,
it was setting S.S. TF. | of a mile per hour, so that it
would appear tolerably certain, that the Jiood-tide here
comes from the northward.'* On the 2d of September, in
lat. 74" 58, and long. 107" 3' 31", Captain Parry says,
"When the boats landed at 1. 40. p. M. the tide had
fallen a foot by the shore. It continued to fall till 7
P.M. and then rose again, the whole fall of tide not ex-
ceeding Jive, or Jive and a half feet. At the time we
landed. Lieutenant Beechey tried for a current in the
offing, but could find none. At half past 7 the tide was
setting E.N.E. at the rate of a mile and a half an hour,
and at a quarter before ten, after I returned on board,
it was still setting slowly to the pastward. By the above
observations, the time of high water at full and change
of the moon seems to be about I after one o clock. The
direction of the tide of flood does not appear so clear."
»atwe
ebbed
It fifty
5th of
says,
111 half
and
le that
water
make
Ross
mded,
om the
in the
;. 103"
I, when
rate of
station,
I that it
de here
iber, in
•y says,
de had
'// till 7
not ex-
;ime we
it in the
ide was
in hour,
board,
e above
change
k. The
) clear."
1U3 . , •
*' If*' says Captain Parry, " it come from the westward,
there must be a tide and half tide, but it seems more
probable^ on an inspection of the chart, tliat here, as on
the eastern side of Byam Martin's Island, it will be
found to come from the northward between the islands."
But it is most probable, that, as the tide setting to the
E,N.E, at half past 7 was the ebby the flood must have
set to the W.S.W, in the same place, unless Captain
Parry can give any good reason why it should 7wt,
On the 6th of September, in lat. 74" 47', and long. 1 10'
34', Captain Parry says, " It was low water by the shore
at half past 9, and it had risen between two and three
feet when the boats came away at half past 12. During
this time, the ships were tending to a tide coining strong
from the eastward, from which direction it is therefore pro-
bable" (why not certain f) "that ihefiood tide runs on this
part of the coast, though we had no opportunity of trying
its true set in the offing," Again, on the 9th of Septem-
ber, "Considering our present detention so near the shore
a good opportunity of observing the true rise and fall of
the tides, I caused a pole to be fixed on the beach for
the purpose, by which it was found to be high water at
half past 4 o'clock in the morning, and the tide e^^^till
half past 10. From this time till half past 4 p.m. when
it was again high water, the tide had risen two feet eight
inches ; so that, small as this tide was, it seems to be very
regular. The direction of the stream of flood was, as
usual, not so easy to determine. But I shall give the
facts as they occurred. At the time of low water by the
shore, and for an hour and a quarter ^c/bre it took place,
the current was setting to the eastward at the rate of
three quarters of a mile per hour. It continued to run
thus for the greater part of the day, but at times it was
observed to set in an opposite direction, and now and
164
then no current whatever was perceptible. From 8 till 11
P.M. it was running strong to the westward, after which
it stopped, and then began to set the ice the contrary
way. I have been thus minute in mentioning the above
particulars, not with a hope of throwing any light upon
that interesting question of the direction of the tides in
this part of the Polar Sea, but to show how impossible
it is, with the land close on one side, and on the other
innumerable masses of ice, in almost constant motion,
to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject. In
Winter Harbour, in lat. 74° 47' 15", and long. 1J0°
48' 30'', it was found to be high water at 29 minutes past
1 o'clock, and the mean rise and fall was only 2 feet 7
inches.'' On the 1st of August, in the year following,
when Captain Parry was released from Winter Harbour,
and had rounded Cape Hearne, he says, ** We found the
ships to be considerably impeded by a tide or current
setting to the eastward, which, as it slacked about 7 in
theevening, I considered to be the flood, the time of high
water at Winter Harbour, this day, being about half
past 7." In this instance, as in others, where di supposed
flood tide from the westward has been mentioned, it is
coupled with an expression of some doubt as to its being
a tide or current. The flood tide from the eastward has
been stated wzore decidedly. Why, in this case and at
this place, Captain Parry should have considered the
flood to come from the westward^ merely because this
" tide or current slacked about the time it was high
water in Winter Harbour ;" when not very far from the
same p^ace, on the 6th of September of the former year,
he thought that the tide coming from the eastivard was
probably the floods he can of course assign some good
reason. It seems to me, however, that this stream was
most probably a current^ especially as he says on the
l(i.J
1 4th of August, "The frequent experience we had of the
quickness with which currents are thus formed, in con-
sequence, merely, of the wind setting the various bodies
of ice in motion, naturally leads us to this useful caution,
that one or two trials of the set of the stream in icy seas
must not be too hastily assumed in drawing any con-
clusions as to its constant or periodical direction." This
observation may be truly applicable to temporary
currentSy but not to tides, which, though they may be
accelerated or retarded in their velocity by various
causes, must always set in the direction imposed on them
by others of locality, which cannot vary, the trendings
of the lands between which they have their course.
Upon the whole, it appears that Captain Parry then did
find the rise and fall of tide to be less to the west than
to the eastward and southwardy from whence therefore, a
probabky at least, if not a " satisfactory, general " conclu-
sion may be drawn, that the flood tide comes originally.
Though we cannot come at the direction of the flood
tide on that part of the coast of America which Capt.
Franklin travelled and coasted, yet at the mouth of the
Copper-Mine River, in lat. (37M8' and long. 114° 37',
he states, that a *' rise and fall of four inches in the
water was observed." This was the farthest west and
the least observed. In travelling from thence along
the coast to the eastward^ the rise and fall, though
very small, it appears, did increase ; from whence, there-
fore, it may be fairly argued that the flood comeSy till the
contrary shall he proved. In about 112° west, Capt.
Franklin says, " For the last two days the water rose
and fell about nine inches. The tides, however, seemed
to be very irregular, and we could not determine the
direction of the ebb or flood. A current, setting to the
eastward, was running about two miles an hour during
' I
i
106
our stay." About the mouth of Banks River, Capt.
Franklin says, " at this place the water fell two feet
during the night ;" and on the 3d and 4th of August, in
Bathurst Inlet, he observed " a fall of more than two
fed in the water during the night." On the 15th of
August he adds, "it may here be remarked that we
observed the first regular return of the tides in Warren-
der's and Parry's Bays, but their set could not be
ascertained. The rise of water did not amount to more
than two feet.'' Now it must be remarked that War-
render Bay is about the easternmost limit of Capt.
Franklin's researches.
Though I will not go so far as to say that the fore-
going facts, which I have collected chiefly from the
pubHcations " of those who contend for the practica-
bility of a N.W. passage," tend to disprove it ; yet, they
are evidently very strong i. cations of an extensive
Mediterranean Sea, such as I tiave supposed may exist,
having communication by various channels with the
Bays of Hudson and Baffin, though not with the Polar
Sea proper.
Though the Quarterly Reviewer says, " Hearne talks
vaguely of the sea being full of islands at the mouth of
.the Copper- JVfine River, as far as he could see with a
good pocket telescope ;" yet Capt. Franklin has proved
him to be quite correct, with regard to the numerous
islands ; and perhaps it may fall to his lot, also, to prove,
whether or not Hearne was as correct too, in ** think-
ing it more than probable, that the Copper-Mine River
empties itself into a sort of inland sea, or extensive
bay, somewhat like that of Hudson." There is another
circumstance yet to be mentioned, which goes far to
show, that Hearne may be right in his judgment; at
least it seems so to me. On the 17th and 18th of Octo-
167
ber, when Capt. Parry was at Melville Island, " the
deer were observed in vast numbers, preparatory to
their departure over the ice to the coast of America, after
which one or two only were seen." The Quarterly
Reviewer says, on the return of summer, *• it was quite
astonishing to behold the rapidity with which the
various plants of the island pushed forth their leaves
and flowers, the moment the snow was off the ground.
Whether it was the abundance of these flowers that
tempted the musk oxen and rein-deer to make the long
journey over the ice, or whether they came to these
secluded and peaceable islands to drop their young, is
not known. In a valley, formed by the stream of a
ravine, which had the same lively appearance as that
of an English meadow, a whole herd of musk oxen
were seen grazing ; and our surprise (says Capt. Parry)
in some degree ceased, at the immense distance which
these animals must travel in the course of their annual
visits to these dreary and desolate regions ; as such a
pasture, affording undisturbed and luxuriant feeding
during the summer months, may, in spite of the general
appearance of the island, hold out sufficient induce-
ment for their annual emigration ;" and the Quarterly
Reviewer says in another place, that *' deer migrate
from America to Melville Island, which is upwards of
300 miles from the Continent." Capt. Franklin too, in
his Appendix, No. 5, at page 668, informs us that " iii
summer the musk oxen migrate in considerable num-
bers from the Continent (America) to the various islands
which exist in the Polar Sea," so that the fact is stated
and, of course, believedhy all these authorities. In the
autumn these animals pass from Melville Island to the
coast of America. In the spring, nay in the '• summer"
too^ they return to that island, and *• various " others
il
IS
ITiG
U;
ys /J
ri
iii
te*i
** which exist in the Polar Sea." Now by what means
are they enabled to make these long journeys ? Not
by land ; ior those, who suppose the navigable passage
to exist, which is now once more to be sought for be-
tween Melville Island and the north coast of America,
cannot believe there is land any wherp in continuityy
in that space, for them to travel ow. Not by water ; for
though those whose trade it is to feed curiosity with a
goose's quill, know that there is no lack of credulity
among us, whatever there may be of faith : yet, I
presume they would find it somewhat difficult to
make any John Bull believe that these deer and musk
oxen SWIM the distance of 300 miles twice a year!
Well then, unless these beasts *' take unto themselves
wings and fly," to pass *• over the ice," they must of
course make their long journeys upon it. If so, it
may be supposed to be continuous, and almost per-
manent, or they could hardly migrate thus upon it,
not only in the spring and autumn, but even the
summer.
The medium however, let it be what it may, which
enables these animals to do this, would not, I suppose,
be the very best for ships to sail in ; and therefore, i/'the
fact of their migration be true, as thus stated, it cannot
but render the hope of a navigable passage rather for-
lorn. But if that medium should happen to be land, it
must be land in continuity, which would at once decide
the question of the existence of a N. W. passage in the
negative.
In that case, the result would be the same, whether
an attempt at the discovery should be made from this
side, or from Behring's Strait. But why those " who
contend for the existence and practicability of a N.W.
passage for ships," should prefer the former, has ap-
16})
|K'ared to mo quite unaccountable. Captain Parry,
however, has recorded his reasons, such as they are, in
its favor, in these words. " In the course of the fore-
going narrative, it may have been remarked that the
westerly and north-westerly winds were always found
to produce the effect of clearing the southern shores of
the new Georgian Islands of ice, while they always
brought with them clear weather, which is essentially
necessary in prosecuting discoveries in such navigation.
7'his circumstance, together with the fact of our having
sailed back in si.v days from the meridian of Winter
Harbour, to the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's
Sound, a distance which required ^ve weeks to traverse,
when going in the opposite direction, seems to afford a
reasonable ground for concluding, that an attempt for
effecting the N.W. passage might be made with a better
chance of success from Behring's Strait, than from the
side of America. There are some circumstances, how-
ever, which in my opinion render this mode of pro-
ceeding altogether impracticable, at least for British
ships. The principal of these arises from the length
of the voyage which must first be performed in order to
arrive at the point where the work is to be begun. After
such a voyage, admitting that no serious wear and
tear had been experienced, the most important part of
a ships resources, namely, the provisions and fuel, must
be very materially reduced, and this without the possi*
bility of renewing them to the extent necessary for such
a service, and which can alone give confidence in the
performance of an enterprise of which the nature is so
precarious and uncertain. Nor should it be forgotten
how injurious to the health of the crcNvs, so sudden and
extreme a change of climate would in all probability
prove, as that which they must necessarily experience
Data, X
176
"I'M
ill going at once from the heat of the torrid zone into
the intense cold of a long winter upon the northern
shores of America. Upon the whole, therefore, I can-
not but consider, that any expedition equipped by
Great Britain, with this view, will act with greater ad-
vantage by at once enjploying its best energies in the
attempt to penetrate from the eastern coast of America
along its north'^rn shores."
Now, if the practicability of the N.W. passage were
doubled, or its wow-existence deemed possible even, it
appears to me that the onli/ reasons why it would be
imprudent to make the attempt from Behring's Strait
to the eastward, are the very two which Captain
Parry, in the first paragraph of the foregoing extract,
says *' seem to afford a reasonable ground for conclud-
ing that an attempt might be made with a belter chance
oi success from Behri?ig's Strait than tlie side of Ameri-
ca." Because every seaman ought to know, that in case
of failure in an attempt//ww west to east, by finding land,
or the zvestern entrances of Straits so encumbered with
ice as to oppose his further advance, he would rather
have a fiee wind to return with, as Captain Parry had
when " he sailed back in six days a distance of 600
miles, which required five weeks to traverse," than
tiiese " westerly and north-westerly winds" to beat back
against.
As these winds were *• alv,ays found to produce the
effect of clearing the southern shores of the new Geor-
gian Islands of ice," it may be presumed that they must
also produce the effect of encu7}ibering the northern and
western shores of islands, as well as the northern and
western entrances of Straits existing between them,
with ice — if there be any to windward. Consequently,
ships proceeding from west to east, and finding such
171
western entrances closed against them by ice, would
be in a much worse predicament than Captain Parry
was, for instance, when he found the western entrance
of the Strait of tlie Fury and Hecla actually so closed
against him by ice. For his obstruction being to wind-
ward of him, he had only to quit it and return home,
'' with these winds from the West and N.W. prevailing"
in his favor^ and perhaps the *' circumvolving current"
of the Quarterly Review into the bargain. Whereas,
any ship having advanced from Behring's Straits as far
as the ae^/e/'w limit of such obstruction as Captain Parry
met with, must have been reauced to the necessity of
beating back again the way she came ; unless some
channel could be discovered to the northward, com-
municating with Barrow's Strait and Lancaster Sound,
which it is hoped Captain Parry will find by way of
Prince Regent's Inlet.
But no such obstruction from ice, and indeed but
little from even land intervening, can have entered into
the calculation of those who have said, " We jirmly
believe that a navigable passage does eiist, and may be
of no difficult execution. It is the business of three
mo7iths owi VLuA home. We have little doubt of a/ree
and practicable i)assage for seven or eight months in
every year. Arrived on the coast of America, and
no obstruction from land occurring, we see no reason
why the passage to Icy Cape, which does not exceed
1500 miles, might Jot easilij be accomplished in one
season ; about 600 of these were actually run on the
last voyage in six days;' and finally Captain Parry
himself " has recorded his opinion in favor of its ac-
complishment."
To persons thus sanguine in their hope, nay, so con-
fident in their expectations of 'success, the prevalence
*' of westerly and north-westerly winds" must be, of
172
M
It
■,}
'I
i:^:;
^1 Others, the most favorable circumstance, as tliey
would ensure the 5j^ee</ie.y^ performance of the voyage:
for, as " they seem" to Captain Parry, so they do in
truth, for that reason^ " afford a reasmiable ground" (to
them) " for concluding that an attempt might be made
\vith a better chance of success from Behring's Strait
than the side of America." Indeed, as the Quarterly
Reviewer sees 710 reason ^* why the passage to Icy Cape,
which does not exceed 1500 miles, may not be easili/
accomplished in one season^ as 600 of these were ac-
tually run in six days, bi/ means of these very westerly
and north-westerly winds," I would take the liberty
of asking him, why — (//he have no fear of either icy or
land impediment) should not the whole 1500 miles be
perhaps run with the same facilities in about one month?
which would be far less than what he considers to be
the duration of one season, who " has little doubt of a
free and navigable passage for seven or eight months in
every year."
The only objections, then, which these advocates
for the existence and practicability of a N.W. passage
can make, consistently with their publicly expressed
belief of there being no obstruction from ice, and little or
none from land, are those given by Captain Parry, in
the terms I have quoted ; not one of which appears
to me to be of the slightest importance, compared to
that which has been given to the discovery of this
famed N.W. passage.
And, were it not that he has published them, and
that therefore, those who know little or nothing of the
matter may tifink them very solid objections, they
would hardly deserve the notice of any seaman who
has had years of experience on service in ships of war,
in all the climates of the globe, except perhaps within
the north frigid zone, of whose imaginary inclemency
173
as to the human/ee////g-, and its terrible effects, Captain
Parry has proved and recorded the non-existencey by a
practical experience which, being well merited, has
been justly rewarded. We will, however, examine them
one by one, and see what they amount to.
In the first place, " the length of the voyage to tlie
point where the work is to be begun" is objected to by
Captain Parry, and in his opinion renders " this mode
of proceeding altogether impracticabky at least for British
ships,'' But why for " British ships" particularly, any
more than Russian, or indeed any other ships ? In the
present improved state of navigation, the length of the
voyage, say first to Macao in China, is absolutely not
worthy of a thought. The wear and tear of that part
of the voyage might be with ease repaired there or in
theTypa. The reduction in the stores, provisions, and
fuel, could be made up there just as well as in Eng-
land ; and if it could not, every thing considered to be
absolutely necessary might be sent out and placed there
in store preparatory to their arrival. As to the observa-
tion, " How injurious to the health of the crews, so sud'
den and extreme a change of climate would prove, as that
which they must necessarily experience in going at
once from the heat of the torrid zone into the intense
cold of a long winter upon the northern shores of Ame-
rica," it must by no means be " necessarily" sc, or at all
probable that the healths of the crews would suffer in the
slightest degree, from any changes of climate to which
they might be subjected in the course of their voyage.
For who that has served (as perhaps Captain Parry has
noty) during the last war, for years, in all the climates of
the globe, and been as suddenly removed from hot to cold,
and from cold to hot, ever contemplated or experienced
any such injurious effects, either upon himself or his
174
p «
ship's companies? None, I daresay; at least I can answer
for myself. Many, very many, after being grilled in
the East or West Indies for years, immediately on their
return home have been sent smoking-hot, to cool in the
North Sea in winter, without at all feeling its effects,
more than the crews of any other ships long stationed
there. But perhaps I shall be told, that the severity, of
the North Sea climate is nothing compared to that of
the terrible icy regions of the norlii. Certainly, the
North Sea climate may not be so cold ; but its hu7nidity
renders men much more liable to pulmonarv and in-
flammatory complaints, than it appears cJaptain Parry s
people ever were in the frigid climate of Winter Har-
bour. For he says, "In the severest weather, mot
single inflammatory complaint occurred, though in piass-
ing from tlie cabins into the open air, and vice versa, the
men were constantly in the habit, for some months, of
undergoing a change of from 80 to 100 degrees, and in
several instances 120° of temperature." No such ex-
treme change of temperature as this (which, however,
had no injurious effect at all,) could possibly be expe-
rienced on a passage from England to China. There
the crews might be refreshed for months, if it were re-
quired. From Macao, the passage, with the S.W.
Monsoon, could be performed with ease, and in as
(BJiort a time, to Behring's Strait, as one from England
to the N.E. part of America ; so as to be off Icy Cape
in all July, if necessary.
So that on every consideration except expense, (which
can be nothing with such an important object in
view,) certainly, the best and most expeditious mode of
performing that part of the voyage to the northward of
the continent of America, {if no obstruction from either
land or ice be supposed to exist,) would undoubtedly
175
be, by way of Behring's Strait to the eastward. But
those who do apprehend that obstruction may be proba-
bly met with, somewhere between Behring's Strait and
the N.E. part of America, will prudently prefer having
the attempt made from east to west, but first to
examine Behring's Strait.
I shall conclude, for the present, with a passage on
this subject, written by the late Admiral Burney, and
published in the year 1819.
*^ Behring's Strait being regarded as the most probable
opening on the western side of America, by many as the
only probable one, for the entrance into the Pacific, by a
northern navigation from Europe; and on the eastern side
of America, there being many inlets and arms of the sea
unexplored, of which a very small proportion can be
expected to lead to Behring's Strait ; it follows, that
the best chance for discovering a passage, or for dis-
covering that there is no passage, is by commrnring on
the other side of America. On this side of America the
question can only be set at rest by tho discovery of a
passage, for twenty expeditions with the most favorable
scaRons would be in«u(licici^t for ascertaining that there
is no passage."
Ify as the Quarfrrly Review says, there be " a free and
navigable passage for seven or eight months in every
year," the coast of America must of course form the
south sid*" v>f it. That coast can be got hold of at
Bebrinsi's Strait, and if it co^ld be kept sight of, and there
t'* wo obstruction, a ship by tracing it must ultimately
discover it : and in less than half the time it can possibly
b« done from east to w^est, with the prevailing winds and
the Reviewer's circumvolving current against her ; even
allowing that she may get at once close in upon the
coast of America, by way of Prince Regent's Inlet, or
other yet undiscovered cIkiuim'Is. But if that inlet
176
11
fail, ** twenty" other expeditions mai/ also fail, as Ad-
miral Blimey justly observes, by as many channels, if
they exist. On the contrary, one attempt from Behring's
Strait, whether there be obstruction or not, would per-
haps decide the question for ever. The most certain
mode, however, and doubtless the least expensive, must
be by land expeditions ; and if such means had been
tried in the year 1818, in all probability it would have
been decided by this time.
Though, in this inquiry, I have attempted to show
that the Quarterly Reviewer's belief in the practicability
and existence of a north-west passage was originally
formed on an assumption of circumstances and sup-
posed facts, as vague, crude, and inconsistent with each
other, as they are contrary to the laws of nature, and
which even the future proof of both cannot establish as
true ; and though it is tolerably clear, that none of the
great commercial advantages which his glowing but wild
imagination anticipated, can ever be the result of that
proof; yet many others undoubtedly have been, and
will yet l)e, obtained by means of the naval expedi-
tions, and which it is highly to the glory and honor of
the first maritime power in the world should have been
Bent out.
It perhaps would have been better not to have
avowed to the world, at firsts that the grand object of
these expeditions was " the discovery of a north-west
passage," where success must be so doubtful; but merely
to have said, they were fitted out in this " piping time
of peace," for the purpose of exploring the Arctic re-
gions ; to obtain facts, to make observations on'their
various phfenomena, for the extension of science, by
throwing light on many subjects as yet but little under-
stood. In this case all the information they brought
177
home would have been acceptable to the public from
its novelty, to the philosopher from its value, and clear
gain to all, unalloyed by any feeling of disappointment ;
and if the north-west passage should have been unexpect-
edly discovered^ the gaping world would have considered
it as the ne plus ultra of all human enterprise, in short
something like a trip to the moon in a balloon ; for,
indeed, the notion which many persons even at present
entertain of it is something like that. The Quarterly
Reviewer, himself, in No. 49, page 214, observes that,
" in proportion as the expectations of tlie public have
been raised," not so much perhaps, as he says, *' by the
result of Captain Parry's last Voyage" as by what he
has written, " would a failure be felt. Indeed, we have
no doubt that any thing short of reaching the Pacific
would now be considered as a failure, and cause disap-
pointment, even if it should be discovered that no com-
munication exists between the Atlantic and the Pacific."
Certainly, there can be no doubt but it wOuld be
a failure ; and though the public in general would con-
sider it such, yet I must confess, as one of that public,
though I should feel great regret, I cannot say 1 should
be disappointed ; because my expectations have not
been unduly rais(Ml, nor shall I ever think that anyone
of these expeditions was fitted out in vain. Who, indeed,
can be so narrow-minded as to say, what is the use of
all these expeditions ? why all this expense ? except
those who measure the value of every thing by tlic
commercial scale?
The undertaking is one every way worthy of this
country. The man, whoever he was, who first sug-
gested it, is justly entitled to that praise wliich every one
of enlarged and liberal mind will award him, whether
it succeed to its full extent or not. Nor will the No-
Data. Z
178
bleman who presides at the Admiralty fail of that
rewarcj from posterity which he so richly merits, for
having attended to his suggestions, and so far carried
them into effect.
SCRUTATOR.
n . ^,?
^■_ I i <
r?^.?.f
17Q
that
I, for
irried
I ' i. />
t . 1^ •. I .
• J •. *i-^ ♦
POSTSCRIPT.
•R.
ii
A FEW days after the foregoing sheets were viritten, Captain
Parry's long-expected " Journal of a Second Voyage for the Dis-
covery of a North-West Passage" made its appearance. After
carefully reading it, I cannot say that I have met with a single fact
of sufficient weight to induce me to alter one line I had written, or
to doubt the correctness of any of the inferences I had drawn from
Data previously furnished. On the contrary, I have found much
to confirm them. The grand source of the flood-tide in Hudson's
Bay is proved to be the Atlantic. It set to the westward generally
from Resolution Island all the way to the coast of America, but
taking local directions imposed on it by intervening lands. The
r^te of flow (except in confined channels and inlets) decreased in
advancing to the westward, as did also the rise and fall of the tide,
in proportion to the distances of the places where it was observed
from Hudson's and Cumberland Straits, Sic.
What I most desired to know, was, whether or not any cu;rrent
had been experienced in the Strait of the Fury and Hecla from the
westward.
In the event of there being any such, I presumed to anticipate its
effect on floating ice, should there be any, at its western mouth,
whatever might be the source or cause of that current ; but at the
same time denying that the waters of the Pacific Ocean could pos-
sibly form any part of it.
Captain Parry did find a current from the westward, running
through the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, of which, and the tides
in that Strait, he writes thtis at page 354 of his Journal : " I be-
180
lieve there can be little doubt that the flood-tide here coniee from
the westward. That there is, besides this, during a great part of
the summer, a permanent current setting from the same direction,
is also sufficirntly apparent ; and the joint effects of these tw o
causes appear to account satisfactorily for the various irregularities
observed, as well in the set of the stream, as in the rise and fall of
water by the shore. The natural inference, with respect to the cur-
rent, seemed at the time to be, that it is occasional by the. annual
melting of the snows upon the shores of the Polar Sea, for which
this Strait affords the only outlet leading to the southward, within
perhaps some hundieds, of miles ; and this supposition appeared the
more reasonable from the circumstance of the current having jtist
now [20th September, 1S22,] ceased, wlien the streams from the
land were once more arrested by the frost of the approaching
winter." ;:■,',',.: r • 'i ;. .,;r.-!. . - -j.!T .;;• »f;J m 'h. -.<•?
In fact, then, this current was only periodically " permanent ;"
and, admitting Captain Parry to be correct in his inference as to
its cause, it therefore cannot be a part of the Quarterly Reviewer's
*' circumvolving current from the Pacific through Behring's Strait,"
which he believes to be "perpetual." For if that circumvolving
current of his between the Pacific and Atlantic be perpetual, and
there really exist an unobstructed course for it all the way iioxw
Behring's Strait, and through that of the Fury and Hecla, -. " the
only outlet leading to the southward," why should it have " ceased"
there about the 2()th of September ? Captain Parry's own expla-
nation is quite conclusive, that the Reviewer's current can have
nothing at all to do witlj*ihe one he met with in the Strait of the
Fury and Hecla. Were this current perpetual, so much the worse.
Its temporary adverse operation is f^uito bad enough, for, according
to Captain Parry's account of it, it flows eastward, during the only
nai//o'o6/e; season, and ceases with it, * • f . •.
The effect of this current is thus described by him at page 489 ;
" The state of the ice for two successive summers, in the Strait of
181
I from
art of
action,
e two
arities
fall of
le ciir-
aiinual
which
within
reil the
ig
the Fury and 11 tela, seems to indicate that the obstruction we
there met with, is dependent rather on locality than season. It is
more than probable, that the obstacles which finally arrested our
progress in the Strait, are to be mainly attributed to the current we
found setting to the eastward through it, and which coincides with
that observed by Captain Franklin, and by the Russians, to the
westward." True — it does so — as to direction ; but the c^use
which Captain Parry assigns for its periodical flow and cessation,
renders it impossible to identify this current with the one they ob-
served, which is said to be perpetual. " This stream," Captain
Parry adds, " in finding its way through the Strait, would un-
doubtedly have the effect of keeping the ice close home upon its
western mouth, so as to prevent the egress of a ship in that direc-
tion : and I cannot help thinking that on that account, the naviga-
tion of that Strait will seldom, if ever, be practicable."
, On what possible ground, then, can it be expected that the reest-
ern mouth of any other existing Strait between Prince Regent's
Inlet and Beliring's Strait should, under similar circumstances, be
more practicable than that of the Fury and Hecla ?" •
u Though Captain Parry says that " circumstances beyond the
reach of any previous speculation, have combined to oppose an in-
surmountable banit-t to our entrance into the Polar Sea by the
route lately pursu ' yet some of these very circumstances were
a lually pointed out ^y the. Quarterly Reviewer as the causes of the
fadure of all former attempts, made in that quarter to discover a
north-wcbt passage. Nay — ail oi these circumstances, as well as
the result of Cap jin Parry's last voyage, were anticipated, and in
my hearing mentioned to many private triends by one who deemed
the judgment of the Quarterly Reviewer quite «oundo«/j/ on that
point, but who at the same lime firmly believed that Repulse Bay
had b.-:i! ** satisfactorily examined :" never, like him, having
doubled tliit Middleton was, ^^hat Captain Parry has now proved
him, a inui of veracity.
182
!'^^
lii
Captain Parr; says, ** However unsuccessful have been our tate
endeavors^ they were unquestionably directed to the right place/'
and that " with the limited geographical information we then pos-
sessed, no other route than that pointed out in my instructions, could
possibly have been pursued with any reasonable hope of success."
Certainly the route through iludson's Strait and Bay did, to
those who selected it, hold forth more hope at the time than any
other, because it was preferred ; and even after failure has proved
it to be the wrong, it is still proclaimed as the " right place,"
and as the on/ij route that could possibly have been pursued with
any reasonable hope of success !
But this necessarily places the route by Prince Regent's Inlet
very low indeed in the scale of hope ; for at the time Captain
Parry sailed last, that inlet was as well known to him as it is now.
No addition has been made to the then limited geographical in-
formation he possessed immediately belonging to itse/J\ If, then,
three years ago, Prince Regent's lulet were considered, as it is here
acknowledged to have been, as nut holding forth " any reasonable
hope of success," on what can a more reasonable hope be built
now? For my own part, I must confess that I dare not indulge
expectation of more from the next attempt through Prince Regent's
Inlet, &,c. than Captain Parry's strenuous endeavors effected in " the
right place;" and therefore, supported by an acknowledgment
from such authority, I still consider it to be what 1 have already
termed it, the Forlorn Hope. And that too, notwithstanding
Captain Parry concludes his Journal in these words, which 1 sin-
cerely wish may one day prove to be prophetic : " I never felt more
sanguine of ultimate success in the enterprise in which I have
lately been engaged, than at the present moment ; and I cannot
but entertain a confident hope, that England may yet be destined
to succeed in an attempt which has for centuries past engaged her
attention, and interested the whole civilised world."
Frinted by A. J. Valpy, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
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