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IMPRACTICABILITY
A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
SHIPs,
IMPARTIALLY CONSIDERED.
LONDON :
1824.

6 *O
. Sº 2
84 ho
PREFA CE.
BEING what is termed “a sea-faring man,” I am
frequently asked questions concerning the North-
West 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
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 if 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, 25th March, 1824.
“A, PLAIN MATTER-of-FACT MAN wishes For DATA
RAther than WILD HYPOTHEses.” ...
Quart. Rev. xxv.111, 398.
AFTER a lapse of about twenty-six years, the ques-
tion of the Existence, as well as the Practicability, 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 critical Journal,” Having introduced the latter
subject by an examination into the authenticity of
“Voyage de la Mer Glaciale; par le Capitaine Laurent
Ferrer Maldonado, l'aa 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 firmly believe, on the
contrary, that a navigable passage does erist, and may be
of no difficult éxecution. Why then, it may be asked,
have all the attempts made at different times, from both
sides the continent of America, failed 7–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.
2
more than 1200 miles. Could we only be certain that
Hearne and Mackenzie actually arrived at the shore of
the Northern Ocean, the eristence 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 1 ! If the 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 free 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 three months to their estab-
lishments on Columbia river, instead of the circuitous
voyage of six or seven months round Cape Hern; 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-minerivers, 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 “incaleulable 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
3
north-east part of America. He seems, however, to have
been aware of there being some little difficulty in gett
ting hold of that part of America, for he informs/usta
little further on, at page 169, that, “Hitherto, ritost 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 first 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
negative.” 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
northaeast part of America; may 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 Buy,
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-
4
mon, but we believe an erroneous opinion, that the tem-
peratºre of etir elimate has regularly been diminishing,
and that it is owing to the ice hawing permanently, fixed
itself to the shores of Greenland, which in consequence,
froñi being once a flourishing colony of Denmark, is
now become utinhabitable and unapproachable. owe
doubt both the fact 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.” . . .
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 beginaing 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 threugh the Polar regions, towards. Behring's
Strait; he therefore admits, in the first place, “that, for
thé last four-hundred years; an extensive portion of the
eastern eoast of Old Greenland has been shut up, by an
impenetrable barrier of ice, and with it the ill-fated Nor-
wegian or Danish colonies; and who were thus cut off at
5
once from all communication with the mother-coun-
try;”—that “ various attempts have been made, from time
to time, to approach this coast, but in vain; the ice being
every where impervious ; and that all hope being at
length abandoned, that 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 disappearance of the whole, or greater part of this
barrier of ice. How the Danes can now pretend to
doubt, as one of their writers affects to do, whether there
ever were a colony on the eastern side is, to us, quite
inevplicable, unless it be to palliate their negligence at the
first approach of the ice, and their want of humanity
since.” In short, the reviewer has, now, no doubt of this
extraordinary fact, for nothing could have happened
so opportunely ; 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 1 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 long-lost colony on the eastern coast of
Old Greenland.
3rdly. The facility it offers, of correcting the very
defective geography of the Arctic regions in our western
hemisphere, and of 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 therefore, that our own 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 / I’’ * -
The reviewer having, as we have seen in a former
number, expressed his belief of the practicability, 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 western 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 Baffin'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 not satisfactory, and much other matter
contained in this article appeared rather visionary, 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
7
a reply to it in the Naval Chronicle for the móñth of
March, 1818, just before the expeditions såſtěd,'indér
Captains Ross and Buchan. In extracting it hérè, I
shan adduce such ficts and experiments, madekābwn
to us by those who have since written on the subject,
or visited the Arctic regions, as tend to prove;6; 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 titue; 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 Quâr-
terly Review, for this month, on the subject of the ex-
petitions; 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 motions on this interesting topic.” After a few
prefiminary ºbservations on the fact of the late reported
disappearáñce of ice, from the eastern coast of Old
Greenland, and its supposed connexion with the phae-
homeña of Magnetism, Electricity, and the Aurora
Borealis, he proceeds: “The removal of this ice being
‘Côtemporaneous with the period when the western de-
chilation 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 phændiéna,
it seems not unfair to infer, that the departure of'Whe
immense mountains and fields of ice which for soián
centuries have covered the Arctic seas, may have had
some effect in stopping the career of the western decli-
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 Avctic Regions is explored, viz. the departure of,
perhaps, a very small portion only, of those “immense
mountains and fields of ice, which had collected in the
vicinity 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 received principles. The fact, however, of the dis-
appearance of some 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 amelioration 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 causes he assigns, few will
doubt. But the effect produced may not continue.
Por though the principal cause of the chilliness of our
climate, compared with what it appears to have been
centuries ago, may be removed for the present, yet, the
grand primary cause which produced the ice, whose
approximation deteriorated oth 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, merely 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 quarter) may henceforth
improve. Though no doubt it will improve, if the ice
does not again collect in the place from whence it
9
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 go-
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 to ‘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 the object may be attained.’—Great part of
this coast has since been visited and laid down by
Mr. Scoresby," and also by Captain Sabine in His
Majesty's ship Griper.
“The reviewer's third object is, “the facility the remo-
val of the ice offers, of correcting the very defective
geography of the Arctic regions in our western hemi-
sphere; of attempting the circumnavigation of Old
Greenland—a direct passage over the Pole—and the
more 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 his observations on
this coast; which has also since been visited by Captain Sabine in His
Majesty's ship the Griper.
Data. B
|0
geography of the Arctic regions, more especially on the
side of America, may be hailed as an important, occurs
rençºn. But...let as sea, whether what may be op's
a, ºil, and very partial, removal of ice collected in the
vicinity of Greenland, islikely to facilitate more, than
an examination of its eastern coast, or at most its cirr
cumnavigation; and perhaps, of exploring the coast
of America, some distance to 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 current stated to set down to the
squthward along the eastern.coast of America, and the
western shores of Greenland.’, , , y . . . . .
“But this current, though affording. ‘a strong pre:
sumption' that ‘between Davis' Straits and the great
Polar basin,' there is some communication, surely if
does not authorise us to presume, that thers, is an
“uninterrupted communication.' On... the contrary, it
seems probable that there; must he islands or shoals,has
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 well as current, may find
passage down Davis' Straits from the “Polar basin;
but which may be, and probably are, so blocked up, gene-
rally, by mountains and large fields of ice, as to present
an impassable barrier for Ships. On account of this cur-
...; it exist,) it is certainly fair to presume that the
northern part of Davis' Straits is mis-named in 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
s
t
; :
* ,
I
velocity of four or five miles an hour, could originate in
the bottom of it!” - , .
'. I must observe here that the reviewer's head seems
to have been so full of the 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 coast of Greenland, do
not alter perhaps a point of the compass either way;
and therefore that no such ertraordinary current could
possibly exist.' This 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
for further proof, 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 direction it is probably impelled by
winds and currents; how these winds probably
* Its non-existence has been since proved by Captains Ross and
Parry.
J2
prevail in summer and winter; 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 superficial, 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 underflow 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
satisfaction 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. . . .
“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 expansion of air and water, and cold the cause
of compression.—Heat rarefies, and cold condenses.
The influence of the sun in rarefying the atmosphere to
the greatest degree, between the tropics, together with
the earth's rotation on its axis, from west to east, would
produce a constant wind from east to west all round
the globe, if no land intervened; because, the points of
greatest rarefaction being successively westward; and
those eastward of each other, parting successively, as
13
the sun sets in their horizons, with part of the heatre.
ceived in his passage over them, the motion of theat-
mosphere nearest the surface of the water must neees.
sarily be from east to west, following the apparent mºr,
tion of the sun. . We find this preved by fact, on those
purtions of the globe where the general-law.is not ob-
structed by causes of an opposite nature, arising,fran:
tervene influence t 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
oentral-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
kimits 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 someº.
where, 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 imad-
tion, it may be preserved in a state of purity.’” . . . . .
“Let us now enquire, whether this same haw is not
equally applicable to that universal motion of the great
deep, which mast be equally necessary, to its purity,
and which we may therefore certainly presumae...dees
* This counter-flux from the equator to the poles, and vice ver a.
is demonstrated by Mr. Daniel in his Meteorological Essays, published
in 1823, who explains why, “This interchange of the pºlid
equatorial atmospheres must tend to an equalisation of temperature.”
14
take place on some general principle. We indeed, al-
ready know, that the waters of the Pacific Ocean, and
of the Atlantic, between the tropics, where least ob-
structed by land, move at and near the surface, in a si-
milar direction, nearly and generally, to that of the
wind.—When obstructed by lands, they take the vari-
ous turnings and windings, which the forms and tren-
dings of those lands, and other local causes, impose
on them. =. -
“If it be allowed, ‘that the influence of the sun, in
rarefying the atmosphere to the greatest degree, between
the tropics, together with the earth's rotation on its axis
from west to east, would produce (if no land interven-
ed) a constant wind from east to west,' may we not
suppose, if the same causes operate similarly, but
proportionally, on the waters of the ocean, that they
must produce a similar effect, and 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.”—lf 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 thereabouts, than on the other,
owing to the land's obstruction to the natural course of
the great equinoctial current, and the necessity imposed
" From theobservations made by Humboldt at the mouth of the Rio
Seca 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,” -
15
on it, to find vent through the Gulf of Florida, into the
Atlantic ; it is not unreasonable to conclude, that if this
accumulation of water was at liberty to flow through
the Continent of America, into the Pacific Ocean, the
surface of the sea, on this side (next the Atlantic) would
be lower than it now is ; so that parts of land, new
under water, would be exposed to view. This effect
would, however, 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
be a lee one from the north-east, along the east
coast 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, nearer the surface
than 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
its 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 towards the points of great-
est rarefaction and evaporation between the tropics, to
supply the place of that, which the heat is as constantly
evaporating and rarefying ; and so sending back in the
upper strata of the atmosphere, to the colder regions,—
The gulf-stream, thus propelled by lateral pressure, up to-
wards the banks of Newfoundland, is seldom found te
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.
16
For, many articles, the produce of tropical climes, and
some, known to have been from the West Indies, have
been cast ashore on the coasts of Europe. Some of
these places being situated to the N.E. of Newfound-
land, it is difficult to believe that these articles could
have been driven thither by the winds, and the swell of
the sea only. For these, prevailing nearly as much from
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°º or
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 water at, and very near the surface, to cause bodies
floating there to make a course, as some have done, 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. Some
of the fluid that composed it may find its way to the
northward of Cape Finisterre, and add something to the
‘great body of water 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 below, of
a colder degree than its own, it perhaps gradually joins
the Polar stream to thesouthward, aceording to its depth
17
, and temperature. Some of the waters of the gulfstreath,
it is possible (though.hardly that), may assist in supply-
wing the water expended by evaporation in the Mediter-
ranean, whose surface, 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 avapora-
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 lower generally than. that of the
“Atlantic. For if it be higher (as is most probable), the
surplus, if there were any, and allowing their surfaces to
cbe equal” (and Phoca should have added, their speciſc
gravities the same), “would; I presume, run out 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-
lenticwiby no means say that it is so. On the contrary,
..it is littleofelt by ships, far to the eastward of the
ułaºtº but in the vicinity of thoseislands, the south-
bast portion of it gradually turns to the southward,
and as it advances in that direction, soon feeling the
impulsejagain of the grand equinoctial current, is com-
pelled to partake of its western motion: thus forming
ºf sort of circulareddy, which may be comprised between
the latitude of about 18% of 19% North, and the parallel
of the Western Islands; and from about the longitude
of 89°ita:43°West. Within these limits, the gulfweed, is
found, floating on the surfaee, where I suppose it origi-
nates, lives its appointed time, and decays, like any
other vegetable production k and I believe it, iterarely
Data. C
18
or never met with beyond these limits. Though I have
admitted the bare possibility, that some df the gif
stream may enter the strait of Gibfaltar, I cannot agree
with the writer of the article in the Quarterly Review,
when he says (speaking, of the gulfstream), that it is of
sufficient force and quantity to make-ite influence be felt
in the distant ‘Strait of Gibraltar.”Thus, implying (if
I understand him right), that this ‘force and qualitity'
of the gulf stream are primary causes of the cºnstant
current into the strait. . . On the contrary, thinkingmas
I do, that the causes of this constant flow of wateri into
the Mediterranean are of a purely kcal mature; eonnects
ed exclusively with that sea; I therefore think it mºst
probable that if the great equinoctial currentflowed (§§
presumeitwould, werethereasufficient passage) through
the Continent of America, into the Pacific jºahdioonse,
quently annihilated the present gulfstream, therewoºd
still be the very same flow of water into the Méditéſ;
ranean as there is now, as long as the aun's ſºrº,
tinued, and the localities exclusively belonging #03bāţ
sea remained the same. In short; I am of opiniół: that
the waters of the Atlantic (approximaté to the Strait of
Gibraltar) feel, the influence of purely Mediterania,
. . • 3 * * • ' , , '9"?
causes; and that neither ‘the force' hôr ‘quantity...ºf
the gulfstream have any effect whatever, in causing:the
current that runs into the Mediterranean, Jºltºisławell
known, by experience, that this current is strengest
with easterly gales; in the hottest weather, with wilitat
the same time; and is diminished during the prevalents
of westerly: winds, and is weaker in winterºgenerally
than'ih sufmmer." But to returnº-Therwindsiand sure
3 t ' ' ' ' . . . . . . . " - ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .''. i woºd's?
"The opinions of men of science are still divided asto the cause of the
cºstant curreht which runs into the Mediterranean, through theatsait
of Gibraltar.” In turning over the Annual Register'ſor the yeasºn 768,

19
* , , , , . <> - &e ºf $ s ,
face currents in the Pacific Ocean are influenced,
generally, in a similar way, by the sun's power, as those
a'short-time ago, I observed an essay, written by Mr. Waie, oftlis
Royal Sobiety of Steckholm, to explain this cause. It is ingenieus,
line nºt quite satisfactory, beeause his facts are at varianea, with each
pºther. Mr. Waiz computes that “the water, which is received annually
into the Mediterranean, by the straits, and from the Nile, and,all the
fivers which fall into the Black Sea, and flow through the strait of Con-
$tantinople, cannot raise its surface less than thirty feet ; and the annual
evaporation te lower it about forty-four feet.” He then says that “if
thºr 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,
āke not become more salt.” He therefore feels himself obliged to give
up evaporation, and “seek same other expedient to get rid of its
rºundant waters.” What, redundant waters ? Has he not computed
the texapºration to,be sufficient to lower its surface 44 feet, and its
supply through the strait of Gibraltar, and the Dardanelles, as well as
'an the rivers, which flow into it, as only sufficient te raise it annu-
āşş80 feet? Thus, so far from there being any redundancy of water
is the Mediterranean, an annually increased supply would be required,
wad, potten expedient to get rid of what he himself proves it cannot
§: The expedient he has recourse to, however, is a double current,
which he first proposes to ascertain with all possible exactness, and
then $o 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.
tious, (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
witk of this vessel, with some casks, and other light things, appeared,
some days, on the surface of the water, four English miles to the
swest, 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 wreoks, could met have raised thesselves,
against the current, so as to swim attep.” . If we may here assume
that Mr. Waiz believed, that this wreck, with the casks and other
20.
between Affica, and Anherieńy making however dae;
alltºwance for the difference of theiformation and pºsing
light things}:did not float on the surfaceſ, but immédiatelysakelotºniº
to the Bottum (the tesm; he uses), or at least into a fluid of thabklew
gree of suitºess and gravity, which (as he afterwards attemptstºpºveys
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 surº
face were, as he must allow, less salt, or speeifically lighter than that:
beneath it, in-proportion to its depth, yet still how could, thbseight's
articles sink to that convenient depth, unless their specific gravity was:
greater than it?” And if greater (which however can hardly be ada
mitted), by what law could theyy when carried far enough to the west.
ward, ds, convenientlyi raise, themseldes: again to the surface, and’ibe
observed floating intá medium; that could not support them before ?: 3
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.thari,
who has had experience in the straitºf Gibraltar, knows, does; settibº .
theiswestward, elose in, both in the Barbary and Spanish shores.gºi; if
Mr. Waiz, on the authority of Count Marsigli, assumesithe, existºri
ence of an under and surface' current (in opposition to the hiothèl);
through the strait of Comstantinople. : He says, “that the salt waters
enters at the bottom into the Black Sea; and is then renderedilighters
by the quantity of fresh 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 differſ
ence in the degrees of saltness, of the water which comes in and that,
whichigoes out, is greater; namely, according to Marsigli,173.to,628;
whereas, it is not so great in the strait of Spain.” . . . . . . . . .
!.Thb thabry of this under current, in the strait of Gibraltargis
thus esplained 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
remiains moreisalty and consequently more weighty. Supposing them.
the surfaces of the two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 16-
ba'apalºº suppositions,however, without facts to support it), sºftheir.
gsayity would not be duuelsibatãhe swater of the Mediterranean, as the
2}
tians of intervening lands ºffer these obstruntothed
uniform general tendency of the winds; and current&-
mestoweighty, would press on that of the Atlantic, and the twº seas
woëld-rim together, till the waters became of equal weight, so that
the Mediterranean would necessarily be lowest. When this happeas;
the water of the Atlantic, which is highest, cannot take its eonyse
through the strait but by a higher current, by means of which it
spreads itself in the Mediterranean; but this would augment the
weight; already the greatest, of the water of the latter, which cannot
get away, but by opening itself a passage underneath, and forming an
inferior opposite eurrent in the strait.” This is sufficient to produce
the two currents, and to perpetuate them without interruption.”; “ . .
The experiment to prove this hypothesis, to be in agreement, with
the laws of hydrostatics, is then thus described by Mr. Waia. “Take a
long box, divided into two by a board fixed in, the middle; let there
be a small hole in the board which you can shut at pleasures Fill one
end of the box with watery and the other with eil, to ºn.eqital height.
On hastily-opening the hole, in the board that divides thein, 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 objectád, that, as oil
camot mix with water, it must get at top; but the same thing happens
testwo waters of unequal gravity, when one is coloured, and much
salter than the other.” ' ' , , , . . . * . . . , t ,
This hypothesis of Mr. Waiz, stands on pretty sure ground, and
may be applicable to the Mediterranean, if its waters are proved ato
be salter, and consequently heavier, than those of the Atlantic. Seme,
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 evaporated from the Mediterranean, exceeds the
supply every way necessary to equalize its surface with that of the
Atlantic. This Mr. Waiz also admits to be the fact; and sets out by
proving it. : * * A a
Colonel Capper, whose “Observations on the Winds and Mo *;
though 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
1 * * ; , ; .
22
from east to west; therefore from the east coast of
New Holland to the east coast of Africa, and within
evaporation of all Mediterranean or inland seas must be infinitely
geater than 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 must 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 supply 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 seasons, from 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 1816. He says:
“We mean not to 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 it 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
current, 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 the 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-
tious. 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 feet annually; but the supply received into
it, as only sufficient to raise it 30 feet annually.” So that by his own
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 com putation were correct, would have been lowered
i4 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 nearly 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. But if they are nearly of equal specific gravity
(which, notwithstanding a few partial experiments to the contrary,
24
wonld be leading 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 the Monsoons and
the bodies of land within their limits. Suffice it to say
what more particularly applies to the North Pacific, and
will lead us again to the Arctic regions. : ,
“Having said, that the air is rarefied and raised in
the atmosphere, and that the greatest degree of evapo-
ration is effected between the west coast of Africa, and
the east coast of America; and that north of the line, 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 propor-
tionate to its depth, the water takes a direction towards
the regions of equatorial heat; is again raised by that
heat to the surface, and again evaporated. Experiments
in the Ocean have proved, that 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 effect many
is probably the case), and the surface of the Mediterranean be at all
times lower than that of the Atlantic, then the perpetual flow of the
surface of the latter into the Mediterranean must be the consequence,
as certainly as any other effect follows its proper antecedent cause.
Nay, even if the Red Sea had any channel of communication with the
Mediterranean, its waters also would flow into it, because the surface
of the Red Sea, I should suppose, must be higher than that of the other,
for obvious reasons.” t , ' , , :
25
tarceptions 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) reeeives an in-
crease of heat, its parts will be put in motionſ 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,” says, at page 130, “In the next place, I shall attempt to show
by what means the atmosphere is supplied with water; in what man-
her 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 them the salts from the land, so as to keep up the
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, deposited 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-
eluding 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
º, immediately cougealed, the first dissolution would have taken place
º, 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 filled up by the cold denser air put in
motion by its gravity to restore the equilibrium: this motion of the
air consequently conveys with it the increased body of water from the
polar regions, and carries this additional mass towards the trepics and
the equator. -
Data. * D
26
that in the Racific, they are subject to the same general
kaws.io. Forthere also the great equatorial current is is
eanstantimotion to the westward; and, like the gulf.
stmeanij ſand 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 60 leagues from the land, it set
E.N.E., three miles an hour ; then (like the gulf-stream)
inclining 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, thania 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 eqast 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-
º when º ir surnt %fair and water, if we missi, this ex-
pression, º. ºne; the 'constint heat if the sun, which
išimiéreased' likewise by the fleet of the earth as it approaches the
1ahd, causes a tonsiderable increase of evaporation, or in common
labeuage; a distillatips-of the sea water, leaving behind in the ocean
all its saline qualities.” *
97
tion, and the principles this theory résts on aw8 corneat;
But the writer of the article. I am examining it of opi,
mierz. that * the coastant circular motion, and giater.
ëhange of waters between the Pacific and the Atlantigº
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 had 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
effect, #0n the 12th of July, when within the Strait, in
łátitude 69°. 37, and half way between the two conti-
Hents, 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 Floodgate, 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 basinº 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, ‘i, the
summer season: not, however, because of the non-ex.
istence of land, but for other reasons, which shalk, be
explained by and by. He also supposes that the
28
barrier of ice which stopped the progress of Cook's suc-
cessors was moveable, or nowhere 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 see,
might not be immoveable, by grounding on the bottom,
if the water became shoaler in that direction, as our
navigators found it was, 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,
should not have carried the ice away with it towards
the Pole, where there may be mone, But, if the whole
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°, on the 17th of August;
and that then we found it in compact bodies, extend-
ing as far as the 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 694°, 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 Greenland, not
30

oily wheff'the ice is melting, but when the sea is fraga
ingº"Indeed, if we do but consider for a moment dig
qāhlity of water that thay be supposed to flow through
sé"extensive à spače as 'Davis's Strait, “with "a"We':
rocity of four; and sometimes even five miles an hotº
and then add to that the amazing quantity setting as
constantly to the southward, in the still greater späcé
to the eastward of Greenland and Spitzberged,” it H64
certainly appear to be improbable, nay, impossible; that
a current of at least equal, or of double velocity, alſº
occupying the full extent in depth and breadth' 6f
Behring's Strait, would be at all adénuate to answer the
demand; much less, so trifling a current as we are
warranted by facts to believe there is. 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 uměqbal, Büt
never erceeding one mile an hour. "Whatever"their
direction might be, their effect was so trifting, that it,
conclusion respecting the existence of a passage to the
northward could be drawa from them.” \ , ; ; ſº "
It is presumed, that all the currents here spokeh
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 trifting,' could be
stifficient for the supply of the currents “setting to the
southward"perpetually, through the other two open-
ings, (Baffin's sea being doubted then) into the At-
Hafitic.” ! ... • . • * f
."“Judging fróm suth 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 be produced (at least the motion of the great deep)
generally by evaporation in the equatorial regions of
beat, 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 “the way
of the Almighty is, as the 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 sqme 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 1’
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

$2 | ".
tº have lºan sº plain matter-of-fact man,' but ºf fanc
* andlinegination. 1, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ºw." Qthers, think the ice does not melt at allier at
least vary little, even in summer. ºf ice, when ºnce
formed (be it haw it may) round and along the coasts
of these regions, does not melt at all, there must be a
sonstant.indrease, 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 suba-
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 effectrof
perpetual frost... And, perhaps we are warranted in
supposing that there exists, somes such cause.... Indeed
it seems more than probable, that the process of freed-
ing and melting may be going on in the arctic regions,
on the same, body of ice, (if of magnitude..to be suffiai-
ently imamersed,) at the same time, and perhaps in Athe
winter, as well as the Summer. : * * , $1 , ; ;
-, * Water is a compound of ice and caloric....The
temperature of ice is 32° ; and whilst surrounded by a
tamperature, 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 effection
ice is obvious.
º:
$3
**This seems sufficient to be said; on the probability
of ice above water melting in the Arctic regions in
'summer, if the temperature of the ratmosphere ever
sufficiently exceeds 32°. In the winter, as the tempe-
arature, of the atmosphere must be constantly" below
4thdt, of course the freening above water wiłł be as
constant, though the surface of the sea itself wiłł'pro-
bably not freeze till at a temperature much below 30°,
even in a motionless state. The same body of ice,
whilst freezing above 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 ander water; and this process will probably
-be-accelerated according to the magnitude of therhass,
and the depth of its immersion. For, when the at-
ºrnosphere is colder than the surface of the sea, the
water will (in proportion, perhaps, to its 'depth) be
..fotindºwurmer by some degrees, than at the surface ;
band, though few experiments have yet been made to
<stablish the fact, yet sufficient to warrant this conclu-
-sion; Thus in summer, if the temperature 6f 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 ide, above, the surface of the sea, would rémain iée,
land-augment; and the other portion of it belbº;4being
immersed in a temperature exceeding the pºint of
congelation, would probably be melting and "decreas-
ing." The well attested, facts; of large bodies of ice
having been seen to capsize or turn bottom up, prove
that their centres of gravity are altered, by eitheran
inerease of their bulk above, or a diminution of it
below, according to the excess of either effect. tºpon
Data. , t E} .
34
the whole, however, it seems probable; that in the Aré-
tid 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
keast; and therefore there must be a general increase
of ice in the ‘Polar basin,” from the Pole ºf the ice
origitiates there) towards the lands surrounding the
“basin; or from those kands (if the ice first forms there)
up towards the Pole, On this question, too; opinions
have been various. Every circumstance seems to weigh
against the opinion of its greatest formation being about
the Pole, except one, and that is, because the sea
water ºthere will probably contain least salt. I am
disposed to believe that it must also be much colder
in the wintér, at the surface of the sea near the Pole,
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; northerly, 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
tendeney of the fluid to move southward from the Pole,
which Trimagine it “will be found to have, from the
coſiness of its temperature” [meaning, I suppose; as
cºmpared with the progressively; increasing general
temperature of the sea from the Pole towards the Equa-
termeiyºſhese two, general combined impulses, ope,
rating, butmoveable bºdies, floating on the surface of
the Arctic seas, must impel"thera in an east-southerly
deet:tion, all-round the globe: being, in fact, that
“bircumvolving current; which the reviewer mentions,
“dstarrying fir; larch, aspen, and other trees, the pro-
35
date of both Asia and America, from the Polarſ basin
through the outlet into the northern ocean.”. The
‘puzzling' diagram, as Phoca terms it, as well'as the
remarks he makes on the reviewer's ingenuity; in hay-
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 tendency 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 under
being greater:than that above the surface. § - .
“If we cast our eyes on a chart of the north Pol
regions, ºne opening is seen, for the egress of ice to the
southward, out of the * Polar basin, from Norway and
Lapland to the eastward, along the whole coast of
Asia, till we come to Behring's Strait, Through this
strait it does not appear at all probable that waveh of
the ice can pass, on account of its comparative sºall
extent; and the depth of water being perhaps, insuffiv.
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 Seal, and Davis's Strait. Through
36
this 18trait, if there be an uninterrupted communication,
## -aotiatinfair to presume that immense quantities
would be earried by a current tº running perpetually
with a velocity, as it is stated, of four, and sometimes
of seven five miles an hour !' . Ham, 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-
hidated, from about Novai Zembla, all the way to the
eastward, as far as Greenland, and extending north-
ward from every part of the coasts of Asia and Ame-
rea; at least to the parallel of latitude in which the
north point of Greenland, may lie. tº Por whatever
masses of ice cannot pass through Davis's Strait must
be pressed continually, by others, broughtofromiſthe
westward and northward, by the circumvolving cur-
rent, along the north part of the more connectedlice.
- “If its progress to the southward, through davis's
Stráit, were not somehow impeded, it would pass through.
If impeded in its course to the southward (let the in-
'pědíthēnt be what it may), it is yet still more impeded
"it #sºprogress to the eastward, by the west side of
Gºehland'; and therefore must accumulate against
"this selid barrier, as far at least to the northward as
Greenland extends: "ſhen, and not till then, can ice
"of affy'éomparative quantity drive further to the east-
"wārd; or find any passage down to the southward.
"All the ice farthest to the northward of Greenland is
*then at liberty to move on towards Spitzbergen; whilst
37
the kee that may be in motion closest in with theiand,
when rounding the north-east part of Greenland, will
take a turn to the southward, and in towards the coast
withal; because it will be within the influence of an
£ddy, that must necessarily be produced in the stream
of waters passing nearest to the north-east part of that
kand. There it must collect, and if it consolidate,
extend to the shores of Iceland, or even Spitzbergea;
or else ‘burst its fetters,’ as it is said to have done
lately, and drift away to the southward, into the At-
lantic. *
“This is sufficient to account for the ice between
Greenland and Spitzbergen having a general move-
ment to the south-west. And there is the same rea-
son to suppose, that the ice nearest to the north-east
and east coast of Spitzbergen, has also a similar move-
ment.' ' But it will not warrant the conclusion, of there
being a current in the same direction, at any conside-
rable distance to the northward and eastward of
Spitzbergen.”. On the contrary, it seems most probable,
that any masses of ice found in that direction, to...the
northward of 82° or 83°, will be more within, the influ-
ence bf the general circumvolving current; and there-
fore tº make an east-southerly drift towards Nova
Zembla, and perhaps clear of its NE. point..., Green-
land and Spitzbergen, being situated so much-further
to “the northward than any other known, land, in the
Arctic regions, form an impenetrable barrier, against
the movement, to the eastward, of any ice, but what
may be to the northward of them both. ". . . . . .
“Much of this northernmost surplus ice finding its
way to the southward, is one reason why it seems wery
likely, that ice in the greatest quantity, and most com-
pact, will be found from about Nova Zembla, all alang
38
the cbasts of Asia and Auxerica, and extending to the
worthwardo as fan generally, as the north part of
Greenland; and that, perhaps, less, and less ide, wiłł
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 sub-
face from those lands northerly till it reaches, the par
rallel of the north point of Greenland, which the surplus
ice must round, before, it can pass into the Atlantic, if
Davis's Strait be obstructed. * * . . . . . . .
“ſłreenland and Spitzbergen forming so powerful a
bar:to the progress of the ice to the eastward, with the
circumvolving current, renders it extremely probable
that there is always less ice between Nova Zembla and
Spitzbergen than any where else in the same parallel;
and perhaps still less, the nearer the Pole in stummah .…
“Whether the ice during the winter encompasses the
Pole or not, can only be matter of conjectureş, andjin,
all probability, the fact will never be decided by Man.
In that season, if the cold is intense-in propertion 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 fpolar basin,” as fast as it collects, ſto, 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
inquestion, 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
t
Arctic regions, sometimes may, exceed 23?; and the
more, perhaps, the nearer, the Pole is approached,
Rirst, because there may be less ice; for the reasons:1
have given.—And if there be ice, there will probably be
a warmer atmospheric temperature, to dissolveit, 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 flatitude of 84", about five months; and in 783,
about four months only at a time. . . p
“We are next to inquire, what facility the late disk
appearance of the ice from the east coast of Old Green-
land gffers—first, for attempting a direct passage over
the Pole; and secondly, the more circuitous one, along
the northern coast of America, into the Patific.
“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 lesslice'
be collected, not only on the eastern coast of Old Grégnt.
lamid, but all round it, and even between it and Icelandyaſ
and towards Spitzbergen. That is, provided the attempº
is to be made, as it is to be hoped it will be, to the eastº
ward of Spitzbergen ; because, for the reasons'. It have
offered, it is probable the least quantity of ice will be
#0
foundishere; clear of:the luxudiº. At all events, whatever
massesſmay be found; there, they wiłł in all probability
+elof less magnitude, and more detached from each
other, , because the space for them to move indis
heast confined: ) . If any of the vessels fitting soutºbe
destined to take this route, the probability is, that, if
they advance beyond the latitude of 82° or...83° north,
the ice will less and less impede their progress to the
*Role ; and to reach it will perhaps be the least difficult
part of the enterprise. To the northward of 82° or 6.3°,
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. . If our
Rolar. navigator-i pass the Pole without any great dif-
fioulty, and, find the true south course he has steered
sto be on or near the 170° west meridian, and so leading
him towards Behring's Strait, he wiłł, in:all probability,
soon get to the southward as far as 80°, or perhapi,78°,
where it is as probable he will find his further progress
“stopped by ice, perhaps impenetrable. . . ; , , , ºr
“From this part of the expedition, therefore, Esee 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
keast-doubt of there being one for water and fish: , , , ,
JºAs to the second, wiz. ‘the more circuitous, pas-
.sage, along the north coast.of America-into the Paeific,”
the prospect of successisstill more unfavorable than the
wother; because the navigators are, destined, in the first
#lace,” “to struggle against the ice, currents, and tides,
in Davis's Strait, and on the east coast of America,
* ..,' ".
4:1
which the writer ef the article, I have been examiniog
tells us himself “are of course never free from:staun-
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 ithat
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
1Atlantie;along the north coast of America, the chances
aré, 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 tours ;
because most of the obstacles opposed to the progress
of ournavigators, 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
42
sº
ander reached the Nore, and on the 25th 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 welocity of four, and
sometimes even of five miles an hour.” In conformity
with these assumptions, Captain Ross is instructed, in
the first place, “to make the best of his way into Davis's
Strait, through which he wiłł endeavor to pass to the
northward, without, stopping on either of its coasts;
unless he 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 ºtherefore 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 20°
43
to 72° †N., and says, that all former attempts at a mbrth
west; passage failed, because none of them were levep
made near that part of the coast; but he apprehends.
difficulty in approaching it by way of narrow Séraits; as
“they are generally choked up with ice, which incun.
venience would be obviated by standing first, to the
northward to the latitude of 71° or 72°.” Agreeably ite
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
4traits, 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
pursuashis course in the ‘Dorotbea and Trent, in a di.
regtion, as due north as may be found practicable
through the Spitzbergea seas.” If it had, that officer
would in all probability have been more, fortunate-in.
making his attempt to the eastward of Spitzbergen, for
the measons, given by Phoca, and which the reviewer
himself must admit to be correct, even on his own prints
ciple; though, to be sure the reviewer says, “The fai-
luwe of the Polar expedition was, owing to-one of those
ancidents 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 icº
Captain Ross is further instructed, after reaching ºf that
part of the sea to the northward of Davis's Straitº
which, if reports may be relied on, is generally.free
from ‘field ice, to stand well to the northward before he
edge away, to the westward; in order to get a good
44
offing, in rounding the north-east point of the continent.
of Aºnbrida; whose latitude has not been ascertainedy.
bâtowhičh; if a conjecture may be hazarded, from what
išknown of the northern coast of that continent, may
perhaps be found in or about the 72nd degree of latitude.”
“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 coast, where he would
be most likely to be impeded by fived 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 monthſ
quite as full of that “scepticism,’ which its mbre ‘or-
thodºw opponent approves of notinº 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.' . . . . . . iv.
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 Phoea, he was
induced to publish another-letter in the Naval Chro-
nicles for:September and October, before the two ex-
peditions returned; being “An Attempt to prove, from
Circumstances and Facts stated by Philosophers, that
a Passage for Ships from the “JPolar. Basin’ to the Pa-
cific thrºugh Behring's Strait, must be impracticable.”
1 : ; ' ' , t , t - , , } f g f
‘. ... “Mr. Editor, . . . . Hull, 5th Sept. 1818.
º “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; and tº bedtirº
different which of two opinions is true, is the right tºº,
per of mind that preserves it from being imposed; tıpoºl
and disposes it to examine with that indifferency, intik,
it has done its best to find out the truth ; and this, is they
only direct and safe way to it.' . ſº . . . . . a
* “In examining 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, which 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 ine-
cessary to have the mind thus prepared for its disgus-
sion—I mean the pending expeditions to explore...the
aretic “regions. Some points connected with them, so
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 philor
sophers are at issue, appears to be, whether Behtiag's,
Strait “is merely the entrance of a vast bay or inland
sea? or ‘the separation of two vast continents?r Each
seeming to rest their opinion, as to the success or failure
of the expeditions, mainly on that question. ... r. ...”
{
46
.#Captain Burnay, in his, Memoir, prºposed to show,
that “there does not exist satisfactory proof of such
sºparation; and, secondly, from peculiarities which bawa
bººm, observed, there is cause to suppose the fact to lie
otherwise; that is to say, that Asia and America,āra
contiguous, and parts of one and the same continent,...,
, “As it is clear that we have no positive proof of the
junction of the two continents of Asia and Awnerica,
let us examine the nature of those peculiarities., fºom
which Captain Burney.goncludes “there is cause to sººn
pose them contiguous, and one and the sameſ' . . .
... “These peculiarities were mPirst, ‘The sudden dis-
appearance of tides, an arriving in Behring's Straitºr-
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° 45' N.;the
soundings, were observed to decrease.' . It, will then be
properto inquire, how far these ‘peculiarities’ authorise
the supposition? And lastly, whether the very same pºº
culiarities, could exist if the, continents do not joine?..t.atl.
“The philosophers of the north argue in support of
the supposition, chiefly, on the grounds stated by:0ap-
tain Burney. ... Those of the south not only, seem to dis-
credit the existenge of the ‘peculiarities’ observed pººr.
sonally, by Captain, Burney himself, but on an hypother
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".
enge.9f a perpetual current from the Pacific through
Behring's Strait, intº the Arctic, Sea; finally, declariag,
that they “have less apprehension of the passage through
Behring's Strait-being, closed against our navigators
(except by ice) than of the difficultist they may have to
encountºr, on this side ºf Amerigº, ºr . . . . . ." ... t.
47
“On the subjebt of currents in general, antºpathicu-
larly what is called the gulfstream; as well as this suffi
posed one through Behring's 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 enlargé here;
thbugh, regarding what has been further said, if-that
Review for June hast, on the extraordinary effects of
currents, and their assumed direction, I may’ perhaps
offer a few remarks as # 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.
£f Behring's Strait is “merely the entrance of a vast
bay or inland sea,” the failure of both expeditions, as
welt by way of the Pole as Davis's Strait, must be cer-
tata, even were they to surmount all the difficulties in
their progress by either route; the object of both being
to pass through that Strait into the Pacific. #
“Büt even if Behring's Strait should be “the sepa-
ration of two great continents, a further and 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"peculiãrities;
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 dºne
the same continent.” g ºn tº
“Feeling nobias towards the opinions or the suppé,
sitions of either party, and regardless of the fact!'éthét
of the junction or separation'éf Asia and Athéréajºy
g
* }
48
“objeetin'this examination is to attempt to prove, asſar
“asºkhown facts, and other circumstances, stated, and
*greed in by both parties, can prove, that the passage
förships from the Polar Sea into the Pacific, by way of
Behring's Strait, is as impracticable as if Asia and Ame-
ºrica were known to join. Though we are perhaps war-
rafited in giving full credit to the account Captain Bur-
ney gives of the ‘peculiarities’ he observed ; yet it may
be as well to examine the facts stated in Cook's and
Clarke's Voyages, in support of his evidence; as well
as some of the circumstances mentioned in the Quar-
terly Review in refutation of it. - . . . .
“The first fact noticed by Captain Burney is “the
sudden disappearance of tides on arriving in Behring's
Strait ;’ and the second, that “there was little or no cur-
rent; nor could it be perceived that the tide either rose
or fell.’ - ; ;
“In Clarke's Voyage it is stated, that “on Thursday
the 1st of July, Mr. Bligh, the master of the Resolution,
having moored a small keg with the deep sea lead in
75 fathoms water (off Thadeus' Noss), found that the
ship made a course north by east about half a mile an
hour.” This was attributed by him “to the effect of the
southerly swell, rather than to any current.” . . . . .
“In Cook's Voyage, when at anchor in 6 fathoms,
with the Peaked Mountain over Cape Prince of Wales,
bearing S. 10° W., on the 11th of August, it is remark-
ed, “We perceived 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, ‘IDuring the afternoon
we had but little wind, and the master was sent in a
boat to observe whether there was any current, but he
found none. In Clarke's Voyage, when off Cape East,
on the 5th of July, it is remarked, “We were now con-
,49
sinced of our having been under the influengsoº,a
strong, current, setting to the north, which had ooga-
isioned an error of 20 miles in the computation.9f the
islatitude at noon. At the time of our passing the Strait
last year, we experienced a similar effect.’ On Manday,
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 nor 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-
sérve the term; at all events, it does not convey the
idea of a ‘violent current rushing in with the greatest
velocity.” * # ; :
“’s “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
rīsīands (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;’
tº conceiving that these tides, and the great body of the
*Borthern Pacific, which he asserts ‘ all rºavigators have
: found to be in motion towards Behring's Strait,” “, are
“the strengest indications of an open and uninterrupted
'pºsage forwater (uninterrupted ercept by ico) through
4that strait into the Pelar sea; and, a decisive angument
Data. G
50
againstany such bay as Captain Burhey has imagined
t ºfºrmed by the junction of the two continents' of
sº , , , , ; ; ; ; , , , . . . . * * 4 24 soft
“That these strongtides, observed among the Aleutiaº
Islands, extend to the northward as far as Behiing's
Sºrait, 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 northa
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, showſ
that there is little or no current either withing for bute
side, near the entrance of Behring's Strait; consequently,
no such effects are produced on the watets within the
Strait, for this simple reason—the want of such a causa;
as effects the ‘remarkable rise and fall in the Bay-of
Fundy and the Gulf of Tonquin.’ , , , , , , , "4
, “It is therefore needless to have recourse to the chie!
merical supposition of the existence of a communication!'
under the ice, between the Pacific and the Polarºsta,
in order to account for the well authenticated factylbf
there being little rise or fall of water within Behrihgºe
wo; #sides, if the temperature of the water in the Pai.
cifiche (asſ pressme we may conclude it to be) wºmer
than,; that within Behring's Strait, it must of coarsei
agflinecessity flowińiófit dees.at alſ) at the turface, as
I observed before when treating this subjectiisºtor
ruardiand the philosophets of the north haveſterd’us


51
since, in the Edinburgh Review for June last, that ºffet,
water, grows warmer it expands, and consequeſt
floats incumbent, communicating afterwards its surpſis
beat, with extreme slowness, to the mass below.” “ .
- “Though such sage authority would alone seeii'suſ.
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 fact), 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 northera 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 these, 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 fewy 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 equivocal proofs, for the general movement of the
Pacific towards the north.” They consider this “to
bet indisputably proved by the immense quantities of
drift, wood, thrown up on the southern shores of the
Aleutian Islands, consisting of fir, Hareh, aspen, and
other trees, the common produce of the two continents
of Asia and America.’ But as a proof-of-the' more
southerly parts of the northern Pacific partaking”
the same motion, they present to notice “aetºriči * fact
mentioned by Stephen Glottoſ, that among other'hº.
ing bodies thrown up on the Aleutian Islands, is found
the true camphor wood, and another sort, very whº
soft, and sweet-scented.' ... " . . . . ; ; ; 1920ſo
..," Nothing is more possible than that this 'camplíðr

52
wood 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 northward, and 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 Xima, about the
end of April, says, “a strong current to the northward
was experienced.” On the 5th 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 of June, he observes, “The
ebb and flood have no effect upon the direction of the
current half a league in the offing: what we felt at our
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 current to the northward; but,
on the contrary, on 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, forty miles in two days; and we ascertained
53.
the accuracy of these observations on the 24th, by setting,
the same points we had observed on the 21st, and finded
ing them exactly where they ought to be, according tortuni
longitude observed.” On the 81st he found he batſ.
been carried ‘ten leagues to the south-east.” On this,
passage from the Kurile. Islands to Kamtschatkayºnd-
mantian is made of a current to the northward. It appears'
probable,therefore, from the facts stated in the voyage,
of this navigator, 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.
Paint, the current set at the rate of three miles an hour.
to the N.E., by N. . On the 2d, as we made a nearbr;
approach, to the shore, it continued in a similar, direcar
tion, but was augmented in its rapidity to five miles an
hqur, . As we receded 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 set
at the rate of three miles an hour to the E.N.E., On:
the twº following days, it turned to the southwandy
and at 120 leagues from the coast its direction wak
south-east, and its rate did not exceed one-mile land,
a half an hour. It again on the 6th and 7th shifted to
the N.E., and its force diminished, gradually till the 8thu
at which time we could no longer perceive any cirratitáo
* “It may therefore be said that the north-east quoiterio
does not generally, set, further to the northwººd,lateauy.
time of the year, in the western part of, the ſnorkhemis
Pacific, thanithe parallels of 46 or 47°; and in ablippola
bability, nºt so far, .. , , , , , , , ; , , , , ; ; ; Tſoi wº
.54
off Qn, the 2d of July, Captain, Kirnsenstern, wheadhi
latithde:34.3' N. and longitude 1903 6'W, says: “By
qbservation, we found we had been carried by sewreat
$7 miles to the N.E. by N. in the space of three days)
gºne 29th of June, the last day on which we hath
Qbserved, the current ran. 13 miles, to the south.” “t o'
“In this part of the Pacific the ourrent mayºffairlybé
supposed to be strongest in its northerly directiéh” at
this season; because the sun being in that hemisphére;
all the winds in the southern Pacific blow from the 8.43%
those in the western and north-western part of that
ocean, rounding gradually, in the vicinity of New Hei-
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 frem the Indian
and China seas. Yet, even here, the current ran ºf the
rate of a little more than half a mileſ an hour'; aſid'
indeed, as it set “to the south,’ with a greater velocity;”
three days before, it may bettermed-variablºiráther
than “perpetual.' . . . . . . . at .310 ºr (tº . Gºofo ( ;
“IFrom the month of September-or Octobér, fill the
month of March, “the greatbedy of water of thenbrth-
ern Pacific appears still less likely to be “in a state ºf
perpetual motion towards Behring's Strait;' at least'An'
that part of it which is to the northward of abº Nºbel'
cause winds more from the N.W. than the S.W. previº
generally quite across the ocean, as far at least th thé"
southward as that latitude. The sun being thenia thé"
southern hemisphere, the N.E. trade wind is "rārely
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
theanorth-west-part of the Pacific the winds in these
months (hom,0ctobertill March) are all from the N.E.;

55
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 to 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 a 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
56
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
carried 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 current to enable them to reach Lisianski
Island, in defiance of the northerly one, which the
Quarterly Reviewers suppose must have carried the
‘log of mahogany' all the way from the Isthmus of
Darien, all along the coast of America, ‘through
Behring's Strait, and thence along the north coast of
57
America, and down ‘Baffin's Sea' to Disco. But indeed
Lisianski, when he passed between Aguian and Tinian
on the 16th of November, says, “From Sitca,(on the
north-west coast of America) to the Ladrone Islands
we had the currents from N.E. to the S.W. The last,
which was the strongest, carried us 140 miles to the
southward, and 200 to the westward. Its force was very
great near the tropic, but on approaching the Marian
Islands it shifted to the westward.’ Though this
passage is oddly worded, yet it seems to imply that
the currents were found to set from the north-east
towards the south-west, all the way from Sitca to the
Ladrone Islands. -
“The Quarterly Reviewers, however, stedfastly believ-
ing in the existence of this perpetual current, of their
own creation, infer that ‘logs and trees of the preceding
year's drift had passed through 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 thing more than what the facts themselves
show—namely, the different situations in which the ice
was found at two distinct periods in different years. It
may indeed be presumed, perhaps, that, because Captain
Cook fell in with it a month later one year than Cap-
tain Clarke did another, the sun's power might have
"dissolved it further to the northward; or, that the pre-
ceding winter might have been less severe, and therefore
the ice had not extended so far to the southward. But
with respect to the movement of the ice itself, to the
'Data. --- H
58
northward in either year, 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, which a few
days before had been free 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. 694° 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.’
59
“From these passages it is clear, that these navigators
did find the moveable 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 direction, 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, both 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 I 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 I
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 cover 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 not 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 difficutty in sailing,” they must have made great
60
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 W. 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 summercould destroy even the tenth part of what
reſhained 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;
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 contrary 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.’ I will not venture to say
that he did entertain doubt, but I will say that it appears
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 Pa-
cific towards Behring's Strait,” “along the coasts of Japan
and Kamstchatka,’ let us next see what facts say to
its general direction along 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 to
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 them; 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, from 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 100 fathoms water, by the lead when on the
ground, the vessel seemed to lie as if at anchor.” So
that there was no 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
63
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 l 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 other 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 Hudson's Bay, and out again.
through some of 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.
64
*
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
knotsis, 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 Greenland 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 by
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 Burney
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. I
66
he and they must be near the truth, as it lies some-
where between them, 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's statement
of the fact of the general depth being less to the north-
ward ' Though in some particular spots to the north-
ward of 68° 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 Burney 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
68
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.' " *
“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 is bounded chiefly by the coasts of Siberia
69
and America, where there perhaps 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 all the
ice brought by the S.W. current round Spitzbergen is 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 7 - "
“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
sº
7()
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 27° of Fahrenheit's
scale, is, in the decline of summer, soon cooled döwn
71
to the limit at which 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, snow, 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 not, 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. -
72
itſ fifthat there must:exist titch albarrier as this, inclas-
singjiangkpanse to the northward of Behring's Stait((ºf
rthere betno land there), appears to me to be little
Näss than, certain, and which must be kept, still more
acompact, along its northern boundary, by the constant
pressure against it of the Polar stream from the month,
which I have supposed on a former examination of this
subject, and which therefore can find no egress frem the
Polar sea, down to the 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 I 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 follow, that because they saw none,
there were not any 5 yet if there had been any, it is
more than probable that our navigators, would have
seen some of them during their stay there. Aſ And the
philosophers of the south remark, ‘that whales are gene-
rally found in those parts of the Arctic seas where ide
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
affonding an additional argument for a free communi-
tration-between the Atlantic and Pacific, by way of
behringis Strait. . . . . . . . ; * * * *
.1 tº Thongh. I have endeavored to prove that an ex-
rpanse to the northward of Behring's Strait is thus per-
ipetually inclosed by a conglobation of icebergs, on the
supposition of their formation on other landsisurround-
*
* * * §
73
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 less, 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 which
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 of 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. M. - |K
74
remarked, that the ite was all pure and transparent,
except the upper surface, which was rather ‘poroſis.”
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 itſi-
mersed tò within 12 fathoms'Uf the bottotp: but Cook
observes, “further to the northward it seemed to be much
higher;' and in all human probability, the ice at ně
great distance to the northward, beyond what he saw;
was immoveably fixed at the bottom, and continued só
as far as soundings ertend. For it is mentioned in Clarke's
Woyage, that the height of the highest ice they stiw “was
éstimated at 16 or 18 feet,” which therefore must have
been immersed to within two or three fathóms 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 neas thrée
degrees further to the northward, of "the “side of
America, ‘because they came up with theiee in both
years sooner, and in larger quantities, on the coast of
Asia. This strong fact seems of itself almost stiff;
cient to prove, that the heavy ice further to the north9
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 ortly
reason can be, because its progress in that directibly
was sooner stopped, by the bottom being nearer the
surface on the coast 6f America, than it was on that
of Asia, and consequently giving to the main body of
fired ice, a general direction of about E.N.E.” and
75
W.S.W., according to the probable line of equal depth
of water. - * ! º ! 3. r t . . . . .
, “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, regarding the winter; and
I agreed in opinion with the philosophers of the south,
that the sea will be (I only say may 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
Polº, the action of the solar light is, at the time of the
solstice, one ſounth 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 thick. They further inform us,
that “it may be proved by gaperiment, that, under the
Role 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 of forty inches,
It should likewise, be observed, that owing to the has
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 tempek
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,' a t º
76 _*
}*There appears to be some mistake or discordance.
in this bomputation; for, in the first case, as “the so- .
lardight ban be shown to be sufficient in the course of:
axlayi to melt a sheet of ice of an inch and a half
thick; it could in the space of a week melta stratum.
of ten inches and a half, instead of ‘five :' and by the
same rule the annual effect may be sufficient for thawe
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 thah
eight feet instead of ‘four. If, on the other hand, it be
allowed, that only ‘five inches' are melted in 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. 4-
“Whether either of these computations will be proved?
to be correct by the experiments Captain 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 Novit
Zºmbia, for the reasons I have before given. Even'the
philosophers of the south acknowledge that “the lands
ane usually surrounded with ice, and therefore recome
mind that ‘ships, instead of coming near the land; and
endeavouring, to pass through narrow straits, ought to
avoid the land, and keep as “much as possible in the
open sea, and ſin, or near the edge of the current, where
theiſsea may be expeoted: to be free.” Those of the
northſ indeed go still further, and tell us, that a ‘few
weeks are commonly; sufficient to disperse and dissolve
the floating ice, and the sea is at last open for a short
and dubious interval to the pursuits of the adventurous .
77
mariner.' . Their dpinion as to the practicability of
reaching the Pole seems, upon the whole; rathersleadergº
though not that it is impossible: for though they saygł
‘ās, the cold increases but very little in advancing tor
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 onto 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 impossibée, 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 eonfessed to be ‘extremely slender;' but the ground
they have taken leaves them in fact as much without
any Whope at all, as I confess I am, of success. 4 *
“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 1876
and 17 was in any degree owing to the influence of ioa"
bergs passing in the Atlantic, which there has been sb
much talk about? The philosophers of the south'say;
“it would be a waste of words to enter into any disk
cussion on the diminution of temperature, which must
# *.
* * *
* , ; ; ; • 3 - #
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 cold, 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 north 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 frigorific influence to modify the character of our
climate; but a little reflection will convince us that
r--, -º 79
* ~ * -- *-*. . . . ... •
such remote influence on our climate must be quite in-
significant.” - . . . . . . . . .
“After enlarging at length, and with greatingenuity,
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 1 I'
“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
80
minds; 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
temperature of the earth, at certain depths. But in
applying these principles to the temperature of the sea,
some of the conclusions appear not so well to accord
with experiment and observation. They say, that ‘in
the more temperate regions of the globe, the superficial
waters of lakes and seas, as they grow warmer, and
therefore specifically lighter, still remain suspended by
their acquired buoyancy; but whenever they come to
be chilled, they suffer contraction, and are precipitated ;
hence the deep water of lakes and seas is always con-
siderably colder than what floats at the surface.' [Query,
—Would not the deep water of a frozen lake or 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-
wered; but certainly generally far below the depth of
twenty fathoms. 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 fived,
but changeable, and dependent on the atmospheric tempe-
rature over them : between which stations, or points,
and the Equator, the water will be progressively colder,
81
in proportion perhaps to its depth; and between each,
and its respective Pole, the water will be warmer in
proportion perhaps to its depth from the surface. But
this 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 effect 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 84°; the whole depth at
the time being 75 fathoms.-On the 9th of March, in
lat. 50°20' S. and longitude 72° 45' W. the temperature
of the air was 4° R., the surface 2\"; at the depth of
60 fathoms 24°; and at 100 fathoms 13°.—On the 24th
of May, 56 miles south of the Equator, and in longitude
146° 16' W. the temperature of the air and surface were
equal at 224°; and at the depth of 100 fathoms 124°.
On the 22d of June, on the tropic of Cancer, in the Pa-
cific, the temperature of the surface was 20° 5' R.; at the
depth of 25 fathoms 19° 5'; 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
50 fathoms, and 7° 2' at 125 fathoms. Many more
examples might be given to the same effect, if it were
necessary. One very remarkable one is mentioned by
Data, L
32
#t!'Clátke Abel in his recent work. He informs us
that Captain Wauchope of H. M. S. Eurydice, when
within a few leagues of the Equator, put his apparatus
overboard, and allowed it to descend till it had run
but 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 banksaor
land.’ Indeed no navigator who has had, any ºperi-
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. t & * * t , , ; J. : * *
“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-
rāture of the surface near the Loochoo Islands, and in
the Yellow Sea.
º “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 33 fathoms, in the
Gulf of Peecheelee, in latitude, 38. 42 N., and longi-
!. t
*** * ¥
!
$3
tude 117° 49'W., on the 27th of July, the temperature
of the surface was as high as 82°. Also on the 3d, of
August, when at anchor off Peiho, the surface was 92%
at noon, and 80° at midnight, and there it 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, off 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 794" 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% and 75°,
(or 7 or 8 degrees below what it was when anchored
there before) yet in the Japan sea the surface was also
łower, being 74° and 73°. Thus in these particular
instances, the water hecame warmer (at the surface at
least) the nearer the land was approached, and also as
the depth of water decreased.
“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, theugh useful and satisfactory, are not conclu-
sive. They are shown in the following table.
"" g g . ºr Difference of
rö rt: #| rature. Temperature
- 5 || 3 ||3 || Tº Tº ſº. 5
* ©ſ) ** .5, 68 tº gº
but º § El Place d ..] º ‘āā | “... Sº:
l 4. & * cº Q9 ºs dº @ º “
" " " ' | # # |É. g|#### #####
2. & 5 #|##|&#|3; #53
To TFTI a T2 TT. * ſo To ſo Q º,
35 01 |123 º Open Sea. 767465. 2 9 11
36 24 122 59; 15 do. 5||71567; 4 4 º' "8,
187 $0.1122, 4020 32. |z2|6752, 5 || 5 || 49.
e r 15 do. 746966| r || 8 6 *
* • * ..] Amongst the * ,
| $7.68 * **|Meetsviºland, 14 6766 7 { 1, .. 8,
Gulf of Pee- &
6|ºr 11 P.M.'ss 12||130 sols “..." shahs 1 2 $

84
*From these experiments (Mr. Clarke Abel observes),
it appears ºf 1st, That the sea diminishes in its temn.
peratural 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 wear 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.’ j :
“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,
was 5 degrees, and by that of the 1st 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 fathons 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
Gułf of Peecheelee, where the 6th experiment, was
made, it was no less than 7° degrees warmer at the
depth of 15 fathoms. • * h
“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. - * f \ .
o°ſDhere 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. . . . . . . . *
pºſſhese experiments also prove, that in these “shal-
low seas; however, the cold substratum of liquid, was
not brought nearer, the surface, at this season of the
83
year'; so that in these instances, there was ºrie increas-
ing" coldness of water drawn up from the depth of only fi
a few fathoms, to indicate to the navigator, whoutrasq
verses the wide ocean, his approach to land or banks;1},
but the reverse. "ºl, irovic
“After this digression from the chief point of my is
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 Basinº
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 this, of all others, from its superior import-
ance, ought to have been first determined, and not left
as the last, and in all human probability the most diffi-
cult 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 further progress.
“The despatching these expeditions by the way they .
are gone, to explore a passage through Behring's Strait,
seems as if a person were ordered to enter a certain.'
labyrinth, by a well known passage on one side, but to
pass out of it on the opposite by another, which one-halfo
the world supposed there might be, and the otheribalſº
that there might not—of whose existence most were ims
doubt, and none knew anything, except a few, who had
twice tried, but could find no passage beyond a certainſ
barrier which they found to be insurmoaniableliz toºd was
86
**Now if this very barrier should happen to be gene.
rally'8&nsidered as the probably chief obstacle to be sur-
mióüntád; and could, without much difficulty, be ap-
prohèhéd 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. t
“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 been enabled to make
in the Arctic regions will enlarge the bounds of sei-
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 North Pole,
between 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
expédition was owing to one of those accidents to
which all sea voyages are liable; more especially when
to the ordinary sea risk is superadded that of a naviga-
tioſi'among fields and masses of ice.” Now, as a mere
87

looker on, I am, inclined to think, with. Phocº, that if
Captain Buchan 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 Reviewer) 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 the two expeditions, which bade so fair to set
at rest, the long agitated question of the existence or
nan-existence of a north-west passage,” &c., with a
glance “at the advantages which have resulted from
it.”. The first and most prominent of them is thus
candidly acknowledged ; “We are now quite sure that
there is such a Bay, or rather inland sea, as that of Baf-
fins, though neither so wide, nor of the same form, as it
is usually represented in charts,”—a fact, by the by, that
fewer mone, except himself, perhaps had ever doubted,
any more than they believed in the existence of his ima-
ginary current of “four or five knots velocity, through
Baffin's Sea,” which this recent confirmation of poor
Baffia's veracity has gone far to annihilate, and with
it one of the Reviewer's strongest arguments in favor of
a practicable passage for ships; as I shall endeavor tº:
show by and by. ºf t
In consequence of the failure of both these expedi-
tions, the question of a practicable passage, either, by
way of the Pole, or through Davis's Strait to, the
northward and westward, and through Behring's
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 cur-
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 sometimes 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 the 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
89
without land.” As to any obstruction from ice there; it
does not seem to have entered at all into his contefa-
plation. He considered “the important, and indeed the
only point to be ascertained, was the general and perma-
nent direction taken by the great body of the Pacific.”
Though he seems 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
mahogany 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 Baffin,” 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 now,
of 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
JData. - M
90.
epistence (said he) affords, in our opinion, the best hope
for the success of the Expeditions now engaged in ex-
ploring a passage.” • * a * *
- Unwilling to place much confidence in the state-
ments of the conductor of the Expedition through
Davis's Strait, the Quarterly Reviewer preferred the
opinion of the officers of the Alexander, “that a
southerly current had been experienced, long 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 “Raffin's Sea” rather hopeless in a high
(atitude, 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 squthward, 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 Nors
Qn , 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 this 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
9i
northward, as far as the opening in Sir James Lan-
caster's Sound, he was to proceed in the first instance,
to that part of the coast, and use his best endeavors.
to explore the bottom of that Sound ; or in the event
bf its proving a Strait opening to the westward, he was
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 was
to make the best of his way to Behring's Strait.” The
finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was
the main offect 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 month, and the coast of
America from thence to the eastward or northward,
as the case might be, in order to settle the long-sought-for
N.E. point of that Continent. 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 per-
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 surmounted ; 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, when 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 least
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 feet, 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 solidity of this enormous floe must have been
93
infinitely greater than any thing we had seen before.
It was the opinion of Messrs. Allison and Fyffe that it
very much resembled the ice met with at Spitzbergen,
but according to the account of the two latter, was
much heavier than any which they 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
icy sea there eartremely 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
September 1819, after long and heavy gales from the
north-westward, by which alone the ice is ever opened
on this 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 where
we were now lying. We again arrived here in 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
94
clear water of sufficient size for a ship, or even a boat,
to sail on it. We had been lying nearly in our present
situation, with an easterly wind, and blowing fresh, for
thirtyrsiz 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-
wille 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-
nerally 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
circumstance, 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
*xpect 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
many degrees more temperate than on the eastern
95
coast.” This is a very fair theoretical mode of account,
ing for the peculiarity of the obstructions near tha
S.W., end of Melville Island, though the Quarterly
Reviewer gives a much better reason for it. He says,
“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 discontinuance 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,”
which 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 naterial difference in it to-day from what
it has been for this week past: close in with the land,
§6
-itis 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 seuth-
z wando as far as the eye can penetrate from the most
elevåted 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. Fisher'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-
tertained, on board the ships at the time. It seems, in-
deed, from the following passage, to have begn. even
the opinion of Captain Parry himself, that diseontinuity
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
admission of the other primary one, viz. thesa far, un-
alstructed drift of the ice from the northward. . At page
250 he says, “On the 16th of August, in order to have
a clear and, distinct view of the state of the ice, after
24 hours' wind from that (western) quarter, Captain
Sabine, 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
*xident that no passage in this direction was yet to be
t",
97.
expected. The only clear water in sight, was a chan-
nel of about three quarters of a mile wide in some
places, between theice and the land, extending as far as
a bold headland bearing N. 52° 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, from 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 the 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 lattér 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 difficulty 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 ertent, as
to afford to ships the same protection from the polar
ice, as the Hecla and Griper received from the North
Georgian Islands, that I am compelled to infer the
non-existence of a practicable N.W. passage for ships.
Data. N
98.
It being much more probable (even admitting that all
the lands that may extend from the west side of Green-
land towards the coast of America, as far even as Icy
Cape, are insulated) that spaces, quite as extensive as
that to the westward of Melville Island, may intervene,
so as to admit the polar ices between lands so separ
rated, and thereby cause the very same kind of obstruc-
tion as was met with at the S.W. extremity of Melville
Island. t
Nothing can prove more clearly than the foregoing
extracts, that the ices described therein were 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 thrown up
under the point, and as far as we could see to the west-
ward, in large, high, irregular masses, exactly similar to
those which had so often afforded us anchorage 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 hummocks which
always indicate the ice having met with resistance by
grounding. The whole of the shore, as far as I could see
99
with a glass, bore evident marks of that tremendous pres-
sure which is produced by fields of ice when set in mo-
tion.” He further observes, “The ice on this coast, as
compared with that in Winter Harbour, being double the
thickness of that of the other, may at first sight appear
to be an indication of a more severe climate on this than
on the southern coast of Melville Island.” Though it
may appear very like presumption to question the
opinion and judgment of Captain Parry, in this in-
stance, yet I should 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 the proof of
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 eagosed
beach, like that of Point Nias, the last year's 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, says, “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, that abounds ºn the south
side of the island in the worst soil, is not to be seen here.” ‘. .
100
thickness which we found, it to be. Had we acci-
dentally come to any bay or harbour, secure from the
access of the floes from without, and of the same depth
as Winter Harbour, I doubt not we should have found
theiste in it of nearly the same thickness.” I am free to
confess that I very 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 languagethat.cannotwell be misundersteod. The
first of these is, that heavy masses of ice had been forced
up, on an open and exposed beach—open to the north.
From this first fact I 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 from 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 are not 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
I01
Melville Island was encumbered with such polarices,
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-
erm shores of all lands situated between Greenland
and any part of the north coast of America, 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 as pos-
sible, because (what was considered) the best authority,
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. Themost 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
kept socloseto the land, on the west coast, of Greenland,
as to encounter the same obstackes.” All this, was very'
true, no doubt, as regarded the past, and, taken prophet.
tically, has been proved unfortunately to be but too care
rect, by the result of the several attempts which havesinoe
been madetonavigatethese “morenortherly straits.’ Phoca.
102
was told too, “how little the influence of an Arctic sun.
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 itselfin the
autumn, forcing up the masses seen aground in all such
situations, and increasing in the ensuing winter, to the
thickness which we found it to be.” Now here is the
acknowledgement of one year's ice being increased by the
newt ensuing. Then why not an annual increase, till
doomsday !—I do not presume to say that such can be
the result. But, on such authority, who will be bold
enoughtoquestion the legitimacy 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 maind
was enlightened by the knowledge of recent facts, took
it into his head that there must be some probable cause,
counteractive of the Quarterly Reviewer's perpetual frast;
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 malting
might be going on in the Arctic regions, on the same
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 progressive general decrease
of the temperature of the sea from the surface downwards
in the terrid 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,’s made intº 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 erceptions to these two general
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
bottom of the vessel, whilst heat was applied to the sur-
face, in the first case; and by putting heat at the bottom,
whilstice was applied to thesurface, in the othercase: and
therefore thought it probable that the high temperature
of the lands in the torrid, and perhaps the temperate
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
the Arctic (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 “the little effect of even an Arctic summer,
on fields of ice perpetually surrounded by a freezing
atmosphere created by themselves;” to establish also
his doctrine of “the perpetuity 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
104
>
he refers Malte-Brun, (who had dared “to convertian
ice ºeuntain into a marine current, by the effect of the
'solarºpays,) that as much ice as the solar rays decord-
posed on one side of such a mountain, would be re-com-
posed; probably, on the other.” This is at least one
step towards self-refutation, as it admits the probaby
equal and simultaneous operation of the two opposite
powers of heat and cold above water, on floating ice,
which would consequently keep the quantity there
equal at all times. . ^ e. * , i.
But the Reviewer now 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 458 and '4, he thinks
it as well to look a little deeper. And also new, for
the first time, perhaps, looking to the fair inference
that has been already, or might be, drawn from his déé-
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, ander
water also, to prevent that accumulation of ice, which
“otherwise, in process of time, would freeze up the
glöbe.”" Fortunately, and most opportunely, he was
furnished, with this by old Davis, who tells him that
#e had seen “an Ylande of Yse turne up and downe be-
cause it; biath'melted so faste under water." On this
grahd- and seemingly unexpected discovery, then suga-
cious eritic, in the name of his brethren, exclaims in
rapture,”“We have no doubt that Davis is right, and
...] 05
that the action of the salt sea on ige, and matrits decom-
position by the solar. rays, prevents an accumulation
which would otherwise, in process of time, freeze, tºp
the globe 1: " 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 salt, but owing, “to his
heate of 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 wery 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
Jºrogen 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 | 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 depthis warmer
within the Arctic circle than what lies on the surface.
3the floating ice accordingly begins to melt generally, on
the underside, froth the slow nommunication of the heat
Data. O
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 if
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 pagé
209, &c. “From the fact of the sea near Spitzberged
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 stream, which, on meeting with
water near the ice, lighter than itself, sinks below the
sarface, and becomes a counter under current.” Aftel
agaia, “From the circumstance of an under stratum of
whier, in the Spitzbergen sea, being generally warmer,
by some degrees, than that at the surface, though of
sihilar specific gravity, it would appear that the warmer
wateris, in this case, the most dense, or why does it riot
rise and change places with the colder water at the
107
surface?” I am sure I cannot say 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 Ocean, happens to be lighter than that
at the surface in the Arctic regions, and at an extreme
depth too (as he of course ean 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 extreme depth to the surface.” In the Edinburgh
Philosophical Journal, No. 4, for April 1820, is inserted
an abstract of Mr. Scoresby's results ; also some obv
tained by Lieutenant Beechey, on board the Trent, in
the Spitzbergen seas; and others by Mr. Fisher on
board the Dorothea. º
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, i.e.
a series of well-conducted experiments, and has been
confirmed by the later observations of Lieutenant&
Franklin, Beechey, and Mr. Fisher,” I however apprºr
hend, that the correctness of the Editor's observations
will sometimes, perhaps, be impeached, by... results 3
little at variance with both these general rules, owing
108
to the circumstances of locality as to land, depth of
water, and the temperature of the atmosphere, comt.
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 obtained 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 was 42°. In all former experiments upon the tem-
perature of the Greenland sea, I have invariably-found
it to be warmer below than at the surface. This earception
therefore is remarkable:” and Mr. Scoresby might have
added singular too; for it is perhaps the only experi-
Inent he ever, made in soundings, which is quite suffi-
cient to account for the exception. Mr. Scoresby adds:
“On my first trial, made in 1810, in latitude 76° 16',
'and longitude 9° east, the temperature at the depth of
#380 feet was found to be 33° 3' (by the water brought
ºup), 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
ºfeet; and 'in, another series of experiments, near the
same place, an increase of 8° was found at the depth of
4389, feet. What renders this increase of temperature
169
on descending in the Spitzbergen sea the more extsäers;
dinary, is the fact, that in almost all other regions of the
globe, as far as observations have been made, a contrasy,
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, E
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, ercept in straits, deep bays, or
inlets, 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
circumvolving 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-
coveredit 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
nearly 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 of 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
| HO
page:347, “ In all cases we found the ice to be first
thawed, and broken up in the shoalest water, in coa-
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 dissolved, 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 dissolve, during the short summer, the ice which has
been 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 sin or seven
weeks, even in the climate of Melville Island, are gon-
tinually discharging themselves into the ocean. On
this account it would appear probable 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 abundant dissolution there-
from must, during that period, increase the quantity of
fluid, and consequently occasion some current towards
thºsoutb, "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 ioeformed on the sea in winter.”
1'ſ 1
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, entertaitº
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. gº $
3d. A circumvolving current, setting as perpetually
“from the Pacific through Behring's Strait” into the
Polar Basin, and out of it into the Atlantic; and
“whose eaistence 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. 3.
4th. A great Polar sea, free from ice, near the Pole, ºf
free from land. & Af
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 may evist. Ellis's reasons, he says, apºl'
pear to him to be “the most satisfactory.” Gne 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
dºholºrvºdººselºtºvigatiºthéºn 1.1". Whºra, iaºhe
name of Heaven, could these vessels have come from?
£5 how could any have been there, unless they were the
canºſof Esquimaux! which it may be presumed Ellis .
did not understand these Indians to mean by what he
termed vessels. ... " r *; , ; }; -w 3:
. ... Mr. Scoresby, on the whole, however, is ratherºcep-
...tical on the practicability of such passage, “and, Pyeſhif.
it were discovered, he conceives it would beat interwals
only of years that it would in all probability beapen
at all.” Like a man of much experience and judgment,
he says, “the most certain (and I dare say be, 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.” This hinty.has
been taken, and as far as it goes, successfullyaoted 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 asſitanowsista
matter of doubt. d . . . [t, Gºłó1,
... Let usuow examine the four grounds of argument in
favor of the practicability of a N.W. passage for ships,
l, Phºca attempted, in the first instance, before the ex-
peditions sailed, to disprove them all, (and I think with
$9merºuccess) except the 4th, which he thought prºba-
blfisbut...desired further proof, which is still Wanjing.
on Mº., Scaresby disputed none but the 4th, and his
peasons for not believing that there is an open sea glear
ſpflige about the Pole, I shall examine in the proper
place. Butlet us first try the validity of all these (four
grounds or arguments, by the test of the expºriençº, of
... º. in "'i ſi i ! . . . f . . . . ) ", , , , , , , ºf f : ** f ; ij
*
. . , 't
113
those navigators, who have recently visited the riºth
Polar regions. ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ". .”
* 1st. “The existence of a perpetual current, setting
down from the northward, from the PolarBasin, thro
Baffin's Sea, and Davis's Strait, into the Atlantić, w
a velocity of four, and sometimes five miles an hour.”
* Although the already noticed candid declaratićh of
the Reviewer, that “he now knows there is such a bay as
that of Baffin,’ &c. and he said, before he believed it, that
ifthere 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
48°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 nb currehi.
June 1st, in lat. 63° 41', long. 55° 49', “no effect" of a
current was apparent, and having gained three miles
Data. P

114
of latitude, it séemed 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°38' and long. 56° 2', ‘ by mid-day we had made a
degree of latitude through a chamel apparently void of
any current.’ July 19th, “we continued in the midst of
the ice, which was carrying us fast to the northward.:
August 18th, lat. 75° 54, long. 65° 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 obi
served on the iceberg, and the latitude found tabs, 76?
37, the iceberg having drifted three miles tº the months
ward.’ September 1st, lat. 73°37', long, 7&#35.840
observe the current, the line. was dropped vower 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;ta
the north' had been already fully obeyed, and no surrent
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 tax the
southward of this latitude.” . . . . $ 1 |ſi. .
“On the 6th of September, in lat. 72° 23', and long,
73°17', “no current was found.’ September 30, lat, 643
10, and longitude 68° 5', “we found by our reckoning
that the current bad set us twenty-five miles to the N.E.
during the last 24 hours.' Thus, according to Captain
Ross, no currentfºom the northward was ever experienthd;
but, on the contrary, when any could be detected, it set
either to the West, N.W., North, or N.E.
I 15
. Let us, now see what Captain Parry discovered h
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 had 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,
kat. 72° 59' and longitude 60° 8, “ships drift to S. 1°
E. 44 miles in 24 hours, depth of water 260 fathoms.’
On the 30th July, noon, latitude 74° 1', ‘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-
ëst'part ºf Dawis'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
béund; sº * © . . . . . . . .
360a; the 3d of September, in latitude 71°24', ‘ being
only 2 miles and 3 to the southward of the dead reckon-
ing in three days, we considered that there could be no
elºrent 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 pree
ceding day's observation.’ September 9th, in latitude 69°
24, long. 67°5',ia 35 fathoms, 5 or 6 miles from the land,
116
Captain. Harry says, “found the earrent running some-
what less than a milean hour, in a S.A.E. direction, Atº
4.80%rºm. it was again tried, and found to set to this
SiR-2atſtherate of # of a mile per hour; and at 7 o'clock,
whenswerhove to near Cape Kater for the Gripertojoin
us, we found it to be slack water; which proves this to
have been a tide stream, and not a current. On the 11th
of September, at noon, in lat. 69°19', and long. 66° 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
66°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 circumvolving current from the Pacific
through Behring's Strait and the Polar Sea: nay, there
was no such thing as a permanent current from the awest-
ward 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 parteá,
considerable set to the southward. In judging"of the
calises which produce this general tendency of the super-
ficialicument, it will be proper to bear in mind two facts,
whith we have had occasion to remark in the course of
this wandtſther preceding voyaga;ifirst, that intra-seas
murh encumbered with ice, a current is almost invaria-
1:17
bly produced, immediately on the springing up of every
breeze of wind; and, secondly, that in several instårices
where the ships. have been beset in the ice; the Hirectoir
of the daily drift has been the point of the oompass dir
rectly opposite to that of the wind, whether the latterſwas
from the northward or the southward. * , , , , ; 13 V P r $.
* It appears to me, upon the 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. Inevery
part which we had an opportunity of visiting, the tides,
though-small, appear to be as regular as in any part of
the world.” Thus the Reviewer's first 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 Greenland
audit 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 46th;
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 Americaº
Not perhaps, for the purpose of “seeking,” like: Captain
Ross, as the Reviewer tells him, “for his circumnolving
current;” but for, what Captain "Parryiomaideredia
{ 18
much better feason, which I shall have oceasion to
mantion’bysand-by, as he assigned it at the time, ahd
esh subsequent occasion; especially as the Reviewer
has repeated it in terms of approval and acquiescenee,
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 Rossoor Parry, any where within the limits I have
before mentioned, its progress from Behring's Strait (if
it arist 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 affords
the best hope for the success of the expeditions engaged
in exploring a passage into the Pacific.” That there
certainly is a temporary and “trifting” 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 circumvolvi.
ing current, or at least that of “a sea communication”
between the Pacific and “the Atlantic.” As to “the
lattery, for water and fish, I admit it may be very possil
ble; botášwhere 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
Revièver, thiefly for the same reasons; one of which
is!' because “it is presumed that worm-eaten drift.
- woody-found in the Arctic countries, is derived from
1, 19.
atrans-polar region,” as he supposes one iog was which
“he observed in 1817, on the Island of Jan Mayend;
Now, at page 209 of his “Account of the Arctic Ree
gians," Mr. Scoresby, has informed us, that, “freed
the coast of Britain, the northern branch of the Gulf,
stream probably extends superficially along the shore
of Norway. About the North Cape, its directinºſapa
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
W. and N.W. from Nova Zembla. However, as he of
course believes, or knows it to be so, I would 'ask him:
it, by the aid of such a medium, the worm-eaten drift.
wood he saw on Jan Mayen's Island might not have
been brotght 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 pairi
tisularly pointed out by Mr. Barrow, at page:Bºſhof his
Voyages to the “Polar Regions.”—“Now, this pºrphthak
current to the southward, out of the Polar Seáptniusº
have a cause . That cause, whether it be, whatalºliosiſ
attempted to prove it to be, or any other, wouldadatibtai
less, produce a similar current from the Polanosebotow
iº9
wºrds the Atlântie, through any channels of eemiutifli-
eatièa which mayerist from the west side of Greenland
to theºûast of America, in quantity and velocity propot-
tiématé to the dimensions of such channels—Phoea,
ldisbelieving the existence of any such current in the
space ealled “Baffin's Sea,” by the Reviewer; rationally
concluded that therefore there must be either lattd. or
shoals north of that space. . . . . . otº
: 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 for ships. 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 southéhn
entrance, it was “free from every particle of ice; as far
as the eye could reach, on a remarkably “eleakºday?”
and therefore, if the ships had proceeded up that chaa-
nel, whereverit led to, the sea beyond would also have
been as clear and open. I admit it to be wery possible,
that the northern opening of such channel may be
found clear of ice, as well as the southern ; provided other
tandslie to the northward of it. For one of my arga-
mérits is, that the northern shores of all Arctic lands; qs
well as the northern entrances of all channels; formed
ºběiween them, if no land erist north of them, are; and
Jöfnecessity must be, continually more or less eneum-
bered with heavy polar ices; extending from those
łkiadstowards the north polar axis of the globe. And
that too, whether arounds it as a ceatre, there may ibe
‘sºme expanse of open sea, as the Reviewer, and *any
J: ~ * * * *
děj
others supposteºitheutice, qiwhether there his shºw.
Raountains, existing in regions near the Pelayeºgen-
plored, the nucleus of which may be as ancientañíčhe
£3rth itself, and its increase derived, from the 36s faſh;l
Atmosphere combined"—for it is quite inmaterialºgy
argument, which theory may be correct - The 9akºs
I require are, first, the existence of heavy polariigº;
and, secondly, the certain general movement of these
ices, from the north towards the south, in all the ragions
surrounding the Pole, as long as they are at liberty, to
do so, by the combined influence of the polar gurrent,
and winds, prevailing from the same quarter. These
facts, it is quite, notorious, all parties are agreed its
and have been acknowledged, over and over, again, by
the Reviewer, , Mr. Scoresby, Mr. Barrow inºi, his
Voyages into the Polar Regions, Mr. Fisher, and Capt.
JPaloy, 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 9f
six open Polar Sea by that of Dr. Brewster, who, ºf after
oamparing the results of the expedition, under, Capt.
Rabºy with those he had drawn from a previous theory;”
it of opinion, “that,the hopes which have been so, sea-
isènably entertained of reaching the Pole itself, ºne
thereby encouraged;” concluding that “the mean-tº-
sperature of the Pole of the globe will beil 1% ingen-
tiparably warmer than the regions, in which GºptºRaymy
‘spent the winter.” The Doctor adds, “if the Polºis (he)
placed in an open sea, the difficulty of reachingidt
entirely ceases.” . . . . . . . . , t :: w toº tod
... Thus, supported in his opinion of a clear, opeebabil
navigable Polan Sea, by that of “all the ſcreenland-
.nº,” (except Mr. Scoresby), and - the theory, eſtathe
Data. Q
122
learned Doctor into the bargain, and having assured us,
that he eonsidered “the knowledge acquired on the
late bypedition to have afforded a sanguine hope \for
the complete solution of the interesting question' oftā
noth-west passage,” I must confess I expedited he
had perhaps recommended the higher powers to mhake
another attempt by way of the Pole: especially as all the
original motives for sending Captain Buchan that way,
must have been evidently strengthened in his find, 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. . . . . . . . . ; ) iſ
... At page 49 of Scoresby's account of the "Arctie
Regions, he says, “Were the mean temperatüre of the
Pole, indeed, above the freezing point of seal water,
and the mean heat of latitude 78° as high as 33°6'r 84°,
then the circumpolar seas would have a chance efºe.
ing free from ice: but while the temperature of the
former can be shown to be about 16°, and the latter
11” below the freezing temperature of the sea, webáñ
have no reasonable ground, I conceive, for idbubting
the continual presence of ice in all the regionimºſ.
diately surrounding the Pole." And at page 543rººf
the Hiësses of ice which usually prevent the advanče of
Ylaſtigatºrs beyond the 82.Éd degree of north latitudebe
‘extended in a continued series to the Pole (of which,
thless there be land in the way, I have no doubt); the
expectation of reaching the Pôle by sea must be "alto-
gether thimerical.” Now, if we take Mr. Scoresby'tb be
123
right, in his conjecture that “there is a continent officer.
mountains in the regions near the Pole, tunless therestic
land in the way,” what must there be between it and
the place where Capt. Parry, wintered at, which, aceosd-
ing to Dr. Brewster's theory, is 11° 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 no other land between them and the pole ;
which is very far beyond, what Phoca has ventured to
suppose, the ice extended. . On the other hand, aur
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, ſchoked 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, icº,
ice, all,along the northern shores of Arctic lands, and
affroaen, ocean to some indefinite extent to the north-
}*and of the northernmost of those 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, ºt-
quired on the late expedition, to afford this “sanguine
hope,” and whereabouts the Reviewer could reasºnably
expect it to be realized. I could hardly supposerhe
would recommend another trial to be made, ºthe
northward in Baffin's Bay; “because, it is now ºwn
that there is such a bay.” Ner by the route last pusºg
1%+.
by Captai?arry, although; sofar, successfühy; because:
“hedid not think that the strenuous, but tinsuccessº
eiidddvors" of the late expedition, in two different sébiº
soils, ºb penetrate to the westward'éf Melvillé Fălărſă:
affbräed any hope that the passage will ever the effected
in 'lkát particular parallel of latitude: nor by the Wéluſ
lington Charine! “in the first instance,” though he says
“it may be desirable to look at the state of the Polan'
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 thern was
ëver 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 oceañ (by the by),
which he then believed to be without ite. . And because
“hitherto most of our adventurers haveworked their way:
through Hudson's Strait, which is generally chokéd, tip,
with ice; then, standing to the northward, have had to
contend with ice drifting to the southward, with contrafy
winds and currents;” and “the most northerly straits
and islands; which form the passages into Húdsön's
Báy,” are of course never free from mountains iné
patches of ice; and yet all navigators proceeding'66
discovery have either entered these Straits and had
toºktruggleſ against the ice and currents, and tides' off
the coast of America; or, &c.” . . . . . . . . . . . .
-V. If we may judge from the late second fruitless at
teinpt bf Capt. Parry, to discover a passage that way,
the Reviewer's early judgment, in this' particular if-
stance, has unfortunately been but too correct. . . . "
giForgºalthough Captain Party did not, as far as the
125,
newspapart telhºus, meet with ſanyigreaterséiffiqubies:
than the annual ships of the North-West ſtºmpanyigant-
rally do, in Hudson's Strait; yet, after entering bºldt,
sqn's Bay, he, like most of our adventurers, had to conr.
tend, not merely “with ice drifting to the southwardiº.
but was obstructed in his advance towards: the NAW,
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.
heiwas 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 presumeſ
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
kaown, between the years 1817 and 1821, to alter the
grounds qf 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
gendemned in the former. He may, however, have been
persuaded to coneur 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
Øritique, on Captain Parry's first Woyage, in the 49th
Nal qf the Quarterly Review, says, (whilst the last exh
pedition was pending.) Captain Parry, “hasºregonded
his opinion in favour of its accomplishment, and hiºssº
gestion has no doubt been adopted on the present Yby-
age:” and “it can scarcely be doubted then, that the
attempt is now about to be made; as recommanded ly
Captain Parry; in a more southeralatituder and close
along the north coast of America, where they may rea-
126
sepably hope to meet, withº, hºtter summer climate, and
allºggºr season for their operations, by at least six
Weekº, . . . . . . . . ...iſ. . . . . *
witHere then, we find that the sanguine hope' was
fully expected to be realized an the north coast of 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 ‘naver
free from,’., I, have not heard, whether any of the Re-
viewer's fºrmountains qfice’ were met with there. . Howt
ºver, we shall hear when Captain Parry's account of his
last voyage comes out, which I am very anxious to sea,
in the hopf, of getting some more light thrown on the
subject; though I must confess that hope is not very san-
guineas far,as regards what may, or may not, be herºn
after effected along the north coast of America. In the
meantime, whilst the next expedition is pending, which
I.am told is to proceed by way, of Lancaster Saund and
down Prince Regent's Inlet, towards that coast, let ºtry,
the strength and solidity of, the reasons, given by the
Reyiewer, in his critique on Captain Parry's voyage, as
well as these published by Captain Parry himself...The
Reviewer in many passages has nearly quoted that offin
cer's, words, and as some of his opinions are the sama,
(though others, Very different,) they may be considered,
aş jºintly, belonging, to both : the one by original filgº
gestion, and the other by adoption.. I shall quºte fºam,
bºthmānd occasionally compare them together, drawing
swgh conclusions from the, data they furnish, as shall.
appear to mºto be fair and legitimate; and wherever
thºse are at all at variance with, or, tend to undermine,
their own arguments, such discordance shall be pointed
Oºſe , , ) ºr /, ºr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .” 11, i.
* - - . .
j , } } f :
127
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
more inclined to make this attempt from its having longbe-
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 is essential, if not absolutely
necessary for the purpose. Such 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 the occasional openings
between the ice and the shore that our late progress to
the westward was effected, and had the land continued
in the desired direction, 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 fail us.” In both these "ex-
tracts it is declared that a continuity of land is essentidº,
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 Georgian
4128
Islands, lying contiguous to each other, neatly east
and west, on a parallel, north, or on the starboard hand
of that course. But why should it lie in that direction,
and be situated north of that course 2 Because such a
continuity did in fact 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 7 By protecting them from
polarices, such as were met with at the westend of Mel-
ville Island; where, Captain Parry says, “had the land
continued in the desired direction, there can be no question
that we should have continued to advance towards the
completion of our enterprise.” The Quarterly Reviewer
says, “the heavy ice found there was owing probably
to the discontinuance of land, or to the prevailing northerly
winds having driven down the main body of ice and
wedged it in among the Islands.” This was a discontinu-
ance of land 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 99: “I think it is pro-
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
forcing the ice in with the coast; but immediately the
*{º}
swind changes to the opposite direction, it will netº-
‘Āarily have, the contrary, effect. This is nothiadesda
matter, of speculation, nor de Hintend 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 I have no hesitation in giving
it as my opinion, that the vicinity of land to, the north-
wºrd 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
toº land to the northward” of him, with “uneasiness, prin-
cipally from the possibility that it might take a turn
£o the southward and unite with the coast of America;”
hot, being then aware, as he afterwards learnt by ex-
perience that such continuity was “essential, if notab-
ºutely neteasary, for the navigation of this part of the
Rºlas Sea;”, and as I dare say it will be for the navi-
gation ºf that part of it, from the meridian of Prince
JRegent's Inlet to that of Icy Cape. ‘. . . .
...aſ Mehave seen already where and what this continuity
, Waggas well as its importance to the ships, as, farias, it
extended. , That importance was fully, proved by the
insurmountable icy obstruction which, they met with
ſat;its, western extremity. And yet Captain Parry says,
and the Reviewer repeats it; 'Such continuity, of iºd
as was here about to failus, wustºnecessarily befumishad
by the northern coast of America, in whateverlatitude
it may be found.”. . . . . . . . . . . , s: , ſ:
... “There would be a waniſast 4dvantage in making the
* Konºthe cºast of America, whers we are sure
ta. R
J30
that land will not fail wº.” If the Reviewer alone had
made such an observation as the first, it need not have
surprised one; but 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 eases 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 such a continuity as that formed by the
North Georgian Islands, which failed Captain Parry at
the west end of Melville Island: because the coast of
America is on the larboard hand, or to the southward of
ships steering to the westward, and consequently to
deeward, 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 situation, then, they are only as opposite
as north and south. But in other and far more im-
portant points they are quite the reverse of each other,
The chain of lands 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 sheres of those lands being weather shores,
(othaving the wind blowing from them) were conse-
stently found te be comparatively free from ice. Nor
in truth was there, in the whole extent of that passage,
any such heavy pelar 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
ſ
13).
shore, as the winds are proved to prevail? Captaiº 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 Inhet 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 the 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.
ft has already been seen, at page 142 of Captain
Parry's Voyage, that, when he first met with such
decided obstruction, near the west end of Melville
Island, he “was desirous of finding an opening in the
ité leading to the southward, by taking advantage of
which, he might be enabled to prosecute the voyage to
the westward in a lower latitude.” At page 250, he de-
seribes the ice to the W. and W.S.W. of Cape Dundas,
from whence, it being 1000 feet high, the view of it
must have 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
made all sail to the eastward, he says, “We kept close
along the edge of the ice, which was quite compact to
132

###hºrd, without the smallest appearance of an open.
ig"tº encourage a hope of penetrating in that direction.”
Å; 261, when in lat. 72° 2' 15" and long. 105°
ſº he says, “A constant look-out was kept from
thé crow's-nest, for an opening to the southward; but not
a'single break could be 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 a single break or crack for miles together, though
their height' above the sea was generally not more
than 12 inches, and 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, “Havin
now traced the ice the whole way; from long. 114° 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 any 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
lihdºwhatever to the northward, between him and the
Pöle, 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?
133
* * >

Would he have found that continuity, such as the pºë
W
to the northward, whose existence alone enabled him tº
reach the 114th meridian? But the Quarterly Review
would perhaps answer for him : “Yes, he .
only have made as much westing as he did, but he
would have reached Behring's Strait; because he would
have entered my ‘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, if that
discontinuance had taken place in the same parallel on
any other meridian, between Baffin's Bay and 114°
west longitude 1 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 oth ER LAND's 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 from, 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
134
Voyage does not seem to me to amount to quite so much
as this. At page 86, Captain Parry does, to be sure,
:::: sóñething about a strong westerly current, which
by tºby, though perhaps it was only a temporary
one, is not much in proof of the existence, there at
least, of the Reviewer's famous 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, if it cannot pass between 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,
i. of which, they went so fast to the westward by
the land, that Lieutenant Beechey and myselfestimated
the current to be running at least two miles an hour in
that direction. I must here remark, that besides the
$urrent to which I have now alluded, and by which

# , * M & Y lº
*
thº, floes and heavy masses 'appeared to be affected;
iſ J. i : * * * A * j c ſº y ! • . . . * *
thºre was, as usual in this navigation, a superficial curé
t r * . iſ. * -
* * J -} f { . -*
****
135
rent also, setting the smaller pieces past the othèrs, 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 flood 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 g
returning back, to fill up the space it had before per-
haps occupied there, by means of what Captain Pärty
calls “the reaction of the water, which had been forcé *
to the eastward in the early part of the late ales." *
the following year, when Captain Parry h d gained
more experience in the vicinity of the S.W. extremity
of Melville Island, he speaks very differently on"

136
subjeet 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 off the land, beyond the western point of
land now in sight, the ice had not, during the whole of
that time, 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 instructionis,
we have no doubt, would have directed him to probeed
up the Welcome, and endeavor to pass through Middlé-
ton's Frozen STRAIT; whereas the object clearly was
to avoid being entangled with the shoals arid islandºahd
ice, on the northern shores of America, which, by the
vague accounts of Hearne and Mackenzie, are very
similar to the northern shores of Siberia.” 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 diffieulties
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; notatall doubt-
ºt
137
ing but that sea would be found free from ice, anding-
Yigable the whole, way. We have seen the result, ofthat
voyage. With that result the Reviewer's resourges seem
to have failed him, and he very prudently giyes, up the
cudgel to Captain Parry ; and though he seems, to have
had a fearful hankering after Middleton's Frozen Strait,
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 by
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.
. . 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” ºf
This route however did not, it seems, hold out sugh
a fair prospect of success, as that taken last through
Hudson's Strait, as the latter was “recommanded by
Capt. Parry himself; and the Reviewer “thought.tit
Data. S
138
probable 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's 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. - { i &
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 con-
tinuity nearly, or to join Banks's Land, he will, in all
probability, find just as little difficulty in advancing as
far as the 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 none
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 the
north coast of America, what then 2 Why, he says, and
the Reviewer also, there “will be 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 Reviewer, “see no
reason why the passage to Icy Cape, which does not
exceed 1500 miles, might not easily be accomplished in
one season ; about 600 of these were actually run on the
last voyage in six days;” but that was from the west-
ward, quite the wrong way. He should have added, that
“it required five weeks to traverse that distance when
going in the opposite direction,” to the westward or to-
toards Behring's Strait, as Capt. Parry did. If, as
I think, I have shown that there would have been no
advantage gained by making the passage to the west-
ward, along the northern shores of the lands extending
from Prince Regent's Inlet to Banks's Land, provided the
North Georgian Islands had not existed ; what “mani-
fest advantage,” then, can be expected, on the north
coast of America, if there should happen not to be lands
situated to the northward of it again, along its whole er-
tent to Behring's Strait, to keep off those Polar ices,
which it is acknowledged by all do, in fact, drift to the
southward 2 If there should be any extent of it with-
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 90° to 100° of west longitude;
or (setting aside that theory) about midway of the
140
coast, as being the most distant point from the 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 coast
and the ice,” by effecting its dissolution... Capt. Parry,
says, “Should the sea on the coast of America be
found moderately deep, and shelving towards, the shore,”
(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 foes 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 bethere to take the ground, and “floes
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
141 .
gº
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 narrow straits, and at the mouths of great rivers.
The whole coast of Siberia is a fertile source of this
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 up 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 shallow coasts,
which, when set afloat in the spring, is carried out into the
sea : in this situation it is drifted about till, heaped piece
on piece, and driven about, it again fives 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 no
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 s 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 further 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 difference is extremely striking between the west-
ern coast 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 western 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
climateraised 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
143
probable proximity and immense quantity of ices to the
north, from whence frigid winds prevail to counteract it.
And therefore that the rule will not perhaps be found
so applicable to the eastern and western sides of 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 eagedition,
let us try it by the test of the few recorded observations
hitherto made on the temperature of the east coast of
Greenland, in Hudson's Bay, and Behring's Strait, as
earireme 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 landed in Scoresby's Sound: “The heat among
the rocks was most oppressive, so much so that 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 north-
ward of latitude 70°. 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°.” -
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
65°. 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 shallow 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. 633° and
long. 162°, from the 2d to the 13th of August, the mean
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
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 on an equal parallel. Yet, being of
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 2. Nay, by their own rule, must it not be
progressively colder from Icy Cape all the way to their
point of 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
100° W. longitude " .. . . . . W. “ .
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 olimate in
England was lower in the three summer months, of
1816 and 1817, by from 11° to 20°, than it had been in
corresponding months of 1805, 1806, and 1807—that
“the remarkable chilliness of the atmosphere, 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 necessarily be
occasioned by the provimity of vast mountains, and
islands of ice;” in short, that the westerly winds...did
in fact acquire an unusually, frigorific charactºry by
having passed over, a few icebergs; drifting to, the
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. l T
146.
Arctic sea, if they “prevail generally from the narth fº
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
Reviewer 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. o
Mr. 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 1849, 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 if 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, ercept by the effect of heat ž Or, if that
which perhaps may be so dissolved is, as I believe,
replaced constantly, though probably imperceptibly, by
the tendency of the whole body to move southward, (whe-
ther it extends five or ten, or any number of degrees.
to the northward, towards the Pole,) how that north
coast, or the north or west coasts of 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 Öf 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 eurrent down
148
“Baffin's Sea,” which we have seen had no existence
but in his own fertile imagination. . . . . . . . . .
Captain Burney supposed “the current in Behring'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.W. 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 eause) 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 circumvolving current of the Reviewer (not
from the Pacific, 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 neart its source.
At the same time, it must be observed, that even the
future proof of such current from the 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 eristence in ºny 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.
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 Lake;
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.” . . .
Now, if the westerly winds in the summer months
of 1816 and tò17 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 11 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 too, 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 cokler character of the
westerly and north-westerly winds, to the northward
rj H
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: fot on a flat shelving shore, such as parts
of the “north coast may be, 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 aawigable
{{#2
for ships of any size; the ice wermet with, particularly
after quitting Detentiah Harbour, would not have as-
rtistádria strong boat. The “chain of islands affort's
shelter from ałł heavy seas, and there are good harbours
at convenient distances.” . . . . . . . . . .37 sq
, ſº 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.” Atºl
the shelter those nearest, as well as the North Georgian
Islands, afforded to that part of the coast, was theºrea-
son why it was not much encumbered with ice; mbre
especially to the eastward of Detention Harbour; as
George the Fourth’s Coronation Gulf is almost cons-
pletely protected by Wilmot's Chain, and other-islands
to the northward of it. If a similar chairº shbrººd
iexist from Cape Hearne to Icy Cape, there williptoba-
bly be a navigable passage all the way betweenſitiánd
the coast of America, provided it runs, as CaptisBranki.
Hin supposes, east and west, nearly in the latitudějas.
signed to the Mackenzie River, and the Sound into
which Kotzebue entered. But there is some reason'té
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.
*śly assigned to it by geographers. The late Adriūpāl
Barhey said, “an account or notice is given by Kbbi.
4efbfa great river, in the coast of America, to thenbrüh
*fºehring's 'Sirait, which river is described to takeºš
*ong coarse in a southerly direction, and its banks to
beifah, oftſvillages.” Can the Sound discovered by
‘Lieut. Kotzebue to the northward of Behring's Strait,
between Capés' Ryūsefistern and Esperbergºfeedºtº
Y * \tº\.
153
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 this to the translation,
which is evidently defective, than to any intention on
his part, 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. 66°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 tack, because the wind turned to the S.E.”
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 direction,
on the starboard tack, to explore an open space in so
promising a quarter, or at least till he had seen the land
Data. - º U
154
in continuity, or had shoaled his water, so as not to be
able to proceed further. According to his published
Chart of this Sound, however, the land must have been
seen to the eastward, from the noon position of the
Burick on the 2d August; for the whole eastern side of
Kotzebue's Sound is delineated in continuity, 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 of five feet, and the hope of disr
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:
135
fot on the 10th August he says, “We left Eschsudhultz,
Bay with a fresh S.E. wind. I now wished to dºts
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 hearly
from Chamisso Island. However, he says, that “he
steered along the coast W.S.W. because he considered
the examination of the east unnecessary; as he had dis-
tiºctly seen the connerion of the land from the point of
Chamisso Island.” Whether he alludes, in this passage,
to the south part of the Sound eastward from Cape De-
ceit, round to Chamisso Island, or the east coast it-
self of the Sound, from abreast of the noon position
3d August, southward to the point next to €ha-
misso Hsland, it is rather difficult to say, but not very
material. ' *
*Mr. Barrow, in mentioning this subject in his account
of Voyages to the Arctic Regions, says, “Kotzebue.
entered an inlet in latitude about 673 to 68°. Its extent
to the eastward was not determined; but the Rurick
proceeded in that direction as far as the meridian of
168°, which corresponds with that of Norton Sound.”
From the Rndians “Lieut. Kotzebue learned, that at the
bettom of the inlet was a strait, through which there
was a passage into the great sea; and that it required
#leºdays rowing in one of their boats to reach this
sed. 9-Thié, Kotzebue thinks, must be the great
*thern Ocean, and that the whole of the land to the
nºrthward of the inlet must either be an islaud; ſor
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,” cºlon'thé
eastern side of the Sound; but referred to one situated
on the western side, in the Bay of Good Hope, between
Töö
Gapºseiſbeeet anti-Espenberg, Kotzebue says," he
weºtoin his boats; on the 12th of August, to examine-
this Séaitza"After proceeding about four miles;” says,
heſiºłºwe arrived at a Cape where the land suddenly,
the k a direction from south to west. From a hillni,
observed a broad arm to the west, which ran from the
sea into the land, and there wandered in severdr
windings between the mountains.” Here, meeting with
an old Indian, “I took much pains,” says he, “to:
make my American comprehend, that I wished to
know how far this branch might extend ?. He at
last comprehended me, and 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. Ilearnt
by this that it would take nine days to get to the openi
sea, through this branch.” And, a few pages further ong
Kotzebue says, “the account given by the American,
may be correct, and this branch either extends to ſºfcrº
tº Sound, or joins Schischmareff's Bay.” PNow; as
Norton Sound lies to the southward, and Schischmas
reff Bay to the westward of the place Kotzebue, was
examining, the “Great Sea” to which this straitor
braach led, must have been in one or other of those de
*étions. How then could Kotzebue have “thought it
must have been the Great Northern Ocean, that thein-
tijaisanformed him it required nine days rowing to
flackſºn He does indeed say, afterwards, when speaks
ing befºotzebue Sound, “I certainly hope that this
sºufidiºisyjead to important discoveries next year; and
theast anoth-east passage may not with certainty be
depended on; yetºl believe I shall be able to penetrate
thuth fººther to the east; as theiland has very deepin-
dentures.” Mr. Von Chamisso, who accompanied
hº?
Lieutenant Kotzebue, in histºremarks” has this pºst,
sage: “We observe that that part of the American cºast,
which we examined to the north of Behring's sº traiti;
appeared to us to excite the hope of finding a channelſ
among the entrances and friths which interseat it, aad,
which might lead to the Icy Sea towards the mouth...af.
Mackenzie River, without doubling Icy Cape, whigh,
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 eramined 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 eramined; 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 !
Certainly, from what he has said, concerning the bottoma
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
ef, Good Hope, leading to the westward. Willing te
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 furthersta
the east” out of Kotzebue Sound, must have rested ºn
the known existence of some strait supposed to kead frºa
the east side of that sound to the Northerns 99eans
And if what he learned from the Indians did refººth
such a strait, instead of the one on the wastside, ſits, it
{ *. * - g" sº re.
§ 9-1 ( , ; ; , . . . . . . st g • * 23 inſiſya's
158
evidently does both in his chart and publication, he
may inadvertently have told the truth to Mr. Barrow on
his arrival in London, and afterwards have been com-
manded by his government to falsify both. However,
I must confess, I would 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 Kobileſ, 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 486th 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
southward 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 later, 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 therise and fall of tide,
as nearly as could be judged from the markson 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 place, 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 the flood 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
100
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. This
T61
fact, therefore, can by no means prove, as Ellis and
others have concluded, that because the flood-tide,3in
the Welcome sets to the southward, it must necessarily
come from the west, originally, out of the PolariSea,
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. e.
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-
wered.
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 flow, not from 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 224-6f
August, when off Gascoyne Inlet, about the longitadelöf
96°, Mr. Fisher says, “I have only to add one circum-
Data. * X
162
stance which I feel less pleasure in 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 11 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. W. # of a mile per hour, so that it
would appear tolerably certain, that the flood-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 five, or five 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 eastward. By the above
observations, the time of high water at full and change
of the moon seems to be about ; after one o'clock. The
direction of the tide of flood does not appear so clear.”
163 \
“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, that 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 ebb, 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 not.
‘On the 6th of September, in lat. 74°47', and long. 110°
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 coming strong
from the eastward, from which direction it is therefore pro-
bable” (why not certain 3) “that the flood 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 ebbed till
halfpast 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 before 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
16.1
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. 110°
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
the evening, 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 a 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 eurrent. The flood tide from the eastward has
been stated more 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 place, on the 6th of September of the former year,
he thought that the tide coming from the eastward was
probably the flood, 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
->
165
14th 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
currents, 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 southward, from whence therefore, a
probable, 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. 67° 48' 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 comes, till the
contrary shall be 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
166
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.
feet 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
publications “of those who contend for the practica-
bility of a N.W. passage,” tend to disprove it; yet, they
are evidently very strong indications of an extensive
Mediterranean Sea, such as I have supposed may exist,
having communication by various channels with the
Bays of Hudson and Baffin, though not with the Polar
Sea proper. t!
Though the Quarterly Reviewer says, “Hearne talks
vaguely of the sea being full of islands at the mouth of
the Copper-Mine 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 oven 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 “in
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 eourse, believed by all these authorities. Hm the
autumn these animals pass from Melville Island to the
coast of Ameriea. In the spring, nay in the “summer”
too, they return to that island, and “various "others
168
“which exist in the Polar Sea.” Now by what means
are they enabled to make these long journeys * Not
by land; for 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 where in continuity,
in that space, for them to travel on. 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
anțong 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, if 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-
169
peared to me 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.
This circumstance, together with the fact of our having
sailed back in sir days from the meridian of Winter
Harbour, to the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's
Sound, a distance which required five weeks to traverse,
when going in the opposite direction, seems to afford a
feasonable 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 ship's 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 crews, so sudden and
extreme a change of climate would in all probability
prove, as that which they must necessarily experience
Data. +
170
in 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 employing its best energies in the
attempt to penetrate from the eastern coast of America
along its northern shores.”
Now, if the practicability of the N.W. passage were
doubted, or its non-existence deemed possible even, it
appears to me that the only 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 better chance
of success from Behring's Strait than the side of Ameri-
ca.” Because every seaman ought to know, that in case
of failure in an attempt from west to east, by finding land,
or the western entrances of Straits so encumbered with
ice as to oppose his further advance, he would rather
have a free 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
these “westerly and north-westerly winds” to beat back
against.
As these winds were “always 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 encumbering 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 then 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 the 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 western limit of such obstruction as Captain Parry
met with, must have been reduced 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 firmly
believe that a navigable passage does erist, and may be
of no difficult execution. It is the business of three
months out and home. We have little doubt of a free
and practicable passage 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 not easily be accomplished in one
season ; about 600 of these were actually run on the
last voyage in sir 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
all others, the most favorable circumstance, as they
would ensure the speediest performance of the voyage:
for, as “they seem” to Captain Parry, so they do in
truth, for that reason, “afford a reasonable ground” (to
them) “for concluding that an attempt might be made
with a better chance of success from Behring's Strait
than the side of America.” Indeed, as the Quarterly
Reviewer sees no reason “why the passage to Icy Cape,
which does not exceed 1500 miles, may not be easily
accomplished in one season, as 600 of these were ac-
tually run in six days, by means of these very westerly
and north-westerly winds,” I would take the liberty
of asking him, why—(if 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. o
And, were it not that he has published them, and
that therefore, those who know little or nothing of the
matter may think 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 feeling, and its terrible effects, Captain g
Parry has proved and recorded the non-evistence, 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 the
point where the work is to be begun” is objected to by
Captain Parry, and in his opinion renders “this mode
of proceeding altogether impracticable, 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
the Typa. 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 evtreme 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” so, 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
not,) 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
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 north. Certainly, the
North Sea climate may not be so cold ; but its humidity
renders men much more liable to pulmonary and in-
flammatory complaints, than it appears Captain Parry's
people ever were in the frigid climate of Winter Har-
bour. For he says, “In the severest weather, not a
single inflammatory complaint occurred, though in pass-
ing from the 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
short 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 IM PortANT 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
eramine 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 beingregarded as the most probable
opening on the western side of America, by many as the
only probable one, forthe 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 commencing on
the other side of America. On this side of America the
question can only be set at rest by the discovery of a
passage, for twenty expeditions with the most favorable
seasons would be insufficient for ascertaining that there
is no passage.” &
If, as the Quarterly 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 side of it. That coast can be got hold of at
Behring's Strait, and if it could be kept sight of, and there
be no obstruction, a ship by tracing it must ultimately
discover it: and in less than half the time it can possibly
be donefrom east to west, 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 channels. But if that inlet
º
176
, fail, “twenty” other expeditions may also fail, as Ad-
spiral, Burney justly observes, by as many channels, if
they artist. On the contrary, one attempt from Behring's
Strait, whether there be obstruction or not, would per-
: baps, 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
Joroof; yet many others undoubtedly have been, and
will yet be, 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
Sent Out. sº
It perhaps would have been better not to have
avowed to the world, at first, that the grand object of
these expeditions was “the discovery of a north-west
passage,” where success mustbe 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 phaenomena, 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, unalleyed 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 the 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 I should
be disappointed ; because my expectations have not
been unduly raised, nor shall I ever think that any one
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 2 why all this expense? except
those who measure the value of every thing by the
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 which 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
reward from posterity which he so richly merits, for
having attended to his suggestions, and so far carried
them into effect. , , , , ; , , , , , ,
SCRUTATOR.
179
POSTSCRIPT.
A few days after the foregoing sheets were written, 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
rate 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, &c.
What I most desired to know, was, whether or not any current
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 thus at page 354 of his Journal: “I be-
18()
lieve there can be little doubt that the flood-tide here comes 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 sufficiently apparent; and the joint effects of these two
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 occasioned by the amual
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 hundreds of miles; and this supposition appeared the
more reasonable from the circumstance of the current having just
now [20th September, 1822,] ceased, when the streams from the
land were once more arrested by the frost of the approaching
winter.”
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 from
Behring's Strait, and through that of the Fury and Hecla, as “the
only outlet leading to the southward,” why should it have “ceased”
there about the 20th of September Captain Parry's own explai
nation is quite conclusive, that the Reviewer's current can have
nothing at all to do with the 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 quite bad enough, for, according
to Captain Parry's account of it, it flows eastward, during the only
navigable season, and ceases with it.
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 f
the Fury and Hecla, 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, ouri,
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 cause
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 west-
ern mouth of any other existing Strait between Prince Regent's
Inlet and Behring's Strait should, under similar circumstances, be
more practicable than that of the Fury and Hecla t
Though Captain Parry says that “circumstances beyond the
reach of any previous speculation, have combined to oppose an in-
surmountable barrier to our entrance into the Polar Sea by the
route lately pursued,” yet some of these very circumstances were
actually pointed out by the Quarterly Reviewer as the causes of the
failure of all former attempts, made in that quarter to discover a
north-west passage. Nay—all of these circumstances, as well as
the result of Captain Parry's last voyage, were anticipated, and in
my hearing mentioned to many private friends by one who dépmºd;
the judgment of the Quarterly Reviewer quite sound only on that
point, but who at the same time firmly believed that Repulsa, Bay.
had been “satisfactorily examined;" never, like him, having,
doubted that Middleton was, what Captain Parry.has now-pºwed
him, a man of veracity. * - . . ;
182
Captain Parry says, “However unsuccessful have been our late
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 Hudson'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 only 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 itself. If, then,
three years ago, Prince Regent's Inlet were considered, as it is here
acknowledged to have been, as not holding forth “any reasonable
hope of success,” on what can a more reasonable hope be built
now 2 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
99
right place;” and therefore, supported by an acknowledgement
from such authority, I still consider it to be what I have already
termed it, the For Lorn HoPE. And that too, notwithstanding
Captain Parry concludes his Journal in these words, which I 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.”
THE EN ID,
Printed by A. J. Walpy, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
I
III. Ž
3 4936