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admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond names of worthiness!"'—pp. 182, 183.

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We are glad to find that the views long entertained by Captain Parry on the subject of a North-West passage,-the practicability of the enterprize,-the means to be adopted, and the route to be pursued for its accomplishment,-remain wholly unaltered; except,' as he says, that some additional encouragement has been afforded by the favourable appearances of a navigable sea near the south-western extremity of Prince Regent's Inlet.'

To that point, then, he still recommends that any future attempt should be directed; and indeed, when we consider the state in which Captain Franklin found the Polar Sea on the shore of America, for 600 miles to the eastward of Hearne's River, and more recently at the mouth of Mackenzie's River, without ice and without islands, as far to the westward as the eye could reach from an elevation of two hundred feet, we conceive that no doubt can reasonably be entertained that this part of the Polar Sea is perfectly navigable. Well therefore may Parry say→→

'I feel confident that the undertaking, if it be deemed advisable at any future time to pursue it, will one day or other be accomplished; for, setting aside the accidents to which, from their very nature, such attempts must be liable, as well as other unfavourable circumstances which human foresight can never guard against, nor human power controul, I cannot but believe it to be an enterprize well within the reasonable limits of practicability. It may be tried often, and often fail, for several favourable and fortunate circumstances must be combined for its accomplishment; but I believe nevertheless that it will ultimately be accomplished.'-pp. 184, 185.

and he adds,

Happy as I should have considered myself in solving this interesting question, instead of still leaving it a matter of speculation and conjecture, happy shall I also be if any labours of mine in the humble, though it would seem necessary, office of pioneer, should ultimately contribute to the success of some more fortunate individual; but most happy should I be, to be again selected as that individual. May it still fall to England's lot to accomplish this undertaking, and may she ever continue to take the lead in enterprizes intended to contribute to the advancement of science, and to promote, with her own, the welfare of mankind at large! Such enterprizes, so disinterested as well as useful in their object, do honour to the country which undertakes them, even when they fail; they cannot but excite the admiration and respect of every liberal and cultivated mind; and the page of future history will undoubtedly record them as every way worthy of a powerful, a virtuous, and an enlightened nation.'-p. 186.

We would fain hope indeed, that the prosecution of an enterprize, which, since the days of Queen Elizabeth, has been considered as a great national object, has only been suspended till the

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issue of Captain Franklin's expedition shall be known; that England will yet be the nation to accomplish it, and Parry the happy individual. We may be well assured that, should we abandon this enterprize, the Americans will take it up. Their attention indeed has already been drawn towards it. In December last, a resolution being offered in Congress, for employing a sloop of war in exploring the north-west coast, it was moved by Mr. Sawyer, of North Carolina, that these words should be added to that resolve, and thence to proceed into Behring's Strait, and, if practicable, to continue her route into the Polar Seas, and through the openings of Prince Regent's Inlet, or Barrow's Strait, into Davis's or Hudson's Strait, thence down the said straits into some port in the United States.'

This amendment to the resolution, he said, was grounded on that part of the president's message which had reference to the English Voyages of Discovery; and the expediency of their (the Americans) coming forward also with a contribution of mind, of labour, and of expense, for the acquisition of knowledge. The time, he observed, was now come, when the American states should likewise enter upon the glorious career of discovery and human improvement. He paid a high compliment to the liberal and enlightened views of the King of England and his ministers for their unabated zeal and persevering efforts under so many repeated disappointments, and passed a well merited eulogium on Captain Parry who, by his skill, resolution and fortitude, had, in his opinion, reaped laurels in the field of discovery more honourable than any gained on the field of blood. The amendment was opposed and lost, on the ground of the inadequacy of the existing means, and the expense that would be incurred by the addition of a second ship; but we venture to say, it will not be lost sight of, and that, if we should unfortunately remain satisfied with having opened the door, our transatlantic brethren, with all their love for the dollars, will not be slow in availing themselves of so good an opportunity of passing the threshold. No one can now dispute how much easier the accomplishment of a passage must be from Behring's Strait to Prince Regent's Inlet, than the contrary way; but this could only be known since the discovery of an outlet through Lancaster Sound into Baffin's Bay had been effected by Captain Parry. Whoever had attempted it along the northern coast of America previous to such discovery would, in all probability, have perished.

It was not to be expected that a man of Parry's activity of mind, and who had so long been engaged in the pursuit of discovery, would be content to remain quietly on shore. He knew that a project had been entertained, by another able and indefatigable officer, of proceeding from Spitzbergen to the North

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Pole, and he knew that such a man as Franklin was not likely to suggest and adopt a measure, that did not carry with it a fair chance of success. When two such men as Parry and Franklin, after weighing well the risk to be encountered, and all the circumstances which make for and against an undertaking of this nature, offer a plan, for the execution of which they propose to embark themselves, it would surely be something like presumption to affect to undervalue their experience, or to pronounce their scheme rash and chimerical.

The president and council of the Royal Society were clearly of this opinion. In a letter to Lord Melville, they signified their approbation of Captain Parry's proposal, and their opinion that such an enterprize cannot fail to afford many valuable scientific results, and to settle matters of philosophical inquiry; and they concluded by expressing their wishes, that this proposition of so brave, enlightened, and scientific an officer might meet with the attention it appeared to them to deserve, from the Admiralty.

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The Board of Admiralty will scarcely be accused of inattention to any recommendation of this learned body, or of any backwardness in lending its aid towards such undertakings as may have for their object the promotion of science, or the acquirement and extension of useful knowledge. Accordingly, on this recommendation of the proposal of Captain Parry, the Hecla has been ordered to be prepared for the service in question, and to be ready in the early part of the next spring. The plan is, as we understand, to proceed in the Hecla to that part of Spitzbergen called Cloven Cliff,' in lat. 79° 52′, so as to reach it towards the end of May its distance from the Pole is about 600 miles. This distance is to be performed by means of two boats, so constructed as to be light, tough, and rather flexible; to be furnished with runners, in the manner of sledges; and to be covered with leather like the Russian baidars, in which long voyages are performed: to have besides a covering or awning of oil-skin, convertible into a sail. Each boat is to be manned with two officers and ten men; and to carry provisions for ninety-two days, which, at the moderate rate of thirteen miles a day, will be sufficient for the performance of the journey to the Pole, and back again to Spitzbergen.

The boats are furnished with runners in the uncertainty of the intermediate space being ice or water: the probability is, that it will be found to consist of both; in which case, the boats will sail in the water, and be dragged over the ice. Captain Parry proposes to take from Spitzbergen a few dogs or rein-deer to assist in dragging the boats; both animals will feed on fish which may perhaps be easily caught; and if their provisions fail, they may become food for the use of the party. ·

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The practicability,' says Captain Parry, of thus reaching the North Pole appears to me to turn wholly on the question of resources. This being the case, it would very soon become a matter of scientific calculation, whether or not the object was within the reach of the resources with which the party was furnished; so that they might at any time proceed or return, according to circumstances. In other respects I can perceive nothing whatever that should make it an enterprize of extraordinary risk. The summer temperature of the Polar regions is by no means uncomfortable; the sun would be constantly above the horizon; and our men have always enjoyed remarkably robust health during excursions of this nature. If open water should frequently occur, it is always sure to be smooth; and even if it were otherwise, a boat hauled up on a floe of ice is as secure as on shore. In fact, the more open water is found, the more easy would be the accomplishment of the enterprize; and taking the chance of such occasional assistance, I cannot but entertain a confident hope that the whole might be completed by the end of August, and the Expedition again in England before the middle of October."

During the three months absence of the Polar party, it is intended to make the boats of the Hecla subservient to the interests of science, by sending out a qualified surveyor to explore and survey the eastern coast of Spitzbergen, of which, not without shame be it spoken, we are at present wholly ignorant. The party left with the ship might also be most usefully employed in conducting a series of experiments on the pendulum, in making a variety of interesting magnetic observations, in attending to the various meteorological phenomena, and in collecting specimens of natural history. It will also be an object of importance to ascertain whether new whale fishing stations may not be discovered on the eastern side of Spitzbergen, to supply the place of those nearly worn out ones on the western side, from which the whales have either been driven away or destroyed by the long and constant visits of ships employed in the fishery-just as the Davis' Strait fishery was worn out on the eastern side, and was annually declining, till Parry led the way to the western shore of that strait, whither the fishing ships now constantly resort, and whence they generally return with full cargoes,

* A decrease of wind invariably takes place in passing under the lee, not merely of a close and extensive body of high and heavy ice, but even of a stream of small piecesand so immediate is this effect, that the moment a ship comes under the lee of such a stream, if under a press of sail, she rights considerably.

Another remarkable feature observable in the Polar regions, at least in those parts encumbered with ice, is the total absence of heavy or dangerous squalls of wind. I cannot call to my recollection a single instance, in the Polar regions, of such squalls as, in other climates, oblige the seaman to lower his topsails during their continuance.'Parry, p. 180.

We verily believe that on the Pole itself, neither wind nor tide, rain nor snow, thunder nor lightning, will be found to exist-or, if any of them exist at all, it will be in the smallest possible degree.

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When we call to mind the enterprizing expedition of the Baron Wrangel, who was forty days on the ice of the Polar Sea, with sledges not convertible into boats, we confess that Parry's projected journey appears to us divested of any very great danger: doubly provided, as he is to be, he will not be exposed, at any rate, to the risk which the Baron experienced, when cast adrift on a pack of ice, and driven about at the mercy of the wind, which fortunately blew him at last only to the coast of Siberia.

We are not here intending to inquire into the various objects attainable by a successful visit to the North Pole; it is enough to satisfy us of its importance, that the government, at the recommendation of one of the most distinguished scientific Boards,* has sanctioned, by act of parliament, the payment of a reward of five thousand pounds to the first vessel that shall approach within one degree of the North Pole. British naval officers, however, who embark on arduous and hazardous enterprizes of this nature, are influenced by higher motives than pecuniary rewards. Dr. Johnson said that the man who had seen the Great Wall of China might be considered as shedding a lustre on his children; but, with how much more brilliant a lustre would this great moralist have decorated the descendants of that man, who had stood on the pivot on which this globe of ours turns, and hoisted the British flag on the most remarkable point on the earth's surface! To such as may raise their feeble objections, and start eternal difficulties, against all daring enterprizes of this nature, (and many such, we doubt not, there are,) Captain Parry may give a reply similar to that ascribed to good Sir Martin Frobisher when dissuaded by his friends from attempting the discovery of a North-West passage-it is the only thing in the world that is left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.' Thus it is that,

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise,

(That last infirmity of noble mind,)

To scorn delights, and live laborious days.'

But leaving the individual adventurer out of the question, the very spirit of enterprize, which such undertakings as these we are speaking of keep alive, is of no inconsiderable moment, in a national point of view, to a country such as ours. They tend, as they have already done, to raise Great Britain, as in better days they did Spain and Portugal-now alas! how fallen!-in the eyes of every civilized nation. It is, indeed, and ought to be a subject of high exultation, that, while a spot remains untrodden by the foot of man, her subjects should be engaged in exploring it; that, with a liberal and enlightened policy, which disregards the prospect of immediate and exclusive benefit, her flag should *The Commissioners of the Board of Longitude.

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