The same sovereign, however, who increased the tolls of the Sound, counterpoised the bad effects of this measure, by the encouragement he gave to manufactures and commerce; in this he was seconded by the Danish gentry, who began to carry on merchandize and factorage themselves, and also established manufactories. Copenhagen at this time was the staple for all Danish merchandize, especially corn, butter, fish, &c.

The commercial history of this country, towards the close of the sixteenth century, is remarkable for having given rise to the earliest dispute, of which we have any notice, respecting, the carrying of naval stores, of contraband of war, in neutral bottoms, to any enemy. It seems that the English merchants endeavoured to evade the custom duties in the Danish ports, particularly on their skins, woollen goods, and tin; on which they were siezed. On a remonstrance however from Elizabeth, they were restored, when the king of Denmark, on his part, complained that the English committed piracies on his subjects; for now, says Camden, there began to grow controversies about such matters, that is, the carrying naval stores, &c. to the Spaniards.

The commercial history of Denmark, during the period to which we are at present confined, presents no other circumstance sufficiently striking or interesting to detain us; for the establishments of this country in the East Indies are too trifling to deserve or require notice in a work whose limits and objects equally confine it to those points which are of primary importance.

The locality of Russia, cut off from the sea till a comparatively late period, except the almost inaccessible sea on which Archangel stands; the ignorance and barbarism of its inhabitants, and its wars with the Tartars, necessarily prevented and incapacitated this immense empire from engaging in any commercial intercourse with the rest of Europe till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it became independent, and began to be powerful. Novogorod, indeed, which was in fact a republic under the jurisdiction of a nominal sovereign, enjoyed in the fifteenth century, a great trade, being then the mart between Russia and the Hanseatic cities. On its conquest by the Russians in the beginning of the next century, the Hanseatic merchants deserted it, though it continued for a considerable period afterward the largest and most commercial city in Russia. In 1509, Basilicus IV. conquered the city and territory of Pleskow and Smolensko, and consolidated the Russian empire, by reducing all the petty principalities into which it had been previously divided. Pleskow, situated near the head of the lake Czudskoc, soon became a celebrated emporium, and before the end of this century was frequented by merchants from Persia, Tartary, Sarmatia, Livonia, Germany, Britain, and other countries.

The accidental discovery of the White Sea by the English, in 1553, has been already narrated: this led to the first intercourse by sea between Russia and the rest of Europe, for previously, whatever of their produce was exported, was carried in Livonian ships. In the following year, the facilities of Russia with Asia were encreased by the conquest of the city and kingdom of Astracan: by this conquest the entire navigation of the Wolga became theirs, and by crossing the Caspian, they carried their commercial transactions into Persia. The spirit of conquest was now alive among them, and exerting itself both to the east and west; for in 1558 they conquered Narva, in Livonia, and by means of it formed a communication with the rest of Europe by the Baltic sea. To this city the Hanseatic merchants removed their mart from Revel. The conquest of Samoieda and Siberia near the close of the sixteenth century, contributed to encrease the exportable commodities of Russia by their furs, salmon, sturgeon, &c.

In the mean time the Russian commerce in the Caspian was increasing: the Persian vessels brought into Astracan dyed silks, calicoes, and Persian stuffs, and returned with cloth, sables, martens, red leather, and old Russia money. The trade from Archangel also increased in a still more rapid manner, principally, as we have already seen, with the English and Dutch. In the year 1655, the exports were valued at the 660,000 rubles, two rubles at that period being equal to one pound sterling. The principal articles were potash, caviare, tallow, hides, sables, and cable yarn; the other articles of less importance, and in smaller quantities, were coarse linen, feathers for beds, tar, linen yarn, beet, rhubarb, Persian silk, cork, bacon, cordage, skins of squirrels, and cats; bees' wax, hogs' birstles, mice and goats' skins, swan and geese down, candles, &c.

Peter the Great became emperor in 1689; he soon unfolded and began to execute his vast plans of conquest, naval power, and commerce. He gained for his country a passage into the Black Sea, by reducing Asoph, at the mouth of the Don, and he soon established a navy on this sea. His personal exertions in Holland and England, to make himself acquainted with ship-building, are well known. The event of his reign, however, which most completely changed the relative situation of Russia, and established her as a commercial nation, was the conquest from Sweden of Livonia, Ingria, and Carelia. Scarcely were these provinces secured to him, when he built, first Cronstadt, and then St. Petersburgh. The erection of this city, and the canals he constructed in the interior for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of merchandize from the more southerly and fertile districts of his empire to the new capital, soon drew to it the greater portion of Russian commerce. Archangel, to which there had previously resorted annually upwards of one hundred ships from England, Holland, Hamburgh, &c. declined; and early in the eighteenth century Petersburgh, then scarcely ten years old, beheld itself a commercial city of great importance.

Having now brought the historical sketch of the progress of discovery and of commercial enterprise down to the commencement of the eighteenth century, it will be necessary, as well as proper, to contract the scale on which the remainder of this volume is to be constructed. For, during nearly the whole of the period which intervenes between the commencement of the eighteenth century and the present time, the materials are either so abundant or so minute, that to insert them all without discrimination and selection, would be to give bulk, without corresponding interest and value, to the work.

So far as discovery is concerned, it is evident, from the sketch of it already given, that nearly the entire outline of the globe had been traced before the period at which we are arrived: what remained was to fill up this outline. In Asia, to gain a more complete knowledge of Hither and Farther India, of China, of the countries to the north of Hindostan, of the north and north-east of Asia, and of some of the Asiatic islands. In Africa, little besides the shores were known; but the nature of the interior, with its burning sands and climate, uninhabitable, or inhabited by inhospitable and barbarous tribes, held out little expectation that another century would add much to our knowledge of that quarter of the world; and though the perseverance and enterprise of the eighteenth century, and what has passed of the nineteenth, have done more than might reasonably have been anticipated, yet, comparatively speaking, how little do we yet know of Africa! America held out the most promising as well as extensive views to future discovery; the form and direction of her north-west coast was to be traced. In South America, the Spaniards had already gained a considerable knowledge of the countries lying between the Atlantic and the Pacific, but in North America, the British colonists had penetrated to a very short distance from the shores on which they were first settled; and from their most western habitations to the Pacific, the country was almost entirely unknown.

The immense extent of the Pacific Ocean, which presented to navigators at the beginning of the eighteenth century but few islands, seemed to promise a more abundant harvest to repeated and more minute examination, and this promise has been fulfilled. New Holland, however, was the only portion of the world of great extent which could be said to be almost entirely unknown at the beginning of the eighteenth century; and the completion of our knowledge of its form and extent may justly be regarded as one of the greatest and most important occurrences to geography contributed by the eighteenth century.

The truth and justice of these observations will, we trust, convince our readers, that, in determining to be more general and concise in what remains of the geographical portion of our works, we shall not be destroying its consistency or altering the nature of its plan, but in fact preserving both; for its great object and design was to trace geographical knowledge from its infancy till it had reached that maturity and vigour, by which, in connection with the corresponding increased civilization, general information and commerce of the world, it was able to advance with rapid strides, and no longer confining itself to geography, strictly so called, to embrace the natural history of those countries, the existence, extent, and form of which it had first ascertained.

The great object and design of the commercial part of this work was similar; to trace the progress of commercial enterprises from the rudest ages of mankind, the changes and transfers it had undergone from one country to another, the causes and effects of these, as well as of its general gradual increase, till, having the whole of Europe under its influence, and aided by that knowledge and civilization with which it had mainly contributed to bless Europe, it had gained its maturity and vigour, and by its own expansive force pushed itself into every part of the globe, in which there existed any thing to attract it.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, commerce had not indeed assumed those features, or reached that form and dimensions by which it was distinguished at the end of this century; but as its dimensions gradually enlarge, it will be necessary to be less particular and more condensed.

Our plan indeed of being more minute in the early history of geographical science and commercial enterprise, is founded on an obvious as well as a just and important principle. In the infancy of geography and commerce, every fact is important, as reflecting light on the knowledge and state of mankind at that period, and as bearing on and conducing to their future progress; whereas when geography and commerce have been carried so far as to proceed in their course as it were by their own internal impulse, derived from the motion they have been acquiring for ages, their interest and importance is much diminished from this cause, as well as from the minuteness of the objects to which,—all the great ones having been previously occupied by them,—they must necessarily be confined.

Several circumstances co-operated to direct geographical discovery, during the eighteenth century, principally towards the north and north-east of Asia, and the north-west of America. The tendency and interest of the Russian empire to stretch itself to the east, and the hope still cherished by the more commercial and maritime nations of Europe, that a passage to the East Indies might be discovered, either by the north-east round Asia, or by the north-west, in the direction of Hudson's Bay, were among the most powerful of the causes which directed discovery towards those parts of the globe to which we have just alluded.

The extent of the Russian discoveries and conquests in the north and north-east of Asia, added much to geographical knowledge, though from the nature of the countries discovered and conquered, the importance of this knowledge is comparatively trifling. About the middle of the seventeenth century, they ascertained that the Frozen Ocean washed and bounded the north of Asia: the first Russian ship sailed down the river Lena to this sea in the year 1636. Three years afterwards, by pushing their conquests from one river to another, and from one rude and wandering tribe to another, they reached the eastern shores of Asia, not far distant from the present site of Ochotsk. Their conquests in this direction had occupied them nearly sixty years; and in this time they had annexed to their empire more than a fourth part of the globe, extending nearly eighty degrees in length, and in the north reaching to the 160 deg. of east longitude; in breadth their conquests extended from the fiftieth to the seventy-fifth degree of north latitude. This conquest was completed by a Cossack; another Cossack, as Malte Brun observes, effected what the most skilful and enterprising of subsequent navigators have in vain attempted. Guided by the winds, and following the course of the tides, the current and the ice, he doubled the extremity of Asia from Kowyma to the river Anadyn. Kamschatcka, however, which is their principal settlement in the east of Asia, was not discovered till the year 1690; five years afterwards they reached it by sea from Ochotsk, but for a long time it was thought to be an island. The Kurile Islands were not discovered till the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The direction of discovery to this part of the world, as well as the plan by which it might be most advantageously and successfully executed, was given by Peter the Great, and affords one proof, that his mind was capacious, though his manners, morals, and conduct, might be those of a half-civilized tyrant. Peter did not live to carry his plan into execution: it was not, however, abandoned or neglected; for certainly the Russian government, much more than any other European government, seems to pursue with a most steady and almost hereditary predilection, all the objects which have once occupied its attention and warmed its ambition. On his death, his empress and her successors, particularly Anne and Elizabeth, contributed every thing in their power to carry his plan into full and complete execution. They went from Archangel to the Ob, from the Ob to the Jenesei. From the Jenesei they reached the Lena, partly by water and partly by land; from the Lena they went to the eastward as far as the Judigirka: and from Ochotsk they went by the Kurile Islands to Japan.

One of the most celebrated men engaged in the Russian discoveries in the early part of the eighteenth century was Behring: he was a Dane by birth, but in the service of Catherine, the widow of Peter the Great, who fixed upon him to carry into execution one of the most favourite plans of her husband. During Peter's residence in Holland, in the year 1717, the Dutch, who were still disposed to believe that a passage might be discovered to the East Indies in the northern parts of America, or Asia, urged the Emperor to send out an expedition to determine this point. There was also another point, less interesting indeed to commercial men, but on which geographers had bestowed much labour, which it was stated to the Emperor might be ascertained by the same expedition; this was, whether Asia and America were united, or divided by a sea, towards their northern extremities.

When Peter the Great returned to Russia, he resolved to attempt the solution of these problems; and with his own hand drew up a set of instructions for the proposed voyage; according to these, the vessels to be employed were to be built in Kamschatka; the unknown coasts of Asia and America were to be explored, and an accurate journal was to be kept.

It is not known whether the Emperor was induced to plan this expedition solely on the representations which were made to him in Holland, or from a belief that the close vicinity of the two continents of Asia and America had already been ascertained, or at least rendered highly probable, by some of his own subjects. It is certain that the Russians and the Cossacks in their service had reached the great promontory of Asia opposite to America; and it is said that the islands lying in Behring Straits, and even the continent beyond them, were known to them by report.

Peter, however, did not live to accomplish his design; and, as we have already noticed, his widow Catherine fixed upon Behring to conduct the expedition. After building a vessel in Kamschatka, he sailed in 1728: his first object was to examine the coast of this part of Asia. He was the first who ascertained Kamschatka to be a peninsula, and he framed an accurate chart of it, which is still regarded as one of the best extant. After reaching a Cape in north latitude 67 deg. 18', and being informed by the inhabitants that beyond it the coast bended to the west, he resolved to alter his course to the south. This was accordingly done, but he did not discover the opposite coast of America; several circumstances were noticed, however, which indicated that there was land to the east, at no great distance, such as floating pine branches and other species of plants, unknown on the coast of Asia; these were always driven ashore when easterly winds prevailed. The inhabitants also informed him, that, in very clear weather, they were able, from the top of their highest mountains, to descry land to the east.

Encouraged by these circumstances, Behring resolved to undertake a second voyage from Kamschatka: in this voyage he was accompanied by a Russian, named Tchirikoff. They steered east, and first sought for land, which was said to have been discovered between the latitude of 40 deg. and 50 deg.; but finding none, they separated, and steering further north, the Russian discovered the continent of America in about 56-1/2 deg., and Behring 2 deg. further north. On his return, the latter was wrecked in the island which bears his name, where he died.

About four years after the death of this navigator, which happened in 1741, the sea between Asia and America was visited by some Russian merchants, who obtained permission from the government to make discoveries, hunt and trade; the vessels employed for this purpose were formed of a few boards fastened together with leathern thongs; yet in these were discovered the Aleutian Islands. Soon afterwards another group of islands were discovered; and then a third group, the Black Fox Islands, which are near the American continent. It was not, however, till the year 1760, that the Russians learnt that Ochotsk was only separated from America by a narrow strait; and it is said that in 1764, a Russian mercantile company sent out some vessels, which passed through a strait to some inhabited islands in 64 deg. north latitude; these were supposed to belong to the continent of America; but if a strait was discovered by these adventurers, there must be an error in the latitude, as in 64 deg. there is no opening known to exist.

It was reserved for an English navigator to ascertain the truth of the report which the Russians had received from the inhabitants of Ochotsk, that their country was separated from America only by a narrow strait.

This was done during the third and last voyage of Captain Cook; the principal design of which was to ascertain the existence and practicability of a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, either to the north-east or north-west. For this purpose he carefully examined the north- west coast of America, beginning this examination in the latitude of 44 deg. 33' north. Previously to this voyage an act of Parliament was passed, granting a reward of 20,000l. to any person who should discover any northern passage by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in any parallel to the northward of the 52 deg. of northern latitude. This voyage of Cook began in 1778; on the 9th of August, in that year, he ascertained the position and latitude of the western extremity of America, and soon afterwards he determined the width of that strait which divides the two continents. He then steered to the north, and continuing up the strait till he was in the latitude 70 deg. 41', he found himself close to the edge of the ice which "was as compact as a wall," and ten or twelve feet high. He was of course obliged to return to the south, and in this part of his voyage he observed, on the American side, a low point in latitude 70 deg. 29', to which he gave the name of Icy Cape. After the death of Cook, Captain Clarke entered the strait on the Asiatic side, and reached the latitude of 70 deg. 33'; he afterwards got sight of the land on the American side in latitude 69 deg. 34'. Such were the results of the last voyage of Captain Cook, respecting the proximity of Asia and America, and the nature of the strait by which they were divided.

Although the Spaniards seemed to be most interested in whatever concerned the west coast of America, yet they made no attempt to explore it from the commencement of the seventeenth century till the year 1774. In 1769, indeed, being alarmed at the evident design of the Russians to settle in the north-west coast, they formed establishments at St. Diego and Montory. In 1774 they traced the American coast from latitude 53 deg. 53' to latitude 55 deg., and it is said discovered Nootka Sound. In the following year an expedition was sent from St. Blas, which proceeded along the north-west coast, and reached to latitude 57 deg. 58'.

The voyage of Cook roused the Russian government to further exertions; and they accordingly fitted out an expedition to explore the sea between Asia and America: the command of it was given to an Englishman of the name of Billings, who had served as a petty officer under Captain Cook. He was, however, by no means qualified for his situation, and abandoned the enterprise in the latter end of July, having proceeded only a few leagues beyond Cape Barrenoi: the whole amount of the information procured during this voyage being confined to a few of the Aleutian Islands, and some points in the coast of America and Asia.

A few years afterwards the Empress Catherine sent out a secret expedition; the principal object of which was to ascertain the situation of the islands between the two continents. Little is known respecting this expedition, except that some observations were made on Behring's Straits, which, however, were not passed. The distance between the continents was estimated at forty-eight miles.

About the same time, the great profits which it was expected would be derived from the fur trade on the north-west coast of America, induced several commercial vessels to visit it; and during their voyages, nearly all the parts of it which had not been visited by Cook, were examined as far as the inlet which was named after him, in latitude 61 deg. 15'. This extent of coast was found to consist of a vast chain of islands; and the appearance and nature of it revived the hope which Cook's last voyage had extinguished, that in this part of the coast there might be a practicable passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean.

This hope was again extinguished in the opinion of most people, by the result of two of the most celebrated voyages which have been performed since the death of Captain Cook: we allude to the voyages of La Perouse, and of Vancouver: the former sailed with two frigates from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785: the object of this voyage was very comprehensive and important, being no less than to fill up whatever had been left deficient or obscure by former navigators, and to determine whatever was doubtful, so as to render the geography of the globe as complete and minute as possible: he was directed to supply the island in the South Seas with useful European vegetables. At present we shall confine our notice of this voyage to what relates to the more immediate object of this part of our work, the coast of North-west America.

The north-west coast of America was made by La Perouse, in latitude sixty degrees north: from this latitude he carefully traced and examined it to the Spanish settlement of Monterey.—an extent of coast of which Cook had had only a transient and imperfect view. Of this he constructed a chart, which at the time was justly regarded as extremely accurate and complete, but was subsequently rendered much more so by the survey of particular points and bays made by the vessels engaged in the fur trade, and especially by that which was constructed by Vancouver, from a close and careful examination of the numerous channels with which this coast abounds, principally performed in boats, and therefore descending into very minute details.

The accessions made by him to geography in other parts of the globe, as well as his unfortunate fate, will be afterwards related.

In the year 1790, a dispute arose between Britain and Spain, respecting Nootka Sound: on the adjustment of this dispute, the British government determined to send out an officer to secure possession of the settlement, and also to determine the question respecting the existence of a navigable passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Captain Vancouver was selected for these purposes: his instructions were, after accomplishing his mission at Nootka Sound, to examine that part of the coast occupied by the chain of islands, discovered by the vessels in the fur trade, "and to ascertain, with the greatest exactitude, the nature and extent of every communication by water which might seem to tend to facilitate commercial relations between the north-west coast and the countries on the east of the continent, inhabited by British subjects or claimed by Great Britain;" and in particular to search for the strait of John de Fuca, and to examine if Cook's River had not its source in some of the lakes frequented by the Canadian traders, or by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company.

He sailed from England with a sloop and brig on the 1st of April, 1791. He began his examination of the west coast of America, in latitude 39 deg. 27' north, and continued it as far as Nootka: finding that the Spaniards raised difficulties to the restoration of this settlement, he proceeded to carry into execution the other objects of this voyage. During three summers, he surveyed the north-west coast of America as far as Cook's River, with a diligence, attention, and accuracy which could not have been surpassed. Every opening which presented itself was explored, and never left till its termination was determined; so that on a very careful and minute inspection of every creek and inlet of a coast consisting almost entirely of creeks and channels, formed by an innumerable multitude of islands, he thought himself justified in pronouncing, that there is no navigable passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, unless there may be a possibility of sailing through the strait between Asia and America, and navigating the Frozen Ocean. The surveys which were made during this voyage, may justly be said to have rendered perfect the geography of that part of the north-west coast of America to which it extended, and indeed to have completed the whole geography of this coast, which, from the multitude of its creeks, inlets, islands, &c., presents formidable as well as petty and troublesome difficulties in the way of its accurate and complete survey. Captain Vancouver, however, was extremely fortunate in the weather which attended him during the whole of the three summers which he spent on this coast.

Upwards of twenty years elapsed after the voyage of Vancouver, before another attempt was made to find out a passage from the north Pacific into the Atlantic Ocean. This attempt proceeded from Russia: not however from the government, but an individual. Count Romanzoff, a Russian nobleman, is well known for his liberal and judicious encouragement of every thing which can promote useful knowledge, especially in what relates to the improvement and benefit of his country. His first design was to fit out an expedition to explore the north-west passage by Hudson's Bay or Davis' Straits; but learning that the British government were making preparations to attempt it by that route, he changed his plan, and resolved to fit out an expedition to attempt the discovery of a passage from the eastward.

A ship was accordingly built and equipped, and the command given to Lieutenant Kotzebue. He sailed from Russia in the autumn of 1815, and on the 19th of June in the following year he reached Kamschatka. This he left on the 15th of July and on the 20th of that month, Behring's Islands were seen to the northward of Cape Prince of Wales. A tract of low land was ascertained to be an island about seven miles long, and a mile across, in the widest part: beyond it was a deep inlet running eastward into the continent. Lieutenant Kotzebue, animated and encouraged by this appearance, proceeded in a northerly direction, and found that the land continued low, and tended more to the eastwards. On the 1st of August the entrance into a broad inlet was discovered, into which the current ran very rapidly. The opening of this inlet was known before, and is indeed laid down in the charts attached to Marchand's Voyage round the World; but Kotzebue is certainly the first person who explained it. As it was perfectly calm when he reached this inlet, he resolved to go on shore, and examine from some eminence the direction of the coast. "We landed," he observes, "without difficulty, near a hill, which I immediately ascended; from the summit I could no where perceive land in the strait: the high mountains to the north either formed islands, or were a coast by themselves; for that the two coasts could not be connected together was evident, even from the very great difference between this very low and that remarkably high land. It was my intention to continue the survey of the coast in the boats, but a number of baydares coming to us along the coast from the east, withheld me." He afterwards had an interview with the Americans who came in these baydares: he found that they prized tobacco very highly, and that they received this and other European goods from the natives of the opposite coast of Asia. It was probably the first time in their lives that these Americans had seen Europeans. They were of the middle size; robust and healthy; ugly and dirty; with small eyes, and very high cheek bones: "they bore holes on each side of their mouths, in which they wear morse bones, ornamented with blue glass beads, which give them a most frightful appearance. Their dresses, which are made of skins, are of the same cut as the Parka, in Kamtschatka; only that there they reach to the feet, and here hardly cover the knee: besides this, they wear pantaloons, and small half boots of seal skins."

The latitude of this place, or rather of the ship's anchorage, at the time this survey was made, was 66 deg. 42' 30", and the longitude 164 deg. 12' 50". There were several circumstances which induced Kotzebue to hope that he had at length found the channel which led to the Atlantic: nothing was seen but sea to the eastward, and a strong current ran to the north-east. Under these circumstances, thirteen days were occupied in examining the shores of this opening; but no outlet was discovered, except one to the south-east, which seemed to communicate with Norton Sound, and a channel on the western side, which of course could not be the one sought for. Kotzebue, however, remarks, "I certainly hope that this sound may lead to important discoveries next year; and though a north-east passage may not with certainty be depended on, yet I believe I shall be able to penetrate much farther to the east, as the land has very deep indentures." The name of Kotzebue's Sound was given to this inlet. Next year he returned to prosecute his discovery; but in consequence of an accident which happened to the ship, and a very dangerous blow which he received at the same time, he abandoned the attempt.

That there is an opening, either by Kotzebue's Inlet or near to it, to the Frozen Ocean, is probable, not only from the circumstances we have mentioned of an opening and a strong current to the north-east having been observed, but also from other circumstances noticed in the account of this voyage. This current brings large quantities of drift wood into Kotzebue's Sound: and in the breaking up of the ice in the sea of Kamschatka, the icebergs and fields of ice do not drift, as in the Atlantic, to the south, nor do they drive to the Atlantic islands, but into the strait to the north. The direction of the current was always north-east in Behring's Straits; and it was so strong and rapid, as to carry the ship fifty miles in twenty-four hours; that is, above two miles an hour. On the Asiatic side of the strait it ran at the rate of three miles an hour; and even with a fresh north wind, it ran equally strong from the south. The inference drawn by Kotzebue is as follows: "The constant north-east direction of the current in Behring's Straits, proves that the water meets with no opposition, and consequently a passage must exist, though perhaps not adapted to navigation. Observations have long been made, that the current in Baffin's Bay runs to the south; and thus no doubt can remain that the mass of water which flows into Behring's Straits takes its course round America, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the Ocean."

In 1819 the Russian government sent out another expedition, whose object was to trace the continent of America to the northward and eastward. In July, 1820, they reached Behring's Straits, and were supposed to have passed them in that year; in the winter they returned to some of the Russian settlements on the coast of America: what they have since done or discovered is not known.

Such is the result of what has hitherto been discovered by sea, with respect to the contiguity of Asia and America, the northern parts of these continents, and the probability of a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Very lately some attempts have been made to reach the north-eastern extremity of Asia by land. "In February, 1821, Baron Wrangel, an officer of great merit and of considerable science, left his head-quarters in the Nishney Kolyma, to settle by astronomical observations the position of Shatatzkoi Noss, or the North-east Cape of Asia, which he found to lie in latitude 70 deg. 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed in the maps. Having crossed this point, he undertook the hazardous enterprize of crossing the ice of the Polar Sea, on sledges drawn by dogs, in search of the land said to have been discovered in 1762 to the northward of the Kolyma, He travelled directly north eighty miles, without perceiving any thing but a field of interminable ice, the surface of which had now become so broken and uneven, as to prevent a further prosecution of his journey. He had gone far enough, however, to ascertain that no such land had ever been discovered." (Quarterly Review, No. LII. p. 342.)

Another attempt, still more extraordinary and hazardous, has lately been made to explore the north-east of Asia, and particularly to determine whether the two continents of Asia and America do not unite at the North-east Cape, or in some other point. This enterprize was undertaken by Henry Dundas Cochrane, a commander in the British navy; who received assurances from the Russian government that he should not be molested on his journey; that he should receive any assistance, protection, and facilities he should require; and that he might join an expedition sent by the Russian government toward the Pole, if he should meet it, and accompany it as far as he might be inclined. He left Petersburgh in the beginning of the summer of 1820, and in one hundred and twenty-three days reached the Baikal, having traversed eight thousand versts of country, at the rate of forty-three miles a day. He seems afterwards to have gone as far as the Altai Mountains, on the frontiers of China. As, however, his principal object was to explore the extreme north-east of Asia, he went down the Lena, and reached Jakutzk on the 16th of October, 1820. On the Kolyma, where he arrived on the 30th of December, in longitude 164 deg., he met the Russian polar expedition. From Jakutzk to this place he travelled four hundred miles, without meeting a single human being. At the fair held at Tchutski, whither he next directed his steps, he received much information respecting the northeast of Asia. He ascertained the existence of this cape; all doubts, he says, being now solved, not by calculation, but by ocular demonstration. Its latitude and longitude, are well ascertained: he places this cape half a degree more to the northward than Baron Wrangel; but it is doubtful whether he himself reached it, and if he did, whether he had the means of fixing its latitude, or whether he depends entirely on the information he received at the fair of Tchutski. His expressions, in a letter to the President of the Royal Society, are, "No land is considered to exist to the northward of it. The east side of the Noss is composed of bold and perpendicular cliffs, while the west side exhibits gradual declivities; the whole most sterile, but presenting an awfully magnificent appearance." From the fair he seems to have returned to Kolyma, and thence proceeded to Okotsk, a dangerous, difficult, and fatiguing journey of three thousand versts, a great part performed on foot, in seventy days. From this last place he proceeded to Kamschatka, where it is supposed he was obliged to terminate his investigations, in consequence of an order or intimation from the Russian government not to proceed further.

We must next direct our attention to what has been done since the commencement of the eighteenth century, toward discovering a passage in the north-east of America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

One of the conditions on which the Hudson's Bay Company obtained their charter, in the year 1670, from Charles II., was, that they should prosecute their discoveries; but so far from doing this, they are accused, and with great appearance of reason, of not only suffering their ardour for discovery to cool, but also of endeavouring to conceal, as much as possible, the true situation and nature of the coast about Hudson's Bay, partly in order to secure more effectually their monopoly, and partly from the dread they entertained, that if a passage to the Pacific were discovered by this route, government would recal their charter, and grant it to the East India Company. They were indeed roused, but very ineffectively, from their torpor, by one of their captains intimating, that if they refused to fulfill the terms of their charter, by making discoveries, and extending their trade, he would himself apply to the crown. In order to silence him, they sent him and another captain out in two vessels, in 1719 or 1720; but they both perished, it is supposed, near Marble Island, without effecting any thing.

Two years afterwards they sent out another ship under the command of a person, who, destitute of the requisite knowledge and enterprize, was totally unfit for such an undertaking: the result was such as might have been anticipated—nothing was effected. An interval of twenty years passed over, and the company again sank into apathy on the subject of a north-west passage, when the attention of government was directed to the subject by the enthusiasm of an Irish gentleman of the name of Dobbs. Having well considered what preceding navigators had ascertained, and especially the remarkable circumstance particularly noticed by Fox, that the farther he removed from Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome the smaller was the height to which the tide rose, and who thence inferred, that if a passage were practicable, it must be in this direction, this gentleman applied to the company to send out a vessel. Accordingly, a vessel was sent; but all that is known of this voyage, and probably all that was done, amounts merely to this, that the vessel reached 62 deg. 30' north latitude: here they saw a number of islands, and of white whales, and ascertained that the tide rose ten or twelve feet, and came from the north.

Mr. Dobbs next applied to government, who at his request sent out two vessels under Captain Middleton. But Middleton, who had been in the service of the company for many voyages, returned after having sailed up the Welcome to Wager's River, and looked into, or perhaps sailed round, a bay, which he named Repulse Bay. Mr. Dobbs accused him of having misrepresented or concealed his discoveries; and there seems good ground for such an accusation, which indeed was confirmed by the evidence of his officers, and not explicitly denied by himself. Government was undoubtedly of opinion that the voyage of Middleton had not determined the non-existence or impracticability of a passage; for the next year an act of parliament was passed, granting a reward of 20,000l. to the person or persons who should discover a northwest passage through Hudson's Straits to the western and southern ocean of America.

Stimulated by the hope of obtaining this large sum, a company was formed, who raised 10,000l., in shares of 100l., with which they fitted out two ships; the Dobbs, commanded by Captain More; and the California, by Captain Smith. They sailed from London on the 20th of May, 1746. When they reached the American coast near Marble Island, they made some observations on the tides, which they found flowed from the north-east, and consequently followed the direction of the coast; they likewise ascertained that the tide rose to the height of ten feet. While they were in their winter quarters at Port Jackson, they received little or no assistance from the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. On resuming their voyage, and reaching the vicinity of Knight's Island, the needles of their compasses lost their magnetic quality, which they did not recover till they were kept warm. Proceeding northwards, they examined Wager's Strait; but in consequence of a difference of opinion between the commanders, they returned to England. The only points ascertained by this voyage were, that Wager's Strait was a deep bay, or inlet, and that there existed another inlet, which, however, they did not explore to the termination, named by them Chesterfield's Inlet. The fresh buffalo's flesh, which was sold to them by the Esquimaux, was probably the flesh of the musk ox.

After this voyage nothing was done, either by the Hudson's Bay Company, government, or individuals, towards the exploring of a passage in the north, till the year 1762, when the company, coinciding with the opinion that was then prevalent, that Chesterfield's Inlet ought to be examined, as affording a fair prospect of a passage into the Pacific Ocean, sent a vessel to determine this point. The report of the captain, on his return, was, that he had sailed up the inlet in a westerly direction for more than one hundred and fifty miles, till he found the water perfectly fresh; but he acknowledged that he did not go farther, or reach the head of it. As the result of this voyage was deemed unsatisfactory, still leaving the point which it had been its object to determine doubtful, the same captain was again sent out, in company with another ship, with express directions to trace the inlet to its western limits, if practicable. They ascertained that the fresh water, which had been discovered in the former voyage, was that of a river, which was the outlet of a lake, and this lake they explored; it was twenty-four miles long, and six or seven broad; they likewise found a river flowing into the lake from the west, but they were prevented from exploring it to any great distance by falls, that intercepted the progress of their boats. These particulars are detailed in Goldson's Observations on the Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; the voyages themselves were never published, do not seem to be generally known, and have escaped the notice of Forster, the author of the History of Voyages and Discoveries in the North. Forster is likewise silent respecting an expedition that was equipped and sent out by some gentlemen of Virginia in 1772, to attempt a north-west passage. The captain on his return reported that he reached a large bay in latitude 69 deg. 11', which he supposed hitherto unknown; that from the course of the tides, he thought it probable there might be a passage through it, but that as this bay was seldom free from ice, the passage could seldom if ever be practicable.

In the year 1770 the Hudson's Bay Company, more alive to the prospect of gain than to the interests of discovery and geographical science, having received some information from the Indians that copper might be obtained in great quantity far to the west of Fort Prince of Wales, resolved to dispatch Mr. Hearne, belonging to that fort, in search of it. This gentleman made four different excursions for this purpose, but it was only during the fourth that he reached to any great distance from the fort. In this excursion he penetrated to what he conceived to be the mouth of the Coppermine River, in the Frozen Ocean, about the latitude of 72 deg. north. According to his account, Chesterfield Inlet is not the north-west passage, and the American continent stretches very considerably to the north-west of Hudson's Bay. The whole extent of his journey was about thirteen hundred miles. It was however doubted, whether what he deemed to be the mouth of the Coppermine River was actually such. It is certainly singular, that though he staid there for twenty-four hours, he did not actually ascertain the height to which the tide rose, but judged at that circumstance from the marks on the edge of the ice. There are other points in the printed account, as well as discrepancies between that and his MS., which tended to withhold implicit belief from his assertion, that he had reached the Frozen Ocean.

In the year 1789 the North-west Company having received information from an Indian, that there was at no great distance from Montreal, to the northward, a river which ran into the sea, Mr. M'Kenzie, one of the partners of that company, resolved to ascertain the truth of this report, by going himself on an expedition for that purpose. He set out, attended by a few Indians; and after traversing the desert and inhospitable country in which the posts of the company are established, he reached a river which ran to the north. He followed the course of this river till he arrived at what he conceived to be the Frozen Ocean, were he saw some small whales among the ice, and determined the rise and fall of the tide. This river was called after him, Mackenzie's River, and to the island he gave the name of Whale Island. This island is in latitude 69 deg. 14'.

In 1793 Mr. M'Kenzie again set out on an inland voyage of geographical and commercial discovery, taking with him the requisite astronomical instruments and a chronometer. His course he directed to the west. After travelling one hundred miles on foot, he and his companions embarked on a river, running westward, which conveyed them to an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Here he observed the rise and fall of the tide, and saw porpoises and sea otters. The claim of the discovery of the Frozen Ocean by a north-west route, to which Mr. M'Kenzie lays claim, has been questioned, as well as Mr. Hearne's claim. It has been remarked, that he might have ascertained beyond a doubt whether he had actually reached the sea, by simply dipping his finger into the water, and ascertaining whether it was salt or not. The account he gives of the rise of the tides at the mouth of Mackenzie River serves also to render it very doubtful whether he had reached the ocean; this rise he does not estimate greater than sixteen or eighteen inches. On the whole, we may conclude, that if Mr. Hearne actually traced the Coppermine River to its entrance into the sea, or Mr. M'Kenzie the river that bears his name, they have not been sufficiently explicit in their proofs that such was really the case.

At the time when the British government sent out Captain Cooke on his last voyage of discovery, Lieutenant Pickersgill was also sent out by them, to examine the western parts of Baffin's Bay, but he never entered the bay. Government were equally unfortunate in their choice of Lieutenant Young, who was sent with the same object the following year: he reached no farther than the seventy-second degree of latitude; and instead of sailing along the western side of the bay, which is generally free from ice, he clung to the eastern side, to which the ice is always firmly attached. Indeed, if Dr. Douglas's character of him was just, he was ill fitted for the enterprize on which he was sent; for his talents, he observes, were more adapted to contribute to the glory of a victory, as commander of a line-of-battle ship, than to add to geographical discoveries by encountering mountains of ice, and exploring unknown coasts.

Notwithstanding the unsuccessful issue of all these attempts to discover a north-west passage, the existence and practicability of it still were cherished by many geographers, who had particularly studied the subject. Indeed, nothing had resulted from any of the numerous voyages to the Hudson's or Baffin's Bay, which in the smallest degree rendered the existence of such a passage unlikely. Among those scientific men who cherished the idea of such a passage with the most enthusiasm and confidence, and who brought to the investigation the most extensive and minute knowledge of all that had been done, was Mr. Dalrymple, hydrographer to the Admiralty. "He had long been of opinion, that not only Greenland, but all the land seen by Baffin on the northern and eastern sides of the great bay bearing his name, was composed of clusters of islands, and that a passage through the Fretum Davis, round the northern extremity of Cumberland Island, led directly to the North Sea, from the seventy to the seventy-first degree of latitude." This opinion of Mr. Dalrymple was grounded, in part at least, on the authority of an old globe, one of the first constructed in Britain, preserved in the library of the Inner Temple: this globe contains all the discoveries of our early navigators. Davis refers to it; and Hackluyt, in his edition of 1589, describes it "as a very large and most exact terrestrial globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugal, and English, composed by Mr. Emmeric Molyneaux, of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession, being therein for diverse years greatly supported by the purse and liberality of the worshipful merchant Mr. William Sanderson."

Mr. Dalrymple prevailed on the Hudson's Bay Company to send out Mr. Duncan, a master in the navy, who had displayed considerable talent on a voyage to Nootka Sound. This gentleman was very sanguine of success, and very zealous in the cause in which he was employed. But this attempt also was unsuccessful: Mr. Duncan, after a considerable lapse of time, reaching no farther than Chesterfield Inlet.

The attention of scientific men, and of the public at large, was called again to this important problem in the geography of the northern seas, by some elaborate and well informed articles in the Quarterly Review, which are generally supposed to be written by Mr. Barrow, the under secretary of the Admiralty, who also published an abstract of voyages to the Northern Ocean.

The British government, influenced by a very laudable love of science, and perhaps regarding the discovery of a north-west passage as of the same importance to commerce as the reviewer evidently did, resolved to send an expedition for the purpose of attempting the discovery. Accordingly, on the 8th of April 1818, two ships, the Isabella and Alexander, well fitted by their construction, as well as strengthened and prepared in every possible manner for such a voyage, sailed from the Thames. Captain Ross had the principal command. It is not our design here to follow them during their voyage to their destination: suffice it to say, that on the 18th of August, exactly four months after they sailed from the Thames, the ships passed Cape Dudley Digges, the latitude of which they found to agree nearly with that assigned to it by Baffin, thus affording another proof of the accuracy of that old navigator, whose alleged discoveries have been latterly attempted to be wrested from him, or rather been utterly denied. The same day they passed an inlet, to which Baffin had given the name of Wolstenholme Sound. Captain Ross, in his account of his voyage, says it was completely blocked up with ice; but in the view taken of it, and published by him, there is a deep and wide opening, completely free from ice. In fact, on this occasion, as well as others of more consequence, to which we shall presently advert, Captain Ross, unfortunately for the accomplishment of the object on which he was sent, contented himself with conjecture where proof was accessible; for all he remarks respecting this sound is, that it seemed to be eighteen or twenty leagues in depth, and the land on the east side appeared to be habitable. When it is considered that in these high and foggy latitudes much deception of sight takes place, it ought to be the absolute and undeviating rule of the navigator to explore so far, and to examine so carefully and closely, that he may be certain, at least, that his sight does not deceive him. The same negligence attended the examination of Whale Sound: all the notice of it is, that they could not approach it in a direct line, on account of ice; it was, in fact, never approached nearer than twenty leagues. Captain Ross does not seem to have been fully sensible of the nature of the object on which he was sent out. If there existed a passage at all, it must be in a strait, sound, or some other opening of the sea: it could exist no where else. Every such opening, which exhibited the least appearance, or the smallest symptoms of stretching far, especially if it stretched in the proper direction, ought to have been practically and closely examined, not merely viewed at a distance in a foggy atmosphere. As for the impediments, they were what were to be expected, what the ships were sent out to meet and overcome; and till persevering and even highly hazardous efforts had proved that they could not be overcome, they ought not to have been suffered to weigh the least with the captain or his men, and especially not with the former.

But to proceed: about midnight on the 19th of August, the sound described by Baffin to be the largest of all the sounds he discovered, and called by him Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, was distinctly seen; and the two capes which formed its entrance were called by Captain Ross after the two ships Isabella and Alexander. "I considered," he informs us, "the bottom of this sound to be about eighteen leagues distant, but its entrance was completely blocked up by ice." Here again, a sound which seemed to promise fair to lead them into the great Polar Sea was left undiscovered, and in fact unapproached; for at the distance of eighteen leagues, in that deceptive climate, nothing could be really known of its real state or practicability. Had Captain Ross made the attempt; had he spent but a couple of days, and actually encountered serious obstacles, even though he had not experienced that those obstacles were insurmountable, he would have had some excuse; but it is impossible not to censure him for approaching no nearer than eighteen leagues to a sound such as this, and pronouncing at this distance that the ice blocked it up completely. His reasoning to support his belief that this sound afforded no passage, and to defend his not having explored it, is weak and inconclusive; but we shall not examine it, because the commander to whom such an expedition is entrusted, should never reason, where he can prove by actual observation and experiment. It is unsafe in him to reason, because he will most assuredly be tempted to make his line of conduct bend to his hypothesis and reasoning.

Captain Ross returned down the western side of Baffin's Bay. On the 21st an opening was seen, which answered to the description of Alderman Jones Sound, given by Baffin; but here again the ice and fog prevented them from approaching near; as if the fog might not have cleared up in a day or two, and the ice might not either have been drifted off in as short a space, or, if it could not, have been passed by the crew, so far, at least, as to have gained a nearer and better view of this sound.

Baffin describes this sound as a large inlet, and adds, that the coast tended to the southward, and had the appearance of a bay. This is confirmed by Captain Ross; for he informs us that the land was observed to take a southerly direction. On the 28th of August the sea became more clear of ice, and no bottom was found with three hundred fathoms of line: in the afternoon of that day they succeeded in getting completely clear of the ice, and once more found themselves in the open sea. Baffin and Davis both mention that the northern parts of Baffin's Bay were clear of ice when they were there, so that it is probably generally the case. On the 29th a wide opening was descried in the land; this they entered on the following day. "On each side was a chain of high mountains; and in the space between, W. S.W., there appeared a yellow sky, but no land was seen, nor was there any ice on the water, except a few icebergs; the opening therefore took the appearance of a channel, the entrance of which was judged to be forty-five miles; the land on the north side lying in an E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction, and the south side nearly east and west." "As the evening closed, the wind died away, the weather became mild and warm, the water much smoother, and the atmosphere clear and serene."

Even those who are little acquainted with the symptoms which in this high latitude indicate an open sea, must be struck with the wide difference between these circumstances and those which had met the navigators in almost every other part of their voyage, since they had approached the place where a passage might possibly exist and be found. Yet, even at this time and place, when expectation must have been high, and not without good reason, and when we are expressly informed by Captain Ross that much interest was excited by the appearance of the sound, the attempt to ascertain, by close and accurate investigation, whether this sound was really closed at its extremity, or led into another sea, was given up, after having sailed into it during the night, and till three o'clock the following day. It is unnecessary here to examine the reasons which induced Captain Ross to leave this sound without putting the question of its nature and termination beyond a doubt, by an accurate and close survey. He says, that at three o'clock he distinctly saw the land round the bottom of the bay, forming a connected chain of mountains with those which extended along the north and south sides. No person seems to have been on deck when this land was seen by the captain, and orders in consequence given to put the ships about, except Mr. Lewis, the master, and another. So that in this latitude, where the sight at all times is mocked with fogs and other circumstances which mislead it, and where, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that as many eyes as possible should be employed, that these should get as near the object as possible, that it should be viewed for a considerable length of time, and under as many aspects, and from as many points as possible—not a subordinate or incidental design of the voyage, but that for which it was expressly made, was abandoned, and on the sole responsibility of the captain and two other persons.

It is evident, too, that the entrance to many inland seas seems, when viewed from a distance, to be blocked up by connected land. It is well observed by the reviewer, whom we have already quoted, that there is not a reach in the Thames that to the eye does not appear to terminate the river; and in many of them (in the Hope, for instance) it is utterly impossible to form a conjecture, at the distance of only two or three miles, what part of the land is intersected by the stream.

Although, however, this voyage was abandoned when it ought not to have been, and consequently failed in its peculiar and important object, yet some access to geographical knowledge was gained by it. The existence of Baffin's Bay is confirmed, though its width and form are different from those which were previously assigned it in the maps; and thus this enterprising and deserving navigator has at length justice done to him.

Other branches of science were benefited and extended by this voyage, however unsuccessful it proved in its grand and leading object; and some of the accessions were of a very interesting nature. We allude principally to the observations made on the swinging of the pendulum,—the variation and dip of the magnetic needle,—especially by the influence of the iron in and about the ship,—and on the temperature of the sea at different depths.

Soon after the return of this expedition, an order in council was issued, which empowered and authorized the Board of Longitude to adopt a graduated scale of rewards, proportioned to the progress of discovery made to the westward in these high northern latitudes, from Hudson's or Baffin's Bay, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. The first point of this graduated scale is the meridian of the Coppermine River of Hearne, and whatever ship reaches this is entitled to a reward of 5000l. Government were so convinced that Captain Ross's voyage had increased the probability of a north-west passage, that they determined to lose no time in making another attempt to discover it; and in order to afford every chance of success to this second attempt, they also determined, not only to send out a maritime expedition, to follow out the route which Captain Ross had so unaccountably and provokingly abandoned, but also to send out a land expedition, to co-operate in the same grand object.

The latter, under the command and direction of Lieutenant Franklin, was ordered to proceed from Fort York, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, to the mouth of the Coppermine River; and from thence along the shores of the Polar Sea, either to the east or to the north, as circumstances might determine: they were expressly to have in view the determination of the question regarding the position of the northeastern extremity of the continent of America. As the route of this land expedition lay for a great part of it through those districts within which the Hudson's Bay Company were accustomed to travel and trade, their co-operation and assistance was requested and obtained. The exact results of this land expedition are not yet fully and clearly known; but it is generally understood, that after having undergone infinite hardships and sufferings, they have been enabled to confirm Hearne and Mackenzie's discoveries or conjectures respecting the Coppermine River, and to ascertain other points connected with the geography and natural history of these remote and almost inaccessible regions, though the most important and leading points of the expedition have not been settled. [6]

In consequence of Captain Ross having penetrated into Baffin's Bay, an object only accomplished once before by Baffin himself, and which for two hundred years had been frequently again fruitlessly attempted, the Greenland ships which left England during the season immediately following Captain Ross's return, were induced, in order to reach a fresh and unfished sea, to pursue the course that he had opened for them. The circumstance that fourteen of them were wrecked, proves, unless the season had been uncommonly tempestuous, that Captain Ross must have conducted his expedition with considerable care and skill, notwithstanding he missed an excellent opportunity of either discovering a north-west passage, or of adding one more opening to those which were proved not to contain it.

The second sea expedition, to which we have already alluded, was under the direction of Captain Parry, who had sailed along with Captain Ross in the first expedition; he was therefore possessed of much knowledge and experience, which would prove essentially useful and directly applicable to the object he was about to undertake. Two ships were fitted out with all necessary preparations for such a voyage, the Hecla bomb, and Griper gun-brig, and they sailed from the Thames early in the month of May 1819. Of the high importance and value to navigators of the chronometer, Captain Parry had a striking and undoubted proof in the early part of his voyage. On the 24th of May he saw a small solitary crag, called Rockall, not far from the Orkney Islands. "There is," he observes, in this part of his journal, "no more striking proof of the infinite value of chronometers at sea, than the certainty with which a ship may sail directly for a single rock, like this, rising like a speck out of the ocean, and at the distance of forty-seven leagues from any other land."

About the middle of July he reached the latitude of 73 deg., after having made many fruitless attempts to cross the ice that fills the central portion of Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay. the instructions of Captain Parry particularly pointed out the sound which Captain Ross had left unexplored, and which there could be no doubt was the Sir James Lancaster's Sound of Baffin, to be most carefully and minutely examined, as the one by which it was most probable a north-west passage might be effected, or which, at least, even if not navigable, on account of the ice, would connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. On the seventh day after entering this sound, he succeeded in reaching open water; but this was not reached without infinite difficulty and labour, as the breadth of the barrier of ice was found to be eighty miles; through this they penetrated by the aid of sailing, tracking, heaving by the capstan, and sawing, being able to advance, even with the assistance of all the methods, only at the rate of half a mile an hour, or twelve miles a day.

For some days after this, their patience was tried, and nearly exhausted, by contrary winds, but on the 3d of August a favourable and fresh breeze arose from the eastward. Advantage was immediately taken of it. "We all felt," says Captain Parry, "it was that point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one or other of the opposite opinions respecting the termination of the sound should be corroborated. It is more easy to imagine than to describe (he continues) the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. The masts' heads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon; and an unconcerned observer (if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion) would have been amused by the eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received, all, however, hitherto favourable to our most sanguine hopes."

The weather, most fortunately at this interesting and important period, continued remarkably clear; and the ships having reached the longitude of 83 deg. 12', the two shores of the sound were ascertained to be still at least fifty miles asunder, and what was still more encouraging, no land was discerned to the westward. In fact, there seemed no obstacle; none of those mountains with which, according to Captain Ross, the passage of the sound was eternally blocked up, nor even any ice, an object of a less serious and permanent nature. Other circumstances were also encouraging; the whole surface of the sea was completely free from ice, no land was seen in the direction of their course, and no bottom could be reached with one hundred and seventy fathoms of line, so that "we began," observes Captain Parry, "to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar Sea, and some of the most sanguine among us had even calculated the bearing and distance of Icy Cape, as a matter of no very difficult or improbable accomplishment. This pleasing prospect was rendered the more flattering, by the sea having, as we thought, regained the usual oceanic colour, and by a long swell which was rolling in from the southward and eastward." The first circumstance that threw a damp over their sanguine expectations, was the discovery of land a-head; they were however renewed by ascertaining that this was only a small island: but though the insurmountable obstacle of a land termination of the sound was thus removed, another appeared in its place; as they perceived that a floe of ice was stretched from the island to the northern shore. On the southern shore, however, a large inlet was discovered, ten leagues broad at its entrance, and as no land could be seen in the line of its direction, hopes were excited that it might lead to a passage into the Polar Sea, freer from ice than the one above described. At this period of the voyage a singular circumstance was remarked: during their passage down Sir James Lancaster's Sound, the compass would scarcely traverse, and the ship's iron evidently had great influence over it: both these phaenomena became more apparent and powerful, in proportion as their westerly course encreased. When they were arrived in the latitude of 73 deg., the directive power of the needle became so weak, that it was completely overcome by the attraction of the iron in the ship, so that the needle might now be said to point to the north pole of the ship. And by an experiment it was found, that a needle suspended by a thread, the movements of which were of course scarcely affected by any friction, always pointed to the head of the ship, in whatever direction it might be.

To this inlet, which Captain Parry was now sailing down, he gave the name of the Prince Regent. The prospect was still very flattering: the width increased as they proceeded, and the land inclined more and more to the south-westward. But their expectations were again destroyed: a floe of ice stretched to the southward, beyond which no sea was to be descried. Captain Parry therefore resolved to return to the wide westerly passage which he had quitted. On the 22d of August, being in longitude 92-1/4 deg., they opened two fine channels, the one named after the Duke of Wellington; this was eight leagues in width, and neither land nor ice could be seen from the mast head though the weather was extremely clear; this channel tended to the N.N.W. The other stretched nearly west: and though it was not so open, yet as it was more directly in the course which it was their object to pursue, it was preferred by Captain Parry. By the 25th they had reached 99 deg. west longitude, about 20 degrees beyond Lancaster Sound. On the 30th they made the S.E. point of Melville Island. By the 4th of September they had passed the meridian of 110 deg. west longitude, in latitude 74 deg. 44' 20": this entitled them to the first sum in the scale of rewards granted by parliament, namely 5000l; as at this part of their course they were opposite a point of land lying in the S.E. of Melville Island; this point was called Bounty Cape. On the 6th of September they anchored, for the first time since they had left England, in a bay, called after the two ships.

During the remainder of the season of 1819, which however contained only twenty more days, in which any thing could be done, Captain Parry prosecuted with much perseverance, and in the midst of infinite difficulties and obstacles, a plan which had suggested itself to him some time before; this was to conduct the ships close to the shore, within the main body of the ice; but their progress was so extremely slow, that, during the remainder of the year they did not advance more than forty miles. On the 21st Captain Parry abandoned the undertaking, and returned to the bay which was called after the two ships. Here they lay ten months; and the arrangements made by Captain Parry for the safety of the vessels, and for the health, comfort, and even the amusement of the crew, were planned and effected with such admirable good sense, that listlessness and fatigue were strangers, even among sailors, a class of men who, above all others, it would have been apprehended, would have soon wearied of such a monotonous life. The commencement of winter was justly dated from the 14th of September, when the thermometer suddenly fell to 9 deg.. On the 4th of November the sun descended below the horizon, and did not appear again till the 8th of February. A little before and after what in other places is called the shortest day, but which to them was the middle of their long night, there was as much light as enabled them to read small print, when held towards the south, and to walk comfortably for two hours. Excessive cold, as indicated by the thermometer, took place in January: it then sunk from 30 deg. to 40 deg. below Zero: on the 11th of this month it was at 49 deg.; yet no disease, or even pain or inconvenience was felt in consequence of this most excessive cold, provided the proper precautions were used; nor did any complaint arise from the extreme and rapid change of temperature to which they were exposed, when, as was often the case, they passed from the cabins, which were kept heated up to 60 deg. or 70 deg., to the open air, though the change in one minute was in several instances 120 deg. of temperature.

Cold, however, as January was, yet the following month, though, as we have already observed, it again exhibited the sun to them, was much colder; on the 15th of February the thermometer fell to 55 deg. below Zero, and remained for fifteen hours not higher than 54 deg.. Within the next fifteen hours it gradually rose to 34 deg.. But though the sun re-appeared early in February, they had still a long imprisonment to endure; and Captain Parry did not consider it safe to leave their winter quarters till the 1st of August, when they again sailed to the westward: their mode of proceeding was the same as that which they had adopted the preceding year, viz. crawling along the shore, within the fast ice; in this manner they got to the west end of Melville Island. But all their efforts to proceed further were of no avail. Captain Parry was now convinced, that somewhere to the south-west of this there must be an immoveable obstacle, which prevented the ice dispersing in that direction, as it had been found to do in every other part of the voyage.

At last, on the 16th of August, further attempts were given up, and Captain Parry determined to return to the eastward, along the edge of the ice, in order that he might push to the southward if he could find an opening. Such an opening, however, could not be found; but by coasting southward, along the west side of Baffin's Bay, Captain Parry convinced himself that there are other passages into Prince Regent's Inlet, besides that by Lancaster Sound. The farthest point in the Polar sea reached in this voyage was latitude 71 deg. 26' 23", and longitude 113 deg. 46' 43:5". On the 26th of September they took a final leave of the ice, and about the middle of November they arrived in the Thames.

In every point of view this voyage was extremely creditable to Captain Parry; it is not surpassed by any for the admirable manner in which it was conducted, for the presence of mind, perseverance, and skill of all the arrangements and operations. It has also considerably benefited all those branches of science to which the observations and experiments of Captain Ross and his companions were directed, and to which we have already adverted. Perhaps in no one point has it been of more use to mariners, than in proving the minute accuracy of going to which chronometers have been brought.

As this expedition very naturally encouraged the hope that a north-west passage existed, and might be discovered and effected, and as Captain Parry was decidedly of this opinion, government very properly resolved to send him out again; he accordingly sailed in the spring of the year following that of his return. He recommended that the attempt should be made in a more southern latitude, and close along the northern coast of America, as in that direction a better climate might be expected, and a longer season by at least six weeks; and this recommendation, it is supposed, had its weight with the admiralty in the instructions and discretionary powers which they gave him.

We must now direct our attention to the southern polar regions. Geographers and philosophers supposed that in this portion of the globe there must be some continent or very large island, which would serve, as it were, to counterbalance the immense tracts of land which, to the northward, stretched not only as near the pole, as navigation had been able to proceed, but also west and east, the whole breadth of Europe and Asia.

The second voyage of Captain Cook was planned and undertaken for the express purpose of solving the question respecting the Terra Australis which occupied the older maps. He sailed on this voyage in July 1772, having under his command two ships, particularly well adapted and fitted up for such a service, the Resolution and Adventure; he was accompanied by a select band of officers, most of whom were not only skilful and experienced navigators, but also scientific astronomers and geographers; there were also two professed astronomers, two gentlemen who were well skilled in every branch of natural history, and a landscape painter.

On the 12th of December, Captain Cook entered the loose and floating ice, in latitude 62 deg. 10'; on the 21st he met with icebergs in latitude 67 deg.; and by the end of the month he returned to latitude 58 deg.. On the 26th of January in the following year, he again penetrated within the Antarctic circle, and on the 30th, had got as far as latitude 71 deg. 16'. This was the utmost point to which he was able to penetrate; and he was so fully persuaded, not only of the impracticability of being able to sail further to the south, but also of remaining in that latitude, that he returned to the northward the very same day, deeming it, as he expresses it, a dangerous and rash enterprize to struggle with fields of ice. "I," he continues, "who had ambition not only to go farther than any one before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry to meet with this interruption." The existence of a southern continent was thus considered by Captain Cook, and all other geographers, as disproved to an almost absolute certainty.

In this voyage Captain Cook also obtained a correct knowledge of the land discovered by La Roche in 1675, and gave to it the name of New Georgia; he discovered, too, Sandwich land, which was then supposed to be the nearest land to the South Pole; he ascertained the extent of the Archipelago, of the New Hebrides, which had been originally seen by Quiros, and superficially examined by Bougainville. New Caledonia, and many of the islands among the groupe to which he gave the name of the Friendly Islands, were also among the fruits of this voyage.

The French government had sent out an expedition, about the same time that Captain Cook sailed in quest of a southern continent, on a similar pursuit. A French navigator some time before had stated that he had discovered land, having been driven far to the south, off the Cape of Good Hope. This supposed land the expedition alluded to was also to look after. The person selected to conduct it, M. De Kerguelen, does not seem to have been well chosen or qualified for such an enterprize; for after having discovered land, situated in 49 deg. south latitude, and 69 deg. east longitude from Greenwich, he returned rather precipitately to France, without having explored this land, concluding very rashly, and without any sufficient grounds, that the Terra Australis was at length ascertained to exist, and its exact situation determined. He was received and treated in France as a second Columbus: but as the French court seems to have had some doubts on the extent and merit of his alleged discoveries, notwithstanding the reception which it gave him, he was sent out a second time, with two ships of war of 64 and 32 guns each, and 700 men, to complete his discovery and take possession of this new continent. But he soon ascertained, what indeed he might and ought to have ascertained in his first voyage, that what he deemed and represented to be the Terra Australis was only a dreary and inhospitable island, of small size, so very barren and useless, that it produces no tree or even shrub of any kind, and very little grass. On such an island, in such a part of the globe, no inhabitants could be looked for; but it is even almost entirely destitute of animals; and the surrounding sea is represented as not more productive than the land. The French navigator was unable to find safe anchorage in this island, though it abounded in harbours; to this miserable spot he gave his own name. It was afterwards visited by Captain Cook, in his third voyage, and also by Peyrouse.

As the southern ocean, in as high a latitude as the climate and the ice rendered accessible and safe, had been as it were swept carefully, extensively, and minutely, by Captain Cook, and some subsequent navigators, without discovering land of any considerable extent, it was naturally supposed that no southern continent or even large island existed.

In the year 1819, however, this disbelief was partly destroyed by an unexpected and singular discovery. Mr. Smith, who commanded a vessel trading between Rio Plato and Chili, was naturally desirous to shorten, as much as possible, his passage round Cape Horn. With this object in view, he ran to a higher latitude than is usual in such voyages; and in latitude 62 deg. 30' and in longitude 60 deg. west, he discovered land. This was in his voyage out to Chili; but as he could not then spare the time necessary to explore this land, he resolved to follow the same course on his return voyage, and ascertain its extent, nature, &c. This he accordingly did; and likewise on a subsequent voyage. "He ran in a westward direction along the coasts, either of a continent or numerous islands, for 200 or 300 miles, forming large bays, and abounding with the spermaceti whale, seals, &c. He took numerous soundings and bearings, draughts and charts of the coast." He also landed and took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, and called his acquisition New South Shetland. He represents the climate as temperate, the coast mountainous, apparently uninhabited, but not destitute of vegetation, as he observed firs and pines in many places; and on the whole, the country appeared to him very much like the coast of Norway.

It may seem extraordinary that land of this extent should not have been discovered by any former navigator; but the surprise will cease, when we reflect that though Captain Cook penetrated much further to the south than the latitude of New South Shetland, yet his meridian was 45 degrees farther to the west, and that he thus left a large expanse of sea unexplored, on the parallel of 62 deg. between that and Sandwich land, the longitude of which is 22 deg. west. He indeed likewise reached 67 deg. south latitude: but this was in longitude from 137 deg. to 147 deg. west. Now the longitude of New South Shetland being 60 deg. west, it is evident that Captain Cook in his first attempt, left unexplored the whole extent of longitude from 28 deg., the longitude of Sandwich land, to 60 deg., the longitude of New South Shetland; and in his second attempt, he was still further from the position of this new discovered land. Peyrouse reached no higher than 60 deg. 30' latitude, and Vancouver only to 55 deg.. Thus we clearly see that this land lay out of the track, not only of those navigators, whose object being to get into the Pacific by the course best known, pass through the Straits of Magellan and Le Maire, or keep as near Cape Horn as possible, but also of those who were sent out expressly to search for land in a high southern latitude.

The intelligence of the discovery of New South Shetland, and that its coasts abounded in Spermaceti whales, and in seals, quickly and powerfully roused the commercial enterprise both of the British and the Americans. In the course of a short time, numerous ships of both these nations sailed to its coasts; but from their observations and experience, as well as from a survey of it which was undertaken by the orders of one of His Majesty's naval officers, commanding on the southwest coast of America, it was soon ascertained that it was a most dangerous land to approach and to continue near. Its sterility and bleak and forbidding appearance, from all the accounts published respecting it, are scarcely equalled, certainly are not surpassed, in the most inhospitable countries near the North Pole; while ships are suddenly exposed to most violent storms, from which there is little chance of escaping, and in which, during one of the seal-catching seasons, a great number were lost.

There are, however, counterbalancing advantages: the seals were, at least during the first seasons, uncommonly numerous, and taken with very little trouble or difficulty, so that a ship could obtain a full cargo in a very short time; but, in consequence of a very great number of vessels which frequented the coasts for the purpose of taking these animals, they became soon less numerous, and were captured with less ease. The skins of these seals fetched a very high price in the China market; the Chinese, especially in the more northern parts of that vast and populous empire, use these skins for various articles of their dress; and the seal skins of New South Shetland being much finer and softer than those which were obtained in any other part of the world, bore a proportionably higher price in the China market. But the English could not compete with the Americans in this lucrative trade; for in consequence of the charter of the East India Company, the English ships were obliged to bring their cargoes of skins to England; here they were sold, and as none but the East India Company could export them to China, and consequently none except the Company would purchase; they in fact had the monopoly of them, and obtained them at their own price. The English indeed might take them directly from New South Shetland to Calcutta, whence they might be exported in country ships to China; but even in this case, which was not likely to happen, as few vessels, after having been employed in catching seals off such a boisterous coast, were prepared or able to undertake a voyage to Calcutta; much unnecessary expence was incurred, additional risk undergone, and time consumed. To these disadvantages in the sale of their seal skins, the Americans were not exposed; they brought them into some of their own ports, and thence shipped them directly and immediately to China.

The last navigator whom we noticed as having added to our knowledge respecting New Holland, was Dampier, who in this portion of the globe, not only discovered the Strait that separates New Guinea from New Britain, but also surveyed the north-west coast of New Holland; and, contrary to the Dutch charts, laid down De Witt's land as a cluster of islands, and gave it as his opinion that the northern part of New Holland was separated from the lands to the southward by a strait. Scarcely any thing was added to the geography of this portion of the globe, between the last voyage of Dampier, and the first voyage of Cook. One of the principal objects of this voyage of our celebrated navigator, was to examine the coast of New Holland; and he performed this object most completely, so far as the east coast was concerned, from the 38th degree of latitude to its northern extremity; he also proved that it was separated from New Guinea, by passing through the channel, which he called after his ship, Endeavour Strait. In the year 1791, Captain Vancouver explored 110 leagues of the south-west coast, where he discovered King George's Sound, and some clusters of small islands. In the same year two vessels were dispatched from France in search of La Peyrouse; in April 1792, they made several observations on Van Dieman's Land, the south cape of which they thought was separated from the main land; they also discovered a great harbour. In the subsequent year 1793, they again made the coast of New Holland, near Lewin's Land, and they ascertained that the first discoveries had been extremely accurate in the latitudes which they had assigned to this part of it.

In consequence of the British forming a settlement at Botany Bay, much additional information was gained, not only regarding the interior of New Holland, in the vicinity of the settlement, but also regarding part of its coast: the most interesting and important discovery relative to the latter was made towards the end of the year 1797, by Mr. Bass, surgeon of His Majesty's ship Reliance. He made an excursion in an open boat to the southward of Port Jackson, as far as 40 degrees of south latitude, and visited every opening in the coast in the course of his voyage: he observed sufficient to induce him to believe that Van Dieman's Land was no part of New Holland. Soon after the return of Mr. Bass, the governor of the English colony sent out him and Captain Flinders, then employed as a lieutenant of one of His Majesty's ships on the New South Wales station, with a view to ascertain whether Mr. Bass's belief of the separation of Van Dieman's Land was well founded. They embarked on board a small-decked boat of 25 tons, built of the fir of Norfolk island. In three months they returned to Port Jackson, after having circumnavigated Van Dieman's Land, and completed the survey of its coasts. The strait that separates it from New Holland was named by the governor, Bass's Strait. The importance of this discovery is undoubted. In voyages from New Holland to the Cape of Good Hope, considerable time is gained by passing through it, instead of following the former course. In the year 1800, Captain Flinders was again sent out by the governor, to examine the coast to the northward of Port Jackson; of this nothing more was known but what the imperfect notices given of it by Captain Cook supplied. In this voyage he completely examined all the creeks and bays as far to the northward as the 25th degree of latitude, and more particularly Glasshouse and Harvey's Bays. The English government at length resolved that they would wipe off the reproach, which, as Captain Flinders observes, was not without some reason attributed to them, "that an imaginary line of more than 250 leagues of extent, in the vicinity of one of their colonies, should have been so long suffered to remain traced upon the charts, under the title of UNKNOWN COAST," and they accordingly appointed him to the command of an expedition fitted out in England for this purpose.

Before giving an account of this voyage of Captain Flinders, we shall abridge, from the Introduction prefixed to it, his clear and methodical account of the progressive discoveries which have been made on the coast of New Holland, and of what was still to be explored. He particularly dwelt on the advantages that would result from a practicable passage through Torres' Strait; if this could be discovered, it would shorten the usual route by the north of New Guinea, or the Eastern Islands, in the voyage to India and China. The immense gulf of Carpentaria was unknown, except a very small portion of its eastern side. The lands called after Arnheim and Van Dieman also required and deserved a minute investigation, especially the bays, shoals, islands, and coasts of the former, and the northern part of the latter. The north-west coast had not been examined since the time of Dampier, who was of opinion that the northern portion of New Holland was separated from the lands to the northward by a strait. The existence of such a strait, Captain Flinders completely disproved.

With respect to the south coast, at least 250 leagues were unexplored. Captain Flinders had examined with considerable care and minuteness the east coast and Van Dieman's Land; but there were still several openings which required to be better explored.

Such were the principal objects which Captain Flinders had in view in his voyage; and no person could have been found better qualified to accomplish these objects. On the 18th of July, 1801, he sailed from England in the Investigator, of 334 tons: there were on board, beside the proper and adequate complement of men, an astronomer, a naturalist, a natural history painter, a landscape painter, a gardener, and a miner. As soon as he approached the south coast of New Holland, he immediately began his examination of the coasts, islands, and inlets of that large portion of it, called Nuyts' Land; he particularly examined all that part of the coast, which lies between the limit of the discoveries of Nuyts and Vancouver, and the eastern extremity of Bass' Straits, where he met a French ship, employed on the same object. In the month of July, 1802, he left Port Jackson, whither he had gone to refit, and sailing through Torres' Straits in 36 hours, he arrived in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the latter end of the season. In the course of this part of his voyage, he examined Northumberland and Cumberland islands, and the great barrier reefs of coral rock; and every part of the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria; not a cape, creek, bay, or island on this coast of the gulf escaped his notice and examination. It was his intention to have pursued the same mode of close and minute examination: "following the land so closely, that the washing of the surf upon it should be visible, and no opening nor any thing of importance escape notice;" but he was prevented by ascertaining that the vessel was in such a crazy state, that, though in fine weather she might hold together for six months longer, yet she was by no means fit for such an undertaking. After much deliberation what conduct he ought to pursue under these circumstances, as it was impossible, with such a vessel, he could at that season return to Port Jackson by the west route, in consequence of the monsoon (and the stormy weather would render the east passage equally improper) he resolved to finish the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria. This occupied him three months: at the end of this period he was obliged, by the sickness of his crew, to sail for Timor, which he reached on the 31st of March, 1803.

As the Investigator was no longer fit for service, she was condemned. Captain Flinders resolved, as he could not finish the survey, to return to England, in order to lay his journals and charts before the Admiralty: he accordingly embarked on board the Porpoise store ship, which, in company with the Cato and Bridgwater, bound to Batavia, sailed in August, 1803. The Porpoise and Cato were wrecked on a reef of rocks nearly 800 miles from Botany Bay: most of the charts, logs, and astronomical observations were saved; but the rare plants, as well as the dried specimens, were lost or destroyed. On the 26th of August, Captain Flinders left the reef in the cutter, and after a passage of considerable danger, reached Port Jackson on the 8th of September. As he was extremely anxious to lodge his papers as soon as possible with the Lords of the Admiralty, he embarked from Port Jackson in a vessel, something less than a Gravesend passage boat, being only 29 tons burden. Even in such a vessel, Captain Flinders did not lose sight of the objects nearest his heart: he passed through Torres' Straits, examined Pandora's entrance, explored new channels among the coral reefs, examined Prince of Wales Island, crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria, and after anchoring at some islands on the western side of the gulf, directed his route to Timor: here he refitted his vessel, and then sailed for the Isle of France, where it was absolutely necessary he should touch, in order that she might undergo a repair, as she was very leaky. Though he possessed passports from the French government, he was detained at the Isle of France, under the absurd pretence that he was a spy. All his books, charts, and papers were seized; and he himself was kept a prisoner in a miserable room for nearly four months. He was afterwards removed to the garden prison, a situation not so uncomfortable and prejudicial to his health as that from which he was taken; at length, in consequence of an application from the Royal Society to the National Institute, the French government sent an order for his liberation; but it was not received, or, at least, it was not acted upon till the year 1810; for it was not till that year that Captain Flinders was permitted to leave the Isle of France: he arrived in England on the 24th of October of that year.