land on the west coast of Greenland, as to encounter the same obstacles; so that, on the former, the highest point ever reached is the arctic circle, or at most the 67th parallel, which is three or four degrees short of the point A., near which, as we have before stated, the north-eastern extremity of America may be expected to be found. The mid-channel of Davis's Strait, on the contrary, is known at particular seasons to be free of ice in much higher latitudes. Mr. Graham Muirhead, master of the Larkins above mentioned, after passing the ice and reaching the latitude 75° 30′ N., the coast of Greenland then in sight to the eastward, stood from hence to the westward, in that parallel, three hundred miles, the sea entirely free, with the exception of here and there a detached ice-berg floating to the southward. At this point he observed a yellow sky, or what is usually termed the land-blink, to the south-west. The position of the ice, however, is constantly changing. The same year the James, of Whitby, meeting with a compact body of ice in latitude 75°, turned back and came home; but the Larkins, as we before stated, persevered and got through, when she proceeded as high as 77°, found plenty of whales, and the sea clear of ice. Spitzbergen is usually surrounded with ice; but the sea to the northward is generally so open, that it is a prevailing idea among the whale fishers, that there would be no difficulty of approaching the pole from that quarter. The late Mr. Daines Barrington collected much curious information on this point, and was so well satisfied of the practicability of approaching the pole, that he prevailed on the president and council of the Royal Society to recommend to Lord Sandwich a voyage of discovery towards the north pole; the suggestion was adopted, and the command of the expedition given to Captain Phipps, (afterwards Lord Mulgrave,) who obviously failed by getting entangled in the ice near Spitzbergen. It is this accumulation of ice round the land, rather than the degree of latitude, that causes the extreme cold and tempestuous weather about Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla: it is not the neernesse of the north pole,' says De Veer, in his preface to Barentz's Three Voyages, but the ice that cometh in and out from the Tartarian sea that causeth us to feel the greatest cold.' Instead therefore of coming near the land, or endeavouring to pass through narrow straits, it will be prudent to avoid the land, and to keep as much as possible in the open sea, and in or near to the edge of the current, where the sea may be expected to be free. This last year the Neptune, of Aberdeen, before mentioned, reached the latitude of 83° 20′ in the sea of Spitzberg n, which is within four hundred miles of the pole, the sea oper and clear of ice: Dr. Gregory found the master a clear-headel, cautious seaman, and supplied with the ordinary instruments for nautical purposes. We have heard of several other whalers, who reached beyond 81° north. The surface of the sea, in fact, is not easily frozen in any latitude; the thermometer of Fahrenheit must be down to 27° before a pellicle of ice can be formed; and it will not form even at zero, unless the weather be calm and the surface unruffled; and then only what the whalers call pancake ice. We have frequently the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer below zero, yet who ever saw the English channel frozen over, or any part of the Atlantic on this side? It is the narrow seas only, and those without tides or currents, that freeze over. The ice-bergs, or mountains of ice, are generated on the land, either in valleys, or against steep shores; they are avalanches: and it is a remarkable fact, that all the ice, brought by the south-west current round Spitzbergen, is field ice; whilst that which comes down Davis's Strait is mountain-ice. It is on this ground that we have marked on the diagram the undefined land, which has been named New Siberia, as the probable source of ice-bergs; and if this be so, the sea, through which these massy mountains float, must be open; and where they can float, a ship will find no difficulty in sailing. If whole fleets bound to and from Archangel annually double the North Cape in the 72d or 73d parallel, without interruption from ice, why should the polar basin be obstructed in the same or in lower latitudes? Captain Cook was well aware that the ice in Behring's Strait was not permanently fixed, and would probably have succeeded the following year in passing into the basin had his life been spared. It is well known that the Strait of Belleisle is one day so closed up that waggons may pass it, and the next so open, that no ice is to be seen the same may be the case with Behring's Strait. Lieutenant Kotzebue, it seems, has found no difficulty in passing this strait, nor in entering a deep bay beyond it; to what extent his discoveries may subsequently have proceeded, we have yet to learn. Not a word is mentioned in his report of obstruction from ice, which would appear, indeed, to have also broken up in this eastern quarter, from the multitude of white bears which infested the peninsula of Kamtschatka, at the time when they usually seek their food on the ice, the resort of seals and sea-horses in the spring. The Russians have for some time been strongly impressed with the idea of an open passage round America; and the Kamtschatka frigate, commanded by Captain Golovnin, who was a prisoner in Japan, has proceeded on the same discovery, at the public expense, which Kotzebue is employed on by the private libe rality of Count Romanzoff. It would be somewhat mortifying, if a naval power but of yesterday should complete a discovery in the nineteenth century, which was so happily commenced by English men in the sixteenth; and another Vespucius run away with the honours due to a Columbus. There is, however, little to fear on this score. Two expeditions, of two small ships each, are fitting out for northern discoveries and scientific researches; the one, we understand, is to proceed northerly into the polar basin, and to endeavour, by passing close to the pole, to make a direct course to Behring's Strait; the other is to push through Davis's Strait for the north-east coast of America; and, if successful in discovering and doubling the unknown point A., to proceed to the westward, with the view of passing Behring's Strait. From one or both of these expeditions lively hopes are entertained, that this curious and important problem in geography, which engaged the attention of our early navigators, will be solved; and, if a practical passage does exist, that it will not much longer remain undiscovered. The character of the several officers who have been appointed, and the men of science who, we understand, are to embark on this grand enterprise, and the means in preparation, afford the strongest presumption, that whatever talent, intrepidity, and perseverance can accomplish will be effected. Four merchant-vessels have been hired, and rendered as strong as wood and iron can make them. Their names are the Isabella and the Alexander, the Dorothea and the Trent; the first two being intended to proceed up Davis's Strait, under the command of Captain Ross; the other two by the route of the north pole, under Captain Buchan, and all four to make the best of their way to Behring's Strait. The Alexander and the Trent are two brigs, the former commanded by Lieutenant Parry, the latter by Lieutenant Franklyn, with a junior lieutenant to each of the four vessels, and two midshipmen, who have served their time and passed their examinations, one assistant-surgeon, and a purser. To each vessel have also been appointed a master and a mate, well-experienced in the navigation of the Greenland seas and Davis's Strait, who are to act as pilots among the ice. All the men to be employed on this bold and hazardous enterprise are to be volunteers, and both they and the officers are to receive double pay. Every preparation has been made of fresh provisions, wine, spirits, medicine, and warm clothing, in the event of their being obliged to winter in the ice, or on the coast of America. Captain Ross was long and actively employed in the Baltic, and, having twice wintered there, is well trained to the cold and the ice; he has also been as far to the northward as Cherry, or Bear island in the Greenland seas. Lieutenant Parry, who accompanies him, served for several years on the coast of America, is an excellent navigator, theoretical as well as practical, and has published a valuable treatise, for the use of the young officers in the fleet, on nautical astronomy. Captain Buchan is an active and enterprising officer, who for many years has been accustomed to the navigation of the icy seas in the neighbourhood of Newfoundland, and received his promotion to the rank of commander for his zeal and good conduct on that station. He also made a land journey, over ice and snow, into the very heart of Newfoundland, in order to obtain an interview with the natives, being the first European who ever ventured among them. Lieutenant Franklyn, who accompanies hím as second in this expedition, was brought up under the late Captain Flinders, and is well acquainted with nau tical surveying and the use of instruments. The junior lieutenants in each of the brigs are the sons of two eminent artists, and both good draughtsmen, the one the son of the late Mr. Hoppner, who conducted Lord Amherst and his party in the open boats to Batavia, after the wreck of the Alceste; the other of the present Sir William Beechy. It probably may not strike the reader at first, that the distance from Shetland islands to Behring's Strait, by pursuing the route of Davis's Strait, and supposing a passage along the northern coast of America, on the parallel of 72°, is just half as long again as that from the same point on a meridian passing through the pole; such, however, is the case; the former being 1,572 leagues, and the latter only 1,048 leagues.* The distance by the polar route, from the mouth of the Thames to Canton, is much less than half of that by the usual track round the Cape of Good Hope, being only 2,598 leagues, while the other is 5,500 leagues. If an open navigation should be discovered across the polar basin, the passage over the pole, or close to it, will be one of the most interesting events to science that ever occurred. It will be the first time that the problem was practically solved with which the learners of geography are sometimes puzzled-that of going the shortest way between two places, lying east and west of each other, by taking a direction of north and south. The passage of the pole will require the undivided attention of the navigator. On approaching this point, from which the northern coasts of Europe, Asia, and America, and every part of them, will bear south of him, nothing can possibly assist him in determining his course, and keeping on the right meridian of his destined place, but a correct knowledge of the time, and yet no means of ascertaining that time will be afforded him. The only time he can have with any degree of certainty, as long as he remains on or near the pole, must be that of Greenwich, and this he can know only from good chrono The northern extremity of Shetland islands lat. 66° 50' long. meters-for, from the general hazy state of the atmosphere, and particularly about the horizon, and the sameness in the altitude of the sun at every hour in the four-and-twenty, he must not expect to obtain an approximation even of the apparent time, by observation, and he will have no stars to assist him. All his ideas, respecting the heavens and the reckoning of his time, will be reversed, and the change not gradual, as in proceeding from the east to the west, or the contrary, but instantaneous. The magnetic needle will point to its unknown magnetic pole, or fly round from the point of the bowl in which it is suspended, and that which indicated north will now be south; the east will become the west, and the hour of noon will be that of midnight. These curious circumstances will probably be considered to mark the passage by the pole, as the most interesting of the two, while it will perhaps be found equally easy. We have indeed very little doubt, that if the polar basin should prove to be free from land about the pole, it will also be free of ice. A sea of more than two thousand miles in diameter, of unfathomable depth (which is the case between Greenland and Spitzbergen) and in constant motion, is not likely to be frozen over at any time. But if all endeavours to dis cover a passage to the Pacific by either route should prove unavailing, it will still be satisfactory to have removed every doubt on this subject by ascertaining the fact. In making the attempt, many objects, interesting and important to science, will present themselves to the observation of those who are engaged in the two expeditions. That which proceeds up Davis's Strait will have an opportunity of adjusting the geography of the north-east coast of America and the west coast of Greenland; and of ascertaining whether the latter be not an island or an archipelago of islands; and much curious information may be expected from both. They will ascertain what is as yet but very imperfectly known-the depth, the temperature, the saltness, and the specific gravity of the seawater in those high latitudes-the velocity of the currents, the state of atmospherical electricity in the arctic regions, and its connexion, at which we have glanced, with the inclination, declination, and intensity of force of the magnetic needle, on which subject alone a collection of facts towards the upper part of Davis's Strait would be worth a voyage of discovery. It has indeed long been suspected, that one of the magnetic poles will be found in this neighbourhood, as in no part of the world have such extraordinary phenomena been observed, or such irregularities in the vibration and the variation of the needle. Captain Muirhead, before quoted, states that, by several good observations, he found the variation in latitude 75° 30' no less than eight points; that is to say, when the sun was on the meridian at midnight the needle pointed to the east. A com |