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Norway and Greenland; and, for aught we know, is not yet wholly destitute of its old Norwegian inhabitants.'

It has been supposed, by some writers, that the black death, which, in 1948, desolated Europe, extended its ravages to Greenland; but this assumption, as Mr. Egede observes, is without any foundation, as an uninterrupted intercourse appears to have been maintained with the colony for fifty-eight years after this dreadful malady had ceased. He thinks, however, that, partly by the change of the government in Queen Margaret's reign, and partly from the continual wars which ensued between the Danes and the Swedes, the Greenland colonists may have been neglected; for it does not appear that any steps were taken for a century, after the unsuccessful attempts of the bishop to land, when the Christians and the Fredericks, calling to mind these remote and long-neglected possessions, took measures for inquiring into the fate of their unfortunate subjects. One Mogens Heinson, a celebrated seaman of those days, was employed among others on this service. After many difficulties he got sight of the coast, but could not approach it; and the reason he assigned, on his return, was, that his ship was stopped in the midst of its course by some loadstone rocks hidden in the sea.' Many subsequent attempts were made, but all proved ineffectual.

Endeavours were also used to ascertain their fate from the colony on the western side, by coasting round Staatenhoek; and in one of these expeditions Egede himself embarked, but was obliged to return without being able to effect his humane purpose. The Esquimaux pretend that they are afraid to approach the eastern shore, which they say is inhabited by a tall and barbarous race of men, who live on human flesh. Thus has terror or malice created cannibals on every unknown or uncivilized part of the globe! After so many attempts, both public and private, how the Danes can now pretend to doubt, as one of their writers affects to do, whether there ever was a colony on the eastern side, is, to us, quite inexplicable, unless it be to palliate their negligence at the first approach of the ice, and their want of humanity since. The Danish government however entertained no such doubts; for so late as the year 1786, Captain Lowenorn, of the Danish navy, was sent out for the express purpose of re-discovering the old colony on the eastern coast. The particulars of this voyage, we believe, were not made public; but the following extract of a letter from Mr. Fenwick (the British consul) to the secretary of the Admiralty, dated Elsineur, 9th September, 1786, proves its failure:-'Captain Lowenorn repassed, three days ago, for Copenhagen, after a fruitless search, of about two months, to find out the Old Greenland; not having been able to penetrate to where it is supposed to be, on account of endless shoals of ice. He left, however, Lieutenants Egede and Rhode, in the New Experiment fishing dogger, to seize any more favourable oppor

tunity which may offer, better than he met with, for penetrating farther, if practicable, to operate any new discoveries after his departure, though entertaining very poor hopes of any success.' These lieutenants, we believe, never once got sight of the land.

It has fallen to the lot of the present age to have an opportunity, which we are sure will not be neglected, of instituting an inquiry into the fate of these unfortunate colonies. If, as is most probable, the whole race has perished, some remains may yet be found, some vestiges be traced, which may throw light on their condition after the fatal closing of the ice upon them. It is. just possible that some tradition may have been handed down through a succession of a mixed race of descendants; or some inscriptions may, perhaps, be discovered on the remains of the cathedral, or the convents, which are said to have been built of stone. But even if no traces should be found, the research is an object of rational curiosity; and it would be satisfactory, at least, to have all doubt removed on a subject of so interesting and affecting a nature. S. Any event that tends to encourage the attempt to amend the very defective geography of the arctic regions, more especially on the side of America, may be hailed as an important occurrence. The removal of the ice may be considered to afford a fair tunity for prosecuting discoveries in that quarter-for endeavouring to circumnavigate Old Greenland, and to settle the long disputed question as to its insularity, or its connexion with the American continent--to examine the sea usually named Baffin's Bay on the charts-and to attempt the solution of that interesting problem, whether a free and uninterrupted communication exists between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, round the northern coast of North America.

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Several circumstances may be adduced in support of the opinion that Greenland is either an island or an archipelago of islands, in which case Baffin's Bay must be expunged from the charts. A perpetual current, setting down from the northward, along the eastern coast of America, and the western shores of Old Greenland, affords a strong presumption, that between Davis's Strait and the great polar basin, there is an uninterrupted communication; for if Greenland were united with the continent of America, and Davis's Strait terminated in Baffin's Bay, it would be difficult to explain how any current could originate at the bottom of such a bay, much less a current that is stated to run sometimes with a velocity of four and even five miles an hour. But this is not the only argument in favour of the continuance of an open sea to the northward. Vast quantities of drift-wood are floated down this northern current, as well as down the eastern side of Greenland, sometimes filling all the bays on the northern coast of Iceland

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Iceland. None of this could have grown to the northward, as not a stick of wood, beyond what a dwarfish coppice of birch may produce, is to be found in a growing state, for many degrees below the places where these logs are cast up, much less to the northward from whence they come. That many of them have recently been in a growing state appears from the fragments of bark and branches still adhering to them; that they have been. floating in a warmer climate would also appear from some of them being eaten by the worm, and others having the marks of the workman upon them. They consist of fir, larch, birch, aspen, and other trees, which are, in fact, the produce both of Asia and America, and, in all probability, have been floated down the numerous rivers of both these continents, (some, perhaps, through Behring's Strait,) into the great polar basin, and carried thence by the circumvolving current through the outlet into the northern ocean. It is fair, therefore, to conclude that there must exist a free and open passage between this basin and Davis's Strait. The fact of several vessels having been as high as Baffin without observing the least appearance of land removes all doubt as to the non-existence of the bay, as drawn in the charts. The master of the Larkins, of Leith, gave out that he had been, last year, as far up as 80°; but on a reference being made to Mr. Wood, the owner, he closely examined him, and found occasion to conclude that he had not proceeded higher to the northward than 77°, but that the sea was clear and no land in sight. In the same year Captain Lawson, of the Majestic, having passed the ice, ran in an open sea as high as 76°, without being obstructed by land.

A third argument in favour of the insularity of Old Greenland may be adduced from a fact, well-known to the fishermen, that whales, struck with harpoons on the coast of Spitzbergen, are very commonly killed in the Strait of Davis with these harpoons in their bodies, and vice versâ; there can be no mistake here, as the names of the vessels, and the ports to which they belong, are always cut into the sockets of their harpoons. Captain Franks, in 1805, struck a whale in Davis's Strait, which was killed near Spitzbergen by his son, who found his father's name on a harpoon sticking in its body; and the same year, in the same place, Captain Sadler killed a whale with the harpoon of an Esquimaux in it. The distance which these wounded whales would have to run round the north of Greenland, is so much shorter, and whales are so rarely seen to enter the Strait of Davis round Cape Farewell, that the probability is altogether in favour of the former supposition.

To ascertain the existence of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is peculiarly a British object. It engaged the attention, and obtained the encouragement, of the first literary

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characters, and of the most respectable mercantile men in the earliest periods of British navigation. Since that time the attempt has been patronized by. sovereigns aud parliaments; the former having appropriated their own ships, and the latter tendered a reward of 20,000l. for effecting a discovery interesting to hu manity, to science, and to commerce. The reign of George III. will stand conspicuous and proudly pre-eminent in future history, for the spirit with which discoveries were prosecuted, and the objects of science promoted; and a dawn of hope appears, that, ere its close, the interesting problem of a north-west passage will be solved, and this great discovery, to which the Frobishers, the Hudsons, the Davises, Baffins, and Bylots so successfully opened the way, be accomplished. Little, if any thing, has been added to the discoveries of these extraordinary men, who, in the early periods of navigation, had every difficulty to struggle against -without science and without instruments, feeling their way in small miserable barks among unknown lands, and amidst mountains and fields of ice.

It is a humiliating fact, that the last four expeditions, fitted out for discovery in this quarter, brought no accession to that knowledge of the geography of those seas and islands, which had been acquired two hundred years before. We have heard it hinted, with sufficient illiberality, that the chief cause of failure was owing to their being under the command of naval officers.* Nothing would be more unfair than to attach blame on a whole body of men for the improper conduct of a few; nor does the failure militate, in the slightest degree, against the employment of officers of the royal navy on this service: for in the instances alluded to, it so happened that one of them was suspected to have acted under the influence of his old masters, the Hudson's Bay Company, who were averse from all interference with what they are disposed to consider their exclusive privilege; another was addicted to drinking; a third took fright at the ice; and a fourth was totally incapacitated by a violent attack of fever. The circumstance most to be apprehended from the appointment of naval officers is that of attempting too much rather than too little; but as the navigation among ice is itself a science, to be learned only from practice, prudence will necessarily dictate that every ship employed on this service shall be supplied with an experienced Greenland fisherman, to act as pilot in those seas.

The grounds for the existence of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific are similar to those for the insularity of Greenland, and are at any rate sufficiently strong to justify the renewal of an enterprize for its accomplishment.

Captain Middleton, Lieutenants Pickersgill and Young, and Mr. Duncan, master in the navy.

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The annexed diagram, constructed on the plane of the pole, will assist the reader in the explanation of the notions we entertain on this interesting subject:

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As the northern coast of America has been found to terminate at the mouths of Mackenzie's river, and of the Copper-mine river, about the 70th parallel of latitude; as Icy Cape appears to be the extreme point of America, on the west; and as no one has traced its termination, on the east, beyond the arctic circle, or 67° at farthest-it is reasonable to conclude that the general trending of that coast, from one extremity to the other, may keep within the 69th and 71st parallels of latitude; and this is rendered the more probable by the Asiatic coast running, with the exception of one or two points, nearly along those parallels. The whole distance from the eastern to the western extremity of America, or from A. to B., is little more than four hundred leagues, in which the coast has been seen to terminate at three different and nearly equidistant

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