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Maps, plates, charts, etc., mav be filmed at different reduction ratios. Thos t too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the methoc': Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, on prenant le nombre d'images nScessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 T " m ON THK POSSIBILITY OF APPROACHING THE NORTH POLE. CHAi;),l i \\(iol>, i'liiiter, I .4 m I M ■f I THE POSSIBILITY OF APPROACHING THE NORTH POLE ASSERTED. BY THE HON. 'J. BARRINGTON. A NEW EDITION. VV(TH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING PAPERS ON THE SAME SUBJECT, AND ON BV COLONEL BEAUFOY, F.R.S. ILLUSTRATED WITH A MAPOFTIIE NORTH POLE, ACCORniNC TO T HE LATEST UlSCOVEli Ui. ir. M. Craifi, del. LONDON: PRINTED roil T. AND J. ALLMAX, PRiNcns sTi!i;r.T, ha.novek >ql-are; W. H. REID, CUAHING C'KOSS ; ANO BALDWIN, CHADOCK., AND JOT, CATER NOSTKR Row. 1818. If 1/ .V /•: .' "/, >ject to which the following Papei's relate, would, at any time, justify their repuhli- cation ; but at the present inoinent they derive an additional value from the expe* dition which is now preparing to explore the Arctic Regions. Whether the extended boundaries of geographical science, aided by the local information which it is said has been communicated by those who are employed in the Greenland risheries, will secure the success of this enterprise, it is impossible to anticipate ; but, as English- VI PREFACE. men, ue must ii.iturally wish, that dis- coveries, which were first attempted hy the adventurous spirit and maritime skill of our countrymen, should be finally achieved by the same means. As early as the year 1527, the idea of a passage to the East Indies by the North Pole was suggested by a Bristol Merchant to :fenry VIII ; but no voyage seems to have been undertaken for the purpose of navigating the Circumpolar Seas till the commencement of the following century, when, in 1607, an expedition was fitted out, at the expense of certain Merchants of London. To this attempt several others succeeded at differert periods, and all of them were projected and carried into execution by private individuals. The adventurers did not indeed accom- PREPACE. VI 1 % M plisli the object they exclusively sought, that of reaching India by a nearer route than doubling the Cape of Good Hope ; but though they failed in that respect, the fortitude, perseverance, and skill which they manifested, exhibited the most irrefragable proofs of the early existence of that superiority in naval aftUirs, which has progressively elevated this country to her present eminence among the nations of Europe. At length, after the lapse of above a century and a lialf, this interesting ques- tion became an object of royal patronage, and tbe expedition wbich was commanded by Captain Pbipps, afterwards Lord Mul- grave, in 177*5j ^^"^^^ litttd out at tbe charge of CTOvernment. It will add to the value of tbe following pngcs when \i VIU PREFACE. it is known, that the author of them was the firsl proposer of this memorahle toyage ; and that, in consequence of his representations, ijs to the prarticability of circumnavigating the Pole, the Royal Society made that appHcation to Lord Sandwich, then at the head of the Ad- miralty, which led to the appointment of the expedition for exploring those re- gions. Though Captain Phipps found it im- possiijle to penetrate the wall of ice, which extended for more than twenty degrees between the latitudes of 80° and 81°, the opinions of Mr. Barrington, upon the possibility of proceeding farther, under different circumstance^'!, remained un- shaken. With indefatigable assiduity therefore he began to collect every fact I 1 PREFACE. IX i connected with the subject ; and as he accumulated his umterials he read them to the Royal Society. This mass of written, traditionary, and conjectural evi- dence, he afterwards published, in the year l?/^ j ^^^ it cannot be denied that its republication at t'le present moment is at least appropriate, independently of the intrinsic value whicli must always attach to the researches of so acute and ardent an inquirer. The Publishers, however, are happy in being permitted to add to the value of these Tracts, by subjoining, as an Appen- dix, some Papers upon the same subject by Colonel Beaufoy, F.R.S. The atten- tion of that gentleman was turned to the practicability of reaching the North Pole, from Spitzbergen, during winter, bv tra- .( PRl^FACE. Telling over tlie ice and snow in sledges drawn by rein deer. He therefore trans- mitted varions queries, to which he re- ceived answers from Russians who had wintered in those remote islands. The information thus elicited is exceedingly curious, and much of it may be most advantageously employed by those who are about to brave the dangers and inclemen- cies of that dreary climate. In Older to render the present volume as complete as possible, an entirely new Map of the North Pole is prefixed, drawn from the best authorities, and with the Pole in the centre, so as to exhibit the utmost degree of latitude which has hi- therto been approached. Under all these circumstances, it is hoped the Work will fu)d a favourable reception. Its claijns, PREFACE. XI indeed, are of no dubious nature ; for it is the production of persons eminent for their scientific attainments. Subsequent discoveries can alone impair its value. Till the ardour of well-directed enterprize sliall disclose what yet remains unexplored, the exposition of our actual knowledge, and the speculative deductions of en- lightened theory, cannot be unacceptable to the lovers of geographical research. 'in March I, ISIS. ' !\; PREFACE TO THE POLAR TRACTS. BY THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARllINGTON. ■' i THE following Tracts, relative to the pos- sibility of near approaches to the Pole t)f our own hemisphere, as likewise of a com- munication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in any Northern direction were first published in 17^5 and I776. I now think it right again to print them, because they contain many welJ attested facts with regard to reachincr high Northern Latitudes, which are not ^ XIV rRi:iACE TO TilJi to be fouiul t'lsewlieiv, and liavc a ten- dency to promote geogTapliical discoveries. I am very ready to admit, indeed, tliat the purposes oF conunerce can never he answered by tlie i^rcat uncertainty of a constant passai»'e (even wlien sucli com- iiunucation is discovered), in seas which are so fVe(|iientlv oSstructed by the ice packing in vast fiehls. I find Hkewise, that since tlie Resolution and Endeavour returned from their hist voyage, many conceive a North East or North West Passage to be impractica])le, because our ships, in two successive years, were not able to penetn-.te beyond ^T, by impedi- ments of ice. Besides, however, tha. the ice packing in particular situations varies cften in ditierent years, both these at- tempts were made in the month of Au- gust, which I flatter myself to have proved, is the very season of the year when the 4 ..I POLAR TRACTS. XV ice, breaking up on tlic coast, is floating in every direction, and consequently often packs in masses of an inuuensc extent. These vast fields of ice, indeed, often are dispersed ; l)ut who hath, or indeed should have, the fortitude of waiting for tJiis accident, whilst he is alreadv in a ' ml high Northern Latitude, ard the winter is fast approa(;hing? If the ice, however, sh .♦uld thus pack in April or May (whicli I conceive it would not, as little niu-;t be left to float from the preceding smnnier), yet as the warm weather is then increas- ing fi-om day to day, tlie navigatoi- would wait with some degree of patience till his ship may be released from this temporary obstruction. The situation of the dis- coverer, under these circumstances, may be compared to a traveller passing over a hirge tract of sea sand, when the tide is flowing or ebbing. In the first instance I . \ XVI PRUPACE TO THE he spurs liis liorse, hcctiuse the sea may be expected at his heels ; in tlie latter he proceeds with great composure, as every instant he loses in point of time the sea is farther removed. Others ngain have despaired of a North West Passage, from Captain Pick- crsgill not having succeeded in Iiis at- tempt for this purpose during the year This voyage was intended for two pur- poses (at least as 1 have been infor ucd) ; the first to protect some of our whale fishers on the coast of West Greenland from the Americans then in rebellion ; and the secoiftd (if the time after this service permitted) to join Captain Cook, should he have been so fortunate as to have ac- complished his passage from the Pacific * la the Lion armed brig. rOLAR Til ACTS. XVII ^ ,] Ocean, wlieii lie would prohiibly have re- turned to Englaiul l)y Davis's Straits. This plan seems to have heen very well laid, hut that perseverii>i»- navigator was delayed at the Cape liy Captain Clark's ship not arrivinir till a considerable time after his own reaching;- that j)laec of ren- dezvous, and in the farther pro<>Tess of hi:* voyage hy adverse winds, which diove him to the Friend! v Ishmds instead of Otaheite, so that he did not make his attempt of a passage till 177?- Captain Pickersgill did not leave JScilly till the 10th of June 17^>t>, and conse- quently, whatever ohtructions he met with from floating or packing ice, might be reasonably expected when he reached the coast of West Greenland. It appears, ^lovvever, by what I shall copy from the conclusion of his Journal on the :Ust of August, that he did not titid these to be XVUl ruEFAd: TO Tin; consideraljle, and timt utter the trial lils hopes of Ji pussage were very sanguine. *' I shall eonclude with a few observa- tions on this |)art ot* the world (sc. (ireen- land) and so terribly represented hy peo- ple, Avho, in order to raise their own merit, make dangers and difiiculties of connnon occurrences, merely because the places are unknown, and there is little or no probability of their being ever contra- dicted. I do not mean this as a personal reflection ; but having discoursed with many of the masters of (ireenland vessels as well as their employers, and heard such dreadful stories of those countries, I can- not help remarking it as tending to mis- lead those, who, from a laudable principle, would be benefactors to their country, but are deterred from it by these misrepre- sentations. I shall communit*ate observa- tions on the ice, the atmosphere, the ,.1 l'Or,.\Il I'll. ACTS. XIX ■, land of Forhislier, ami Ihe pnthnhility of a North JVest Passage, in a short time*:' Tins, liowevcT, luitli iinfortunatelv I)ccn |)rcvente(l by (Japtain Pickersgill's fkatli ; but tlic Astronomer Royal, wlio connmuiicatc'd Caj)tjiin Pickcrsgiirs Jour- nal to the Royal Soeiety, bath informed me by letter, " That he had often heard this navi(.ator express himself as well as- sured of a North West Passage ; adding, that lie received accounts of it from the iidiabitants on the side of Davis's Straits, and that it was directly North West, very different from liaffin's track. " Captain Pickersgill likewise thought, that the /jest mettwd to find ttie passage ivas to get out eartij, before the ice broke away in the vpper part of Davis's Straits." ""' Pliil. Trans, -for 177s, part 11, p, lOfi.i. b2 h XX niElACE TO THE It thus appears, that the last attempts of a North West Passage einled with the officers employed tliereon heiii*j; thoroiij^hly persuaded, that it was not oidy praciieahU', hut hii»ldy pi-ohahK\ As the hite g(M)gTaphical discoveries have given such general satisiaction, I have little douht hut that they will he farther prosecuted when a peace takes place, and shall therefore here venture to thi'ow out ujy poor thoughts with regard to the yet remaining desiderata for the nu>re perfect knowledge of the planet wliich we inhahit. When we are informed hy proper trials, that the attempt in any particular direction cannot succeed, we shall thc! he as nuicli at rest as with re- gard to Liniar oceans or continents, if xuch there he. I have mentioned in the following Tracts, that the narliamentarv rewards J '■■ POLAR TRACTS. XXI I I i i i : j i i given for approaching within one degree of the North Pole Jire not Hkely to pro- duce the effects intended, hecause the Greenland whale ships are all ensured ; if they were therefore to go hevond the common fishing latitudes, it would lie such a departure from the voyage ensured, that they would not he ahle to recover, if accidents happened in such a deviation. 1 am informed, however, that there are some vessels employed in time of peace hy government, to prevent snmggling on the Northern Coast of Sc^'lland. These ships might be instructed, Avhen a promising wind blows from the Southward, to pro- ceed as far North as the ice will permit. The crew of such a ship would be en- couraged by expectations of the parlia- mentary reward ; and though one attempt might fail, another might succeed. The expense to the public would be trifling. i h. XXll PREFACE TO THE whilst the smugglers would not know how soon the ship might return to its station. Our Commodore upon the Newfound- land station might also send a vessel, at a small expense, to explore all the Northern part of Hudson's Bay, with which we are so imperfectly acquainted at present. Such attempts during peace might take place almost every summer ; and I should suppose that this scientific and opulent nation would never hesitate (whilst there is the least dawning of hopes) to send proper vessels occasionally to make ftirther trials hoth of a North West Passage hy Baffin's Bay, and a North East heyond Nova Zend)Ia. The coast of Corea, the Northern part of Japan, and the Lequieux Islands, should also be explored ; the cheapest and perhaps best method of doing this would be to employ a vessel in the India Com- ■,s : !i POLAR TRACT!5. -XXlll pany's service, which miglit be victualled at Canton. Thus much with regard to discoveries, or better knowledge of the more unfj c- qiiented parts of the Northern Hemi- sphere. The desider..fa in that of the South seem to be the following: — To make the com])]ete circumnaviga- tion of New Holland, so as at least to be better acquainted with some parts of the coast of this immense island ; a vessel for this purpose might be victualled at the Cape of Good Hope, or Canton : nor is the voyage a distant one, when compared with those of Captain Cook. New Guinea also should be better explored. We scarcely know more of the island* of Tristan da Cunha than their Longitude and Latitude; bi't their interior puits should he examined. Not vastly distant is Sandwich Land, which many on board !v, XXIV PRErACE TO THE POLAR TRACTS, Captain Cook supposed to he a vast con- tinent. It may be ohjected, indeed, that if it is so, it will turn out to be a conti- nent of ice and snow; I am not here, however, reconnnending discoveries for the purpose of commerce, but for the im- provement of geography. I shoukl conceive, th it a voyage either from the Cape or Brasil would easily give opportunity of eftectuating both these pur- poses. Perhaps, whib t discoveries by sea are thus dwelt upon, encouragement should be given to travellers by land, for pro- curing better information with regard to the central parts of Asia, Africa, and America. In short, let us endeavour to know as much as we may of our glolie ; nor should this be considered as a vain and tritlin*^ curiosity, though no beneftts to commerce may result from these in- i ( ! cpiiries. i INSTANCES OF NAVIGATORS WHO HAVE UEACHED HIGH NORTHERN LATITUDES. P :ad at a Meeting of the Royal Society, MAY 19, 1774. '-i i AS I was the unworthy proposer of the Voyage towards the North Pole, which the Council ot the Royal Society recommended to the Board of Admiralty, I think it my duty to lay before the Society such intelligence as I have happened to procure with regard to navigators having reached high Northern Latitudes*; because * It is well known, that there are many sucli accounts in print, but to these J need not refer the Society. •( 2 ON APPROACHINS some of these accounts seem to promise, that we may proceed farther towards the Pole than the very ahle Officers, who were sent on tliis destination last year, were permitted to pene- trate, notwithstanding their repeated efforts to pass beyond eighty degrees and a half. I shall begin, however, by making an ob- servation or two with regard to the (ireenland Fishery, which will in a great measnre account for our not being able to proaire many in- stances of nearer approaches to the Pole than the Northern parts of Spitzbergen. Fifty years ago, such apprehensions were entertained of navigating even in the loose, or what is called sailing ice, that the crews com- monly continued on shore*, from whence they only pursued the whales in boats. The demand, however, for oil increasing, whilst the number of fish rather decreased, Ihey were obliged to proceed to sea in quest of them* ;. ■■« * There were houses still standing on Spitzbergen, where the Dutch used to boil their train oil. — Marten's Voyage, p. 2*. See also Callander, vol. iii, p. 723. ?i ^ THE NORTH POLF. I and now by experience anil adroitness seldom suffer from the obstructions of ice*. The masters of ships, who are employed in this trade, have no other object but the catch- ing whales, which, as long as they can procure in more Southern Latitudes, they certainly will not go in search of at a greater distance from the port to which they are to return : they, therefore, seldom proceed much beyond eighty degrees North Latitude, unless driven by a strong Southerly wind or other accident. Whenever this happens, also, it is only by very diligent inquiries that any information can be procured ; for the masters, not being com- monly men of science, or troubling their heads about the improvement of geographical know- ledge, never mention these circumstances on their return, because they conceive that no one is more interested about these matters than they are themselves. Many of the Greenland mas- ters are likewise directed to return after the 1^^ * These particulars I reccivcil from Cnptaiii Robinson, whom 1 shall have heret within these twelve years he mentioned all the particulars above related to his brother oflficer, Lieutenant Cart- wright. Mr. Watt also frequently conversed with Captain Mac-Callam about this voyage after both of them had quitted the Greenland ships ; Mr. Watt rising regularly to be a Master and Commander in His Majesty's service, and Cap- tain Mac-Callam becoming Purser of the Tweed Man of War. It so happened, that in the year of the expedition against Bellisle, Mr. Watt, Captain Mac-Callam, and Mr. Walker (commonly called Commodore Walker, from his having com- iM THE NORTH POLE. 15 4i i :i 4 nmnded the Royal Family privateers in the late war), met together at Portsmouth, when they talked over the circumstances of this Green- land voyage, which Mr. Walker was interested in, hy having been the principal owner ol' the Campbeltown. Mr. Watt and Captain Mac-Callam met also eleven years ago in London, when they as usual conversed about the having reached so high a Northern Latitude. I now come to my last proof, which I received from the late Dr. Campbell, the able continuator and reviser of Harris's Collection of Voyages. In that very valuable compilation. Commo- dore Roggewein's circumnavigation makes a most material addition, some of the most inte- resting particulars of vvhich were communicated by Dr. Dallie, who was a native of Holland*, and lived in Racquet Court, Fleet Street, uboiit the year 17-15, where he practised physic. ,1 .:l' * He was a grandson of Dallie, who was author of a book, much esteemed by the Divines, entitled " Di Um Putrum." 16 ON APPROACHING Dr. Campbell went to thank Dallie for the having furnished him with Roggewein's Voyage, when Dallie said, that he had been farther both to the Southward and to the North- ward than perhaps any other person who ever existed. He then explained himself as to the having been in high Southern Latitudes, by sailing in Roggewein's fleet* ; and as to his having been far to the Northward, he gave the following account : — Between fifty and sixty years ago it was usual to send a Dutch ship of war to super- intend the Greenland Fishery, though it is not known whether this continues to be a regulation at present. Dr. Dallie (then young) was on board the Dutch vessel employed on this service f ; and, during the interval between the two fisheries. i * Roggeweiu reached South Latitude 62° 30'.— See Harris. f Dr. Campbell does not recollect in what capacity he served ; but, as he afterwards practised physic, he might probably have been the surgeon. -» I THE NORTH POLE. ir -■ :: 1 the Captain determined, like Mr. Mac-Callam, to try whether he could not reach the Pole ; and accordingly penetrated (to the hest of Dr. Campbell's recollection) as far as North Lati- tude 88°, when the weather was warm, the sea perfectly free from ice, and rolling like the Bay of Biscay. Dallie now pressed the Captain to proceed ; but he answered, that he had already gone too far by having neglected his station, for which he should be blamed in Holland : on which account, also, he would suffer no Journal to be made, but returned as speedily as he could to Spitzbergen. There are undoubtedly two objections, which may be made to this account of Dr. Dallie's, which are, that it depends not only upon his own memory, hut that of Dr. Campbell, as no Journal can be produced, for the reason which 1 have before stated. The conversation, however, between Dr. Campbell and Dallie arose from the accidental mention of Roggewein's Voyage to the South- ward ; and can it he supposed that Dallie ■l- ? M i- c 9 I 18 ON APPROACHINO invented this circumstantial narrative on the spot, without having actually heen in a high Northern Latitude ? If this be admitted to have been improbable, was he not likely to have remembered with accuracy what he was so much interested about, as to have pressed the Dutch Captain to have proceeded to the Pole ? But it may be said, also, that we have not this account from Dallie himself, but at second-hand from Dr. Campbell, at the distance of thirty years from the cotiver- sation. To this it may be answered, that Dr. Camp- bell's memory was most remarkably tenacious, as is well known to all those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance ; and, as he hath Avritten so ably for the promotion of geographical discoveries in all parts of the globe, such an account could not but make a strong impression upon him, especially as he received it just after the first edition of his compilation of voyages. ) V 1 J HE NORTH FOLt. 19 r; No one easily forgets what is highly inte- resting to him ; and, though I do not pretend to have so good a memory as Dr. Campbell, I have scarcely a doubt, but that, if I should live thirty years longer, and retain my faculties, I shall recollect with precision every latitude which I have already stated in this Paper. What credit, however, is to be given to all these narratives is entirely submitted to the Society, as I have stated them most fully, with every circumstance which may invalidate, as well as support them ; and, if I have endea- voured to corroborate them by the observations which I have made, it is only because I believe them. It should seem upon the whole of the inquiries on this point, that it is very uncer- tain when ships may proceed far to the Northward of Spitzbergen ; and that it de- pends, not only upon the season, but other accidents, when the Polar Seas may be so C 2 .( J . ^ :|j !'• ; I 4 Jo ON ArPROACHINTf. free from ice as to permit attempts to make discoveries*. Possibly, therefore, if a king's officer was sent from year to year on board one of tlio (ireenland ships, the lucky opportunity might be seized, and the Navy Board might pay for the use of the vessel, if it was taken from the Whale Fishery, in order to proceed as far as may be towards the North Pole. * Captain Robinson hath informed mc, that at the latter ♦iud of" last April a Whitby Ship was in North Latitude 80°, without having been materially obstructed by the ice. t'aptain Marshall was also off Hukluyt's Headland so early a'? the 25th of April, without observing much ice. DAINES HARRINGTON, F.R.S. •I hi THE NORTH POLE. '21 ADDITIONAL PROOFS, . < ^ — Head at a Meeting of the Royal SocifU/, DEC '22, 177 i. 4 !?i AS I happen to have collected many additional facts since niy Paper, containing Instances of Navigators who had reached high Northern Latitudes, was read before the Society in May last, I shall take the liberty to state them according to chronological order ; together with some general reasons why it may be presumed, that the Polar Seas are, at least sometime?, navigable. I think it my duty to do this, not only because I was the unworthy proposer of the Polar Voyage in 1773, which was recommended ;i: 1 1 t 4 J' M ■■M '< r 22 ON ArPROACHINO' by the Counril of the Royal Society to the Board of Admiralty; but bec.inse it would not redound much to the credit of the Society, if they planned a voyage to reach the North Pole, if possible, when a perpetual barrier of ice prevented any discoveries in the Spitzbergen Seas to the Northward of 80^^, which is not a degree beyond the most common station of the Greenlfind Fishers. I must here however, repeat, that no one is more entirely satisfied than myself of the great abilities, perseverance, and intrepidity, with which the officers, who were sen* on this desti- nation, attempted to prosecute tl -liscoveries ; but I conceive, from the arguments and facts which will follow, that they were stopped by a most unfortunate barrier of ice (of great extent ndeed), but which was only temporary and not perpetual. If such ii wall of ice hath been constantly fixed in this latitude, and must continue to be so, there is an end to all discoveries to be made to the Northward of Spitzbergen ; but if it i? 1 ! a I THE NORTH POLE. S3 >i only occasional, the attempt niuy be resumed in some more fortunate year ♦. The point therefore being of so much im- portance to geography, I hope tlie Society ^vi!l pardon me, if I more fully enter into the sub- jcet than I did in my former Paper. The English have long taken the lead in geographical discoveries. One of our ships of war is lately returned, after having penetrated into the Antarctic Circle ; and is it not rather a reflection upon a scientific nation, that more is- not knovt^n with regard to the circumpolar regions of our oun hemisphere, than can be collected from maps made in the time of Charles I, especially when the run from the mouth of the Thames to the North Pole is not a longer one than from Falmouth to the Cape de Verde Islands ? * Upon the first return of the king's sliips from the Polar Voyage, this notion of a perpetual barrier of ice at North Latitude 80^" had prevailed so much, that some very distinguished philosophers of this country had shown thoughts of proceeding to the Pole over the ice, in such a wind boat ad the Dutch have sometimfis made use of. . 1 I ; [ii i U I- i i. .' '24 ON APrROACHING Though I have the honour to be a Felldw of a Society instituted for the promotion of Natural Knowledge, the prejudices of an Eng- lishman are so strong with me, that I cannot hut wish the discoveries to be made in the Polar Seas may be achieved by my country- men ; but, if we are determined to abandon the enterprise, science is to be honoured from what- ever quarter it may come, and it hath therefore given me great satisfaction to hear, that Mons. de Bougainville is soon to be sent on discoveries to the Northward *. In the outset of my former Paper, I said I should not trouble the Society with any in- stances of navigators having reached high Northern Latitudes, which had appeared in print. During the course of this summer, how- ever, I have happened to find three such ac- counts, which were never bctVjre alluded to, and which are extracted from books that are not * I have since been informed, that this intended voyage was (Iropt, by the French Minister for the marine depart' nient being changed. ll THE NORTH POLE 25 I I 1 \\ i ■4 1! t i *■■ coikinionly looked into, or at least often con- sulted upon points of geogra|)liy. When the Royal Society was first instituted, it was usual to send queries to any traveller who happened to reside in England, after having been in parts of the world which are not com- monly frequented *. In the year 1 66*2-3, Mr. Oldenburg, the se- cretary of the Society, was ordered to register a Paper, entitled, '' Several Inquiries concerning Greenland, answered by Mr. Grey, who had visited those parts." The 19th of these queries is the follow- ing: — *' How near any one hath been known to approach the Pole?'* Answer. " I once met, upon the Coast of « Greenland, a Hollander, that swore he had been but half a degree from the Pole, sliowing me his Journal, which was also attested by his * Hichard Hakluyt rodo two hundred miles to henr the Narrative of Mr. Thomas Butt's Voyage, tfrnp. Ilcn. VIII, ffom England to Newfoundland. — Hakluyt, part iii, p. 131. I 26 ON APPROACHING ' I mate ; where they had seen no ice or land, but all water *." After which Mr. Oldenburgh adds, as from himself, " This is incredible f." It may not be improper, therefore, after mentioning this first instance of a navigator's having approached so near to the Pole, to dis- * Mr. Boyle mentions a similar account, which he re- ceived from an old Greenland Master on the 5th of April, 1675. — See Boyle's Works, vol. ii, p. 307 to 399, folio. The whole of this Narrative is very circumstantial, and deserves to be stated at length. The title is Experiments and Observations made in December and January 1662. •}• See Dr. Birch's History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. 202. These queries are nineteen in number, to which the answers are very circumstantial. I had an opportunity of reading them over to three very intelligent masters of Greenland Ships, who confirmed every particular. One circumstance I think it right to take notice of, though it does not immediately relate to the point in discussion, which is, that there are coals in Spitsbergen, by which seven of Mr. Grey's crew were enabled to bear the severity of the winter, having been left behind by an accident. One of the Greenland Masters, to whom I read Mr. Grey's answers, confirmed this particular; saying, that he had burnt himself Spitsbergen coals, and that they were very Ci M * Dr. Birch's History of the Royal Society. t The ice is said to be never troublesome in the harbour of Newport (Rhode Island, North America); because no fresh water rivers empty themselves by this port ; whereas the harbour of New York (though much to the Southward) is often obstructed by the ice, which floats down from Hud- son's Kiver. V . THE NORTH POLE. 31 1 1 almost entirely from the same quarter, as it is so difficult to freeze any large quantity of salt water. These pieces of ice, therefore, being once launched into the Icy Sea, are dispersed by winds, tides, and currents, in every direction, some of them being perhaps carried to very high Northern Latitudes, from which they are again wafted to the Southward. But allowing, for an instant, that all the ice may come from the Northward, must not then an open sea be left in the higher North- ern latitudes, from which these masses of ice are supposed to have floated ? Was it because the more one advances to- wards the Pole, vegetation invariably is dimi- nished r — But this is not the fact. Nova Zembla, situate only in North Lati- tude 76°, produces not even any sorts of grass*; so that the only quadrupeds which frequent it are foxes and bears, botli of which are carni- vorous. In the Northern parts of Spitzbergen. ■« •!( * Purrhas, vol. i. p. 47'>. 1.1; d3 ON APPROACHING t I' il 1 1 on the other hand, tliey have rein-deer, whidi are often excessively fat ; and Mr. Grey men- tions three or four plants, which flower there during the summer *. Was it because no one had ever conceived it possible to proceed so far as the Pole-)-? Thorne," liowever, a merchant of Bristol, had made such a proposal in the reign of Henry VIII ; and I shall now also show, that not only Mr. Oldenburgh's contemporaries con- tinue 1 to believe such a voyage to be feasible, hut many great names in science who lived after him. Wood sailed on the discovery of a North East Passage to Japan in 1676; and, in the publication of his voyage, he hath stated the grounds upon which he conceived such a voyage ,. i I 1 * Dr. Birch's History of the Royal Society, vol. i, et $eq. t A Map of the Northern Hemisphere, published at Berlin (under the direction of the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lcttres), places a ship at the Pole, as hating arrived there according to the Dutch account'?. THE NORTH POLE. 33 " V- to be practicable ; tbe strongest of all which, perhaps, is the relation of Captain Goulden, with regard to a Dutch ship having reached North Latitude 89°. Though this account hath often been referred to, I do not not recol- lect to have seen it stated with all the circum- stances which setm tj establish its veracity be- yond contradiction : I shall therefore copy the very words of Wood*. " Captain Goulden, who had made above thirty voyages to Greenland, did relate to his majesty, that, being at Greenland some twenty years before, he was in company with two Hollanders to the eastward of Edge's Island 'f' ; * Moron's account of a Dutch ship having been tWQ degrees beyond the Pole was also much relied upon by VVoud, which hath never been printed at large, but in a now very scarce tract of Moxon's, and in the second volume of Harris's Voyages, p. 3^6. In confirmation of this very circumstantial and interesting narrative, I have only to add, that Moxon was hydrographer to Charles II, and hath published several scientific treatises. — See the Catalogue of the Bodleian Library. t Edge's Island was discovered, A.D. 1616, by Ciptaia D .,( .'« ,n •Ui 'T t f i. \ I , 34 ON ArPROACHlNG and that the whales not appearing on the shore, the two Hollanders were determined to go farther Northward, and in a fortnight's time returned, and gave it out that they had sailed into the Lati- tude 89°, and that they did not meet with any ice, hut a free and open sea ; and that there ran a very hollow ^roit'H * sea, like that of the Bay of Biscay. Mr. Goulden heing not satisfied with the hare relation, they ])roduced him four Journals out of the two ships, which testified the same, and that they all agreed within four minutes f." -•] \ Thomas E(!ge, who had made ten voyages to those seas. — See the Supplement to the North East Voyages, 8vo. London, 169^-. Whyche's Island, so railed from a gen- tleman of that name, was discovered in the following year. — Ibid. * Grown Sea, is the expression in the original. " Which is not practicable in these tempestuous high grown seas." — Dr. Halley, in his Journal, p. 45. f Wood's Voyage, p 1 ^5. — Wood^s Voyage was pub- lished by Snuth and Walford, Printers to the Royal Society in \69i, together with Sir John Narborough's, Marten's, und other Navigators. The book is dedicated to Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty; and he is complimented therein for haviiia furnished the material*. 1 T 1 THE NORTH POLE. 35 ' 'S' Having thus stated Wood's own words, it should seem, that they who deny the anthen* tlcity of the relation must contend, that the crews of both these Dutch Ships entered into a deliberate scheme of imposing upon their bro- ther Whale Fishers, and had drawn up four fictitious Journals accordingly, because so many are stated to have been produced out of the two ships to Captain Goulden, whilst each of them varied a few minutes in the latitude ; whereas, if they had determined to deceive Captain Goulden and his crew, the Journals would probably have tallied exactly. I must beg leave also to make an additional observation on the account as stated by Wood, which is, that the Dutch Ships only went to the Northward, in search of whales, but did not give it out that they intended to make for the Pole, which, if they had done, it might possibly have been an inducement to carry on the deception by forgeries and misrepresentation!^. To this it may likewise be added, that the Dutch are not commonly jokers. D9 '111! ' 'iL Ml '^f. t: i f 3b' ON APPROACHINC; VI I have already remarked, that Wood makes this account one of tlie principal reasons for his undertaking the North East Passage to Japan. Wood therefore (Mr. Oldenburgli'a contemporary) was not a disbeliever before his voyage of the possibility of reaching so high a Northern Latitude, nor of any of the circum- stances stated in this Narrative. But Captain Wood is not a single instance of such credulity, as, the very year before he sailed on his Voyage, ws find in the Philoso- phical Transactions for 1675* the following passage: — " For it is well knovvu to all that sail Northward, that most of the Northern Coasts are frozen up many leagues, though in the open sea it is not so, No, nor under the Pole Itself, unless by accident." In which passage. the having reached the Pole is alluded to as a known fact, and stated as such to the Royal Society. Wood indeed, after not being able to proceed * No. 118. It THE NORTH POLE. M further than North Latitude 76°, discredits in the himp nil the former instances of having reached high Northern Latitudes, in the follow- ing words : — " So here the opinion of William Barentz was confuted, and all the Dutch relations*, which certaiidy are all forged and abusive pamphlets, as also the relations of our country- men "j"." In justice, however, to the memoirs of both English and Dutch Navigators, I cannot but take notice of tiiese very peremptory and ill- founded reflections, made by Wood ; and which seem to be dictated merely by his disappoint- ment, in not being able to eflect his disco- very. Wood attempted to sail in a North East ■ill] I i 'd * The Dutch made three voyages for the discovery of the Norlh East Passage in three successive years, the third being in 1596, which la>t was by the encouragement of a private subscription only. — Sec Cierard de Veer, p. 15, joiio, Amsterdam, 1609. I Wood's Voyage, p. I S 1 . 1 r *. ■!l •I : ■ 38 ON APPROACHING . I li ' in direction between Spitzbergen and Nova Zem- bla, but was obstractcd by ice, so tbat be could not proceed fartber than the West Coast of Nova Zembla, in North Latitude 76**. Think- ing it, therefore, prudent to return, he at once treats as fabulous, not only the ideas of that most persevering seaman William Barentz, but likewise all other accounts of ships having reached high Northern Latitudes. Now that the ice, which obstructed Wood in North Lati- tude 76°, was not a perpetual, but only occa- sional barrier, appears by the Russians having not only discovered, but lived several years in the island of Maloy Brun, which lies between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and extends from North Latitude 77° 25' to 78° 45' *. The Dutch also sailed round the Northern Coast of s i * See the English Translation of Professor Le Roy's account of this Island, p. 85, 8vo., London, 1774, printed for C. Heydinger. As also the Sieur de Vaugondy's Etsai d'une Carle Polaire Arctique, published in 177f, who re- presents this island as extending from North Latitude 77° 20' to 78" 30', its longitude being 60* East frona Feio. w If THE NORTH rOLE. 89 > 'r, Nova Zembla, and wintered on the Eastern side in 1596*. As for Wood's treating all discoveries to- wards the Pole, from the Northern parts of Spitzbergen, as fabulous, he had not the least foundation, from what he had observed on bis own voyage, for this unmerited aspersion upon their veracity ; because, if Wood's ])arrier be- tween Spitzbergen and Nova Zembia, in Nortli Latitude T&'j had been perpetual, what hath t4iis to do with the course of a ship sailing from the Northern parts of Spitzbergen upon a meri- dian towards the Pole ? I cannot, however, dismiss Wood's Voyage without making some farther remarks on his * Sec the Map of the circunipolar regions, which accom* panics Wood's Voyage. The Northern point of Nova Zembia, in this Map, is in 77" nearly. There were factions in Holland, with regard to the me "'od of discovering thv North East Passage. Bart'itz, instigated by Plancius the Geographer, was for tnaking the trial to the North of Nova Zembia ; the other two ships, which sailed on that expedi- tion of discovery, were to attempt passing the Weygatz. — llecueil des Voyages au Nord, lorn. iv. Linsthot«'n's Preface. I!ti 1 1* ^kf\ I- •I II 40 ON APPROACHING concluding, that the obstructions which he met with in North Latitude 76° were perpetual. Almost every voyage to seas, in which floating ice is commonly to be found, proves the great difference between the quantities, as well as size, of these impediments, to naviga- tion, though in the same latitude and time of the year. Davis, in his two first voyages to discover the North West Passage, could not penetrate beyond t^6°; but in his third voyage, in 1587, he reached 72° 12'*. In the year 1576, Sir Martin Frobisher passed the Straits (since called from their first discoverer) without any obstructions from ice ; in his two following voyages, however, he found them in the same month, to use his own expres- sion, " in a manner shut up with a long mure of ice t." In the year l6l4, Baffin proceeded to 81°, « Sec Hakluyt, and Purchas, toI. i, p. 8*. t Purchas ibid. a s I ) ^^ THE NORTH POLE. 41 Rnd thought he %r-v land as far as 82"* to tlic North East of Spitzhergen, which is accord- ingly marked in one of Purchas's Maps. During this voyage he met, near Cherry Island, situate only in 74° North Latitude, two hanks of ice ; the one, forty leagues in length, the other one hundred and twenty ; which last would extend to twenty-five degrees of longitude in North Latitude 76^, where Wood fixes his barrier. It need therefore scarcely he observed, tiiat such a floating wall of ice, one hundred and twenty leagues long, by being jammed in be- tween land, or other hanks of ice, might afford an appearance indeed of forming a per- petual barrier, when perhaps, within the next twenty-four hours, the wall of ice might en- tirely vanish. Of the sudden assemblage of such an accu- mulation of ice, I shall now mentioo two, rather recent, instances. * See also the Supplement to Wood and Marten's Voy- ages, in the Svo. publication of ^Crji, in which point Pur- chas is stated to be in North Latitude 82". II ;*f ,* ■Jl r i I 42 OV APPROACHING I have been very accurately informed, that the iate Colonel Murray happened to go, in the month of May, from one of onr Southern Colonies to Louisburgh, when the harbour was entirely open ; hut, on rising in the morning, it was completely filled with ice, so that a waggon might have passed over it in any direction*. I have also received the following account from an officer in the Royal Navy, who was not many years ago on the Newfoundland station. In the middle of June, the whole Straits of Bellisle were covered in the same manner with the harbour of Louisburgh, and for three weeks I * On the 19lh of December, 1759, the Potowmack, in a part where it was two miles broad, and nearly in North Latitude of only 3S°, was frozen entirely over in one night, when the preceding day had been very mild and temperate. — Burnaby's Travels through North America, p. 59. Camden, in his Annals of Elizabeth, asserts, that Davis reached 83°, where the Straits, called after him, were narrowed to forty leagues. — See Camden, anno 1585, We have not since been able to proceed so far to the Northward. ; I ill 1 THE NORTH POLE. 43 together a carriage might have passed from one shore to the other ; hut during a single night the ice Iiud almost entirely disappeared. Such is the sudden accumulation of ice, in latitudes twenty-four and thirty degrees to the South* ward of Wood's situation. Linschoten asserts, that heing in the Straits of Weygate the last day of July, he was told by the Samoieds on that coast, that in ten or twelve days afterwards the ice in the Straits would be all gone, though they were then quite blocked np with it. When be repassed these Straits afterwards, on the 1 3th of August, he found not the least vestige of it, so qnickly do these huge masses dissolve after they once begin to thaw ♦. On the other hand, Callander admits, that by accumulation of floating ice places are now inaccessible which were not formerly so, and instances the Eastern Coast of Greenland, as also Froblsher s Straits j*. Kergulen, in his account i i ..1 ] r4 1' 1 •} t * Callauder's Preface, p. 33. t Ibiil. ■ii i % 44 ON APrROACHING of Iceland, likewise nientionsi, that the sea be- tween Iceland and Greenland was entirely closed during the whole summer of 1/66. I shall now endeavour to show, that Dr. Halley was no more incredulous with re- gard to the possibility of reaching high Northern Latitudes, than Captain Wood was before the ill success of his voyage on discovery. Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, hath the following passage, under the article Thermometer :— *' Mr. Patrick has fixed his thermometer to a scale of 90°, which are numbered from the top downwards, and also a moveable index to it. The design of this is to show, how the heat and cold is changed from the time it was last looked uj)on, accorditig to the different degrees of heat and cold in all latitudes. As by the trial of two thermometers, which have been regulated abroad ; the one by Dr. Halley, in his late Southern Voyage ; and the other by Cap-^ tain Johnson, in his voyage to Greenland ; the first hath a heat under the equinoctial line. I I h 4 I THE NORTH f'OLE. 4b and the other a degree of cold in 88*^ of North Latitude." I have taken some paitjs to find out a more full account of this voyage of Captain John- son's; hut have only met with the following confirmation of it perhaps : — ** I have been assured, hi/ persojis of' credU, that an English Captain, whose name was Monson, instead of seeking a passage to China between the Northern countries, had directed his course to the Pole, and had approached it within two degrees, where there was an open sea, without any ice *." As the Captain Monson mentioned in this passage, reached exactly the same degree of latitude with Captain Johnson, I should rather think, that this is the same voyage; especially, as it is well known, that the French writers seldom trouble themselves about the orthogra- phy of foreign names. If this, however, should not be the case, it •♦ See M. Je BufTon's Natural Hi-tory, vol. i, p. 215, Ito, i ,i!i 1' ii I I IS i' 1 46 ON APPROACHING r. must be admitted to be an additional instance of a ship's having reached North Latitude 88**, as well as Mons. de BufTon's giving credit to such relation ♦. Having therefore not been able to pick np any other circumstances in relation to Captain Johnson's Voyage, I shall now state what seems to be fairly deducible from the passage, which I have copied from Miller's Gardener's Dic- tionary. Dr. Halley made his voyage *o the Southward in 170O; on the return from which, he probably employed Patrick, as the most eminent maker of weather glasses j", to graduate a thermometer s * To this list of credulous persons (as perhaps they may be considered by some), I shall beg leave to add the names of Maclauvin and Dr. Campbell. The former of these was so persuaded of the seas being open quite to the Pole, that he hath not only advised this method of prosecuting disco- veries, but, as I have been told, was desirous of going the voyage himself. t I have been informed, that his shop was in the Old Bailey, and that he died about fifty years ago. Patrick was a great ringer, and some of the most celebrated peals were I ; THE NORTH POLE. 47 according to the heat he had experienced under the equator. It was very natural therefore, when such a point of heat was to be marked upon the instrument, to make the scale either for high Southern or Northern Latitudes. It should seem, then, that Dr. Ilallcy had procured Captain Johnson (who was Master of a Greenland Ship) to carry a thermometer on his voyage to Spitzbergen, and that he foitu- nately was able to reach so high a degree of latitude as 88°. If the thermometer had been calculated only for imaginary degrees of heat and cold, it would have been marked for the Equator and the Pole; whereas it was only regulated for 88* of North Latitude, which Captain Johnson therefore had as clearly reached, as Dr. Halley had the Equator. At all events, Patrick's Thermometer must have been made under Dr. Hulley's inspection ; invented by him mure than fifty years ngo. He styled himself, in his advertisements, Torricellian Operator. — Sir John Hawkins's History ol'Muvic, vol. iv, p, 154. . ( H •i '! \ ; ' i .l| y.. H 48 ON APPUOACIIING and would he hiive ])errr»itted it to be inarketr for 88° of North Latitude, according to Captain Johnson's Voyage, if he had disbelieved his Narrative? My third and last instance, from any printed authority, but in a book which is not com- monly to be met with, is that of Captain Alex- ander Cluny, as by a Map engraved under his direction, the very spot is marked to th« Westward of Spitzbergen, and in somewhat more than 82° of North Latitude, where he saw neither land nor ice *. Before I proceed, however, to state several other instances of reaching high Northern Lati- tudes, which have never appeared in print, and which 1 have collected since ray last Paper o^? this head, I must beg the indulgence of the Society, whilst I lay before them some additional rea- * See the American Traveller, 4to. London 17(iC>, ; as also, the Sieur tie Vaugondy's Essui d'une Carte Polaiie .'hcti(jue, published in 1774-; in which, however, lie lays down this spot from Cluny's Map in liltle more than aT, whereas it is fully in S2*. The longitude of this spot is 30' East from Fero. i ' THE NORTH I'OLK. 49 ions why the Polar Seas inHy be conceived to be navigable *. Speculative geoprajihers have supposed, that there should be nearly the same ((liarutv of laud and sea in both hemispheres, in order to preserve the equilibrium of the globe. It is possible, indeed, that this may be ac- counted for by the Antarctic Seas being more shallow than those near the Noiih Pole ; as we do not know this, however, by the actual 8onndings, Imt are informed by Captain Fur^ neaux, that there is no land even as far as the Antarctic Circle, upon the meridian in which *I have received a letter from the Rev. Mr. Tooke, Chaplain to the Factory at St. Petersburgh, dated Decem- ber 30, 1774, which he concludcsin the following manner : — <' I have a fact or two to communicate, which seem to indi- cate, if not to a certainty, yet at least to a degree of proba- bility, that the sea Is open to the Pole the year throughout ; but my paper will not hold them." From the accuracy with which several other interesting particulars are stated in this letter, I have great reason to regret, thai 1 have not an opportunity of laying the facts alluded to before the Public, with all their circumstances, as 1 suppose that Mr. Tooke'8 information came from Archangel Seamen. E k |1' f" l! ( :>■ i' n H 50 ON APPROACHING l| lie Sf^iled, as also tlmt no land was ohscrvorl during the course of his circumnavigation in 55° South Latitude at a medium, it seems ne- cessary, as the quantity of hind so greatly pre- ponderates in the Northern hemisphere, that from North Latitude 80,^- to the Pole itself must • be chiefly, if not entirely, sea*. Let us rov.' consider, whether such a sea is probably, at all times, in a state of congelation. 1 do not know, whether it huth been settled by thermometrical observations, that there is any material difference between the heat under the Equator, and that which is experienced within the Tropics ; most travellers complain indefinitely of its excess in such latitudes. As this point, therefore, seems not to have been settled by the thermometer, let us have recourse to what is found to be the freezing point upon mountains, situate almost under the Equator, and compare it with the same * It is now known thnt Captain Cook also found very littlu land during liis persevering attempt* to the South- ward. ri THE NUKTH POLE. 51 lY height on the Peak of TeneriHc, which, being in North Latitude 28", is Hve degrees to the North- u'urd of the tropical limits. The French Academicians suppose, that the freezing point, at which all vegetation ceases, and ice takes ])lace, commences, on Cotopaxi, at 1411 toises above the level of the sea; or, by our measure, at the height of about a mile and three quarters*. Mr. Edens, on the other hand, hath given us a very particular account of what he observed in going to the top of Teneriftet; and so far from seeing snow or ice (except in a cave) his coat was covered, during the night, with dew, at the very summit ; which, according to Dr. He- * Cotopaxi is the highest mountain of the Andes, at least in the ncighLourhuod of Quito. Tlie plain of Cara- buca, from which it rises, is 1023 toise< above the level of the sea, and the height of the mountain above thio plain is 1268 toises, making together 2291 toises. If 880 toises therefore are deducted from 2291, 11-11 toises become the height oi the freezing point upon this mount.nn. — See Ulloa's Account of Souih America. t Philosophical Transactions Abridged, vol. v, p. 147. 'Sprat's History of the Roval Society. K 2 I'- f r li 52 ON APPROACHIMO berden's computation, is 15,396 feet high, or wants bnt 148 yards of three miles*. Now, as it is thus settled, that the Peak of Teneriffe is nearly three miles high, which ex- ceeds by more thtin a mile the height of the freezing point on Cotopaxi, situate under the Equator, it should seem that there is no material difference between the heat under the Equator and within the Tropits ; for if it is urged, that Teneriffe is more surrounded with sea than Cotopaxi, it must on the other hand be recol- lected, that this mountain h !3ituate 6** to the Northward of the Tropic, at the same time that the summit exceeds the freezing point on Coto- paxi by more than a mile; both which circum- stances should render it colder than the freezing point on Cotopaxi. The inference to be drawn from this com- parison seems to be, that, as the heat varies so little between the Equutor and the tropical * See Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. il, p. 12. Goats al-o reach the very summit, which mutt b« in >«arch of food, u<; they do not bear cold weli. 50 it* TAB NORTH POI.B. 63 limits, it may differ ns little between the Arctic Circle and the Pole. Nothing hath been supposed to show more strongly the wisdom of a beneficent Creator, than that every part of this globe should (taking the year throughout) have an equal proportion of the $un*s light. It is admitted, that the equatorial parts have rather too niuch heat for the comforts of the in- habitants, and those within the ]\jlur Circles too little; but, as we know that the tropical limits are peopled, it should seem thiit the two Polar Circles are equally destined for the same pur- pose ; or if not for the benefit of man, at least for the sustenance of certain animals. The largest of these, in the whole scale of Creation, is the whale ; which, though a fish, cannot live long under water, without occasion- ally ral;^ing its head into another clement, for the purpose of respiration*: most other fish * " S'lmetimes the ice is fired, whcti llierc are l)ut t'«'vv whales si-cii, fur umlei-iieDth the ice llicy caiinut breathe." — Marteiis's V«tyage to Spitzhergrn. The whales, I il 1 , * This is described to be an arch formed upon the cloudi by reflection from the packed ice. Where the ice is fired upon the sea, yon see a snow white britrhtne^s in the skies, •8 if the sun shined, for the snow is reflected by the .tir just «j a fire l)y night is, but at a distance you see tl»e air blue or blackish. Whcrf there are many small ice tieMs, which are as meadows for the seals, you sec no lu-^tre or bright- ness of the pkios. — Mafrtcns's Voyage to Sijitzbugen. .M' t^ i ) I I i Hj 58 ON APPROACHING Headland, whicli is situate in 79° 50', with- out ol)serving this eti'ect of the ice npon the sky, if tlierc was a perpetual barrier at 80^°, which is not much more than half a degree from them, when in that situation. Now Hakluyt's Headland is what they so perj)etnally take their departures from, that it hath ob- tained the name of The Headland by way of pre-eminence. This mountain also is so high, that it can be distinguished at the distance of a degree : in snch instances, therefore, which I shall pro- duce, that do not settle the latitude by ob- servation, whenever the reckoning depends upon the approach or departure from this Headland, the account receives the additional check of the mountain's being increased or diminished gradually to the eye of the ob- server. My second previous remark shall be, with re- gard to all instances of reaching high Northern Latitudes, for which the authority of the Ship's Journal may be required, that it is almost im- r' THE NORTH POLE. 59 possible to procure this sort of evidence, except the voyages have been recent ; not only for the reasons I have given in my former Paper, but because I find, that if the Shij/s Journal is not wanted by the owners in a year or two (which seldom happens:) it is afterwards considered as waste paj)er. Without the least impeachment also of the knowledge in navigation of the Greenland Masters, when they are in the actual pursuit of fish, they do not trouble themselves about their longitude or latitude ; they are not bound by their instructions to sail to any particular point, and their only object is to catch as many whales as possible ; the shij/s situation therefore, at such time, becomes a matter of perfect indiife- rence. It will appear, however, that they not only keep their reckonings, but observe, when they are not thus employed in fishing. Having made these previous rematks, T shall now proceed to lay before the Society, ''uch instances of navigators having penetrated beyond 80^", as I have happened to procure \ • ■ '} .1 1 'i. r i \r !i h n V I - 6*0 ON A I'l'RO ACHING I since the reading of my former Paper on this suhject, in May hist. James Hntton (then helonging to the ship London, Captain Guy) was, thirty years ago, in North Latitude 81^°, as hoth the Captain and Mute informed him ; hut did not ohserve himself. A very intelligent sea officer was so good as to take from him this account, together witli the following particulars, which perhaps may he interesting to Greenland Navigators. Hutton hath heen employed in the Whale Fishery nearly these forty years, dnring which he hath heen several times at the Seven Islands, and the Waygat Straits. In some of these voyages the sea hath been perfectly clear from ice, and at other times it hath set in so rapidly towards the Waygat*, ;is to oblige the vessels which happened to be thereabouts, to force all sail possible, to escape boing inclosed. ' I * The VVeigligalt is so called from the wind which blows through this t?trait {iveihcn, to blow), because a strong South West Wind lijows out of it. Another name lev it h tlimhlopciu-^Scc Martens's Voyage, p, 27. (■ 'til TUB NOKIJI I'Ul.K. 61 Tliis hardy old tar likewise sujtjiosi's, that he hath been fiirther up the Waygat thain |>er- haps any person now living ; lor he was once in u ship which attempted to ])uss throngh it, nor did the ma^iter desist, till they shoaled the water to three fathoms, when the sea was so clear, thnt they could distinguish the bottom from tlie deck. Mr. John Phillips, now Master of the Exeter, but then Mate of the Loyal Club, in the year 1/^2, reached North Latitude 81° and several minutes by observation, which circumstance was confirmed by another person on board the Exeter last summer, on her return from the Greenland Fishery. Captain Phillips added, that it was vei^ c mmon to (ish in such latitudes. Mr. George Ware, now living at Erilli in Kent, served as chief Mate in tlie year \7h4^ on board the Seu Nynipl), Cisptuiu Jaujcs Wilson, when, at the latter end oi' June, they sailed through floating ice from 74^ to Si'' ; but having then proceeded beyond the icf tlu-y jinr- * I'l \i I )■' A I I! r \ if ' 62 ON APPKOACHiNG sued tlie whales to 82° 15', wliicli latitude was deteriiiiiK'd hy Mr. Ware's own observation. As tlio sea was now perfectly clear, as far a» lie could distinguish witli his bust glasses, both Mr. Ware and Captain Wilson had a strong inclination to |)u«h farther towards the Pole ; but the common sailors hearing of such their intention, remonstrated, that if they should be able to proceed so far, the «>hip would fall into ))ieces, as the Pole would draw all the iron work out of her. On this Cuptain Wilson and Mr. Ware de- sisted, as the crew had these very singular ap- ])rehensions ; especially as they had no whales in sight to the Northward, which alone would justify the attempt to their owners*. It need scarcely be observed, however, that the notion which ])ievailcd among the crew shows, that the common seamen on board the Greenland * This ciicumslaiire of not sucing any whales in thai di- rection iiccounts {'or C;»|)tain (iuy's desibting, in the follow- ing instance, from sailing to ihe Northward, as also ii» mnnv others which 1 shall ha\e occasion to i>tate. r niE NORTH FOLK. H3 Ships conceive, that tlie sea is open to tlic Pole ; they would otiierwisc have objected on iucount of the ice beinj; supposed to iii'iease. It shouhl Mceni also, that the practicability of reach- ing the Pole i« a point which tbey ottcn discuss among themselves. In this same year and month, Mr. John Adams (who now is niastor of a flourishing academy at Wultliani Abbey, in Essex) was on hoard the Unicorn, Captain (jiiy, when they anchored in Magdalena Bay *, on the Western Coast of Spitzbergen and Nortli Latitude They continued in this bay f«>r three or four days, and then stood to the Southward, when the wind freshening from that tpiarter, but the weather foggy, they proceeded with an easy sail for four days, expecting to meet with fields of ice, to which they might make fa./ 1^ II 1.25 -|2-8 ^ m ^ 1^ 12.0 2.5 "'||M 111= \A ill! 1.6 V] vere together in the Greeidand Seas, that he had been in North Latitude 8t»°, when there were only some small pieces of floating ice to he seen. Hans Derrick moreover added, that there were then five other ships in comjiany, which took one with another eighteen small whales. I have threat reason to expect several other instances of the same kind, in a short time, from the different ports of this kingdom where there is any considerable Greenland Trade : I \^. f\ I ; \. 1 ^'^ ...f h I J 70 ON ArPROACHlNG shall not, however, trouble the Society with them, till I know whether they would wish any farther information on this head. I shall now recapitulate the different lati- tudes which have been reached by the several navigators whose names I have mentioned in this and my former Paper. I shall also take c edit for neiirly a degree to the Northward of their several situations, because the Wnk or glare of the packed ice is to be distinguished at this distance, when the weather is tolerably fair. Captain John Reed 80» 4.3'. Captain Thomas Kobinson (for three weeks together) 81 . Captain John Phiiiips 81° odd mi. Jaines Ilutlon, Jonathan Wheatley, Thomas RobinsoM, John Clarke (four instances) 81" 30'. Captains Cheyne and Thew (two instances) .... 82". Clun> and David Boyd (two instarce«) 82° odd mi. Mr. George Ware. 82"* 15'. Mr. John Adams and Mr. James Montgomery (two instances) 83 . Mr. Jamts Watt, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy 83" 30-. \ i 1 5 n ^i THE NORTH POLE. 7I rive ships in company wild Han« Derrick 88". Captain Johnson and Dr. Dallie (two in- stances; to which, perhaps, may be added Captain Monson, as a third) gg". Relation of the two Dutch Masters to Cptain Goulden* ogc Dutch relation to Mr, Grey fjt>' 30' DAINES HARRINGTON, F. R. s. * This instance, however, hath hefore been relied upon, though never, perhaps, circumstantiaiiy stated, but by .Captain Wood. m (% ( I1 ■ M ' ' -I ■ ft' 1* 'ir. thf4 n ■ * ■ -I ■'-^i j;i n 1 I J { i u if POSTSCRIPT, January 8, .1775. Having procured the three following instances before the reading of my Paper was finished, it may not be improper to a(Jd them in a Post- script. In Harris's Voyages* is the following pas- sage: — " By the Dutch Journals they get into North Latitude 88° 5b'', and the sea open." I have, within these few days, asked Dr. Campbell, the very able compiler of these voyages, npou what authority he inserted this account? who informs me, that he received it from Holland about thirty years ago, as being an extract from the Journals produced to the S' lf> i'4 ^ n !' ; i H- I ; 1/. W- * ^^ol. ii, page 453. Vr I ^ i4 ON APPROACHING States (icncral in \66'i, on the application for m discovery of the North East Passage to Japan, which was frustrated hy the Dutch East-India Company. In the Journal des Sravans, for the month of October 1774*, is likewise the following paragraph : — " To these instances, produced by Mr. Bar- rington" (of navigators having reached high Northern Latitudes), " our countrymen" {viz. the Dutch) " could add many others. An able officer in the English service hath in his cus- tody the Journals of a Greenland Ship, wherein he hath remarked, that in the month of May he had penetrated as far as 82° 20', when the sea was open." My third and last instance is that of Cap- tain Bateson, who sailed in 1773, from Liver- pool, in a ship called the Whale, on the Greenland Fishery, and who, on June 14, reached North Latitude 82° 16', computed by V . * Part ii, page 503. vt THE NORTH POLE. 75 his run back to Haklnyt's Headland*. As this happened so recently, Captain Bateson (as well as many of tlie other Musters, whose accounts I have before mentioned) hath his Journal to produce, if it should be required. This seems to be the strongest confirmation of both Captain Robinson and Captain Clark's huvinir been, during this same year and month, in 81|°; as also of their having met each other in 81° 20', according to what I have already stated. I must not lose this same opportunity of laying before the Society the information, which I have just now received from M. de Buffon, in relation to what I have cited from his Natural History of Captain Monson's having reached North Latitude 88°, " as he was told b^ persons oj credit." Upon my taking the liberty to inquire, who * His inducement to proceed so far North was the pur- suit of whales. 1 have shown the extracts from Captain Bateson's Journal lo a ve-y able sea ofliccr, who is perfectly satisfied with the accuracy of it. il V^ / ' < ^ 1 i ' i i a I ■J' m Ji 'i ■■ mi ft- 1 i I i 76' ON APPROACHING those pcrions of credit ivere 9 M. tie Biiffon re- fers me to Dr. Nathan Hickman, who, in 1730, travelled as one of Dr. Ratcliff's fellows* ; and who supposed, that Captain Monson's Journal ui.^^nt have been at that time procured in England. M. de Buffon also recollects, that a Dutchman was then present, and confirmed the account. H f i: i hi s\ i * He was also a fellow oi'the Royal Society in 1730. u \ TITE NORTH POLE. 77 ADDITIONAL PAPERS, I ROM HULL. h. WHILST I was waiting in expectation of se- veral additional instances of Dnt( h ships, which had been in high Northern Lutitiules, I receiNed the following answers to cert .in Oneries relative to the Greenland Seas from a vcy eminent Mer- chant of Hull, and which he is so obliging as to permit me to lay before the Public. I). B March 31, J 775, « Pi SI. \\ ^^♦' [ft- }<\ ■ if : l! ■ifi ? i ■ t : 7» ON APPROACHINO I. ( ;', « 1 FROM CAPTAIN JOHN HALL, OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. First Query. How near hath any ship ap- proached the Pole ? Answer. I have known ships go into the latitude of 84° North, and did not hear of any difficulty they met with ; hut it is not often that the ice will permit them to go so far North. N. B. On inquirii.g of Captain Hall what ships he had known proceed so far ? He replied, they were some Dutch ships he heard had done so, hut knew no particulars. n 1 Second Q. When are the Polar Seas most free from ice ? A. The seas are most incumbered with ice from about the 1st of September to the 1st of THE NORTH POLE. 79 June following ; and, in Consequence, between the 1st of June and September, the ice lieth farthest from Spitzbergen. And I know no other precaution to be taken, respecting the Pole, than that they must watch the opportunity when the ice lieth farthest from the land. Third Q. How far to the Southw^ard have you first seen ice ? A. In the space of twenty years, I have twice known that we met with the ice in the latitude of 74° 30' North, and could not find a passage to the Northward tdl the month of July, and then got into the latitude of ;8° with much difl^culty, in running through the openings of great bodies of ice ; and some years we find a passage to the latitude To and So^ North, with- out much difficulty from the ice. Some years I have known ships go round the North part oi Spitzbergen, and so come out between Nova Zembla and the Soutli part of Spitzbergen ; but this passage ii seldom to be found ivee from ice. Ik ' \ i f * .^1 i I i I ID 'I V i 80 ON APPROACHING Fourth Q. From what qrarter is the wind coldest whilst off Spitzbergea ? A. Northerly and Easl North East Winds are most frosty; but snow and frost we have very common with all winds, except during part of June, July, and August. If the winds be South- erly the weather is milder, but subject to snow, sleet, and thick weather. The winds, currents, and the ice are very variable. The opinion of the old seamen is, that we may proceed farther North than ever has been yet attempted ; but this must be done with caution. An opportunity is to be watched for in those seas. Tlie most likely time for such discoveries to be made is in the months of July and August, when the ice is most commonly farthest from the land ; but some years not to be found open at all from the land And when it is open, they must observe the ice to lay a long way from the North part of Spitzbergen ; for I have known ships that made attempts to go to the Northward, and before they returned back, the ice set in with thp land, so that they !.i i THE NORTH POLE. 81 have been obliged to leave the ships to the East of Spitzbergen. N.B. The ice always sets in with the laud the back of the year. lii 'V 15 II. FROM CAPTAIN HUMPHRY FORD, or THE MANCHESTER, First. 1 was once as high as the latitude 81° 30' North, in the ship Dolphin of New- castle, in the year 1/59 or 6o, and have beeti several times since as high as the latitude 81° in the ships Annabella and Manchester, in which latitude I never met with any uncommon cir- cumstances, but such as I b ive met .vith in the latitudes 75, 76, 77, 78, and 79''; if to the westward, I was commonly incumbered with large quantities of ice. Second. I suppose that the Greenland Seas are most incumbered with ice in the months of De- G * t . -i i I Iv 't i i 82 ON APPllOACIIING cember, January, February, and Marcb ; for in the latter part of April, and the first of May, the ice generally begins to separate and open ; and in the months of June and July, we generally find the Greenland Seas most clear of ice. * !'. !^ Third. The only precaution to be taken, in order to proceed towards the Pole, is to fit out two strong shijjs that are handy and sail fast, well equipped, and secured in the manner of those that are generally sent t Greenland on the Whale Fishery. Such ships should be manned with about forty able seamen in each, and victualled for about eighteen months or two years, and be entirely under the command of some expert, able, and experienced seaman, who has frequented tliose seas for some time past. They should sail from England about the middle of April, in order to be in with the edge of the ice about the 10th of May, Avhen it begins to separate and open. ' * Fourth. There is not the least reason to in i tH£ NORTH POLE. 83 suppose, that the seas to the West, North West, and North of Spitzbergen are covered with per- manent and perpetual ice, io as never to be opened by the operation of the winds; for daily experience shows us, that a Northerly Wind, when of any long duration, opens and separates the ice, so as to admit the ships going amongst it in sundry places to a very high latitude, if at- tempted. N. B. I never was to the E?»stvvard of Spitz- bergen; but am of opinion, that the ice is much the same there as to the North and North West of Spitzbergen. ( c i, Ii I generally find, that Northerly winds bring frost and snow; on the contrary, Southerly Winds bring mild weather and rain ; but none of those winds appear to be periodical, except close in with the land, called Fair Foreland, where I generally find the winds in the months of June and July to blow mostly from South South West, and very often excessive strong. G2 r4 S 1 i, i. !^»i I ^. 94 ON APPROACHING •>t i' It is my opinion, by observing the above, that in some years ships might sail very nigh the Pole; if, not the impracticability must arise from the large quantity of ice that lies in those seas. 111. FROM CAPTAIN RALPH DALE, I ^ i- I' f , r ril : -J. Ml 'I i I '. 'i l^i 1 si ^ t,t i 1 r » V \ [:< \ or THE ANN AND ELIZABETH. I am willing to give you my opinion, in re- gard to the Queries received of you, so far as my observations will justif-;. First. In the year 1/73, I sailed North 81°, when I was much incommoded with large fields of ice, but the air was not sensibly different there from what I found it a few more degrees Southerly. IT' THE NOHTII POLE. 85 Second. I have for many years used the Greenland Fishery; and have, by experience, fonnd those seas the least incumbered with ice betwixt the forepart of May till July. Third. The same year I sailed to the lati- tude above mentioned, I found in May, to the West of Spitzbergen, a fine open sea, the wind then blowing South We'^t, and the sea (as far as I could observe from the mast-head), was little incumbered with ice, which fully convinced me that there was a probability of proceeding to a very high latitude. ' ' It • ' i' \ i n Fourth. I have observed, that let the wind blow from what quarter it will, it is at times im- pregnated with frost, snovv,&c.; but when most so I am not able to determine. As for rain, I do not recollect ever seeing any there. The weather 1 have generally found mildest when the wind blows Southerly. As for periodical winds, I do not suppose there are any in Green- land. I,, I 9^ Jf! n^ m r I: V 86 ON APPROACHING IV. FROM CAPTAIN JOHN GREENSHAW. I 1 i ^ In regard to the Queries sent to me, all I have to say is, that if a passage to the North Pole is ever to be accomplished, my opinion is, it must be obtained by going betwixt Greenland and Nova Zembla, as I myself have been to the Westward of Greenland, and reached so far to the Northward as 82® of North Latitude, and to the North and North West of that found no- thing but a solid body of ice: my opinion, therefore, is, that it is impossible ever to obtain a passage that way. Captain John Cracroft, in the South Sea Company's time*, was once so far as 83° North Latitude, and to the North- ward of Greenland, and met with nothin-; ^nt a solid field of ice. And in regard to t> e winds and weather, it freezes continually; but the ♦ The South Sea Company sent a small >umbei- of ships, for about nine years, on the Greenland Fishery. THE NORTH POLE. •r ,1 :l uind from the Southward doth commonly bring rain and thick foggy weather, which is chiefly in the latter end of Jnne and July. If you are to the Northward and Westward of Greenland the wind from the North West ?>id North North West doth always open the ice; but at the same time, if it come to blow any time from that quarter, packs it close in with the land ; and the winds from the Southward have th« contrary effect. I H "i y , I.. I , i' V. THE qup:ries answered BY ANDREW FISHER, MASTER OF A GREENLAND SHIP AT HULL, THio hat been Twenly-four Voyages; from England to the Greenland Seas. First. Said Andrew Fisher says, that in the year 1746, being on board the ship Ann and Elizabeth from London, on a voyage to tlip ( ' .s r: I r 14 ::1 ■ M I ft »i 8t ON APBHOACHIKG Greenland Seas, he steered from Haklnvt's Headland in Spitzbergen North and North West in clear water till they were in latitude 82° 34', where they met with a loose pack of icCj and made their fishery, or otherwise they might have got through that loose ice, and doubt not, but that they might have gone consi- derably farther North ; they returned, however, in clear water to Spitsbergen. 1. i\ i s Second. Best seasons of the year are, to be at or near Spitsbergen from the Iftth of May to the 1st of June, though the years differ, and the laying of the ice exceedingly : some years it is not possible to get North of 80"; at other times you may meet with very little ice, which is chiefly owing to the weather in winter, and the winds in April and May. Third. There is not any reason to suppose, that there is any permanent ice, either North or West of Spitsbergen, so far as 90°; and it hath been always found, by able and experienced na- t: i THE NORTH POLE. 89 vig.itors, that there is not near the qnantity of ice, nor so liable to set fast to the North of Spitzbergcn, as tliere is to th, South of 80" as far as 74°, owing to the continent of America (called Gallampiis Land by the sailors) and Spitzbergcn, which makes a narrow passage in proportion to what it is to the North of Spitz- bergcn. The land of America is sometimes seen by our Greenland Traders from latitude 74° to 76"'; and, as it is not seen any farther North, is supposed to round away to the North West, which makes it imagined by many, that there is not any land near the Pole. I i I ( I Fourth. South winds bring most snow; North winds bring frost; but that is in the month of April and two-thirds of May; after that lime, to the 1st or 10th of July, it is in general mild, fine, clear, sunshine weather, and winds variable; after that again, often thick fogs and high winds. il 5 ^ I Fifth. It is very possible, by steering North :m ■ > ;i|: m^ 1 I V i ki i •• I-: i*^ 90 ON APPROACHING or North North East hy the ship's compass, (if it can be so contrived as to have the card on the needle steady, and the winds prove favour- able), with a little perseverance, a ship may get near the Pole, if they do not meet with rocks. VI. SIR, IN the year 1766, trade being dull, 1 fitted a ship at my sole expense to the Green- land Seas ; and the said ship returned with one iish, eleven feet bone. Finding the trade could be conducted better in private hands than a company's, I was induced to send a second ship in 1767, and as I ^ad other concerns in ship- ping, thought it most prudent (being brought np to the sea, and having made an jusy fortune from it) to go a voyage to the Greenland Seas, to see with my own eyes what chance there might be of making or losing a fortune. So sailed from Hull the 14th day of April, in my V . 1. 1 I., THK NORTH POLE. 91 ship British Oiiecn, with an old expeiienced Master, and on tlie 24th and ^Stli of April was in the latitude of "J'f^ catching seals amongst great quantities of loose ice. As we did not choose to stay in that latitude, we made the best of our way North ; and after sailing through loose ice, which is commonly the case, about the 6th of May we were as far North as latitude 80° (which is near what the Masters call a Jishhig latitude) and about fifteen leagues West of Haklnyt's Headland. I found the farther North the less quantity of ice; and from the inquiry I made, both from the English and D'ltch, which was very considerable, there is a great probabi- lity of ships going to the Pole, if not stopped by meeting land or rocks. It appeared to me, that the narrowest place in those seas was betwixt Spitzbergen and the American shore, where the current is observed to come always from the North, which fills this narrow place with ice hut in general loose and floating in the summer, though I believe congealed and permanent in winter. Those from whom I inquired informed 1 w- !'i rp i i 4 % i - I I * if •» i r J' i i- p 7.^ T* 4 f V 1 •'1 h^:^ 11 R I 4f ■' s ft II " ' ^ I H 1 Hi i. i 93 ON APPROACHING me, that the sea was Jibundantly clearer to the North of Spitzl)ergen, and the farther North the clearer. This seems to prove a wide ocean and a great opening to the North, as the current comes from thence, that fills this passage as aforesaid. The best method of reaching the highest latitude in my opinion is, to hire two vessels of about two hundred and fifty tons burthen each, and if done on a frugal scheme, the same ships might be fitted for the whale fishery, and premium* given both for the use of the ship and crew, in proportion to their approach to the Pole, which, from many circumstances that may intervene, .might be two or three years before they could complete their wishes. And it is more likely they might make their fishery sooner than to the Southward; as, if they met with ice, the fish would be undisturbed; if clear water and a good wind, they very soon might reach the Pole. What I mean by two vessels is, one to foresail the other at the distance of three or four leagues^ as the latter may avoid the dangers the first might run into; and to be always ready, on i J THE NORTH POLE. 93 seeing and hearing proper signals, to aid and assist, and ' y that means secure a retreat. I am also of opii ion, that such ships '.^ing sent on discoveries are much more likely to succeed than his majesty's ships and officers. The ahove hints 1 have pointed out for your consideration ; and, if I can be of any further service, may command, Sir, Your most humble Servant, SAM. STANDIDGE. Iluli, March*, 1774. i I 1".'. i I I take this opportunity of laying before the Public the following letter from Captain Miu- shall. Master of a Greenland Ship, to Captain Heath of the 4 1st Regiment, who formerly made two voyages to Spitzbergen. SlK^ In compliance with your request of Wednesday last, I acquaint you, that :3ix years ago, I was as higli as 82^ 30' North Latitude, V ^ W 1; } |i|: .f ,' 94 ON APPROACHING ii by observation, which is the highest I have ever been in ; at that time I was Mate of the Royal Exchange Greenlandman, of Newcastle. I do not know of any one who has been in a higher degree ; but it has been reported at Newcastle (with what truth I cannot say), that Captain Greenshaw, of London, had told his friends, that he had been as high North as 84® The Dutch, I have been informed, have proceeded to 83° 30'; but I have it only by hear-say. In respect to your second Query, I remem- ber, that about five years sinje, when I was master of the above-mentioned ship, I was in 81° North Latitude, by observation, when there was a clear sea to the North- ward, as far as the eye could reach from the mast head ; and I could not help observing to my people, that if it had happened that we were then upon discovery, we might have had a fine run to the North, as the wind blew fresh at South. The like clear sea I have observed several times during the time I have been in I . ii 'i THE NORTH POLE. 95 the Greenland Service, which is now about twenty-one years. I have no doubt but that a navigator might reach a higher latitude than i have been in, provided he was well acquainted with the currents and the ice, for much depends thereon ; and took the advantage of a favour- able season. I have i-emarked, that when the frost has been severe in England, and to the Southward*, there has been a great deal less ice to the Northward the ensuing summer than usual ; and the weather has been remarkably fine in Greenland. I have, for this reason, great expectations that tiie approaching season will produce a successful fishery, and that it will also afford an opportunity for a trial to reach the Polef. But the greatest difficulty attending a navi- * I conceive that this arises from the ice becoming of a greater thickness during such severe winters, and conse- quently cannot be so soon broken up, or observed by the •• 1^' ^H ,!*J ^.j. H 1^ I' I' & i • 9^ ON AFPKOAL'IIINO gator in very high latitudes is how to get back again, for, should he be beset there in the ice, his situation would be very dangerous ; for he might be detained a long time, if not for the whole winter. I speak this from experience, for 1 was once beset for three months, and was given up for lost, and with difficulty got out. Any farther information in respect to the land, the currents, ice, or other particulars, you may wish to have, 1 shall very readily commu- nicate it, and am. Sir, Your very humble Servant, JAMES MARSHALL. No. 5, Spring Street, Shadtuell, February 25, 1776. Captain Heath, to whom I am indebted for to the Northward will not be so frequent as I had flattered mvseH"; because, most of the Greenland vessels being in- sured, if any accident should happen to a ship which is not prosecuting the Whale Fishery, the owners will not be entitled to recover. " fi I THE NORTH POLE. 97 this commanlcation, also informs me, that on the 15th of December, 1777* he minuted the following particnlars from a person employed in the Whale Fishery. " That bein{^ on board the Prince Frederick of Liverpool in 17^5, commanded by James Bisbrown, he reached the latitude of 83° 40', where he was beset in ice for three weeks to the Southward, but that he saw, during this time, an open sea to the North." <. I The Astronomer Royal having been so good as to furnish me with the following memo- randum, whioh he made at the time it bears date, I here subjoin it, as a well authenticated instance of a navigator's having reached 84§* of Northern Latitude. *' Mr. Stephens, who went many voyagei to the East Indies, and made much use of the lunar method of finding the longitude, in which he is very expert, tells me, this l6th of March, 1773? that he was formerly two voyages H ri I: ■ M .98 ON APPROACUINC f » I.I I |i on the Greenland Fishery ; that, in the second, in the year 175'!, he was driven oft'Spitzbergen, together with a Dutch Ship, by a South South East Wind, North North Westerly by compass into latitude 81^°, or within 5^° of the Pole, in which latitude he was near the end of the month of May. They saw no land after leaving Hackluyt's Headland (or the Northernmost part of Spitzbergen), and were hack in the month of June. Did not find the cold ex- cessive, and used little more vhan common clothing ; met with but little ice, and the less the farther they went to the Northward : met with no drift-wood. It is always clear weather with a North Wind, atid thick weather with a Southerly Wind ; nevertheless they could take the sun's altitude for the latitude most days. The sea is ('uite smooth among the ice, ab in the river Thames, and so they also found it to the North of Spitzbergen. Met with no ice higher than the ship's gunnel. Imagines it would hardly have been colder under tlu; Pole, than they experienced itj although he (;f THE NORTH POLE. .99 thinks the cold rather increased on going Nnrtliward. Thinks the currents are very variable, and have no certain or constant direc- tion. Says he has often tasted the ice, when the sea water has been let to rnn or dry off it, and always found it fresh. That the sea water will freeze against the ship's bows and rigging, l)ut he never saw it freeze in the ship. That it never freezes in the pumps. A little piece of ice detained under a large piece of ice, when it gets loose from it and comes up to the sur- face of the water, is very dangerous, it emerging with a force which will sometimes knock a hole in the bottom of the ship. The Dutch Ship which was driven with theirs from Spitzhergen ran against a large piece of ice, and was lost, the ships being then separated to a conside- rable distance. The winds in these seas are generally Northerly ; the Souiheily Winds are commonly damp and cold." Having thus stated the memorandum as I received it from Dr. Maskelyne, 1 shall now make some observations on the contents. II 2 r > I, i 1 m\ n l\ I'i 100 ON APPROACHING ■- k t ' ;i' ^! ?; ij It appears, by the preceding pages, that, in this same year, viz. 17^4, both Mr. Ware and Mr. Adams* sailed to 82^° and 83° during the month of June, and both of them con^ ceived that they might have reached the North Pole. Mr. Maister, by letter from Hull, dated February 24, 1777 j \iiith procured me the following information from a friend of his, who, at my desire, inquired at Whitby with regard to any ships having reached high Northern Latitudes. " Captain Brown of the Freelove says, that, in the year 1770> he was certainly in 82° North Latitude, when the water was clear. Captain Cole also of the Henrietta says, that in 177^ f he was near the latitude of 81° North, and after he was certain of being in that latitude, he was, with strong South East Gales, drove for three days to the Northward, but as he had thick weather, the distance was uncertain. In the * See ilie Probability of reaching the North I^ole, p. 42, &c. THE NORTH POLK. 101 course of this drift he met with nothing hut 1 oose ice. i\ It appears also by the above account, that Mr. Stephens had proceeded as far as 844°, the sea being open to the Northward a month earlier in this same year. From this, and other facts of the same kind, I cannot but infer, that the attempt should be made early in the season ; if I am right also in M hat I have before supposed, that the ice, which often packs near the coasts of Spitzbergen, comes chiefly from the rivers, which empty themselves into the Tartarian Sea, it seems highly probable, that this is the proper time of pushing to the Northward, as the ice in such rivers cannot be then completely broken up. What other ice therefore may be seen at this time is probably the remains of what was disembogued during the preceding summer. Another proof of this arises from what hap- pened in 1778, for the Carcase and Race Horse were obstructed, at 80i°, by an immense bank •, f^ i 1 •w ^- sr 102 ON APPROArilINC 1. , ' of ice, (liirijn: part of the months of July and August ; hut four (ireculand Masters were a degree farther to the Northward, during the months of May and June, in the same year*. No one winters in Spitzhergen, hut some few Russians, from wliom however we have not heen informed what happens during that season^ though it should seem, from the observations of Barentz, those oi' the Kuss^ians in Maloy Brun, and a ship having pushed into the Atlantic, from Hudson's Bay, during the midst of December f, thut the Northern Seas are then navigable. For the same reason, probably, Clippeiton:f, who passed the Straits of Magellan in the midst of winter, saw no ice, which is so fre- quently met with at Midsummer by those who sail to the Southward of Cape Horn. * St e tlie Probability of reacliing the Norlh Pole, p. 4, 45, te, :vn(l 57. ■f Sec the Probability of reaching the North Pole, p 83. X Frczicr was as far South as j8* in the middle of May. and saw no ice, though ht; speaks of a South East Wind as cold. — Sec Callaudei's Collection of Voyages, vol. iii. THE NORTH POLE. 103 I tiikc tins opportunity of recapitulating the years since l/lti*, (luring which it ap|)ears, tVoni the instances I have stated, that the sea to the North of Spitzbergen huth been open, so as to permit attempts of approaching the Pole, whicli will shew that such opportunities arc not un^ common, and it is hoped tliat they will be more frequently embraced, from a parliamentary reward of five thousand jjounds being given to such of his majesty's subjects as shall first pe- netrate beyond the 8.9th degree of Northern La- titude; the Bill for which purpose hath already passed both Houses of Pari lament -f-. * Viz. \H6. n-il, 1752, 1754, 17.56, 175P, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1769, 1771, ami 1773. t By the same Bill, a reward of twenty thousand pounds is given to such of his niajosty's subjects as siiall first discover a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in any direction whatsoever of the Noriberu Hemisphere. ■i i i' ! f-i I: if iM m ill (1 m r I B ;f fl 104 ON APPROACHING " I ! y i AS it appears, by the two first collections of in- stances, that I have had much conversation with the officers of the Royal Navy, as well as masters of Greenland Ships, about a Polar Voyage, I shall now state several hinork, only a larger quantity of salt, and less sugar; but the preservation of both equally depends on the meat's being hot when first salted. Sir John Narborough salted young seals, and Sir Richard Hawkins many barrels of penguins, both of which are said to have been wholesome and palata- I: }. !■ THE hORTH POLE. i n^ The flour should be kiln-diicd, and pnt into tight barrels which are capable of holdiiiii li- quids *. Flour thus preserved and packed liatli been perfectly good for more than ilircc years, without the least appearance of the weevils. To make the best use of flour thus preserved, there should be both a biscuit maker and an oven on board. With regard to liquors, a large quantity of fchrub from the best spirits and fruits is recom- mended, which should also be made just before the voyage takes place ; the stronger the spirit, tlie less stowage. Dampier preferred Vidonia to other wines, on account of itsaciditv; and perhaps old hock might still answer better. I should stand in need of many apologies^ ble : fish likewise taught at the approach of winter mi-}* be so cured, or indeed preserved by the frost without aiiv salt. Captain Cook's precautions need not be here al- luded to. * Woodes Rogers observes in bis voyage, that the water, which he had boughtwith him from J< ngland, on his arrivai at Juan Fernandez, was all spoiled by the casks being bad. — Callander, iii, p. 25y. (1^ i; fi! ■ •! i I iH ■'A*i t!4 «: I If ' I 110 ON APPROACHING I ' J l'« 1 I 1 'r for having sugsrested these hints to Northern Discoverers, hud I not received thcai from officers of the Koyal Navy, as well as (ireenlund Mas- ters, and einincMit physicians; if any of these particnlars, however, would not have been otherwise thought of upon fitting out the sliip for such a voyage, and sliould be attended with any good effects, it will become my best excuse. In order also to promote such a voyage of discovery, I should conceive, that extending the parliamentary reward of twenty thousand pounds by 18 Geo. II, cap. 1/, for the passage to the Pacific Ocean through Hudson's Bay, to a Northern communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in any direction whatsoever, might greatly contribute to the attempting such an enterprize. To this, another incitement might be perhaps added, by giving one thousand j)ounds for every degree of Northern Latitude, which might be reached by the adventurer, from 85° to the Pole, as son;e so very peremptorily deny all former in- stances of having penetrated to such high lati- \> » ii. THE NORTH POLE. Ill tildes. An act Iiath accordingly passed for the first of tliese purposes; and, for the second, with this variation, that a reward of five thousand pounds is given only for approaching within a degree of the Pole. I shall conclude, however, in answer to their incredulity, hy the following citation from Hakluyt : — 1:' A '' Now, lest you flionld make small account of ancient writer?, or of their experience, which travelled before our times, reckoning their au- thority amongst faljlcs of no importance, I have, tor the better assurance of those proofs, set down part of a discourse written in the Saxon tongue, and translated Into Enuli-.]) byMr.Nowel, servant to master secretary (Y'cil, wherein is de- scribed a navigation, which one Ochter made in the time of king Alfred, king of West Saxe, anno 8^1 ; the uords of wluch discourse are these: 'He sailed right North, having always the desert land on the starboard, and on the larboard the main sea, continuing his course till he perceived the coa.t bowed directly towards •J , 'm t mm -I P ■I :, hi 112 ON APPROACHING !»^ f; M ;■ I the East, &c.' Whereby it appeareth, that he went the same way that we do now yearly trade by St. Nicholas into Muscovia, which no man in our age knew for certainty to be sea, till it was again discovered by the English in the time of Edward VI. " Nevertheless, if any man should have taken this voyage in hand, by the encouragement of this only author *, he should have been thought * Perhaps the same sea is alluded to in the following line of Dionynius : — ITovT'ov ^«v >ia.\sfi(n, meirriyola, x^iytov, re. as the name oi Frozen can scarcely be applied to that of the Baltic. As for the Thule of the ancients, about which so many conjectures have been made, it seems to have most clearly been Ireland, from the manner in which Statius addresses a Poem to Crispinus, whose f&ther had carried the Emperor's commands to Thule : — • tu disce patrem, quantusque nigrantem Fluctil)iis occiduis,fesso(j. Hyperione Thukn Intrdvit mandata gerens. It should also seem, from other parts of the same Poem, that this General had crossed from Scotland to the North of Ireland, or Thule: — Quod si te magno tellus/rawa/a parenti Accipiat, quantum ferus exultabit Araxes? THE NORTH POLE. 113 but simple, considering that this navigation was written so many years past, in so barbarous a tongue, by one only obscure author ; and yet in these our days, we find by our own experi- ence his reports to be true." •Quanta Caledonios attollet gloria campos ? Cum tibi longtevus retcret trucis incola terra;, Hie fuetus dare jura parens, hoc cespite turmas Aflari; nitidas spcculas, castellaque longe. Aspicis? ille dedit citixitque haec mcenia foss4. Statil's, v. 14. Crispinus's father, therefore, must have resided sonic time in Scotland, from whence lie went to Thule or Ireland, for the Hebrides (the only land to the West except Ireland) could not have been of sufficient consequence for the Emperor's commission, or the fortifications alluded to; besides that the expression oi fessocjue Ili/pei ione implies, that the land lay considerably to the Westward. t < M i SZ hi i' *■ :!. i ii ==!^ % r if -I Im 5 i • 1 . it •; 1 ' I? PV hi « t ^' THOUGHTS (t ON THE PROBABILITY, EXPEDIENCY, AND UTILITY, OF DISCOVERING A PASSAGE BY THE NORTH POLE*. ■: J THE possibility of making discoveries in this way (that is, by steering directly North), though now treated as paradoxical by many, was not, as will hereafter api)eur, formerly looked upon in that light, even l)y such as ought to be re- puted the properest judges. There have been a * I have lately received these reflections from a learned friend, who is now deceased, and who permitted me to print them, though not to inform the public to whom they are indebted for this very valuable communication. D. B . I 2 ill ' 1 if' 116 OK APPROACHING J, if ^ / ) I variety of causes, that, at differciit times, have letardi-'d undertakings of the utmost importance to the human sj)ecies. Among these we may justly consider the conduct of some great ])hilo- sophersj who, as our judicious Veruhim wisely observes, quitting the luminous path of expe- rience to investigate the operations of nature by their own speculations, imposed upon the bulk of mankind specious opinions for incontestable truths ; which, being propagated by their disci' pies through a long series of years, captivated the minds of men, and thereby deprived them of that great instrument of science, the sp' '*; of incjuiry*. In succeeding ages a new it ^ .1- ment arose, from the setting uj) profit as the ultimate object of discovery ; and tlien, as might well be expected, the preferring the private and particular gain of certain indivi- duals to the general interests of the community, as well as to the interest of the whole world, in \' \^H * • f ■ V ■* Baconi Opera, torn, iv, p. 100; et alibi passim. But these passages may be found collected in Shaw's Abridg- ment of Bacon's Works, vol. ii, p. i2. i't I THE NORTH POLE. M7 llie extension of science. This it was tliat in- duced the States (ienerul, at the instance of their Kast India Company, to disconrage all attempts for finding a North Kast Passage, and to stifle such accounts as tended to show that it was practicahle. We may add to these, the sourness of disappointed navigators, who en- deavoured to render their own miscarriages proofs of the impracticability of any like attempts. This was the case of Captain Wood, who was shipwrecked npon Nova Zemhla, and who de- clared, that all endeavours on that side were, and would he found vain ; though Barentz, who died there in a like expedition, aflirmed, with his last breath, that, in his own opinion, such a passage might be found. That the earth was spherical in its form was an opinion very early entertained, and amongst the learned generally admitted. It seemed to be a plain deduction from thence, that a right line, passing through the globe, would terminate in two points diametrically opposite. Plato is thought to be the first who spoke of the inhabi- tants (if such there were) dwelling at or nea^ V' i 'ill ' ( ; ) < ..; * ; f' ^ifli 1!^: 118 ON APPROACHING * ',1 ■, t'i \ I i ? i : '* t h i I ■ 1 1 those points, by the name of Antipodes. This doctrine occasioned disputes among philosophers for many ages ; some maintained, some denied, and some treated it as absurd, ridiculous, and impossible*. Whoever will examine impar- tially the sentiments of these great men, weigh the contrariety of their opinions, aud consider the singularity of their reasonings, will see and be convinced how unsatisfactory their notions were, and discover from tlience, how insufficient the subtle speculations of the human under- standing are towards settling points like these, when totally unassisted by the lights of obser- vation and actual experience. The division of the globe by zones being agreeable to nature, the ancients distinguished, them very properly and accurately into two frigid, the Arctic . r*^ Antarctic Circles; tv/o temperate, lying between those circles and the tropics ; and the torrid zone within the tropics, equally divided by the equinoctial. 3ut judging * Lucr. de Natura Rerum, iib i, ver. 1063 ; Cicer. Acad. Qusest. lib. iv ; Plin. Hist. Nat. iib. ii, cap. 65; Plut. de Facie in Orbe Lunse ; Macrob. de Soma. Scip. lib. ii. t'i I: THE NORTH POLE. 119 from their experience of the nature of the cli- mates at the extremities of the zone which they inhabited, they concluded, that the frigid zones were utterly uninhabitable from cold, and the torrid from intolerable heat of the sun. Pliny laments very pathetically upon this supposition, that the race of mankind were peni up in so email a part of the earth. The poets, who were also no despicable philosophers, heightened the horrors of these inhospitable regions by all the colouring of a warm and heated imagination ''i' ; but we now know, with the utmost certainty, that they were entirely mistaken ap to both. For within the Arctic Circle there are countries inhabited as "high nearly as we have discovered ; and, if we mav confide in the relations of those who have been nearest the Polef, the heat there is very considerable, in respect to which * Cicero in Somnium Sciopinis; Virg. Georg. lib. ij Ovidii Met. lib. i ; TibuUus Panegyr. ad Messalani, lib. iv ; Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii, cap. 68 ; Pomp. Mela de Situ Orbis, lib. i, cap. 1 ; Claud, de Raptu Proserpina;, lib. i. f That the earth had inhabitants, even under the Pules, seems to have been believed by many at th« 'I ! V J 1 1, i- ;■ i. 'f I . li. h 120 ON APPROACHING our own navigators and the Dutch perfectly agree. In regard to the torrid zone, we have now not the least doubt of its being thoroughly inhabited ; and, which is more wonderful, that the climates are very different there, according to the circumstances of their situation. Jn Ethiopia, Arabia, and the Moluccas, exceed- ingly hot ; but in the plains of Peru (and parti- cularly at Quito) perfectly temperate, so that the inhabitants never change their clothes in any season of the year. The sentiments of the ancients therefore in this respect are a proof how inadequate the faculties of the human mind are to discussions of this nature, when unassisted by facts. The Pythagorean system of the universe, re- latter end of the sixteenth century, from tlie fullowinjf lines : — " Fond men ! if we believe tliat men do live Under the zenitii of both frozen poles ; Though none come thence adveitisenients to (al- culations with a proper degree of exactness. f This celebrated work of his was entitled, Didln^Iii de Sistemi di Tolouieo, e di Copcrnico. 'J'liis is much better known to the learned world by a Latin lranslali(jii, which 80 clearly proved the superiority of the Copernican System, that the only means of refuting it was by the cen«ures ol" the church. ,!'1n ' il i. vr :\\ 1. Ml £1 ' ! i U 122 ON APPROACHING losoplier, the deep and acute Lord Verulam, could not absolutely confide in the truth and certainty of the Copernican System ; but seems to think, that its facilitating astronomical calcu- lations was its principal recommendation, as if this had not been also a very strong presumption at least, if not a proof, of its veracity*. It was from this consideration that the church of Rome at length thought fit so far to relax in lier decisions, as to permit the maintaining the earth's motion in physical and philosophical, disquisitions. But Sir Isaac Newton, who built upon this basis his experimental philo- sophy, hath dispersed all doubts on this subject, and shown how the most sublime discoveries, may be made by the reciprocal aids of sagacity and observation. On these grounds, therefore, all infjuirics of this nature ought to proceed, without paying an implicit submission to the mere speculative notions even of the greatest men ; but pursuing steadily the path of truth^ * Shaw's Abridgment of Bacon's Works, rol. ii, p. 21, tvhere the Doctor endeavours to defend this opinion. '\ I n ji h ^ THE NORTH POLE. 123 under the direction of the liglit of expe- rience. It may he urged, in excuse of the ancients, and even of our ancestors in former times, that, as they were unassisted hy facts, they could only employ guess and conjecture, and tiiat consequently their conclusions were from thence erroneous. But to waive the visihle impropriety of deciding in points, where ohservation was so ohviously necessary, without its direction ; let us see whether this plea of alleviation may not be controverted in both cases. Cornelius Nepos reports, that some Indians being cast on shore in Germany were sent by a ])rince of the Suevi to Quintus Metellus Celer, then the Roman proconsul in Gaul*. A very learned writer, in discussing this point, hath shown, that it was possible for these Indians to have conic by two different routs into the Baltic. He thinks, how- ever, that it is very improbable they came by either, and supposes, that they were either Nor- ;{ ^ I St: J i; H I I., Is i • * Plin. Hist. Nat, lib. •», cap. 67. rfC M** 1 r'? fAf 11 r< 124 ON APPROACHING w ! *, ivegliins, or some other wild people, to wliorn^ from their savage appearance, they gave the name of Indians *. But though this observation may Avell enough apply to the Romans, who at that time had no knowledge of these Northern People, yet it is not easy to conceive, that the Suevi could fall into this mistake; or, if they did not, that they should attempt to impose upon the Romans. It appears incontestably, that, in the time of King Alfred, the Northern Seas were constantly navigated upon the same motives they are now ; that is, for the sake of catching whales and sea-horses f. Nicholas of Lynn, a Carmelite Friar, sailed to the most distant islands in the North, and even as high as the Pole. He dedicated an account of his discoveries to King Edward the Third, and wai certainly a person of great learning, and an able um if!!. ( Ij 1 '. * Huet Histoire de Commerce, et de la Navigation des Anciens, p. 531. t See Barrington's Translation of Orosiu* from the An- glo-Saxon of King Alfred, part ii, p. 9. \, THE NORTH POLE. 125 beli the celebrated astronomer*, it we mi Chaucer, who, in his 1 realise on the Astrolabe, mentions him with great respect. After Cohinibus discovered America, under the auspices of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Sovereigns of Europe, and especially llenry the Seventh, turned their thoughts towards, and gave., great encouragement to discoveries. Mr. Robert Thorne, who resided many years as a merchant in Spain, and who was afterwards maj'or of Bristol, wrote a letter to Henry the Eighth, in which he strongly recommended a voyage to the North Pole. He gave his reasons more at large in a long Memorial to our am- bassador in Spain, which show him to have been a very judicious man, and for those times * Lelaml. Comment, de Script. Britan. cap. 370; Biilo, \i, 25 ; Pits, p. 50.5. His description was intituled, Invmtio Fortiinata ; besides which, he wrote, amongst other things, a booU, De Mundi Revolutione, whicii possibly may .still le- main in the Bodleian Library. This Friar, as Dr. Dee asserts, made live voyages into these Northern Paris, and left an account of his discoveries from the latitude of 54-' to the Pole. If ni !. I' in . i ' i. ^ 1 L! ' \2G ON APPROACHING ' / t i . f: i k 4 1 V I '1 1 ll 1 f f - J; ■I' }• i I;, a very able cosinographer ; and accompanied this Memorial with a Map of the World, to prove the practicability of his proposal*. Though this project of l>is was not attended to, yet a variety of expeditions were made for dis- covering a passage by the North West, and others by the North East, into the South Seas on the one side, and into the Tartarian Ocean ou the other, until at length both were declared im- practicable by Captain James and Captain Wood; soured by their own miscarriages, and being strongly persuaded, that, as they did not succeed, none else could. But even these unsuccessful voyages were not unprofitable to the nation upon the whole, as they opened a passage to many lu- crative fisheries, such as those in Davis's Straits, Baftin's Bay, and on the coast of Spitzbergen. Besides this, they laid open Hudson's Straits and Bay with the coast on both sides, which * Ilakluyt's Voyages, vol. i, p. 212 — 220. The Let- ter to Dr. Ley, who was the King's Ambassador in Spain, is dated A. D. 1327. This Mr. Thome's fsther was en- gaged, with others, in the discovery of Newfoundland. THE NORTH POLE. 127 1 raits lich have been already productive of many advan- tages, and whicli, in process of time, cannot fail of producing more, in consequence of our being in possession of Canada, and being there- by sole master of those seas and coasts. It is, however, very remaikable, that not- withstanding the views, both of our traders and of such great men as were distinguished encouragers of discoveries, the ablest seamen (who without doubt are the best judges) were still inclined to this passage by the North, such as Captain Poole, Sir William Monson*, and others ; and this was still the more remarkable, as they were entirely guided therein by the lights of their own experience, having no know- ledge of Mr. Thome's proposal, or of the senti- ments of each other. From the reason of the thing, however, they uniformly concurred in the motives they suggested for such an under- taking. They asserted, that this passage would be much shorter and easier than any of those V 1 ii iii I' * Naval Tracts, p. 435. m 1 7 iJ h 128 ON ArrROACIlING i^ i?.. .i i I ■ ) I If : Jf' l)y tlic Nortli West or North East ; that it would he ttiore heahhy for the 8eaincn, and attended with fewer inconveniences ; that it Monhl prohtibly oj)en a passage to new coun- tries ; and, finally, that the experiment might he made with very little hazard, at a small expense, and would redound highly to our national honour, if attended with success. It may he then demanded, why it has not hitherto heen attemjited, and what ohjections have re- tarded a scheme so visihly advantageous ? These ohjections, as far as they can he collected, are the fear of perishing hy excessive cold, tlie danger of heing hlocked up in ice, and the apprehension that there could he no certainty of ])rcserving the use of the compass under or near the Pole. In respect to the first, we have already men- tioned, that the ancients had taken up an opi- nion, that the seas in the frigid zone were im- passable, and the lands, if there were any, unin- habitable. The philosophers of later ages fell into the same opinion, and maintained that the \ ^^ '\ THE NORTH POLE. 129 Poles were the sources and principles of cold, "which of course increased and grew excessive in approaching them*. But when the lights of experience were admitted to guide in such re- searches, the truth of this notion came to be questioned, because from facts it became pro- bable, that there might be a diversity of cli- mates in the frigid as well as in the torrid zone. Charlton Island, in which Captain James wintered, lies in the bottom, that is, in tb« most Southern part of Hudson's Bay, and in the same latitude with Cambridge, and the cold there was intolerable. The servants of the Hudson's Bay Company trade annually in places ten degrees nearer the Pole, without feeling any such inconvenience. The city of Moscow is in the same latitude with that of Edinburgh, and yet in winter the weather is al- most as severe there as in Charlton Island. * la the language of those times, the Pole was stiled Primvni Frigidum; and it was by such groundless phrases that men pretended to account for the operations of nature, without giving themselves the trouble of experimental in- 4uiries. !» 1 , If! s ! 1. . ^ v|»| Ul ^ll ^h 130 ON APPROACHING IP' < '- ' i ' Nova Zcnibla liatli no soil, herbage, or ani- mals ; and yet in Spitzbergcn, in six degrees higher latitude, there arc all three ; and, on the top of the mountains in the most Northern part, men strip themselves of their shirts that they may cool their bodies*. The celebrated Mr. Boyle, from these and many other in- stances, rejected the long received notion, that the Pole was the principle of cold. Captain Jonas Poole, who in l6lO sailed in a vessel of seventy tons to make discoveries towards the North, found the weather warm in near 79° of latitude, whilst the ponds and lakes wer» unfrozen, which put him in hopes of finding a mild summer, and led him to believe, that a passage might be as soon found by the Pole as any other way whatever ; and for this reason, that the sun gave a great heat there, and that the ice was not near so thick ps what he bad met with in the latitude of 73* f* Indeed, the Dutchmen, who pretend to have advanced * See Marden's Account of Spitzbergen, p. 105. f Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii, p. 702. THE NORTH POLE. Ul 1 witliin a degree of the Polo, said it was as hot there as in the summer at Amsterdam. In these Northern Voyages we hear very much of ice, and there is no douht that vessels are very much hindered and incommoded there- by. But after all, it is, in the opinion of able and experienced seamen, more formidable ia appearance than fiital in its effects. When our earliest discoveries were made, and they reached farther North than we commonly sail at pre- sent, it was performed in barks of seventy tons, with some trouble, no doubt, but with very Httle hazard. At this day it is known, that in no part of the world there are greater quantities of ice seen than in Hudson's Bay, and yet there is no navigation safer, the company not losing a ship in twenty years, and the seamen, who are used to it, are not troubled with any apprehen- sions about it. It is no objection to this, that we hear almost every season of ships lost in the ice on the Whale Fishery ; for these vessels, instead of fivoiding, industriously seek the ice, as amongst it the whales are more commonly k2 f :.r. r.f M i'?! '.'1 , I? ■ ;, I ,1 f. ' ''I 132 ON APPROACHING found than in the open oca. Being thus con- tinually amongst the ice, it is no wonder that they are sometimes surrounded by it ; and yet the men, when the ships are lost, generally speaking, escape. But in the seas near the Pole, it is very probable, there is little or no ice, for that is commonly formed in bays and rivers during winter, and does not break up and get into the sea till the latter end of March, or the beginning of April, when it begins to thaw upon the shores. It is" also, when formed, very uncertain as to its continuance, being broken and driven about by the vehemence of the winds. As a proof of this we have an instance of a vessel frozen in one of the harbours of Hudson's Bay, which, by the breaking of the ice, drove to sea, and, though it was Christmas, found the Straits quite free from ice*, which are frequently choked with it in May and June, and made a safe and speedy passage home. All our accounts agree, tliav, in very * Mr. Dobbi'j Account of Hudsun's Bay, p. Oy, 70. h » I, • THE NOKTH POLE. 133 high hititudes, there is less ice. Barentz, when liis ship was frozen in Nova Zembla, heard the ice broken with a most horrible noise by an impetuous sea from the North, a full proof that it was open. It is the invariable tradition of the Samoides and Tartars, who live beyond the Waygat, that the sea is open to the North of Nova Zembla all the year ; and the most know- ing people in Russia are of the same opinion. These authorities ought certainly to have more weight than simple conjectures. The notion, that approaching to a passage under the Pcle would destroy the use of the compass, is a popular opinion without any just grounds to support it. For it presumes that the needle is directed by the Pole of the World ; which it certainly is not, as appears from the needle's variation, and even the variation of that variation, which, if this notion was true, could never ha|)pen. In Sir Thomas Smith's Sound in Baffin's Bay, the variation was found to be 36° Westward, the greatest yet known. Captain Wood is very clear upon this point, 'i !!, ! I '* I . * ■ h i M f 1 J 111. I ( f ft '^' . < A.' ' '1 ' iM 1 ( ( 134 ON APPROACHING and maintains, that no danger was to be appre- hended from this cause*. Those who asserted, that they had advanced within a degree of the Pole, estimated the variation there at five points of the compass. Captain Wood, in stating the account given of the Dutch seamen's voyage by Captain Goulden, omits one very material point, of which we are informed by Mr. Boyle, which is, that one of the Dutch captains coming over to England, Captain Goulden carried him to some of the Northern Company, who were perfectly satisfied as to the truth of his rela- tion f. On the whole, therefore, whether we respect reason or facts, there are no just grounds for apprehensions on this head, more especially as there are other means by which the true situation of a vessel might be deter- mined, and the difficulty, if any arose, would * Wood's Voyage for tlic Discovery of a North East Passiigo, |). 131). t See the Honourable Mr. Boyle's History of Cold, in rc-pect to tliis ami a multitude of other curious particulars, which show w iili how nuich imluslry and care he struggled to deliver tiuth fiuiii vulgar errors, and fiction. THE NORTH TOLE. 135 I be but of very sliort continuance. But as such a voyage could not fail of aflordins^ many new lights in respect to astronomy and geography, so in this respect also it must necessarily ascer- tain fully what is at present only matter of doubt and conjecture. As notions long received acquire from thence a decree of credit due only to truth; and as new opinions, contrary to these, and in other respects perhaps extraordinary in them- selves, meet from these causes with slow and difHcnlt belief, however they may appear to he supported by arguments, authorities, or facts (which it is presumed have been freely and fairly urged in the present case, to a degree that may at least entitle the matter to some attention) ; let us now proceed one step farther. This shall be to show, that what seems to he so repugnant to the coiniiion course of things {viz. that near the North Pole the cold should relax, and the ice be less troublesome) is per- fectly conformable to the laws of nature, or, which is the same thing, to the will and wisdom li I 1 f ■ >'i 1 ^ •'H .n ,1. .pi k li i I' . t.t I" 136 ON APPROACHING of our great Creator. If this can be proved, there can be no farther dispute as to the possi- bility of this passage ; more especially when it shall also appear, that this affords a full solution of all the doubts that have been suggested, and at the same time clearly accounts for, and effec- tnally confirms, the facts and reasonings de- duced from them, which have been already ad- vanced upon this subject. To come then at once to the point. Sir Isaac Newton, who it is universally allow- ed was equally accurate, cautious, and judicious, in his philosophical decisions, hath demonstrated clearly, that the figure of this our earth is not spherical, but of an oblate spheroidal form, the diameter at the equator being the greatest, and at the axis the least of all the lines that can pass through the centre. He also determined, by a most curious calculation, the proportion of these diameters to be as two hundred and thirty to two hundred and twenty-nine. These senti- ments of his have been experimentally verified by the lu^ans whieh he also pointed out, viz. fir ii 4 Ll THE NOIITII POLE. iV observing the motion of peiKlnliiins in very dil- ferent latitudes, and the actnal nieasureniciit ot a degree at the Ecjuator and under tiic Arctic Circle. This last evidently proved the depres- sion of the earth's surface towards the Pole, which no douht gradually increases. The very learned and sairacions Dr. Ilooke asserted, in one of Iiis lectures, and brought very strong reasons to show, that there is nothing but sea at the Poles*. These points then, being maturely considered, will be found to militate in favour of a free ])assage this way, and at the same time give much light into other things that have been advanced in the course of this inqnirv, by showing the irue causes of those facts that, at first sight, have appeared to many very strange and unaccountable. For example, if there be no land near the Pole, then there can be no bays in which ice can he formed to inter- rupt the navigation. Again, the rays of the sun, falling on so flat a surface, and btirig If It I, ! I >■; ^^ if VIZ, ♦ Hookc's Postliuniom Works, p. 3JI, i^¥'. 9m I." Si I ^■' I 1.38 ON ArPKOACIIING fontinmilly reflected IVojii the water, must afford a j;:reat degree of heat to the air. At the same time tliis will account for the sun's heing seen by the Hutch in Nova Zembla a fortnight earlier than he should have appeared, according to astronomical calculations*. Many other circnujstanccs might be mentioned, but these will doubtless occur to the intelligent, and therefore it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon them. The great injustice of rejecting opinions, on account of their appearing, at first sight, paradoxical, or somewhat inconsistent with notion? commonly received, having been clearly shown, and the mischievous consequences flow- ing from it by various instances pointed out ; the foundation of this cotjjecture, that there may be a passtige near the Pole, having been fairly stated, the populur objections to it clearly removed, the general advantage that nnght be cxpettcil from iheace jjlaced in a proper • See Purchas, vol. iii, p. W\), 500. THE NOilTII 1M)I-E. l.V) light, and the coiisistenrc of all the tircniu- stanccs relutivf theivt*;, with the cstiihliNheil course of nature, having- l)een aUo roudfn'd evident ; there can he nothing niort looked for respecting this matter merely in the light of a jihilosophicul speculation. 15ut if supporting this had heen the only motive, these reflections had not employed the time of the writer, or trespassed so long upon the reader's patience. What then remains ? To demonstrate, that, as the possibility, practicability, and facility, of such an undertaking have heen insisted upcn, its national utility should he shown to deserve consideration ; and that, as it is an object of the greatest importance to the public welfare, its execution should he no longer delayed. There is unquestional)ly no country in Europe so well situate for such an enterprise as this. The transit from Shetland to the Northern parts of Asia would, by this way, be a voyage only of a few weeks. The inhal)itants of these islands and of the Orkneys are, and have been for many years, em])loyed in the Greeidand I ■ li If { 1 : f • i! 'J ^'f* ui % f1\\ .jiajH MO ON AI'IMIOACHING f w ^ I Vf^' I !»■ I f I ;, ? Fisheries, and the natives of these isles are the j)i;r«>ons mostly sent to the estiihlishments in Hudson's Bay. By these means they are inured to cold, to ice, and hard living, and are conse- quently the fittest for heing emj)loyed in such expeditions. When this shall he once executed with success, it will necessarily hring qs ac- quainted with new Northern Countries, where ordinary clothes and other coarse woollen goods will prohahly be acceptable, new channels of commerce would be thereby opened, our navi- gation extended, the number of our seamen augmented, without exhausting our strengh in settling colonics, exposing the lives of our sailors in tedious and dangerous voyages through un- wholesome climates, or having any other trade in prospect than that of exchanging our native commodities and manufactures for those of other countries. This, if it could be brought about, would, in the first instance, convert a number of bleak and barren islands into cultiva- tion, connect them and their inhabitants inti- mately with Britain, give bread to many thou- THE NORTH POLE. in sands, and by providing sjiituble rewards for many different sj)ecie!» ot industry, encounipe population, and put an easy and effectual ]H*riod to the niischiet's and scandal of emigrations. The bencHts derived from these discoveries, and the commerce arising from tlicm, will neces- sarily extend to all parts of our dominions. For however fit the poor people of those isliinds may be for such enterprises, or however com- modious the ports ia their countries may 1)« found for equipping and receiving vessels eni^ ployed in these voyages, yet the commodities, manufactures, &c. must be furnished from all parts of the British Empire, and of course be of universal advantage. These, as they are trne, will it is hoped appear just and cogent reason*; for wishing, that a project, which has dwelt in the mouths and memories of some, and in the judgment and approbation of a few, from the time of Henry the Eighth, should be revived, and, at length, for the benefit of his subjects, carried into effect, under the auspices of (icorge the Third. !;■ if It ; ^ (; ti j. : I •I"* J i I.' 14 J ON APPllOACHING J "t H I' " ;■ I I II A^'E mentioned in the preceding sheets*, that I expected sume additional instances of Dutch Ships, which had been in high Northern Latitudes ; but, though I delayed the publica- tion for some weeks, they did not arrive time enough to appear with the others. I havo however since received them from Professor Allamand of Lcyden, F. R. S. by means of Mr. Valltravers, F. K. S., &c., and take the earliest opportunity to lay them before the public, as a valua))le addition to the former papers. TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINC.TON. SIR, Having made inquiries (agreeable to your desire) from Professor Allamand of Leyden, F. R. S. with regard to Dutch Navi- gators, who have reached high Northern Lati- * In the additional papers from Hull, p. 77. THE NORTH POLE. 143 titudes ; he has !)ccn so kind to send me the followin:^ account, (In-.wn iij) l^y Caj)taiu Wil- liam May, a very distini!:ui!>l»i^d and cxjh ricnced Sea Ollicer in tlie Dutch SiM-vicc, which l)Ci;in8 with a letter irom Mr. John Walig to his owners, who has been Master of a Greenland Ship ever since the year 1710. I am, &c. ROD. VALLTRAAXRS. lit 1' i f I I ! " TO MESS. NIC. AND JACOB VAN STAPHORST. " Heltier, Jan. 3, 177S. " In answer to your Letter of the 22d of December concornincr the question, whether we have been nearer to tlu; Pole than 80^°, I must inform you, that we have been often to 81°, near the Seven Islands, to the Northward of tlie North East Land, and some have been in 82*^, but then not clear from ice, in which they drove about. 1 never heard of any discoveries made there, as they have always been fishers, who, drivini:^ with the ice to the Northward, leave that direction ui)on getting It I' ■( d M i, \44 ON ArrilUACllINO I I ir i, having goi)e without any ice far to the Northward of 81°, sailed to the North of the Seven Islands, proceeded from thence East, and afterwards South East, remaining to the East of the North East Land, when coming again to latitude 80^ be discovered about twenty-fiv* }■•: '■ ' ^ ii Ml r THE NORTH POLE. 145 miles* East from tlie country to the North East very High Lands, on which, as far as we know, no body has ever been. As to the season when the Spitzbergen Seas may be expected to be free from ice, I believe, according to my observations, that the most open sea to the Northward generally happens in the month of September, but then the nights begin, and make the navigation dangerous. " I am, &c. "JOHN WALIG." * Fifteen to a (ipgrce, at the Equator. •I, ' I r; r / w V. •■ t f iff '!? ■^ f *^ hi : If' t I. IP I 5 t ' ■ Jt \ > t \n nt 5 > h « A SHORT ACCOUNT OF NAVIGATORS, WHO HAVE REACHED IIICII NORTIJEIIN LATITUDES* : it./ I WENT to Amsterdam the sGth of March, being the most proper time to make the desired inquiries, and to obtain information from all tlie commanders tliat were to depart this year to Grecnhind ; for then you meet six, eight, and more together, in houses where they enlist their men. I am, however, sorry to mention, tliut but h\v of those commanders keep journals wlien they are near, or in the ice ; hut, notwith- standing this, the accounts they give carry with I U^ * This account was drawn up by Captain William May. in the service of the States, at the desire of Prulessor Allaniand of I.eydeii.— See p, yi L 2 U ■ ' if 14S ON APPROACHINO i v^ I' i fill « , :, I f '" ( them such an air of truth, from heing confiniied by minnte circumstances, and corroborated by so many witnesses, that these relations (I verily belie v«) may be de^ ended upon as well as some journals. I particularly applied myself, how- ever, to those to whom a great number of voyages had given experience, and (contrary to ray expectations) met with men of candour and penetration. I thought it proper, like- wise, to take the following extract of a Journal, it showing the common form in which some of them are kept. IVatislation of part of a Journal, kept on Board the f^row 3Iaria, Commander Martin Rreet. N. B. The sun's altitudes were taken with an octant, and twelve minutes allowed for the sun's semi-diameter, refraction, and dij) of the horizon ; the longitude from TenerifTe ; the miles Hfteen to a degree at the ccpiator ; the bearings with a compass unrectilied. The 22d of April, l^rij sailed from the '' THE NORTH POLE. 149 th< Texel for Greenland. 8th of May, latitude, according to the run, 70^33', longitude 19° 22'; saw the first ice. i:u!i ditto, latitude 74^50', longitude 24° 35'; met. with a border of ice. 14th ditto, latitude Ijy observation 7^° 44', longitude 2G° 13'; came against some ice. 15th ditto, latitude 76" 13', longitude 25° 40'; saw Spitzbergen, the South Cape ; bore Eas^- North East fourteen miles. N. B. Drove about in the ice ; made fast to a field. 25th ditto, in the morning saw the Noiih Foreland, North East by East, latitude 79" 12', longitude 20*^ 40'. 26th ditto, latitude by observation 79° lo'. 27th ditto, against the ice. 28th ditto, passed through some ice. 29th ditto, got fast in the ice ; saw two ships •ailing pretty freely in liie East North East. N. B. in the ice till the 7th of June, got more room ; beat to the j^outhward, and made fast to a Held; saw land in '1 1 r 1 I . i I il (1 )50 ON ArPROArillNG 1 a I- Ji the East North East, di'stance fonrtcen or fifteen miles ; supposed it the f^nade Hoek, latitude hy ohscivution 79" 68'; made fast to the ice till the 11th June, at noon ; a violent storm, wind South West, latitude by observation 80^ I9'. In the night, drove towards the coasts, for it blew too hard to ("arry sail. 12th ditto, in the morning, laid fast in the ice, the storm continued, and the ship so mutii pressed by the ice, that wc were obliged to un- hang the rudder. 13th ditto, hard pressed by the ice, latitude by observation 80° 29'. Remained j)rcssed by the ice till the 18th ditto, latitude by observation 80" 50' ; the ship not movealde. 19th ditto, latitude by observation 80° 57'; the ice in great motion. 20th ditto, fast in the ice again, latitude bv observation 80^^ 58'; calirs till the 3'lth ditto, !jcgan to blow a storm: got sojjiv- room in the ice. i hi THE NORTH POLE. 151 25th ditto, having got moi-e room we ad- vanced. 26'th ditto, locked up again. 27th ditto, saw the hind, namely, the Dorre lloek, South hy East half East, and the Vlakke Iloek, East South East; layhcset till the 2.9th ditto, latitude hy observation 80° 16'. 30th ditto, wind North East. 1st of July, saw water in the West South West, which we had not seen fur many days. In the afternoon got more room. 2d ditto, Avorked our way through as much ice as we could, wind East North East, towards the evening North ; made fast to a field. .'id ditto, at noon, saw the land, being the Robne Bay, bearing South West by West about one mile. ! !' bOJJT. I have left out many little circumstances respecting th" wind, tides, &c., as thinking the above sulhcicnt for ascertaining the latitudes, and to show the method in which many of the (ireenlaud Masters keep their Journals. That .'ii Mil 4 152 ON API'ROACHINO i ^ i. i li- ; M year seems to have been favourable for getting more to the North ; lor, notwithstanding Mr. Brcet met with so much ice, from the latitude of ;9' 30' to that of 80° 58', Caj)tain Jan Klaas Castricum, in the ship the Jonge Jan, at that very time of the year, and nearly in the same longitude, reached 81° 40', by the medium of several observations with forestalfs, where he fished with success, in company with Witje Jelles, who sailed from Hamburg, and found but little ice. There were likewise two English ships, who sailed so far to the North, that Castricum lost sight of them from the mast head, which two ships returned in something more than two days, and the captains cam© on board of Castricum*, and assured him, that they had been to upwards of 83^, and could have gone much farther, as they had no ob- structions from ice, but finding no whales, tlicy returned. I s])oke at the same time with other * Captain Casliiciiin iifilluT u' h 131 ON APPROACHING JS £.,1. ),; a. 'li, ' i:- M > ■■f' hy a imiskct ball : tlicy were certain that lie kept Journals, out of which they think much light might he obtained. The greatest part of the Dutch commanders live at the llelder. Mr. Walig and others assured me, that the most Northern voyage then ever heard of, and on which they could Milh certainty depend, was that of Jacob Schol in 1700, who had been so far North, that on his return he sailed with a fresh gale of wind, due South, forty-eight hours, and then fell in with the Seven Islands ; he consequently had been (reckoning that run at only four Dutch miles an hour, which they thought too little) in upwards of 84° North Latitude. As Mr. Schol was an inhabitant of the Helder, they told me that they would strive to procure me liis papers from his heirs ; and, if I mistake not, they said that they had actually seen those papers in their younger days. Finding that Mr. Van Keulen had put down (in his chart) the land discovered by Captain (lillis, mentioned in Mr. Walig's letter, I went THE NORTH POLE. ISS Ao liiiii, to sec on what fctntidation lie had placed that discovery ; \nit as tho> ever made with regard to Sjiitzhergen, excepting some particular drawings of hays and views of ]and, with permission to keep them in my pos- session till Mr. Walig's return from (Greenland; IT i' ■ i ' 1 i J : : ¥ t I. =1 ,i fJ' ibG ON Ari'KOAClIINU ro])ics of which are Iiero annexed *, and Mr. WaUg pruniised to procure me, if possible, all tlie paj)ers of that ohl commander before lie left the Texel, which 1 hope to receive in a few days, and shall not fail in sending over every thine: 1 And material. Asking what particulars Mr. Walig and others remembered out of those pnpers, they gave the following short account. That Mr. (lillis passed more than a degree to tlic Northward of the Seven Islands, without any hindrance from ice; that he proceeded East for sonic leagues with an open sea, then bent his course South East, and afterwards South ; saw in the latitude of 80*, to the East, very high land ; run through the East Coast of the North East Land, and entered the Waygat Straits ; came to an anchor in Lambcr Bay, and took two whales, and from tlience j)roceeded to the Texcl. Mr. liaskc gave also an account of his uncle's having, in comjiany with three shijjs, * These were copies of the draughts ol' the difltMent coasts of Spitzberg«n, of which Captaiu Gillis hath takeu accurate surveys, A » t'l 4 THE NOIITII POLE. i^r le nis entered Wiiygats from the North, and advanced as far as the same bay, hut round too nuuh ice to get through, which the other three, heini; yonng commanders, made a trial of. The North Passage, liowevcr, on their return being frhut, and it being tlie beginning of Se])tember, they made preparation to leave their ships, in order to get over land to Smeerenbcrg, but the ice luckily giving way, they got out to the Northward. Mr. Baske, who is a curious man, promised me, amongst other things, his ther- mometrical observations, which, by the conver- sation 1 had about them, I have reason to think will be accurate. After having passed six mornings with a great number of our commanders (piartcred in different bouses, I find, tiiat scarcely a year liad passed but some of them have been to 81° North, but rarely found the seas free from ice. This is all the informaticn I have been able to procure during my short st^iy at Amsterdam, which I would have prolonged, if a call to tlie Hague had not prevented me. I can only add, 1 1 I : s i ^'i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I lid IIM 1^ 2.0 1.8 f 1.25 1.4 1.6 « 6" ► VI <^ ^w /A Hiotographic Sdences Corporation 29 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 iV :0^ ^ M ;\ \ ». Q U % IbS ON APPROACHING that waiting upon Mr. Boreel, that gentlemnn ))r<»iui.^ed that he wouul order a search to be made lor the .Journals ')i'lii;;se •jhij)s, whieh were torujcrly cnij/ioyed ir. j)roiccting our Greenland Fisheries. I must, however, not forget to mention a particular that Mr. Van Keulen acquainted me with. He had, at his house, last summer, a tjonversation with a Russian, v ho had passed the winter last year in Spitzhergen, and gave hirn the following account. That being in the ut- most distress, for want of eatables, on the North Coast, he made a trial to get with his boat towards the middle of the island, by means of the Bay of Wyde Bay in Gillis's Map, into which he proceeded, till, to his great surprise, he fell into Wybe Jansz's Bay, and so came out to the South of Spitzbergen ; but he had taken no notice of the depths of water. Being (jues- tioned as to that particular, he said he was very sure that he did not pass through the Wayguts. In all niv conversations with our Greenland THE NORTH POLE. IM) commanders, I never failed to ask which coui^c. they would take to reach higli Northern Lati- tudes ; the result was, that they would never seek it to the Westward of Spitzhergen, but run out to the North, from the West Coast of Nova Zcnibla; Mr. Baske's reasons and those of other commanders were, 1st, T'hat all the Western coast of the Nor- thern countries were, for the most ])art, free from ice, occasioned from the winds and tides chi<.fly coming from the East, which experience proves. 2d, That th2 ice comes origiu;,lly from the Tartarian Rivers ; for, that the sea never freezes but where it is calm, and at the same tima a great quantity of snow falls. 3d, That near the Seven I:,!ands navigators often meet with a great North East swell, which proves, that at such time the sea, to a considerable distance to the North East, is not locked up by the ice. 1th, That the drift wood could not come to the Northward of Spitzbergen, in case the 1!:= K.'O ON APPROACHING i;i I }■■' Ir I : r, i 1.; U i If ( i ! 1 1 '8 ft seas between the North of Asia and that island were frozen ; wheieas a great quantity of that wood is drove on the North Coast of Iceland, which is a demonstration that the currents come from the North East. 5th, That in some of the trees the marks of the axe were very plain, and the colour of the wood so fresh, that they certainly had not been six months in the sea. 6th, That some whole trees appeared with buds thereon, which they think could not have remained so fresh, if the trees had been a year in the salt water. 7t]i, That the East of Greenland was now dis- covered to the latitude of 792°» that it pro- bably extended farther to the North North East, which they look upon t v ' the cause of the stoppage of ice between that coast and Spitzbergen, and the reason why they never find a North West or Northerly swell. 8th, That generally all ships, which had once go'c to the North as far as 82°, met with little « J.*'! » THE NORTH POLE. l6l i M or no obstructions from tlie ice ; and more arguments to the same purpose. There were some, i.jwever, would rather make the trial between Spitzbergen and the land dis- covered by Mr. Gillis. N. B. They knew nothing of the Papers read before the Royal Society. TO ROD. VALLTRAVERS, ESQ. &0. SIR, Professor Allamand, being very desirous that the inclosed might be sent to you as soon as possible, has obliged me to draw up with haste the above account of the informa- tions I received at Amsterdam. In reading it osrer and comparing it with my notes, I find no fault as to the facts related, whatever there may be in the maniicr in which it is drawn up ; in case the whole or any part of it should be thought worth publishing, I hope you will be so good as to have it corrected*. * This hath been done in some trifling particulars, rela- tive mfeiely to the stile, as Captain May ii not a uative of Viiglanil M 'i ♦ n, • f if' ^ I ■ ^ i - ■ jfmmmm ^■-\ « i nm ib'S ON APPROACHING I could liave made it more circumstantial, as my notes are very full, in particular with regard to the reasons our commanders gave for not making the trial to the West of Spitz- bergen, &c. I am informed, that Mr. De Bougainville intends to go by the way of Nova Zembla*. I am, with profound respect. Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, WILLIAM MAY. Leydai, April lUh, 1775. * This voyage of discorery, however^ did not take place. ': I ^ I i; : If ll u *. i }■ THE NORTH POLE. iGe> THUS do the Dutch Seamen, employed in th« Greenland Fishery, agree with our own coun- icrymcn, in never having so much as heard of a perpetual barrier of fixed ice, to the North- ward of Spitzbergen, in 80^''*, which indeed is one of their most common latitudeis for catching whales, whilst all of them suppose the sea to ba generally open in those parts, and many of them proceed several degrees beyond it. I shall Only add, that, in my former pam- phlet f, I have mentioned a' fact or two I had reason to expect from the Rev. Mr. Tooke, Chaplain to the factory at Petersburgh, which he conceived would strongly prove that the sea is open to the Pole, and which I have since received in a letter from him dated the 26th of May last. Mr. I'ooke hath Ijeen assured by several ; « * One of them indeed says, that the ice frequently packs tn that latitude, which he supposes to arise from the meeting of two currents. t Page i9. note. M li i I \ I : Hi' ^ If, ,{• ' .. lG4 ON APPROACHING persons, who have passed the winter at Kola in Lapland, that in the severest weather, when- ever a Northerly wind hlows, the cold dimi- nishes instantly, and that, if it continues, it always hrings on a thaw as long as it lasts. He hath also been informed by the same authority, that the seamen, who go out from Kola upon the whale and morse fisheries early in March (for the sea never freezes there), throw ofF their w'inter garments as soon as they arc from fifty to one hundred wersts* from land, and continue without them all the time they are upon the fishery, during which they expe- rience no inconvenience from the cold, but that, on their return (at the end of May), as they approach land, the cold increases to such a severity, that they suffer greatly from it. This account agrees with that of Barentz, whilst he wintered in Nov^ Zemblaf, and that of the Russians in Maloy Brun ; the Nortli m * Three uersts make two miles. •[• See 'I'liuiiglils on thf I'lobabiliiy, &.c., of reucljiiig the North Vi>\^^.■ !t THE NORTH POLE. I6c wind cannot therefore, during tlie coldest sea- sons of the year, he supposed to hlow over ten degrees of ice. Governor Elh's indeed, whose zeal in pro- secuting the attempt of discovering the North West passage through Hudson's Bay is so well knoivn, hath suggested to me an argument, which s^eems to prove the ahsolute impossibility of a perpetual barrier of ice from 80^° to the Pole. If such a tract hath existed for centuries, the increase, in poiut of height, must be amaz- ing in a course of years, by the snow, which falls during the winter, being changed into ice, and which must have formed consequently a mountain perhaps ccjual to the Peak of Teneriffe *. Now the ice, which sometimes packs to the Northward of Spitzbergen, is said commonly not to exceed two yards in height. D. B- * Ml. De Luc observes also, that the ice upon the Gla- ceres is always increasing.^See his interesting oUeivu, Muns on those mountain'^ of Switzerland. ni I V -l t! 'lit II >« OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOATING ICE, WHICH IS roi'ND in HIGH NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN LATITIIDES. SINCE the return of the King's ships from voyages of discovery, both in high Northern and Southern Latitudes, I have found that it hath been a disputed point, whether the ice which they have met with was formed chiefly from the salt or fresh water. I should rather conceive that this doubt must have arisen from what is mentioned by the great Mr. Boyle, in his experiments on heat and cold ; or from an observation of M. Adanson, at the end of his voyage from Senegal, because from the quantity of ice merely (at least to the Northward) the ! I i 4 I i i iJ ) 'i )re its n^ firmed by liis experience In those Northern Seas*. This opinion of Sir Martin Frobisher's seems not to liave been dispntcd l;y any one, till the time of Mr. Boyle, who observes, that there arc several in Amsterdam, who nscd to thaw the ice of sea water for brewing, and then cites Bartholinus De Alvis usu. " l)c glade ex aqud marindy cerium est si resnlvatur, salsum sapor em deposuisse, quodnon ita pridem expert us est Clarisslmus Finkius In glaclei frustis, ex jiortu nostra alia t is -f.'* I shall not now criticise either what falls from Mr. Boyle himself, or from Bartholinus, ihongh it is very clear that the ice alluded to by both must have j)robably been funned from fresh water, either in the rivers, or lakes which empty themselves into the Zuyder Sea, because * See Hakluyt, vol. ii, p. 62 and 67. In 1776, Mr. Marshall, Capiain of a Greenland Ship, was so good as to bring me a bottle of water, which was melted from ice found floating in the Spilzbergen seas, and which had not the least saline taste. f Boyle's Works, vol. ii, p. 26i, folio, J . ) i {Hi ■■' .' *' ■ i t' 1 1'- •'' ' M 'I- ^f (-» ^ ) if « a ^ 170 ON APPROACHING I shall hereafter contradict the assertion of Biirtholimis, by the actual experiment, *vhich I have tried myself during the late hard frost. To do justice indeed to Mr. Boyle, he nfterwards, upon more mature consideration, shows it to he his opinion, agreeable to thai of Sir Martin Frobisher, that the fresh water obtained from ice floating in the sea proves it could not have been formed from the ocean, " because the n^ain sea is seldom or ever frozen *." The next author who supposes that con- gealed sea water is by this process rendered sweet to the taste, is M. Adanson, who informs us, that, upon his return from Senegal in ir^S, he carried two bottles of sea water, taken up on the Coast of Africa, from Brest to Paris, which, during an intense frost, was so frozen as to burst the bottles, and the contents afterwards became palatable 'J-, To this fact I shortly answer, either that * Boyle's Works, vol. ii, p. 302. I Voyage au Senegal, p. HtO. THE NORTH POLE. 171 the bottles were changed, or otherwise that M. Adanson does not mention the cir- cumstance by which the taste of tlie sea water was thus altered upon its being dissolved. Mr. Nairne hath been much more accurate in stating his experiments with regard to the freezing sea water, in a paper read before the Hoyal Society on the 2d of February, 1/76, as he mentions, that, in order to clear the Ice from any brine, which might adhere to it, he washed It m a pail of pump water for a quarter of an hour, after which he informs the Society, that to bis palate it was perfectly free from any taste of salt. This is most undoubtedly the fact, but Mr. Nairne does not seem to be aware from what circumstance the ice thus melted had become fresh water*; and indeed I must admit, I * As Mr. Nairne, in his Letter to Sir John Pringle, says, that one of his great reasons for trying these experiments was to determine whether the i< e, which floats in the Nor- ihern Seas, is formed from the salt water or not, he therefore sliould have thawed the ice precisely under the same cir- ( ' iii ii il ,1 'if I,; I li .1 r ' ■ 4 \72 ON APPROACH IN6 tliat upon the first experiment wliicli 1 made with regard to IVe-jzing sea water, 1 deduced the same inference that he hath done, having washed it in fresh water for the same reason that he did, viz. to get rid of the hrine vhrch miglit adhere to the surface of the ice. To determine, therefore, whence this fresh- ness in the thawed ice might arise, I phiccd a cumstances with the sea water adhering, as the navigators take it up. The truth is, that, if the piece of ice formed from sea water is at all large, the adhering salt water can scarcely affect the taste at all; and I have melted the cen- tral parts of a pretty large mass, which ijecame very salt after dissolutiou, thougii entirely detached from the sea water in which it imd been frozen. " In the severe frost last January {viz. 177.5), some salt water, being set abroad, froze into an ice, wich was not solid but porous, the hollows being tilled with the saltest part of the water, for the ice when drained was quite fresh. The salt water being again set abroad, froze as before, what remained still unfrozen was now become exceeding salt, but the ice drained and dissolved was little if at all brackishj Ly this experiment, if another time m we fully repeated, it may be found to what degree ihe saitness of water may be increased, by conti- nuing to freeze away the fresh water." — JMr. Barker in Phil, fraiis. vol. Ixvi, p. ii, 1776, p. 373. p 1 ■ '.»' THE NORTH POLE. 173 large piece of what remained frozen (witliont being washed at all in pnmp water) to bo dis- solved before the fire, which tastefi very salt, as one might naturally suppose. The weather continuing to be very severe I froze more sea water, repeating the experifnent of freshening it or not, by leaving or not leavin«- k in pump water, irhich always turned out uniformly to be the same ; and the reason of "which if the followinfr : — When sea water is frozen, it does not form ioe similar to that from fresh water, being by no means so solid or transparent, as it consists of thin laminae or plates, between which the brine is deposited, and if the ice is accuriUely examined, the small portions of brine between the plates may be easily distinguished. If this brine therefore is removed, the lamina of ice when dissolved become sweet to the taste, but, if thawed together with the brine intercepted between the lamina^, the taste is salt, nor can the ice be considerably divested of the brine, by merely Icavinsj it to drain. ;^? I m > . ,4 I': I :^ f' IT 4 ON APPROACHING Having satisfied myself thns far from th« freezing sea water by the natural cold, and under the common circumstances of exposing it to the air in small china cups, I applied to Dr. Higgins to prosecute these trials with his more ample apparatus, and knowledge of che- mistry ; who was immediately so good as to suggest and try the following experiments, which will throw farther light upon this subject*. " January adf, 177*>- A gallon, Win- chester measure, of sea water, which I had fresh imported from Mr. Owen in Fieet Street, was placed in a shallow disb of Welsh ware, glazed * It would be great injustice to Mr. LonionosofJi a Swedish chemist, not to mention that he seems to have tried experiments similar to those which I have made myself, and found the result to be as I have stated it. Collection [Academique, torn, xi, |p. 5, et seq. 4to, Paris, 1772. — See also the Probability of reaching the North Pole discussed. t Mr. Nairne began bis, experiments at the latter end of this inonlb. THE NORTH 1 OLE. 173 lade it. end yellow; the depth of tlic water was three inches and a half in tliis shaiiow dish, which 1 marked A, and placed on a brick wall eight feet high above the ground behind my honse. This wall on the Eastern side faces the gardens belonging to five or six houses in the same street with mine ; and on the Western side of it is the area between my house and the elaboratory ; and Westward of my area is the garden of Messrs. Wedgwood and Bentley, which I believe is forty feet wide, bounded on the West by high buildings. " At the same time I placed another gallon of the same sea water in a glass body^ Th« colnnm of water in this vessel was about thir- teen inches high, about six inches diameter at the base, and about thre 3 inches v.t the mouth of the vessel. I placed this body with the sea water close by the vessel marked A ; so that both were equally distant from the adjoining houses ; and after marking the glass body B, I covered the vessels A and B with glass basons in such a manner, that the air might commii- ) 1 f ! f i 176 ON APPROACHINO I „ V \ f\' Ml: 1: , ' \ !. I - J Tiieate with the surface of the water, but rain of snow might be excluded. " A Thermometer was placed between these vessels. " From the 2d to the 7th of Jannary, the mercury in the thermometer stood, at various times, as low as 31° of Fahrenheit ; and Thames water, in shallow wooden vessels, placed on the ground, near the wall above mentioned, was often frozen to the thickness of a crown piece. But an earthen oil jar containing twenty gal- lons of Thames water, and a like jar containing twenty gallons of distilled water, and each covered with a pewter dish, preserved the water contained in them from freezing during this interval. " About the 7th of January, the mercury in the course of twenty-four hours did not rise above 31°, but sometimes sunk to 30°. Ice was formed in the vessel marked A ; but none in the vessel marked B. Ice was at th« same time formed in the great jars containing Thames water and distilled water ; and to » I ; THE NORTH POLE. 177 i \ ! JO°. but the ling |0 'A thickness much greater in the Thames water tliaii in the water distilled. The ice obtained from the vessel A was all ibrined on the surface of the water; and consisted of thin lamina; adhering to each other weakly, and intercepting in their interstices a small portion of water, which was saline to the taste. This ice, beaten gently with a glass pestle to divide the laminse, then drained, and then washed in distilled water, tasted like the ice if fresh water ; and being placed in a glass funnel before a culinary fire, so that the water might drain off as soon as formed, it dissolved in half an hour, and not in less time, although thn thermometer placed at the same distance close to the funnel rose to a hundred and sixty ; and the side of the funnel next to the fire was hot to the like degree, as nearly as could be ascertained by the touch. The water of the ice thus melted was fresh and palatable, and measured half a pint. " From the 9th of January to the 11th in- clusive, the mercury rose some days to forty, and duriFJg three or four hours on other days it N 173 ox APPROACHING gMI sunk and remained at thirty, and sometimes for an hour or less it sunk to twenty-nine. But it did not remain at thirty during any of these days for more than four or five hours, unless at the hours of rest, when no ohservation was made. During this period, a thin coat of ice, like the former, was produced on the water in the shallow vessel A ; hut no ice was formed in the vessel B. " January 12, the thermometer pointed for several hours hetween thirty- one at the highest, and twenty-nine at the lowest. A thick crust of ice, of the texture hefore descrihed, was formed in the vessel A. This ice hroken, washed, and dissolved, became fresh water, measuring a pint or more. This quantity of ice, placed in a fur.nel before a fire, in the cir- cumstances already described, was not all dis- solved in an hour and ten minutes. No ice was formed in the vessel B *. January the 13th at night, and 14th in (( ■•» * " The foregoing observations were committed to writ- ing oa the days when they were respectively made, but the day of the month was not then accurately noted. It THE i;ORTH POLE. 179 the morning, the thermometer sunk for some hours helow twenty-seven, and did not rise during sixteen hours above twenty-eight. The water in the vessel A, remaining after the fore- going congelations, was frozen to the thickness of a quarter of an inch in the centre, and three quarters of an inch in ♦he circumference ; but no ice was formed at any greater depth in the water. This ice, like the former, was lami- nated, and when bruised and washed, it formed fresli water to the quantity of three pints. " On the same day, viz. 14th of January, in the morning, the thermometer pointing below twenty-seven, the Thames water in the great jar was frozen to the thickness of three or four inches, if not more, contiguous to the jar and the surface. The distilled Thames water in the other jar was frozen to the thickness of two inches, or thereabouts, and contiguous to the jar and surface of the water ; and the sea water may therefore be fownd that I have placed some of th» foregoing temperatures a day before or after that oa which they were observed." N 2 t , lii 180 ON APPROACHING ): . ' A in the glass body marked B was for the first time frozen. On the surface, and in the centre of this surface, the ice was half an inch thick ; at the circumference it was an inch thick ; and from the circumferepce and surface the ice formed contiguous to the i^lass, in such a man- ner, that the crust was an inch thick near the glass and surfai e ; but, as it proceeded down- wards towarci- the wider part of the glass, it tapered to an edge, terminating within an inch of the bottom of the vessel. " Thus all the ice was formed on the surface and contiguous to the glass, and was thickest where the vessel vvas narrowest ; that is, the ^quantity of ice was inversely as the diameter of the vessel. This ice rcsenbled that obtained in the shallow vessel in its laminated structure and eponginess, and in its enveloping a portion of the salt water, with this dift'erence only, that the iamince shot vertically, and from the circum- ference inclining towards tbe centre, not directly, but so as to form with the centre an angle of about fifteen degrees. This ic , bruised and THE NORTH POLE. 181 washed, melted to a pint and a half of pleasant fresli water. The time and heat were nearly the same as I described above. " Mr. Barrington at tliis and former periods observed, that the separation of the lamime of the ice by bruising accelerated tne effect pro- duced by washing ; that is, the extrication of the intercepted brine. " January the 19th at night, the mercury in the thermometer sunk to twenty-six. The sea water, remaining after the foregoing congela ■ tions in the flat dish marked A, was frozen so far, that only a pint remained fluid at the bot- tom. This ice was in all respects like the former portions. Bruised, washed, and melted, as on former occasions, it gave a (juart of fresh water. At the same time, the water in B was frozen in the manner before descrilied, but in a larger quantity, and some laminffi of ice shot close to the glass as far as the bottom of the vessel. This ice bruised and washed as for- merly, and placed before the fire in a glass funnel, melted in a heat of a hundred and 183 ON APPROACHING •i , ^ .1 .1 VP If sixty, in an hour and a half^ to uiio quart ot' fresh water. " January the 20th, the mercury, which stood at twenty-seven in the morning, and fell to twenty-six towards twelve o'clock, fell in a few hours to twenty-four, and, liefore nine at night, fell to twenty-three. Only a thin coat of ice was formed on the water in A, which I did not disturh, expecting it to freeze deeper during the night. The water in the vessel B was frozen to some thickness at the surface, and contiguous to the sides of the glass body, but not at the bottom. Expecting a stronger con- gelation, I suffered this also to stand until the next morning, and consequently could not determine the quantity of ice formed in it, otherwise than by feeling near the surface, where- by I presumed the quantity of ice to be e((ual to that last obtained, and formed in the same manner. " January the 21st in the morning, the thermometer pointed to twenty-eight. Tlia thin crust of ice, observed on the preceding THE NORTH POLE, 183 night, did not appear to be increased or di- niinii^hed in the vessel marked A. The laminae of this ice adhered so vakly, that the whole crust could not be raised without breaking. This ice, bruised and well washed, dissolved to near half a pint of water, brackish to the taste. And the same day, in the morning, the ice in B was removed, brnised, and washed ; it melted to a pint or more of fresh water. *• From the 21st to the sCth of January, the water in the vessel marked B was frozen twice, and the ice formed each time was brnised and washed, and melted to fresh water, both portions measuring one pint or more. " From the 26th of January at snn set, to the 27th at eleven o'clock in the morning, the mercury in the thermometer stood, at the usual hours of observation, between twenty and eighteen. The water remaining after the fore- going congelations in B was frozen so far, that only half a pint remained fluid. The ice^ bruised, washed, and dissolved, tasted a little brackish, and measured one pint and a half. iil ^,1 m f. .1.3 * . i J u ! i I' t ?'■' i / ,1 184 ON APPROACHING u On the 28th of January the mercury stood in the morning and until four o'clock in the afternoon hetween twenty-two and nineteen, a .d hefore eleven o'clock at night it sunk to seventeen. Very little ice was formed in the vessel B ; arid what was formed very easily crumhled or fell to small flakes in attempting to take it out. I therefore suft'ered it to remain in the liquor until the morning. " On the 29th of January the mercury stood between twenty and twenty- two until six o'clock; and between twenty and nineteen, from six until twelve at night. The quantity of ice, formed oii the precedmg day, was not notably augmented or diminished ; bruised, washed, and melted, it yielded two ounces of water, brackish to the taste, in a greater degree than any of the foregoing portions which were washed. " On the 30th of January, firding that the temperature of the preceding evening of the night, and of this day, which was between nine- teen and twenty one, had caused no notable congelation in the small quantity of water re- THE NORTH POLE. IS.-) niaining in B ; finding also ihat the residue of the water in A admitted of no farther conge- lation worth notice ; and considering that the slender laminie of ice, lately formed in these waters, melted to salt water, and consequenlly that no farther congelation, capahle of sepa- rating the fresh water from the brine, even with the assistance of washing, conld take place ; I mixed the concentrated brine in A with that in B, and found both scarcely measured a wine pint ; some small crystals were found in the bottom of both vessels, which sunk in the brine, and were to the taste sea salt, it is hence evident that some sea salt is formed in crystals by the concentration produced by cold acting gradually, and causing congelation only on the surface of the water, or not affecting that part of it which is contiguous to the bottom of the vessel. " The quantity of these crystals of sea salt was about two grains. I j)oured them together with the water into a china plate, set in a sand heat, and, by crystalliication, obtained sea salt u " ' H^^H^BSlflM! 18fj ON APPilOACHING M i ii and the other saline contents of sea water, in a dry form, near two ounces, avoirdupois. " Now, as this quantity of sea water (that is, two gallons), taken on our coast, generally yields about seven ounces of saline niatterb, it appears, that two- thirds or more of the sea t>alt, and bitter salts of sea water, are intercepted in the ice of the successive congelations, and are washed away by fresh water, applied as above mentioned. Hence we learn that sea water may be freshened by freezing, provided the brine enveloped between the laminai of its ice be washed away. And in cold countries salt might be prepared from sea water at a very moderate expense ; for by freezing shallow ponds of this water, by turning the ice to drain oft' the brine, and when the brine is reduced to a twentieth part or less by evaporation, very little evaporation and fuel will be necessary towards the formation of t|ic sale*. But all the salt of the sea water employed will not be oh- * " Wallcrius says, this art is practised in the Northern countries." p THE NORTH POLE. 18/ evy sary the oh- tainedj because the greater part of it will be re- tained between the laniinie of the ice, which must ce rejected ; and the joncentration by freezing cannot he advantageously carried farther than is above expressed, because at that degree of concentration the cold, and the time neces- sary to cause farther cohtjelations, must be very considerable, as will the waste of salt likewise, since the ice is then strongly saline. " A small portion of the ice, taken at various times from B since the 26th of January, was not washed, but only left to drain in a funnel ; and each portion thus drained during five or six days, being separately dissolved, tasted strongly of salt, although the like ice, which was bruised and washed, yielded fresh water. This proves that washing removes the intercepted brine ; and that this brine does not separate by draining. it January the 20th, at eight o'clock in the evening, the thermometer pointing at twcity- three, in the open air where the thermometer stood; I mixed snow with smoking spirit of ii I ■ illKJl iRKS !88 ON APPROACHING ;'( nitre, .'ind placed in the mixture a glas6 half pint tumbler full of sea water ; and at the same time placed the thermometer in the mixture. In two minutes the mercury sunk out of the tube qMite into the globe. The scale extends only twenty-five degrees below O of Fahrenheit; wherefore I could not determine how many de- grees lower it would have sunk on a more ex- tended scale. In five minutes, some slender laminae of ice began to shoot from the circum- ference of the Avater, and adhered to the glass. The whole water was not frozen hi less than an hour J at which time the mejcury in the ther- mometer rose to twenty degrees below O. Having another mixture of the same kind ready made, I briskly removed the tumbler with the ice it contained into the fresh mixture, which, like the former, sunk the mercury into the globe. " The ice of sea water is more opaque than that of fresh water, when both are naturally congealed. For the elastic fluid in common water forms bubbles only in the central parts M THE NORTH POLE. 189 of the water last frozen ; but tlic ice of sea Avater consists of alternate parts of ice and brine ; the density of wliich being nne(iniil, and the matter of them being also dissimilar, light cannot be freely transmitted, but is partly re- flected and refracted, according to Sir Isaac Newton's ideas of light. *' In the experiment last mentioned, the ice v/as commonly >paque ; and when it was ex- posed to the fresh frigorific mixture, it became like a mass of snow compressed, having a snowy whiteness ard opacity, perfect near the surface, but not perfect towards the bottom. " The tumbler, with the ice it contained, was kept in this last mentioned mixture an hour, when the mercury denoted that no farther degree of cold could be given by this mixture. The tumbler was then placed in snow until the next day, to preserve the ice for farther obser- vation. Notwithstanding the extreme cold to which it had been so long exposed, and the cold medium in which it was placed, the ice was not solid like that of fresh water, but, on the con- Hi I 1 1 f 1^, 111 •I f ;' UK ; ;: ■ A, I „ KM!- ai 190 ON APPROACHING trary, could easily be cut through the centre of the mass with a knife. The ice tasted equally of salt through the whole mass, in the same manner as a like quantity of sea water. Bruised briskly, washed as already described, and melted, it yielded fresh water to the quan- tity of four-fifths of the water frozen ; where- fore in washing very little ice was dissolved whilst the salt water intercepted in the ic^ was removed. " Mr. Harrington having observed that an artificial freezing commences from the bottom and sides of the mass of water placed as usual in the frigorilic mixture, but that natural free- zing commences on the surface and proceeds downwards ; and it occuring to me that the specific gravity of incongelable brine is greater than that of the congelable water ; and, conse- quently, that this greater specific gravity favours the separation of brine from the ice of sea water, when the freezing commences on th« suiface of sea water, and may be an impediment to the separation of the incongelable brine from THE NORTH POLE. 191 the ice artificially formed in the sea water, when tlie congelation proceeds from the bottom up- wards : on these considerations it seemed that the foregoing experiments indicate, that ice formed in sea water cannot, when melted, be come fresh water, unless it be washed in fresh water ; but do not fully prove, that ice formed on the surface only, and proceeding slowly downwards, in sea water, may not consist df fresh water, and be freed from brine, by reason of the specific gravity of brine and other unno ticed circumstances. Therefore, on the 21st of January, at two o'clock, whei the mercury stood ill the open air at twenty-nine, I made the following experiment, with a view to deter- mine whether sea water, frozen artificially from the surface downwards in the manner performed by nature, would not yield ice of a solid texture capable of melting to fresh water without washing, merely by draining ; which must take jdace in mountains of ice, if any are formed in the Northern Sea : because, ice being s^pecifi- cally lighter than water, and the access of con- V I 111' ^,,H' 193 ON APPROACHING gealed water being at the base, the portionf first frozen will be raised above the water by succeeding portions frozen, and thus a moun- tain of ice may be raised, whose mass and height above water will be to the massive base im- mersed in water, inversely as the specific gravity of ice is to that of water. " I placed therefore a gallon of sea water in a glazed earthen vessel, whose diameter was one third greater than the depth of the water. In this water I slung a thin glass bason, cut from a bolt head, capable of containing near two quarts o^ water, in such manner that it might be immersed two inches deep in the sea water. The vessel containing the sea water was surrounded with snow. I then filled the bason, which was suspended in the sea water, with snow pressed down with a glass pestle, and poured into the snow the usual quantity of strong nitrous acid. "' In fifteen minutes some crystals of ice were formed on the interior glass bason, in the part where it was contiguous to the surface of V THE NORTH POLE. IfKi ice I the of tlie sea water. In three hours the whole hottoin of the l)ason, containing the frigoritic mixture, was coated with ice, the thickness of whicli was half an inch or less at the hottoni of the bason, increasing to three-fourths of an inch at the part which corresponded with tlie surface of the water. " I easily separated it entire from the bason, found it somewhat firmer in its aggregation than the ice slowly formed by natural freezing, and not composed of laminae like this latter, but similar in texture to the salt water frozen by artificial cold applied in the usual manner. 1 placed it on a heap of snow, where it re- mained to drain upwards of six hours, but still was wet to the touch on the surface, and in the fresh surfaces of the fractured parts. I then placed a part of it in a glass funnel before the fire, to melt, and found the water strongly saline to the taste, but not near so saline as equal parts of sea and river water mixed. " Another portion of this 'ce, which was wrapped" up in filtering paper, and left to drain Q ■i.\ 194 UN AfPKOACHINU ^ft * ^ 3 i on a heap of dry snow iliiring ibiir days, when melted, was saline to the taste, and not sensihlv diHercnt from that wliicii hud drained only six or seven hours. Whence it appeared, that ice formed in the sea watrr, in circumstances similar to those which attend natural conso- lation, is, nevertheless, saline to the tu'ste. " The several jmrtions of water obtained in the foregoing experiments, from the washed ice of the sea water in A and B, heing preserved in glass stopper hottles, were not examined. Al- though they were fresh to the taste, it appeared by the quantity of hma cornea, which they all formed with saturated nitrous solution of silver, that they were strongly impregnated with marine salt, comparatively v^ith Thames and Mew Uiver water, examined in the like manner. " Mr. Biirrington observing, that salt in water is an impediment to the congelation of that wate"', presumed, that salt in water would accelerate the thawing of ice immersed in it ; and that in equal temperatures ice would be thawed in sea water sooner than in fresh I ■ ''teii > i THE NOHTH POLE. 1.95 d be fresh water. I therefore made tlie ful lowing experi- ment. *' January the SOth, when the thermometer pointed to twenty-three, about nine o'clock at niglit, I placed five ounces and half a drachm, avoirdupois, of Thames water in a half pint glass tumbler ; and the like quantity of the same water distilled in another half pint glass tumbler of equal figure and capacity with tho foregoing. The tumblers were placed on the wall formerly described, and left there covered with glass until eleven o'clock next morning. " In the morning, at eleven o'clock, the thermometer pointed to twenty-eight. The water in both tumblers was frozen quite through, and formed masses of ice, transparent as crystal in every part, except the centre, and near the bottom, which parts were rendered opaque to the thickness of half an inch, by a number of air bubbles locked up in the ice. The distilled water had been kept several days in the jar above descrll^ed, whose mouth was only covered with an inverted pewter dish. o 2 \ I t lytj ON APrROACIIINT. / (I . f It' h » ! " Into a glass tiinibler, capable (»!' holding' a Winchester pint or inorr, 1 pnt a wine ])int of Thames water; and into another tumbler of the same figure and caj)acity, I poured a pint of sea water concentrated, by freezing one iburth of it, the better to represent sea water of the great oceans, which are not affected by rivers so much as the sea water used in these experiments must be, as it was taken up near the North Foreland. The sea water was thuj concentrated for these farther reasons : first, that the effect of salt in the water might be more conspicuous during thd thawing of the ice; and secondly, to prevent the first portions of ice thawed from diluting the salt water to a degree which never is found in the ocean. I reduced the sea and the Thames water, con- tained in these tumblers, to the same tempe- rature exactly, in tlie oj)en air ; then taking hold of each by the summit of the glass above Uie water, I carried thoni into my study, and placed them on a carpet fifteen feet equally dijjtant from the fire^ and three inches from the > I TIIR NORTH POLE. i97 )int ot ilcr (l of the tliirtrentli lioni% after the immersion of the masses of ice in the fresh and in the salt water, that is, at three in the morn- ing, the temperature of the room was forty- five hear the phice wliere the tumhlers stood. The temperature of the open air was thirty-one. The ice in the sea water was mehed. The quantity of ice remaining in the fresh water was one drachm, which, in Hftecn minutes more, Mas entirely melted. " At this period, when the ice in the fresh water was melted, that is, a quarter of an hour past three, the mercury stood at forty in the fresh water, in the salt water it stood at forty-one. In a quarter of nn hour after this, the mercury stood at forty-two in the salt Avatcr, and at forty-one in the fresh water. In a quarter of an hour more, the temperature remained unalterahle in the salt and fresh water, although tfie temperature of the air hetween and near the vessels was forty- five, and the vessel on the right was placed on the left, and replaced several times. And hoth r '202 ON APPROACHING f ' .' '' w- i, ^i ", ' f ', i( F,l','s U V'.t vessels were at all times equidistant from tlie wainscot, which was ])eifectly close, as were the b')iir'Js of the floor also. " In a quarter of an hour more, the tempe- rature of the air near and between the tumblers remained forty-five ; the temj)erature of the fresh water was scarcely forty-two ; the tem- perjitorc of the salt water was forty-two and a half. " In a quarter of an hour more, the tempe- rature of the air between the tumblers being forty-four and a half, the temperature of the salt water was forty-three ; the temperature of the fresh water was somewhat more than forty- two. It was now past four o'clock in the morning, on Monday the 22d of January. I went to bed, leaving the tumblers in the position described. " It was observed, during the foregoing and other experiments, and it is visible, from the experiments related, that fire, in diffusing itself from warm bodies to contiguous cold bodies, proceeds slowly; that cold bodies do not ac- ^ ^^' ;l| ^•^ I. THE NORTH POLE. 203 ac- tjulre the (cmpcraturc of the warmer medium in which they arc immersed so soon as is commonK' imagined, but, on the coutrary, require a consi- derable time for that purpose; and this time is directly as the diameter of the cold body. " It was inferred from tliesc experiments, that a temperate body, like water, placed in a cold medium, as in air, cooled to thirty or thirty-one of Fahrenheit, rctjuires many hours before it acquires the temperature of the sur- roundinf^ medium, and before a congelation commences ; and that the time necessary for the commencement of the congelation is directly as the mass and shortest diameter of the water, and the progress of the congelation is inversely as the dej)th of the water. " It was also observed, that as much of a given mass of water was frozen in five hours in tt tempeniture of twelve degrees below the freezing point, as was frozen in one hour in a temperature fifty degrees below the freezing point ; and that long duration of the tempe- rature between twenty and thirty-two is, to- 2()i ON API'ROACHINr. ( , J ill \ ; : wards the congelation of water, equivalent to iiitcn.sitv of cold, such as is marked O, and below O, in Falirenlieit, bnt of short dnration. *Mt was ni{)reover observed, that water in thick jars covered was not frozen, when water in oj)on vessels was frozen ; that water included in massive vessels of wood, or surrounded by any niivtter except water, to some thickness, preserved its temperature, and resisted conge- lation, longer than the like quantity of water ex))0'5ed to the cold air ; and that water in thick vessels was not frozen so soon as a like quantity of water in thin vessels of like matter, figure, and caj)acity. It was thence inferred, that tire does not so quickly pervade thick bodies as it does thin bodifs ; and that fire pervades water more freely than it does solid bodies, and sooner diffuses itself from water to air, than from any other body containing water to air. " Thence it followed, that in reasoning on the phfenomena of congelation, the masses of water, the duration of cold temperature in the atmosphere, and the masses of other matter I ! THE NORTH POLE. 205 surrounding water, arc to be considered. Deep rivers and lakes do not freeze so soon as shallow livers and lakes. Large bodies of water are never frozen in any temperature of short dura- tion ; but shallow waters are often frozen in the summer. " It need not be presumed, that certain lakes, which are never frozen, communicate with subterranean fires, or hot mineral streams ; or that they arc impregnated with matter which impedes congelation : but it is rather to l^e presumed, that as fire slowly pervades, enters, or quits bodies, the time necessary for its disusing itself from deep lakes to the cold atmosphere is greater than ever such temperature of the at- mosphere continues without intermission below the freezing point. " By the like reasoning applied to masses of earth aiid other matter, which are not so quickly pervaded by fire as water is, we can conceive why deep weils and springs at or near their issuing from the earth are not frozen iu t'iis clijiiate, even when navigable river;* are ice- i i -rtts; 206 ON APPROACHING in' s . I ■' . I' « I Imund. We also nndcrstand why the maiii pipes, buried in our streets, retain the water iluid, when the pipes leading from these to the houses, and crossing the area of each house, are choked with ice ; and why hay bands twisted round these small pipes prevent the freez- ing, &c. " On these grounds it is presumed, that no considerable congelation ever takes place in the sea, because this is the greatest and deepest mass of water we know of ; because it is always in motion, and communicates with the water of temperate climates ; because sea water is not so easily frozen as fresh water ; because the ice found in the sea is solid, and in transparency not different from the ice of fresh water ; and, lastly, because this floating ice, which it met with by navigators, both in high Northern pala- and Southern Latitudes, when melted, is table to the taste : whereas the ice formed from sea water is very saline, if it be thawed without having been washed in fresh water. ** It is also presumed, that in the deep r THE NORTH POLK. 207 Northern seas the water near the surface will be found warmer than that near the bottom at the approach of summer; and will be found colder near the surface than at the bottom in the first month of the cold season, for the reasons al- ready expressed : and in like manner, that, during the first six or eight hours of a froat in England, the water in any deep lake will be found colder near the surface than at the botioui, but that the water at the bottom will be found colder than that near the surface in twenty-four hours after a thaw, provided the air be tempe- rate, or nearly so." It having been j)roved, from what hath been already urged, as well as by the preceding ex- periments of Dr. Higgins, that the floating ice, which is observed both in high Southern and Northern Latitudes, cannot be probably formed from sea water, it may be thought incumbejit upon me to show how such quantities can be supplied from springs, rain, or frozen snow. The rivers, which are ahvavs found at ccr* 208 ON APPROACHING tain intervals in any larjre tract of land, nn- (lonbtedly supply considerable ])art of such ice j but there are not wantinj^ other sources From which these floating masses may be produced. The larger and higher ice islands* I con- ceive to be chiefly formed c shore, after which they arc undermined by the rills and melted snow, during the summer, of which we have an accurate account in the late voyage towards the North Pole t- V I UH %r It : i i I n " 1 i I 14 ■ , ^ til h m * Mr. Wliales observes, that in tli*; islands of ice, near Georgia Australis and Sandwich Land, tliere are strata of dirty ice, wliich irrefragably proves their having been formed on the land. — Remarks on Dr. Forster's Account, &.C. 8vo. London, 1778, p. 106. With r«gard to the formation of ice islands^ see likewise Captain Cook's Voyage, vol. ii, p. 213 and 210; who con- ceives them to arise from congealed snow and sleet in the vallies. C'aptain Cook also supposes, that the ice diils, at the end of these vallies, often project a great way into the sea, when they are sheltercy which means it only acquires a greater hardness when the irost returns ; and during the course of that r' ^rous season it generally becomes a very compact bod} snow ice. In the spring of the year the icy base gives way, and its burden plunges into the sea, sometimes entire, some- times ill many fragments. As the depth of water in many parts is forty, fifty, one hundred fathoms, and up- wards, close to the shore, these bodies of ice, vast as is their bulk, will frequently float without any diminution of their contents, although the very large ones do often take the ground, and sometimes are not sufliciently re- duced by either the penetration of the sea and the rain water, or of a whole summer's sun, to get at liberty aoiain before another winter. " The above rolulion, which my brother gives from, his U- i THK NORTH POLE. '2l\ ions so iccmliiig :hc clifl'i e tops of ly swept at would id of tliu Icpositcd J V. iihout le is fre- or down ccasional fust parts , dissolve, when the us season mow ice. vay, and some- water in and up- ast as is ininution do oi'ten ently re- the rain liberty tr onj, hh sapped by the waves during a storm*, as to have lost tbeir support ; whilst others again may have been reft from the mass to which they before adhered by the expansive power of the frost f. (ireat part of the field, or lower ice, I take to be formed by the snow falling on the sands left bare for six hours (from half ebb to half own observation, in North Latitude 52° 15', accounts very naturally and easily for the ormation of that surprising number of the vast pieces of ice which is annually seen on the Labrador Coast, and considerably to the Southward. " John Cartwright." * " The sea has washed underneath the ice clifFs, as high as the Kentish Forelands, and the arches overhanging, sup- port mountains of snow, which have lain since the creation." —Wood's Voyage, p. 20. " Cuncta gelu, canaque aiterninn gramline tecla, Atque a;vi glacicm cohibent, riget ardua uionti» .Xtherii facies, surgentique obvia Phoebo, Duratas nescit flammis mollire pruinsiS." Silius Italicus, lib. iii, 1. 4&0. f " The rocks along the coast burst with a report equal to that of artillery, and the splinters are thrown to an amazing distance." Mr. Wales, in Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ix, p. 125. P 2 212 ON APPllOACHINC t M-fl i . f iC 'I', flood), which immediately dissolves upon touching the sands, and, before the tide returns, becomes solid ice ; part of these ])ieces are by the wind, or tide, again returned to the same sandd, wlicre they again meet with another store of ice, formed during another six hours, which, in the course of a winter, nuist, by pack- ing, accumuhite to immense masses. That this is not mere conjecture, but tlie fact, I apj)eal to Caj)t.ain James's account of what he him- self Avas witness of whilst he wintered at Charlton Island, in Hudson's Bay*. Now, if wc examine a globe, we shall fijid, that from sixty to seventy degrees of Northern latitude more than half its circumference is land, which is open to a Northern Sea, from which large tract of coast much greater quantities of floating ice may be derived than hav^ ever been * For Captain James's account, see Boyle, vol. ii; as also Harris, vol. ii, p. 420 ; where it is considerably ahridgpcl, and dillers in some tew circumsui ict*. It i,s stated, how- tver, that in few hours the snow tlius frozen will be tive or >ix ftet thick. jr-i^ i THE NORTH POLE. 313 i upon returns, s are by le same another t lioursj ly pack- hat this appeal le hiui- 2red at hII find, orthern is land, 1 which tities of er been i; as al^o ahriJgpcl, ed, how- be tire or met with by navigators, without being obliged to suppose that any part of it is formed from i>ea water. But it may be said, that our late enter- jn'mng navigators to the Southward have also met with as great a quantity of ice in the oppo- site hemisphere, without scarcely (b'scovering any land. To this I answer, that their circumnaviga- tion was, at a medium, about 57° of Southern Latitude, thougli they nuide pushes greatly to tlie Southward in three points, and in one of,. these to 71" 10'. In the other instances, as far as 6;° and 67° .30'. There is consequently a very ].irt in much the greater part mention is not made of it till July. 1: 'I 22f) ON ArPROACIIING f I f' s«(trM tFiat this ice cannot be formed in the oceiin, thouiih tlie cokl is so severe*." IJut it may, perhaps, be said, that the ice, which breaks up in Jiir»e, July, and August, or during the correspondent months in the oppo- site hemisphere, may remain floating for year* without bein^ much dissolved. To this I will not tnke u])on myself to say tliat some such islands, when very large, may not continue more than a year ; but I should conceive this not to be very common. Storms and other acciared with tliat of ice formed from the water of rivers ; nor will such ice when melted become jiulatable, unless it hath been previously washed in fresh M'ater. Hence it seems to be almost demonstration, that the floating ice met with by navigators, being both solid and sweet to the taste after dissolution, cannot be produced from the water of the ocean*. I will venture also to insist, that if such ice was actually frozen from the ocean, it nmsl very quickly be melted, because, as it must con- sist of detached lamina intercepting the brine, the sea would soon insinuate itself between the interstices, so as to cause its dissolution. If any ice, therefore, should be formed in those parts of bays which are land locked, have little * The ice taken up by Captain Cook, (luring his circum- navigation in higli Southern Latitudes, was solid and trans- parent ; being placed also on the dock for the salt water U drain oUj the ice became wholesome and palatable wa'tT. i ii'J4 ON ArPROACIIING Till!; NOHTII I'OLE. or no tide, and receive considerable quantities of IVesli water, when such ice is wafted fairly out to sea, I should conceive that it must dis- a])j)ear in a very short time. Mi l' 9 V ■ II h 3 ■<..'!■, APPENDIX PAPERS ON APPROACH TNG THE NORTH POLE AND ON a llortl^ 21lr0t tJa^isiagc* nv COLONEL BEAUFOY, F.R.S. These Papers are extmctcd from Tiiomsou's Atmals oi' PhilosojjJiy, by Pcruiiaiion of Colonel lieaufoy. 1^1 ) ! y: n .:i' ! , ' ! '1 ' II ^f * ^1 APPENDIX. QUERIES KICSPECTING THE PROBABILITY OF REACHING, pnoM die m^nn of Sbvimtveen, tt^e ilortft Voir, »T MTANS OP REIN BEER, DURING THE WINTER ; AND ANSWERED !tV PERSONS WHO WINTERED TflERE. SOME years past I was i.npre&sed witli the idea of the possibility of reacliiiii,' the North Pole from Spitzbergen, during the winter, by travelling over the ice and snow in sledges drawn by rein-deer. Therefore, with the view (i 2 I ' ffn I h 228 ON APPROACHING [("i *"] I i «: 1 1 1 I ' i > ■'' i n I! of determining how far this plan was practi- cable, I sent several (Queries, and requested Answers to them from Russians, who were at that time living at Archangel, and had wintered in those remote islands. Those Que- ries, together with the Aitswers, are as follow, as I learn from conversation that the practica- bility of such a journey, conducted in a similar manner, is entertained by well-informed per- sons ; and, before a plan is put in execution, it is desirablt? to know what has been previ- ously done on the same subject. The 31st and .3.'}d .seem contradictory, probably from some error in translating the Questions int<^ Russ, or the Answers into English. i. Oiury. How many settlements have the Rubsians on the island of Spitzbergen, and which is the most Northerly ? Answer. There are neither settlements nor fixed inhabitants in Spitzl)ergen, except those fishermen who go there in quest of fish, and likewise of those animals from Mcgen, Archan- THE r:ORTH POLE. 229 ; the and gel, Onega, Rala, and < .her places bordering the White Sea, in vessels from sixty to one hundred and sixty tons. They sail from the above-mentioned places, those for the summer fishery in the beginning of June, and those for the winter in June and Julv. Thev arrive on the West side of S])itzbergcn, and commonly return home, the former some year in Sep- tember, and the latter the next year in August and September. Tiiey winter in the Gulphs of Devil Bay, Clock Bay, Bing Bay, Cms Bay, German Island, Miigdalene Bay, and to the Northward in Liefde Bay, and others. The farthest North our fisliermen ever have sailed to is Liefde Bav, and from thence in small boats as far as Nordoster Island. 2. (^. At what time of the year does the winter commence ? A. The winter generally sets in about the latter end of September and beginning of October. 3. Q. Is it ushered in by storms r and is any one wind particularly productive of tliem r A. The winter sometimes set in with 230 ON APPROACHING 111 I \*i%l Si i ii^ winds from the Nortli, North North West, and North West ; and sometimes commences with ca]ui weuther, hard frosts accompanied with snow. 4. Q. Is the weather, generally speaking, calm in winter, or are the winds high ? A. The winds are very high and frequent ; so that two-thirds of the \iCinter may he said to be boisterous. 5. Q. What quantity of snow do you sup- pose fii\]> annually; that is, to what depth on the grourul ? A. On even places the snow is from three to five feet deep ; but the winds drive it from place to place, so as sometimes to render all passage im- piacticaLle ; and on the coats between the hills there are mountains of ice, occasioned by the pressure of iliv* waters and drift of snow. 6*. Q. Are the storms of snow frequent, and of long duration ? A. The storms of snow are very frequent, contl-ur ::: for two, three, and four days, and bometijiu'^ for as many weeks ; but the latter do ;i -t occur above once or twice in a vear. ik THE NORTH POLE. 231 7' Q. Is the cold much more severe at Spitsbergen than at Archangel ? Has ihe de- gree ever been ascertained by the therinoiueter r If it has, what was it ? A. From the fishermen's remarks, the co!d is more severe at Spitzbergen than at Archan- gel ; but the degree is not known, as the people who go there have no tliermometers. 8. Q. Is the cold ever so intense as to render going abroad dangerous ? A. The cold is never so severe as to hinder the fishermen, they being -accustomed to it, from exposing themselves; but sometimes the winds and drifts of snow confine them to their huts. y. Q. Admitting it to be so, by what exer- cise do the Russians keep off the scurvy ? A. When the last mentioned weather is an obstacle to their leaving their huts, they keep off the scurvy by the exercise of throwing the snow from off and around their huts, which from stormy weather are often buried ; and in order to get out, they are then obliged to make i 1 232 ON APPROACHING i"*! Mi i.'n .1 ; t ^:) t I |»p a passage through the roof. They likewise op- pose the distemper by milking use of a parti- cular sallad or berh, which grows there on stones, and with whicli they generally provide themselves in due time against winter ; but sometimes, from necessity, they are obliged to dig through the snow for it. Some of it they eat without any preparation ; and a part they scald with water, and drink the liquid. They also carry with them for the same pur- pose, as a preventive, a raspberry, called in Russia moroshka, which they preserve by baking with rye 6our, which they eat; and when pressed, drink the juice. They also take fir tops with them, which they boil; and the water they drink as an antidote likewise against the scurvy. 10. Q. In what manner are the huts con- structed i A. The huts the people use they always take with them in their vessels, and on their arrival there put them together. They are constructed of thin boards, and in the same ■ ■ 4 THE NORTH POLE. 233 are Isanie manner as the peasants' houses here. They likevirise generally take bricks witli them for building their stoves ; but when they fall short, clay found there is made use of in their stead. Their largest hut, which is erected in the neighbonrhood of their vessels, boats, &,c., is from twenty to twenty-five feet square, and serves as a station and magazine; but those huts the men erect who go in (|uest of skins are only from seven to eight feet square, and in the autumn arc carried along the shores in boats, and put up at distances from each other of ten to fifty Russian versts. They take the necessary provisions with them for the whole winter to serve two or three men, as many generally occupying each hut. 11. Q. What fuel have they, and in what wanner are their huts heated ? A. The fuel commonly used for heating their huts is wood, which they likewise bring with them in their vessels, and land at the station hut. In autumn the necessary (juantity for heating the aforesaid small huts is conveyed S.^4 ON APPROACHING 1'' in boats, or on sniall hand sledges, to tlie des- tined places. They often meet with wood there too, thrown by the sea on the shores. 12. Q. On what kinds of provisions do the Russians snbsist during the winter ? A. The provisions they subsist on during the winter consist in rye flonr (of which they make bread), salt beef, salt cod, and salted halibut, butter, oat and barley meal, curdled milk, peas, honey, linseed oil ; all which they bring to Spitzbergen with them, and divide the same proportionally by weight to each man. Their employers allow them provisions for one year and a half, besides which the fishermen kill wild lion deer in winter, and birds in sum- mer, which are experienced to be excellent food^ and very healthy. 13. Q. Do they chiefly use spirituous or malt licjuors ? A. They chiefly drink a liquor called nuas, nxiu\e from i*)'e flour and water. Malt and spirituous liquors are entirely excluded and for- bidden by their employers, to prevent drunken- II, 'i THE NORTH POLE. 235 iiess, as the Russians, when they had it, drank so immoderately that work was often neglected entirely. 14. Q. When in the open air, how do they defend themselves r A. They defend themselves from the rigour of the weather by a covcrinj^ made of skin, above which they wear another njade of the skin of rein deer, called kushy, and wear boots of the same. 15. Q. Do they not use masks, and omit the practice of shaving ? A. They use no masks, nor do they shave ; but they wear a large warm cap, called truecky, which covers the whole head and neck, and most i)art of the face. They also wear glovefc of sheep skin. 10*. Q. Do the inhabitants cross the coun- try during the winter ? A. There are no inhabitants, as said before ; but the fishermen, who are there for a time, do go over from one island to tlic other o^ small distances. 5 1 'H S36' ON APIMIOACHINO 1 1 1 17- Q- How do tliey travel, at wliat rate, and how carry the necessary stock of provisions for their subsistence during tlic journey ? A. They travel on foot ; that is, on snow skaits, and draw their food after them in small hand sledges ; but those who Irriiig dogs with them make use of the same. When travelling, snow is their drink. Horses or rein deer would be of no use to tlieni for the convevance of their provisions ; nor have they any. 18. (2- By what means do they procure water ; and is it by melting snow, or do they find springs ? A. They use spring water when it is to be had, often take it from lakes, and from neces- sity sometimes dissolve snow ; but it seldom happens that they are in want of fresh water, because they commonly pitch on those places where it is to be met with. 19. Q. Is not the ice so firmly consoli- dated as to render all passage across it from one island to the other perfectly safe during winter ? r, THE N()|;TII I'OLK. 'j;>r A. The ice at Spitzbert^cii is well conso- li evident from Lord Miilgrave's expedi- tion, and more especially from the Acts of Par- liament promising a reward of twenty thousand pounds to any of his Majesty's subjects who shall sail through any passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to the Northward of latitude 32° North, and also from a reward of five thousand pounds to any British ship that shall approach within one degree of the North Pole. To what cause, then, can be attributed the indifference and apathy of those commanders of Greenland ships who, having been unsuccess- ful in the fishery, might be supposed to have it in their power to defray the expense of the outfit by sailing to the West or the North, with the view of claiming one of the above rewards ? It cannot be said with justice that the masters of our Greenlanders are either deficient in skill, or indifferent to discovery; for among them, as in other professions, men are found of superior talent and of enterprising spirits. The paradox will, however, be solved by referring to the sub- THE NORTH POLE. 247 joined oath*, which effectually excludes every conscientious person from endeavouring to carry into execution the scientific views of the Legis- lature in passing what may, without impro- priety, he named the Discovery Act. When this last Act was passed, it is probable the for- mer Act for promoting Northern discoveries did not occur to the framers. I remember some years past that a learned and scientific Member of the House of Commons was so much struck with the discouraging effect of the oath, that it was his intention to have brought forward a • The following is a copy of the oath taken by the mas- ler, and also by the owner, of Greenland ships :—" Master of the ship maketh oath, that it is really and truly hii firm purpose, and determined resolution, that the said ship, shall, as soon as license shall be granted, forthwith proceed so manned, furnished, and accoutred, on a voyage to the Greenland Seas, or Davis's Straits, or the seas adjacent, there in the now approaching season to use the utmost endeavours of himself and his ship'* company to take whales, or other neittmx-s living in the seas, and on no other design, or view of profit, in his present voyage, and to import the whale fins, oil, and blubber thereof, into the port of———. Sworn iiLt tlie Custum House." f 94$ ON A^PHOAtHIVG If: I n ^ clause enabling the musters of Greenland ships to prosecute discoveries as well as to catch fish ; and it was owing to accident that a clause of the above nature was not introduced. This omis- sion, however, it is hoped, may yet be supplied at no distant period, and Greenland voyages, conducted as they are by seamen be»t qualified for such an undertaking, be made snbservient to the exploring of the Northern Regions. It may farther be observed, navigating anvong the ice being In itself a science, men regularly brought up to the sailing and working of ships in the Arctic Circles should be selected for such service, in preference to those accustomed to na- vigate the more temperate parts of the globe. It follows, therefore, that if at any future period it should be the intention of Government to pro- mote Northern discoveries, it would he advisa- ble, both for economy and the greater probability of success, to hire one of the Greenland vessels and crew, sending on board as many scientific and philosophical men as are deemed requisite* The following statement was sent me some years THE NORTH POLE. 34<> past by Captain Brown, an ai)le and expert sea> man^ regularly brought up in the Whale Fishery, who was willing to undcrtaks the exploring Baffin's Bay, or endeavouring to approach the North Pole. He mentioned, that, though in Baffin's Bay he had frequently run to the West- ward, he had never got sight of land in that di- rection; which implies the Northern part of America may be much contracted. Brown, un- fortunately, was killed at one of the Sandwich Islands :>— *' S I R, Jan. 16, ITS'). (( I shall begin fitting out the first of next month for Davis's Straits; and should you wish to explore Baffin's Bay, I shall be glad to have timely notice, that 1 may prepare a larger stock of provisions, provide presents for the Indians, and several other articles which will be neces- sary for that voyage. It will be proper for the bounty to be paid by the Treasury, or the Custom House Oath altered ; and I think, when you peruse the subjoined account of expenses, you h I' ri. '2bO ON APPROACHING will not think my requisition of five hundred ponnds per month, for two ships, extravagant. I only desire it to be paid from the time of leav- ing the fishery in 72° North till we return to Cape Farewell; and no payment to be made nnless it shall satisfactorily appear the utmost has been done to explore Baflfin's Bay, Lancaster Sound, &c. The expense Government would possibly incur would be very trifling; but as un- derwriters will not insure such voyages, the owners should be indemnified, and the value of the ships ascertained by the surveyor who values the transports, against the enemy, and other extra risks. I have pernsed all the Northern voyages, and shall perfect myself in lunar ob- servations. (Signed) « William Brown." M ,^ ' •>M THE NORTH POLE. 251 S^iip Bultenvorth, three hundred and uinetynuo Tons*, Boats, and forty eii^/it Men. Per Month. <£ • a. d, 1 Master 5 O > ^uigtou 3 |„ 1 Chief Mate 3 10 I Carpenter 3 10 1 Carpenter's Mate 2 10 1 Second Mate g JO o 1 Boatswain 2 10 1 Skim-man 2 10 » Cooper 2 10 7 Harpooncrs at bOs. each 17 \q q ' Cook 2 7 Boat steerers at 404. each H 7 Line coilers at 324. 6rf. each 11 7 o J7 Men at 304. each 2.5 10 48 Men'swages US 7 6 Men's provisions at 304. each 72 Wear and tear, 392 tons, at 5/. per ton... 98 £2m 7 6 Cabin allowances, presents for Indians, extra liquor, and other encouragement for the people, cannot be estimated at less than 31/. 124. Qd. per month, raaking a total of 300/. Brig Lyon one-third less expense. * A Vessel of the above tonnage with a rising floor is the best adapted for this service, as it has a sufficient mo- mcntum among the loose ice, and is easily managed. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) .0 I.I U£ ti 2.0 1.8 ]!|l-25 1.4 III 1.6 ^ 6" ►• Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. I45B0 (716) 873-4503 ■59 252 ON APPROACHING ii As experiments are making on the length of the pendulum in the Orkneys, it is highly de- sirable that scientific men be sent for the ^ame object in one of the Greenland ships to Spitz- bergen; and at the conclusion of the fishery they might return in the same vessels. Every Greenland vessel should be furnished with an artificial horizon ; of which the first and best is a shallow cylinder of wood four inches diameter in the clear, and three-tenths and a half deep, into which, 1)y means of an ivory funnel, is poured quicksilver. To pre- vent the mercury from being rufHed by the wind, two glass planes are placed over it, whose surfaces are parallel, and forming an angle with each other of 90*^ ; and if this be not sufficient protection when the mercury is agitated by wind, or any heavy object passing near, a circular piece of gl^ss is floated on the quicksilver. The second (invented, I believe, by the lute Mr. Adams, of Edmonton) is a plane concave glass four inches in diameter, and ground to a long radius. It is ^Ued into I THE NORTH POLE. 353 a metallic box, with its concuve side down- wards. This box, when wanted, is nearly filled with spirits, leavinp a bubble ; and by mcanM of three screws, this bubble is brought into the centre of the glass. On one side of the box is a small thumb screw, to be taken out when filling, ♦hat the air may escape. This screw should not be made of iron, becau.ce it will corrode. If this inst'-ument be well made and pains taken in the levelling, it may be depended on to two minutes, which gives an error of one minute of altitude. Neither of these artiikial horizons can be used when the altitude of the object exceeds 6/**. It would be extremely curious to ascertain the extent ol the variation of the compass in Baffin's Bay. Captain Brown found it to be 79* 42' West, in latitude 72° 46' North (see the Annals of Philosophy, vol. vii^ p. 14); and there being an increase from Cape Farewell to this latitude, it is not impossible, that in higher latitudes the augmentation may con- tinue, until the needle loses its polarity ; whirh K 254 ON APPROACHING i :t extraordinary decliiiation of the compass (pe- culiar to this part of the vvorhl) is so re- niarkahle, that, were a vessel sent for no other purpose than of making magnetical ohserva- ti >ns, both the time and money which might be bestowed o;i the expedition would be ad- vantageously employed for the advancement of science. The variation of the compass ui lati- tude 70° 17' North, and longitude l63° 24' West, is 30° 28' East ; and in latitude 70° 58', and longitude 54° 14' West, is 74° West; whence it appears, that in nearly the same paridlel of latitude, and in a difference not exceeding 109" 10', or about one thousand six hundred and eighty-five geographical miles of longitude, there is a difference in the variation amounting to 84° 42'. It would also be a desi- rable discovery to ascertain whether on going to the Westward it would be found that the variation gradually decreases to the point of nc variation, and afterwards gradually increases ; or whether its return be not by a sudden jump from West to East. Obsf'.rvations on points of '> THE NORTH POLE. 35d tbis description, accompanied with remarks on the depth, temperature, and saltness of the sea, and with a meteoroh^gical journj.!, would con- tain much interesting uud valuable iuformationf and throw great light on the natural pheno- mena of these unexplored regions. The depth of the sea in BufHn*s Bay has been determined beyond doubt by Brown to be more than a mile. It is not unusual in April (the time the Greenland vessels arrive in Davis's Straits) for Fahrenheit's thermometer to stand at 10° or 22° below freezing. Considerable diversity of opinion prevuili respecting the form of Greenland, which is conjectured by some to bend to the Westward, and, joining the continent of America, to form the vast and supposed gulf of Baffin's Bay ; by others, to be one large island ; and by a third class, to be a cluster of islands intersected by a variety of channels running from sea to sea^ but so blocked up with ice as to render the pas- sage between them impracticable. In a journal before me it is mentioned that a strong current 256 ON APPROACHING I 'i i 1 , • t ? 'fc sets round Cape Farewell to the North West^ and that the water breaks for several miles. It ap- pears probable, therefore, from this circnin* stance, that Greenland does not consist of a multitude of islands ; because in that case the current would have taken its direction hetween them, instead of flowing round the extremity of the land. The junction of Greenland with North America appears to we to be likewise improbable, from the following reasons : first, that Brown (as already mentioned) never saw the Western land: next, that Hearn in his travels arrived at the sea, seals having been seen by him : and, thirdly, that Mackenzie, whose travels lie to the Westward of Hearn's course, came to the mouth of a large river, which also emptied itself into the Arctic Ocean : and, lastly, from the great ])robability that the im^ mense quantity of drift wood found in Baflin's Bay, on the Coast of Labrador, and on the North West Coast of America, has bc«n de- posited there after being brought down by Mackenzie's River, and driven to the East and i i r i I ^ 1:1 % THE NORTH POLE. 257 West, and afterwards Southward, according to the direction of the winds and currents : all which circumstances combine^ in my opi- nion, to furnish a ground of belief that North, as well as South America, is surrounded by the ocean ; and that the North West Passage is to be sought about latitude 72°. That Greenland is an island seems also to be highly probable, from the quantity of drift wood found on the Coast of Iceland ; for it is ranch more natural to suppose the trunks of trees found in ihat part of the world are carried off from the Northern extremity of America, and driven round the North of Greenland, than that, being floated from the mouths of the Obi, Lena, and other great rivers of Russia, they should pass Nova Zembla, round the North Cape, to the prodigious distance of 20° West Longitude. Cape Farewell, the Southern extremity of Greenland, according to the Requisite Tables, is in latitude 59° 38' 00'' North, and longitude 258 ON APPROACHING THE NORTH POLE. ,. .11 42* 42' 00" West. By observations in my pos- session, it is in latitude 59° 42' North and lon- gitude 45" l6' West. f! THE END. p. CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Poppin'K Court, Fieet Street, London, NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY T. & J. ALLMAN. 1. CAMBRIDGE PRIZE POEMS ; Being a complete Collection of the English Poemi which have obtained ilie Chancellor's Gold Medal in % Uni- versity of Cambridge. Elegantly printed in one vol. foolscap 8vo. 5s. boards. 2. STRATAGEMS OF CHESS; Or, a Collection of Critical and Remarkable Situations, selected from the Works of eminent Masters, illustrated on Plates, describing the ingenious Moves by which the Game is either won, drawn, or stale- mate obtained. Taken from the celebrated French Work, entitled, « Stra- tag^mes des Echecs." Carefully revised and improved. To which is prefixed, an Introduction to the Game of Chess. Handsomely printed in one volume foolscap Svo. price 7s. in boards. One hundred Copies are printed on larp;e p-.^pcr, pries 12s. as Comjpanions to J'hilidor and Sarra"^' T5335HS5H Booh puhlishcd hy T. and J. Allman. !i I ' 1 ," ■••' y m W 3. CHESS GRAMMAR. 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DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND; Sliowiiig the Natural History, Situation, Boundaries, and Face of the Country; the Nature of the Soil; the MlbC and Progress of the old Ncrwcgian CU)lonies ; the ancient and m(/dern Inhabitants, their genius and wiiy of life, and produce of the Soil; their Plants, Beasts, iMshrs, &c. With a Map of Greenland, and several other Plates. BY Ilx\NS EGEDE. A New Edition, revised and improved, with very con- siderable Additions. thod EDWARDS'S WEST INDIES. A new Edition, in 4 vols. 8vo. The fourth volume Is entirely new matter, with additional Map and Plates. and f :!i I.... I •V >' f .'7/ ^V // 1/ ,.,.-. /.■ v - ^->! . i\" V'' ^'C'v^'^^-V"-^''^'' ■\^'^"'<'.-/..-|\-' K t) . ,.!'' ■ - A * . \ --^":,„. •■■' ,>' ■5. ,' \" ,■■■'■ i.."Vr „. "1 1. ^ ,1'''' . \-^ \ \ ^ V > !'■ \ \- i.l'-^-jV ■■ ,1''' ■ -? ,.„.■ ,•,. •f.;,„.ii' ^\'■ X, — _;"7T1--Si-ii 1^ m ^ ■ w 1 i // / '1 f^ / \ V. /'. «/' .^jsjs^^"^,' '^'•■^>. / f. «*■''* ./ I |*\WW\I 'l,.,,M 1. '4 ',V ■ y.- ■'./• 1 .1,/ ^ ,,./. ''J, r> ><> 1 ., / •^>. n ^^ / ''^ A ' / 1 /,', y. ■ A- .I- / // / /• A /. / .■• v.- ( . A '■Wnliiiiii E-J l;n -1-1 ■*^' ii.'innf,\ , ■/,/ N () iv r II ! ) \ ( 7"V' i" ' »F ny ^"^.'.^f^'- Tiai — 7w^' I/" o rs ii ^■ttfe