244 THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 



"The 'Argo' ran down the ice from 63 degrees to 57 degrees 30 

 minutes, and after repeated attempts to enter the straits in vain, as 

 the season for discovery on the western side of the Bay was over, 

 she went on the Labrador coast, and discovered it perfectly from 

 56 to 55 degrees, finding no less than six inlets, to the heads of all 

 of which they went, and of which we hear they have made a very 

 good chart, and have a better account of the country, its soil, pro- 

 duce, etc., than has hitherto been published. 



"The captain says it is much like Norway, and that there is no 

 communication with Hudson's Bay through Labrador where one 

 has heretofore imagined, a high ridge of mountains running north 

 and south, about fifty leagues within the coast." 



Not satisfied with the results of this attempt, Captain Swaine 

 again sailed in the "Argo" the following spring, and the Pennsyl- 

 vania Journal and Weekly Advertiser of Thursday, October 24, 

 1754, published in Philadelphia, says: 



"On Sunday last arrived here the schooner 'Argo/ Captain 

 Swaine, who was fitted out in the spring on the discovery of a north- 

 west passage, but having three of his men killed on the Labrador 

 coast, returned without success." 



