136 Dr Latta's Observations on the Greenland Sea^ 



experiments were always directed, but which terminated in the 

 result that it was a vegetable mass, and probably a cryptoga- 

 mous plant, had irritated Chladni to such a degree, that he 

 complained, sect. 383, of the valuable meteoric dust being thus 

 wasted by the absurd interference of chemists. In sect. 385, 

 he says that chemists and physicians pretend to know the qua- 

 lities and origin of this material better than naturalists. 



{To he concluded in nejct Number.) 



Observations 07i the Greenland Sea as connected with the late 

 Disaster's in Baffin^ s Bay*. By Thomas Latta, M. D., 

 Member of the Wernerian Society, with a Map. Commu- 

 nicated by the Author. 



It is only thirteen years since the higher latitudes of Baffin's 

 Bay have become famous in the annals of the whale-fishery, 

 and, during that short period, no less than seventy sail, em- 

 ployed by our own countrymen in that trade, have been de- 

 stroyed, causing not only a national loss in the destruction of 

 much valuable property, but great misery to the numerous 

 families who were dependent on the success of the various en- 

 terprises. The frequency of these disasters may be considered 

 as a sufficient apology for our presuming to suggest such means 

 as may tend to diminish the chance of their recurrence. It is 

 true we cannot form any plan, consistent with the prosperity of 

 the voyage, by which the dangers may be entirely averted, be- 

 cause these, for the most part, depend on the movements of the 

 ice, which are very irregular, being controlled by every wind 

 that blows ; yet, on viewing the peculiarities of the track pur- 

 sued by the navigator, and considering the changes effected in 

 these by the advances of the season, we may be able to propose 

 some changes, calculated to diminish the risks inseparable from 

 the present system. 



• Dr Latta having visited the Greenland Seas, as our readers will recol- 

 lect from his former papers in this Journal, his observations may be received 

 as those of one experienced in the nature of arctic regions. 



