dJS Bev. W. Scoresby's Remarks on the Probability 



by the ice), and the coast from whence they proposed to set 

 out, were far from being the most favourable as safe retreats ; 

 nor was the remaining crew in the Hecla adequate to take 

 charge of the ship under any difficult circumstances. 



III. In regard to the Meridian upon which the Party travelled. 



The two objections against the plan of the recent expedi- 

 tion that I have now urged, and endeavoured to substantiate 

 — concerning the weight of the sledge-boats, and the season of 

 undertaking the enterprize, either of which appears to me to be 

 of such consequence as necessarily to be fatal to success — are not 

 objections suggested by the failure of the expedition, though they 

 receive the strongest support from the circumstances of the fail- 

 ure; but they are objections, as I have shewn, one of which was, 

 and the other, had it been known, would have been, anticipated. 

 There is another objection, however, to the plan of the late ex- 

 periment already hinted at, which has been developed by the 

 perusal of the Narrative, and this likewise must have had a 

 most important influence in diminishing the chance of success ; 

 and that is, the particular meridian on which the expedition 

 made the trial. They set out from the northern, approaching 

 the north-eastern face of Spitzbergen, by which, indeed, they 

 gained from 40 to 60 miles of northing, beyond the ordinary 

 extent of navigable sea to the westward of Spitzbergen, before 

 they took the ice ; but this small advantage was far from being 

 a compensation either for the detention of twenty days, or 

 for the extraordinary difficulties as to the nature of the ice 

 which they encountered. 



It is but proper, however, to state, that the choice of this 

 meridian rather than a more westerly one, was probably urged 

 by the circumstance of the Hecla having got beset in the north- 

 ern ice, and being driven towards that meridian along with the 

 pack. It would not be just, therefore, to consider that so much 

 an error in the plan as an unfortunate circumstance, materially 

 affecting, as the result shewed, the execution of the project, by 

 throwing them in the way of such a rough and untoward con- 

 geries of pack and floe ice, as no human energies, circumstanced 

 as in other respects they were, could have a prospect of sur- 

 mounting. 



