of reaching the North Pole. ^ 



periment ; neither of which suppositions I should think myself 

 justified in admitting. And, whatever may be due to myself 

 in vindication of the project to which I refer, I consider it due 

 to the Society, to whom the project was originally submitted, 

 and to the country by which the expence of the recent explora- 

 tion and experiment is borne, to state the reason I have for be- 

 lieving that the British flag, under more happy arrangements, 

 might yet be planted upon the Pole. 



Had the expedition, indeed, of Captain Parry proved success- 

 ful, I should have left it to the public to do me the justice of 

 having first suggested the plan of this mode of approach to 

 the pole ; but as, in consequence of its failure, no credit is to be 

 acquired by claiming it, I may, without the selfish charge which 

 might have attached to such a claim, under circumstances of 

 complete success, be bold to acknowledge the project, as well as 

 ready to defend it. 



My object in this communication, as just intimated, is to 

 prove, that, whatever probability there at any time was of 

 reaching the pole, by a journey over the ice, remains little, if at 

 all, diminished by the late experiment of Captain Parry ; be- 

 cause there were two circumstances in the plan of it, (and it is 

 somewhat remarkable, that these are almost the only material 

 deviations from the original plan that I have been able to dis- 

 cover), either of which appeared to me obviously fatal to the suc- 

 cess of the expedition. And, besides these two grounds of fail* 

 ure, both capable of being anticipated, by a thorough acquaint- 

 ance with the nature of the Spitzbergen ice, there is another 

 that has been disclosed by the peculiar difficulties of the recent 

 experiment, which, equally with the other two, must have con- 

 tributed to the failure. Respecting the importance of these 

 considerations, however, it will be for the Society and the pub- 

 lic to judge, whether they are indeed essential considerations ; 

 and if so, whether, under a different arrangement, a much 

 greater progress, if not an entire execution of the project, might 

 not, in all probability, have been effected. 



After what Captain Parry, however, has said, at the conclu- 



would present a surface so rugged and mountainous, as to make it an eaa^r 

 task to drive a broad-wheeled waggon over the summit of Mont Blanc, i\im 

 a reindeer sledge to the North ?o\eJ".-~Quarterl$ Revietf^ vol. xv!ii. p. 45l. 



