original Suggestion of' the Modem Arctic Expeditions. 99 



" Deah Sih, Soho Squabe, iVw. I7. I8I7. 



" I hope you have received my letter of October 26, in which I tliank- 

 cd you for the present which you were so good as to make to me of your 

 Essay on the Ice of the Seas about Spitzbergen and Iceland. The more 

 I have considered the facts stated in it, the more I am convinced that the 

 information given in it to the public for the first time, is likely to lead to 

 results highly advantageous to maritime science. 



" Major Rennell, who has written so much and so ably on the currents 

 in the ocean, is much pleased with your Essay. If you could spare a copy 

 as a present to him, he will, I am sure, be very thankful ; in that case be 

 so good as to direct it to me. 



" Allow me to inquire of you what the quantity and nature of the 

 drift-wood found on the coast of Spitzbergen is ? I think all whp have 

 visited that country agree that it is found on the shores in sufficient abund- 

 ance to supply fuel for melting their blubber into oil. 



" On the comparative quantity of drift-wood on the west coast of 

 Greenland, and on that of Spitzbergen, some conjecture may be ground- 

 ed respecting the probability of the current which sets to the southward 

 in Davis' Strait, and on the east side of Greenland, taking its origin in the 

 east or the west. I do not recollect any drift-wood coming on shore on 

 the coast of Labrador. The abundance is found on ^Vest Greenland, 

 which argues a current from the west. 



" It appears from your Essay that islands of ice are uncommon in the 

 £608 of Spitzbergen ; they, however, I conclude, sometimes occur. 



" I hope you proceed directly with your intended work on the Polar 

 Seas : I am impatient to see it, after having so much profited by your 



" I beg my best compliments to your father, and am. Sir, your obliged 

 and faithful servant, Jos. Banks." 



Besides these two letters, I had much additional correspond- 

 ence with Sir Joseph Banks, in which the polar expeditions 

 formed an occasional topic ; but as my chief communication with 

 Sir Joseph expressly on the subject of these expeditions, was by 

 personal conversations, the documentary evidence on the ques- 

 tion of the revival of Arctic research, is principally found in the 

 letters above given. 



For bringing forward a correspondence of this kind, relating 

 so much to myself, I trust the circumstances referred to in the 

 outset of this communication will justify me; and that these 

 particulars have not been communicated from any undue desire 

 of assuming credit to myself, will, I trust, appear from the fact, 



a. 2 



