1827 



314 VOYAGE TO THE 



CHAP, trary to our experiments in the offing. Another cause 



' , of this may be a bank lying to the westward of Icy 



Oct. Cape, upon one part of which the water shoals from 

 thirty-two fathoms to nineteen, and the bottom is 

 changed from mud to stones. 



It is evident, from the above-mentioned facts, that 

 a current prevails in a northerly direction, although 

 we are unable to state with precision its amount, which 

 cannot under any circumstances be great, nor, I 

 should think, exceed a mile an hour on the ave- 

 rage. To be able to speak positively on this sub- 

 ject would require a vast number of trials to be made 

 in the same place, and at a distance from the land, 

 out of the influence of rivers. We may however 

 presume, that the above-mentioned direction is that 

 of the prevailing current throughout the year ; for, 

 upon examining the shoals off the principal head- 

 lands, we find them all to extend to the north-west, as 

 may be seen on referring to St. Lawrence Island, Capes 

 Prince of Wales, Krusenstern, and Lisburn, and also 

 to Point Hope. This I conceive to be the most cer- 

 tain mode of deciding the question, without purposely 

 stationing a vessel in the strait, and it is satisfactory 

 to find that the result fully coincides with the experi- 

 ments made near the shore by the Blossom and her 

 boats.* Our observations, of course, apply to one 

 season of the year only, as no experiments have as 

 yet been made in the winter. 



* I was in hopes that I had expressed myself clearly on this 

 subject in the preceding edition of my work ; but I find that I have 

 been misunderstood, and even supposed in one place to have con- 

 tradicted my statement in another. This apparent disagreement 

 has arisen partly, if not wholly, from an oversight in some of my 

 readers, who have compared observations, made at the surface o^ 

 the sea at one place, with those at five Jatfwms heloxv it at another 



