1791. CHARLES DUNCAX. 345 



water to taste if it was salt, seems not to have 

 occurred" to the traveller ; that " if he did so, he 

 is uncandid in not mentioning the result :" and the 

 conclusion drawn by the same writer, from all the 

 circumstances mentioned bv Hearne and IMac- 

 kenzie, is, that both were certainly iiecir the sear 

 shore, though neither of them actually reached it. 



CHARLES DUNCAN. 1790, 1791* 



The inland journey of Mr. Hearne had drawn 

 the attention of Mr. Dalrymple to the considera- 

 tion of the imperfect geography of the northern 

 regions of America, and the lands around the 

 north pole. In the course of his inquiries he 

 was furnished with some charts made by the 

 Indians, and other documents, from the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, which led him to conclude that, 

 notwithstanding the numerous failures in the 

 search after a northern passage from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, such a passage would ultimately 

 be discovered round the north-eastern extremity 

 of America, and that the surest way to it was up. 

 the Welcome. But as the naval administration 

 of that day entertained less sanguine views on the 

 subject, and as Mr. Dahymple had experienced 

 the truth of Dr. Douglas's observation, that " the 

 Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company had made amends for the narrow preju- 



