576 DISCOVERIES OF ROSS, 1818. 



current; the ice-bergs that come floating down 

 from the northward ; and the whale struck in the 

 sea of Spitzbergen and taken the same year in 

 Davis's Strait;* these and the rude charts painted 

 on skins by the Indians, which, though without 

 scale or compass, mark the inlets from Hudson's 

 Bay with tolerable accuracy, and carry the coast 

 without interruption to the Coppermine River,f 

 are strong arguments in favour of a north-western 

 communication between the Atlantic and the 

 Pacific, 



Indeed the best geographers are now of opinion 

 that Greenland is either an island or an archi- 

 pelago of islands ; and this is no new idea. Among 

 the Burleigh Papers,;]: in the British Museum, is 

 one on the subject of a north-west passage to 

 Cathaia in his lordship's own hand-writing, which 

 begins thus : — •" Considering Groynelande is well 

 known to be an islande, and that it is not con- 

 joyned to America in any part ; that there is no 

 cause of doubte but that upon the north of Bacca- 

 laos the seas are open," &c. 



This supposed insularity of Greenland will most 

 probably be determined by one or other of the ex- 

 peditions. If in the affirmative, the next question 



* Quarterly Review, No. XXXVI. Art.VIIT. 

 t One of these charts is in the Hudson's Bay House. 

 X In the Lansdowne Collection, vol. c Paper No. 4, en- 

 dorsed Mr. Greynfeld's Voiadge, &c. 



