1818. BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIlsr 365 



than indifference, if, in a reign which stands 

 proudly pre-eminent for the spirit in which 

 voyages of discovery have been conducted, Eng- 

 land had quietly looked on, and suffered another 

 nation to accomplish almost the only interesting- 

 discovery that remains to be made in geography, 

 and one to which her old navigators were the first 

 to open the way. 



A circumstance occurred which encourasfed the 

 fitting out an expedition of discovery at this par- 

 ticular time. For the last three years, very unusual 

 quantities of the polar ice had been observed to 

 float down into the Atlantic ; and in the year 1817 

 the eastern coast of Greenland, which is supposed 

 to have been shut up with ice for four centuries, 

 was found to be accessible from the 70th to the 

 80th degree of latitude, and the intermediate sea 

 between it and Spitzbergen entirely open in the 

 latter parallel.* This disappearance of the arctic 

 ice from a very considerable extent of the Green- 

 land seas was deemed to be favourable for makino- 

 a new experiment, and to hold out the hope of a 

 successful issue ; particularly in the attempt to 

 approach the north pole, w^iich, notwithstanding 

 the failure of the late Lord Mulgrave, is considered 

 by many as being by no means a hopeless enter- 

 prize. The opinion of the learned, and the ex- 

 perience of the whale-fishers, have long been in 

 favour of an open polar sea, and of the practicabi- 



* A Hamburgh ship actually sailed along this track. 



