1818. BUCHAN, PARRY, AND FRANKLIN. 371 



attempts by the English and the Dutch on the one 

 side, and by the Russians on the other, go far to 

 prove the utter impracticability of a navigable 

 passage round the northern extremity of Asia; 

 though the whole of this coast, with the exception, 

 perhaps, of a single point, has been navigated in 

 several detached parts and at diiferent times. 



But the question of a north-west passage, which 

 would be much shorter, and of a polar one, which 

 would be the shortest of all, rests on very dif- 

 ferent grounds. That the north pole may be 

 approached by sea, has been an opinion enter- 

 tamed both by experienced navigatois and by 

 men eminent for their learning and science; that 

 several ships have at different times been carried 

 three or four degrees beyond Spitzbergen and the 

 usual limits of the whale fishery, is not merely 

 a matter of opinion; and if the polar sea be 

 navigable to the height of 84°, there seems to be 

 no other physical obstruction, than the interven- 

 tion of land, to the practical navigation of that 

 sea to the north pole itself; as there is no reason to 

 suppose that the temperature of that point is lower 

 in the winter, while it is probably much higher in 

 the summer, than on the parallel of 80°; as it is 

 well known that the latitude of 80^ is generally 

 not colder on the same meridian, and in many 

 places much less severe, than that of 70° is in 

 others. The Russians pass the winter very well on 

 Spitzbergen, but they have not ventured to winter 



B B 2 



