Chap. I. INTRODUCTION. 7 



be referred to the President and Council of the 

 Royal Society, as all voyages of discovery connected 

 with science were, I thought it right to take the 

 President's opinion as to the effect of the changes 

 reported to have occurred in the northern regions, 

 in which I was aware he took a particular interest, 

 having himself, in early life, visited Iceland and 

 climbed to the top of Mount Hecla ; and as he knew 

 that I had also, in early life, paid a visit to the 

 Spitzbergen seas, as high as Hakluyt's Headland, 

 near the 80th parallel, I was sure of engaging his 

 attention on the subject, and was not disappointed. 

 He entirely approved of the renewal of attempts to 

 accomplish a grand object which for three centuries 

 had, at different times, occupied the attention of our 

 sovereigns, philosophers, men of science, and mer- 

 chants ; and he promised to look over and give me 

 any information that his own correspondence might 

 furnish : " I may be able," he said, " to name those 

 from whom you may receive, and books from which 

 you may derive, the information you are in quest 

 of, but for science I must refer you to my council."* 

 Accordingly I submitted a plan to Lord Melville, 

 then First Lord of the Admiralty, a nobleman at all 



* Great Britain has seldom neglected to pay a tribute to the 

 memory of men who have distinguished themselves by their zeal 

 for the promotion of science and the arts ; to which end Sir 

 Joseph Banks has largely contributed, personally and by his 

 purse ; yet not even a biographical sketch that I know of has 

 been published. Let Sir Edward Knatchbull and the person 

 to whom he gave the materials look to this. 



