146 DIGRESSION CONCERNING 



ferently ; and in his published narrative, which 

 did not appear until twenty years after the com- 

 pletion of his journey, he attempts to establish 

 the correctness of his latitudes by various un- 

 founded assertions; one of which it will be suffi- 

 cient to notice here. He states that on the 21st 

 of July, ' though the sun's declination was then 

 but 21°, yet it was certainly some heig/it above the 

 horizon at midnight, at the mouth of the Copper- 

 mine River.' Now it so happens, that Sir John 

 Franklin encamped at that very place on the 

 19th of the same month, when the sun set at 

 ' thirty minutes after eleven apparent time. 9 

 Dairy mple had also remarked, that Hearne sub- 

 sequent to his celebrated journey committed a 

 great error in estimating the distance to Cum- 

 berland House, and therefore questioned his 

 general correctness ; and this conclusion is par- 

 ried only by Hearne's giving up his longitudes 

 as not being corrected by observation, but con- 

 tinuing to support the truth of his latitudes. 

 We shall, however, show, that his error in these 

 was still greater than in his longitudes ; his ob- 

 servations, if any were actually made, having 

 miserably deceived him. But we should greatly 

 mistake, if the detection of various instances 

 of disingenuousness led us to consider him as 

 entirely unworthy of credit, and to deny the 

 reality of his journey. We had an opportunity, 

 on Sir John Franklin's first expedition, of convers- 



