-CONCLUDING REMARKS. 205 



when discovery was first prosecuted in the 

 northern seas, there appears to have been a 

 facility of reaching Greenland, which has not 

 since occurred. That country was then annually 

 visited by the Icelanders and Nordmen, who are 

 said to have formed settlements upon a part of 

 the coast, which from that time to the present 

 has been wholly unapproachable. All these facts 

 serve to show that there are periods when the 

 Arctic seas are less encumbered with ice than at 

 others ; and that large openings do occasionally 

 take place in the barrier, which, if taken advan- 

 tage of at the moment, might lead to a glorious 

 result.* Hence the reason why the public inter- 

 est has never been long permitted to slumber, 

 nor the hope of success ever been wholly with- 

 drawn from this project. 



It will perhaps appear strange, that I should 

 favour another trial in this quarter, notwithstand- 

 ing the very limited success which I have stated 

 as having attended the full attempt of Captain 

 Buchan ; but it must be borne in mind, that Cap- 

 tain Buchan only proved that the service was not 



* This passage may seem to be at variance with those in 

 pages 68 and 117, but it must be borne in mind that at the 

 time of Captain Buchan's voyage Sir Edward Parry's attempt 

 to reach the Pole had not been made, and that the opinions 

 expressed in the early part of this narrative were such as were 

 entertained at the time. 



