206 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



practicable in the year in which he was sent out, 

 which was a very unfavourable one ; and, moreover, 

 there can be no doubt that the most open time 

 of the year was just commencing when his ship 

 had the misfortune to be disabled. Besides 

 which, we are now calling to our aid inventions 

 w T hich will entirely change the character of arctic 

 research. The screw-propeller, for instance, as 

 an auxiliary power, seems so peculiarly adapted 

 to this service, that it opens an entirely new 

 field for hope to indulge in. 



The openings in the ice are generally of short 

 duration, perhaps for eight or twelve hours only, 

 during which time an ordinary sailing vessel, 

 threading the many tortuous channels, does not 

 advance above ten or twenty miles in a direct 

 line, before the closing of the fields puts a stop 

 to her progress; whereas a steamer, regardless 

 of wind — and it is in calm weather mostly that 

 the ice opens — would be able to accomplish 

 three or four times the advance in the same 

 period ; and perhaps to come to some land in the 

 north, which if reached, would materially im- 

 prove her prospect of success. In the event of 

 the ice closing, the propeller could be instantly 

 drawn up into the body of the vessel, and when 

 wanted could be as expeditiously replaced, espe- 

 cially as smooth water generally prevails between 



