278 HUDSON. 



a.d. doubt, the cause of this extraordinary mistake of 

 Hudson. Had they been furnished with this instru- 

 ment they would have found that their course, 

 which at first w r as northeast, gradually varied to 

 northwest ; and on their return on board, Hudson 

 would have been convinced that this channel 

 could not conduct him to the eastern coast of 

 Nova Zembla ; whereas, on the contrary, he 

 quitted that island with the conviction that this 

 w r as a strait which communicated with the Sea 

 of Tartary, and that the passage into that sea 

 w r as obstructed only by ice. It may have been 

 an omission of a similar kind to that above 

 mentioned, which occasioned the mistake as to 

 the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about which there 

 has been such a diversity of opinion ; but which, 

 since accurate surveys of the coast have been 

 made, has been found to exist, not however in 

 the direction at first supposed, but, like that 

 mistaken by Hudson, to have been nothing more 

 than a w T ide channel, lying between the mainland 

 and an island. We have now accurate surveys 

 of almost the whole of the island of Nova Zembla, 

 and are able to speak with confidence as regards 

 the supposed strait of Hudson. 



It is extremely interesting, with this chart 

 in our hand, to go over the early voyages of the 

 English and Dutch to this coast. On comparing 



