HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 299 



first Lord of the Admiralty to obtain his ma- a.d. 



1773 



jesty's sanction for an expedition to try how 

 far navigation was practicable towards the North 

 Pole. 



The expedition of Captain Wood was as yet the 

 only one that had been equipped for this purpose 

 by the Government, and that had failed, apparent- 

 ly not from insurmountable obstacles, but from 

 an untoward accident at the outset of the voyage. 

 The arguments in favour of a passage which had 

 been used on that occasion were applicable to 

 the present, and besides which a very favourable 

 change was about this time reported to have 

 taken place in the state of the ice, in the Arctic 

 seas, and, moreover, it then seemed particularly 

 desirable, whilst Cook was pursuing his observa- 

 tions with the pendulum in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, that corresponding experiments should be 

 made in a high northern latitude, especially as 

 these delicate observations could then be con- 

 ducted with greater accuracy than before, owing 

 to the material improvement which about that 

 time had been made in the construction of the 

 pendulum. 



These important considerations had their due 

 weight with Earl Sandwich, then at the head 

 of the Admiralty, who immediately submitted 

 the application of the Royal Society to his 



