350 CAPTAIN SABINE'S LETTER. 



These are, I apprehend, the best sources from 

 whence information can at present be attained ; 

 but, without doubt, the most satisfactory mode of 

 ascertaining whether the natural difficulties to be 

 encountered ought to weigh against the value of 

 the result that would be obtained, is to send a 

 vessel in the present summer for the express in- 

 vestigation. For this purpose there would be 

 required no wintering in the high latitudes, no 

 particular cost in strengthening or fitting the ship 

 for the service, no second ship as a consort in 

 case of accident, because there are permanent 

 settlements at Spitzbergen, at which merchant 

 vessels are always to be found ; no risk of life, 

 beyond what the Norwegian sailors annually en- 

 counter in quest of eider-down. One of the 

 ordinary surveying ships relieved for six months 

 from her accustomed employ, would then place it 

 in the power of the Council to decide, in full and 

 competent knowledge, on the propriety of recom- 

 mending the measure to be carried into execu- 

 tion. 



I conceive that a single season, the present 

 summer for example, would be ample for the 

 most thorough investigation, in which every sta- 

 tion should be personally visited, the angles and 

 latitudes observed with inferior, that is to say, 

 more portable instruments, and the situation of a 



