1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 24*7 



feated this, the primary object of our expedition, 

 together with his observations on a subject of such 

 magnitude, and which had engaged the attention and 

 divided the opinions of philosophers and navigators 

 for upward of two hundred years. I am very sen- 

 sible how unequal I am to the task of supplying this 

 deficiency ; but that the expectations of the reader 

 may not be wholly disappointed, I must beg his 

 candid acceptance of the following observations, as 

 well as of those I have already ventured to offer him, 

 relative to the extent of the north-east coast of Asia. 



The evidence that has been so fully and judiciously 

 stated in the introduction, amounts to the highest 

 degree of probability that a north-west passage from 

 the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, cannot exist to 

 the southward of 6.5° of latitude. If then there 

 exists a passage, it must be either through Baffin's 

 Bay, or round by the north of Greenland, in the 

 western hemisphere ; or else through the Frozen 

 Ocean, to the northward of Siberia, in the eastern ; 

 and on which ever side it lies, the navigator must 

 necessarily pass through Beering's Straits. The im- 

 practicability of penetrating into the Atlantic on 

 either side, through this strait, is therefore all that 

 remains to be submitted to the consideration of the 

 public. 



As far as our experience went, it appears, that the 

 sea to the north of Beering's Strait is clearer of ice 

 in August than in July, and perhaps in a part of 

 September it may be still more free. But after the 

 equinox, the days shorten so fast, that no farther thaw 

 can be expected ; and we cannot rationally allow so 

 great an effect to the warm weather in the first half 

 of September, as to imagine it capable of dispersing 

 the ice from the most northern parts of the American 

 coast. But admitting this to be possible, it must at 

 least be granted, that it would be madness to attempt 

 to run from the Icy Cape to the known parts of 

 Baffin's Bay (a distance of four hundred and twenty 



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