' IN THE CASE OF SUCCESS. 279 



A further reason may be adduced why that situation for a 

 colony is very adviseable, nay most necessary : accidents 

 may occur in the arctic seas, from which serious con- 

 sequences may arise to vessels engaged either in the 

 whale fisheries, as they are called, or in the Pacific Ocean 

 trade ; and in such circumstances the ports of Disko, pre- 

 senting a favourable retreat, can be said to offer an en- 

 couragement to the distressed mariner to make every 

 endeavour in overcoming his difficulties in order to reach 

 such a secure asylum. The dangers of those seas would 

 thereby become diminished, as the increasing information, 

 derivable from the numerous and varied courses of shipping, 

 would ascertain the real, and remove the imaginary dangers 

 of the voyage. 



Such beneficial consequences would not be confined to 

 Davis's Strait alone, much less to the shores of Disko. 

 The experience of each succeeding year, by adding to 

 the stock of nautical and philosophical science, would 

 enable the navigator and the closeted philosopher to unite 

 in effecting a junction between experience and abstract 

 reasoning, mutually beneficial to the cause of commerce 

 and of general science, and productive of a third good 

 effect — the advancement of the great cause of humanity. 



I shall proceed to examine, in as concise a compass as 

 possible, the probable results of the expedition. In this 

 respect I have to hope that the vanity of prophecy may 



