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CHAPTER X. 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



The various attempts hitherto made for the discovery of 

 the north-west passage to the Indian seas are aheady 

 before the reader. The causes of disappointment in these 

 attempts have been Ukewise detailed. One only point 

 appears to remain unexplored, which, unfortunately for 

 the meritorious Baffin, was not examined in his last expe- 

 dition. It is not fair to attribute that failure to Baffin, or 

 even Bylot. Any one little conversant with the perpetual 

 annoyance of obstacles occurring in icy seas, and such as 

 early navigators in those regions have to experience, 

 cannot be supposed well able to determine on the conduct 

 of such men as Baffin and Bylot when involved among ice, 

 and remote from lands with which they Avere familiar, and 

 in quest of others " which' they knew not of." The 

 greatest praise is due to such men for their intrepidity, 

 and to them particularly who made such a mighty attempt 



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