284 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 



by the ships of the expedition. That this expectation is 

 not unsupported by facts will not be denied. 



In the fnst phice, the voyagers in Hudson's Bay found 

 a northern current setting into that bay to the southward. 

 Ice bergs have been also seen in Hudson's Bay ; but, as 

 Mr. Elhs relates, rarely to the northward ; his directions 

 being to keep as much to the northward as possible, those 

 parts being usually free from ice. Now we have seen that 

 ice exists only in tranquil water, and, of course, where a 

 strong current, or much agitation of the sea, is observable, 

 the dissolution of ice is a certain consequence. If there- 

 fore Mr. Ellis found the ice less frequent in the northern 

 parts of Hudson's Bay, where a strong current was known 

 to run, it naturally follows that the current descended 

 from the Arctic Ocean, dissolving the ice in its progress, 

 or leaving the congealed masses behind among the rocky 

 channels leading from that water into Hudson's Bay. 



Either of those deductions is unfavourable therefore to 

 the prosecution of a passage to the Pacific by the bottom 

 of Hudson's Bay; the former by presenting the dithculties 

 arising from an impetuous current, and the apprehended 

 obstructions oi" masses of ice and shelving rocks ; the 

 latter as leading inquiry merely into the Arctic regions. 

 From those deductions, however, one good consequence 

 results. The current to the southward, which appears to 

 borrow its chief supply from the great Tartarian torrents, 



