ON A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 287 



infant state of the design ; particularly if the north-east winds 

 have driven the ice towards the shores of Cumberland Isle. 

 At future periods experience will point out the actual 

 situation of the ice in the latter season, of which a regular 

 record should be deposited in the care of the Royal 

 Society, as it may hereafter be found of the greatest benefit 

 when those seas become frequented by trading vessels. 



It Avould not at the first attempt be adviseable to search 

 the coasts to the southward, Avith intent to find a passage 

 towards Cook's River, the northern termination of which 

 is still unknown. The expedition directed immediately to 

 the westward towards Behring's Strait may more effectually 

 accomplish its objects, and will probably have to com- 

 pUment the Russian expedition, under Kotzebue, long 

 before it will have doubled the Prince of Wales's Cape. 



What a prospect lies before the mind after the British 

 expedition has passed Behring's Strait ! The vast expanse 

 of the northern Pacific spread boundless to the view, with 

 a surface almost trackless, containing numerous islands not 

 hitherto discovered, whose inhabitants will receive the 

 advantages of European commerce, and British constitu- 

 tional laws ! The produce of those islands will hereafter 

 amply reward the trouble of research, discoveries new to 

 science and of value to more civiUzed society being vm- 

 folded, the history of the earth, and a knowledge of its 



