A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 213 



has been hitherto imperfectly described, cannot be destitute 

 of interest, though the subject, as in the present instance, 

 be of the lowHest and most barren description in ordinary 

 view. To another class of readers I would address a loftier 

 appeal. To such minds as seek a knowledge of the actual 

 state of the earth, beyond the pale of vegetation, where 

 nature slumbers in eternal lethargy, and is roused into 

 feverish motion only for a very short portion of the summer 

 months, under the influence of a perpetual sun : to such 

 readers, I say, a view of those regions, drawn by a person 

 earnest in the cause of science, and anxious to behold the 

 effects of correct opinion propagated, must be of some 

 value. Under these considerations I have ventured to 

 exhibit those scenes, in order that the reader, who possesses 

 only a wish to indulge cursory opinion, as well as the more 

 deeply reflecting reader, may both find entertainment. 



The former, by indulging that propensity to curiosity 

 which forms the ground of much of the happiness of life, 

 may, in perusing the particulars of this excursion, meet 

 occasionally with some agreeable circumstance amidst the 

 dreary and desolate picture of an icy region, which, for 

 seven months in each year, is shut from access by continual 

 frost. To know from what causes a variety of the human 

 species cherishes an abode in such inhospitable climes, with 

 an enthusiastic attachment to such desarts, and why any 

 portion of mankind would suffer that predilection to forbid 



