HOW SUCCESS MAY BE ATTAINED. 257 



Now Mr. Ellis and others, who examined the bottom of 

 Hudson's Bay, observed the current always coming from 

 the northward, precisely in the direction of the sound 

 named by Baffin, and more particularly of the great sound 

 beyond that. Such a current could easily find its way 

 through even very broken lands and narrow channels, and 

 have an abundant supply from the solution of the Arctic 

 ice. 



Here then is a rational and ample field for an accurate 

 investigation ; and if those persons who are engaged to 

 explore the north-west passage need a stronger impulse 

 than the honour of deciding this long agitated question, or 

 the more solid splendour of a share in the golden reward, I 

 shall ask their permission to put them in possession of a 

 fact of some consequence to the attainment of success. 



Some of the whale ships which had proceeded furthest 

 north in the course of last summer in Davis's Strait, as may 

 be seen in my Journal, got embarrassed amongst packed 

 ice, and, as they were so circumstanced, were in extreme 

 danger. It was necessary to wait for the aid of some 

 friendly wind to extricate them, which, very fortunately, 

 soon came to their relief. Whilst in that situation, the 

 master of one, being, as usual, stationed in the hurricane- 

 house, near the mast head, on looking westward and 

 northward, observed the sea become clear to an intermi- 

 nable extent in that direction, and the surface soon after 



2 L 



