2f0 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



sion, all the diiHculties with regard to the tides are 

 easily solved. How far Ellis may be correct, will» 

 perhaps, be soon determined. 



Other arguments which have been offered in fa- 

 vour of the separation of Greenland from America, 

 are deduced from the existence of a current setting 

 from the north, — from the circumstance of ice-bergs 

 and drift wood being brought down by the current, 

 — from whales wounded in the Spitzbergen seas ha- 

 ving been caught in Davis' Strait, — ^from the posi- 

 tion of the land, as represented on skins by the na- 

 tive American Indians, and from the occurrence of 

 certain plants in Greenland, which are natives of 

 Europe, but have never been found on any part of 

 the American continent*. 



As, however, it would take up too much of this 

 work to enlarge on, or even to enumerate all the ar- 

 guments founded on the nature of the tides, cur- 

 rents, ice, winds, country, &c. which have been 

 brought forward to prove the existence of a north- 

 west passage, I shall proceed to make a few general 

 remarks on the probable advantages of such a discov- 



the flood flowing through some strait commtmicating witli 

 BafiBn's Bay, where the tide is so much less, unless this bay be 

 connected with the Frozen Ocean ; as the tides, in penetrating 

 an extensive sea, and pursuing a long circular course, must, 

 widently be diminished, rather than increased. 



* Quarterly Review, No xxxvi. p 4S9 



