iU) ACCOUNT or THE aIictic ueGions. 



least, sucli \vc know would be the case in other si- 

 milar parts of the Polar countries. In Hudson's 

 i>ay, for instance, tli'e ice clears away from the nor- 

 thern shore long before the southern part is at all 

 accessible * ; and at Hpitzbergen, though the sea 

 should be so encumbered with ice as to prevent our 

 approaching its coasts beyond the 76th degree of 

 latitude until the end of JMay or beginning of June, 

 yet near the western and northern parts of the 

 shore, there is usually a navigable sea much earlier. 

 There Avould not, I imagine, be any very great 

 danger in making this experiment, provided a suf- 

 ficient quantity of fresh provisions for the prevention 

 of the scurvy among the crew were taken out f , and 

 certain precautions for the preservation of the ships 

 adopted. An ingenious apparatus now in use at 

 Leith, invented by Mr Thomas Morton, ship- 

 builder, and for which he has recently taken out 

 a patent, might, I think, be made use of to advan- 

 tage by any vessel proceeding to distant regions on 

 discovery. A trifling damage sustained by a ship 

 employed in such a voyage, is often sufficient for 

 putting a stop to any further research ; but the use 



* See Ellis's Voyage to Hudson's Bay^ p. 321. 



+ Fresh provisions certainly form one of the best preventives 

 of the scurvy, and may be taken out in any quantity to the 

 polar countries, without any preparation whatever; the action 

 of the cold to which tliey soon become exposed, preventing 

 putrefaction. 



