32 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



Polar regions on discovery, might be very great, 

 provided, in the place where there should prove a 

 necessity for iising.it, the rise of tide should be 

 sufficient for admitting its application, and the 

 beach should be of a sloping nature. It could be 

 prepared in short pieces, so as to be fitted together 

 with screws ; and though intended for sustaining 

 the weight of a ship, would be by no means very 

 cumbrous. Indeed, any vessel of 200 tons burden 

 or upward, might easily carry it out in her hold, 

 without materially, if at all, interfering with the 

 room requisite for her stores. Thus a vessel having 

 occasion to winter in Baffin's Bay or Davis' Strait, 

 would require only the adjustment of the frame and 

 ways, which three or four skilful m.echanics might 

 effect in a few days, before she could be hauled up 

 on dry land, quite beyond the reach of either ice 

 or tides, where she would constitute as comfortable 

 a dwelling as could be expected in such a country. 

 The apparatus could even be applied where there 

 was not a fall of tide equal to the depth of water 

 drawn by the vessel, by the use of a small coffer- 

 dam, sufficient only to stop out the tide at low- 

 water, until the rail- way should be adjusted so far 

 down that at high-water the vessel could float up- 

 on the frame while resting on the rail-way. Then 

 the force of the ship's company would be amply suf- 

 ficient for drawing the vessel up on land. 



In seas perpetually encumbered with ice, and 

 probably crowded with islands, if not divided by 



