TRANS-POLAll PASSAGE. 43 



very particular ; but still, there is room for some re- 

 marks on them. It may he observed, that though 

 the latitudes in some of the cases noted by Ear- 

 rington, are said to have been derived from celestial 

 observations, yet it appears, that they all, or nearly so, 

 were given from memory, by the persons who them- 

 selves performed the voyages, or by others who had 

 had intercourse with them. But with regard to those 

 accounts, communicated by the voyagers who had 

 themselves made the observations, we find, that 

 above half of them were from oral testimony only, 

 at the distance of eighteen to thirty years, from the 

 time when the several navigations were performed. 

 Hence, the faithfulness ot their memories, after a 

 lapse of so many years, may reasonably be question- 

 ed. One of the most modern instances, indeed, 

 may be objected to, on very good grounds. Captain 

 Clarke is said to have sailed to 81^', and Captain 

 Bateson to 82° 15', in the year 1773*. Now, this 

 was the year in which Captain Phipps proceeded 

 on discovery towards the North Pole, who, notwith- 

 standing he made apparently every exertion, and 

 exposed his ships in no com.mon degree ; though he 

 repeatedly traced the face of the northern ice from 

 the longitude of 2° E., where the ice began to trend 

 to the southward, to 20° E., where he was so dan- 

 gerously involved, was never able to proceed beyond 



* Barrington's " Miscelliiiiies/' p. 38 and 4]. 



