54 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



If the masses of ice which usually prevent the 

 advance of navigators beyond the 82d degree of 

 north latitude, be extended in a continued series 

 to the Pole, (of which, unless there be land in the 

 way, I have no doubt), — the expectation of reach- 

 ing the Pole by sea, must be altogether chimerical. 

 But though the access by sea be effectually inter- 

 cepted, I yet imagine, notwithstanding the objec- 

 tions which have been urged against the scheme, 

 that it would by no means be impossible to reach 

 the Pole by travelling across the ice from Spitz- 

 bergen. This project having been given at some 

 length in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society *, 

 it may be unnecessary here to repeat the arguments 

 in favour of its practicability. Yet it might not 

 be well to dismiss the subject without a few brief 

 remarks. As the journey would not exceed 1200 

 miles, (600 miles each way), it might be performed on 

 sledges dra\vn by dogs or rein-deer, or even on foot f . 

 Foot-travellers would require to draw the appara- 

 tus and provisions necessary for the undertaking, on 

 sledges by hand ; and in this way, with good des- 

 patch, the journey would occupy at least two 

 months ; but with the assistance of dogs, it might 



• Vol. ii. p. 328. 



t When the paper on the Polar Ice, in which this project is 

 included, was presented to the Wernerian Society, I was not 

 aware of the extensive journeys, occasionally performed on 

 snow without the assistance of any quadruped, wliich have re- 

 cently come to my knowledge. 



