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The Northwest Passage, &¢. 105 
unknown magnetic pole, or fly around from the point of the 
bow! in which it is suspended, and that which indicated north 
will now be south; the east will become the west, and the 
hour of noon will be that of midnight. 
“ These curious circumstances will probably be considered 
to mark the passage by the pole, as the most interesting of the 
two, while it will perhaps be found equally easy. We have, 
indeed, very little doubt, that if the polar basin should prove 
to be free from land about the pole, it will also be free of ice. 
A sea of more than two thousand miles in diameter, of unfa- 
thomable depth, (which is the case between Greenland and 
pitzbergen,) and in constant motion, is not likely to be frozen 
over atany time. But if all endeavours to discover a passage 
to the Pacific by either route should prove unavailing, it will 
still be satisfactory to have removed every doubt on this sub- 
ject by ascertaining the fact. In making the attempt, many 
objects interesting and important to science will present them- 
selves to the observation of those who are engaged in the two 
expeditions. That which proceeds up Davis’s Straits, will 
have an Opportunity of adjusting the geography of the north- 
east coast of America, and the west coast of Greenland; and 
of ascertaining whether the latter be not an island or an archi- 
pelago of islands 3 and much curious information may be ex- 
pected from both. 
“They will ascertain, what is as yet but very imperfectly 
known, the depth, the temperature, the saltness, and the spe- 
cific Sravity of the sea-water in those high latitudes—the velo- 
city of the currents, the state of atmospherical electricity in 
the arctic regions, and its connexion, at which we have glanced, 
with the inclination, declination, and intensity of force of the 
magnetic needle; on which subject alone, a collection of facts 
towards the Upper part of Davis’s Straits would be worth a 
Voyage of discovery. It has, indeed, been long suspected that 
va of the magnetic poles will be found in this neighbourhood, 
2 No part of the world have such extraordinary phenomena 
" Observed, or such irregularities in the vibration and the 
“anation of the needle. ' 
