282 On the Expeditions to the North Pole. 



broken ice accumulates in the passages or gulfs, and opposes 

 equally the attempts of individuals who expose themselves on 

 foot, and the progress of the vessel, whose motion becomes pa- 

 ralysed. 



if to all these considerations be added, that the ordinary course 

 of the ices from the pole depends upon two constant and eternal 

 causes, the seasons and the currents, the removal of the obstacles 

 is only local and momentary; and it will be allowed that the 

 polar seas will never afford a commercial route. Immense bfne- 

 fit may result to the fisheries from the discoveries which they hope 

 to effect. 



The principal argument which has begn made use of, to show 

 that the great changes in the position of the polar ice must 

 open a passage through those dreary regions, is the pretended 

 physical revolution, which, it is supposed, has changed the face 

 of East Greenland. A flourishing colony, say they, — a colony 

 embracing several towns and convents, and containing a consi- 

 derable population, — is seen all at once shut up trom the rest of 

 the world, by a vast barrier of ice. Beside this terrible cata- 

 strophe, probably every thing suddenly perished there ; men, 

 animals, vegetables, every living thing perhaps has been attacked 

 at the same moment with a mortal cold. If, in our time, this 

 barrier be removed, we shall surely find this mummy of a nation, 

 this frozen Herculaneum; nay, who knows but that some remains 

 may be traced of the ancient Scandinavian colony? or who can 

 say, but that, in this spot, so long inaccessible, a people may be 

 found, who shall have preserved the language, the manners, and 

 the Catholicism of the North, as they were in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury ? 



This romantic prospect, however, vanishes before a critical 

 examination of historical facts, gathered in the Sagas, works 

 which have been much read since the discovery of Greenland. 

 Nothing in their annals, though preserved in the bosom of their 

 families, proves that Greenland ever enjoyed a milder climate. 

 The establishments of the islanders there, were never more con- 

 solidated than those of the Danes on the western side, or of the 

 British near Hudson's Bay. The i'oyages thither were not so 

 frequent or so expeditious as has been supposed: these voyages 

 sometimes occupied five years. In 13S3, a vessel which arrived 

 in Norway, brought there the first news of tlie death of the bishop 

 of Greenland, who had died six years before. There were not 

 many enterprising enough to undertake these voyages, and hence 

 Greenland became the country of prodigies — the scene of the 

 most wonderful events. For instance, Forfaeus, a certain Nor- 

 wegian, went over the ice from Norway to Greenland. In the 

 latter country, h(- saw great forests, whose trees produced acorns 



as 



