4.94! Mr. R.King on the unexplored Coast of North America. 



It must be evident to the most careless observer that my 

 proposed wintering is situated on a height of land, as the op- 

 posite courses of the Fish river, the tributary to the Great 

 Fish river, and other streams demonstrate. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, however slight may be my pretensions to the 

 title of a naturalist, I should be sorry to have it supposed that 

 I am so io-norant of the habits of fishes as to look for them in 

 the sources of rivers during the inclement season. It is in the 

 lakes and not in the sources of rivers that I should seek for 

 the finny tribes. 



9th. I have yet to learn that the deer quit the barren lands 

 during the winter. I know to the contrary ; but I have al- 

 ready^iiiade reference to the various parts of Sir George Back's 

 Narrative, where it is stated that the country is well-wooded, 

 and therefore abounding in animals of every kind. In my 

 own Narrative of Sir George Back's expedition, I have entered 

 more fully into the subject of the Fish river and its resources, 

 but as at the time Sir John Franklin drew up his report that 

 Narrative was not published, I have kept entirely to Sir George 

 Back's Journal, which Sir John Franklin ought to have made 

 himself acquainted with, but which it is evident he had never 

 consulted. 



When we consider the great results arising out of the va- 

 rious services that have from time to time been set on foot 

 since the fifteenth century, both in a commercial and general 

 scientific point of view, it is impossible not to wish for the 

 further prosecution of the subject ; and since a practicable 

 north-west passage may yet be found, it does appear to me that 

 the British nation willbe altogether inexcusable if it allows 

 the subject now to drop, when the accomplishment of the work, 

 be<Tun ao-es ago, is brought within a very narrow compass. 

 It is by no means chimerical to express the opinion, that a 

 practicable passage for commercial purposes will yet be dis- 

 covered. The easterly set of the current through Behring and 

 Barrow Straits, and the southerly set down Baffin's Bay, 

 clearly demonstrates the existence of a communication be- 

 tween the Pacific and Atlantic. The result of four voyages has 

 shown that the navigation of Barrow Strait may be effected 

 with tolerable certainty; and that of the overland expeditions, 

 there are no impediments between the straits of Behring and 

 James Ross. All that is required, therefore, is a spacious sea 

 to the north in the direction of the north Georgian group of 

 islands of Parry. The channel once ascertained, any obstruc- 

 tion from ice would be easily obviated, as the annual passage 

 of the Hudson'sBay ships through Hudson'sStrait has for years 

 demonstrated. The existence of such a sea will be determined 

 by adopting the very ceconomical plan which I have suggested. 



