INTRODUCTION. 3 



possibility of exploring it ; for that wliich was im- 

 possible to Cook could hardly be possible for 

 another 



Russia, too, which, since the time of Peter the 

 Great, has possessed a navy, and never was in- 

 different to any thing that might tend to the im- 

 provement of science, would not be behind other 

 nations in endeavourino; to solve this interesting 

 problem; and during two successive years, three 

 vessels, commanded by the late Admiral Tschits- 

 chagoff, father of the present admiral, were em- 

 ployed to search for the passage, exactly in the 

 North, between Greenland and Spitzbergen. This 

 expedition shared the fate of all preceding attempts 

 of the kind, without any blame being attributable 

 to the admiral, any more than to Lord Midgrave, 

 who was sent from England seven years later, in 

 the same direction, and proceeded only twelve 

 minutes farther to the North than the Russian 

 commander. Cook*s third voyage, though not 

 finished by himself, seemed to have put an end to 

 all doubts respecting the possibility of a Northern 

 Passage ; but we do not know whether the great 

 man himself really despaired of it. His researches 

 in Beering's Straits brought him, the first year, to 

 the 70th degree, where the ice hindered him from 

 proceeding ; yet he resolved to renew his researches 

 there the succeeding year; this design was frustra- 

 ted by his untimely end, but the resolution he had 

 taken proves that he did not doubt the possibility, 



VOL. I. * B 2 



