KAMTSCIIATKA. ^77 



of ice, as attached to an undiscovered, inaccessible 

 continent. In its whole extent, land has been seen 

 only in one point, namely, tlie Sandwich Land, 

 and this, it is to be presumed, is like New Georgia, 

 an island of inconsiderable extent, thrown up in 

 the wide desert of the southern ocean. 



We cannot attach any belief to an open north 

 polar sea. 



The mass of evidence collected by Barrington 

 and Beaufoy*, though each might be separately 

 disputed, appears to us to prove, incontestibly, that 

 in favourable years, the sea to the north of Spitz- 

 bergen may be found entirely free from ice, and 

 open for navigation to very high latitudes, as it 

 really was found in 1754, 1773, and other years. 

 But it equally proves, that in other years, and 

 frequently, the ice has hindered, and will hin- 

 der the advance to the north, even under the 

 eightieth degree of latitude. 



If to the north of Scandinavia, between Spitz- 

 bergen and Nova Zembla, the sea is sometimes 

 found open under very high latitudes, perhaps 

 under the pole itself, while in other points, for 

 instance, to the north of Beering's Strait, it is, 

 perhaps, seldom found free from ice, even under 

 the seventieth degree ; if in the north of Europe 

 the polar glacier, in which we believe, may be 



* The possibility of approaching the North Pole asserted, 

 by Barrington. A new edition, with an Appendix, by Beaufoy. 

 London, 1818. 



T 3 



