APPENDIX. 153 



immured amongst it, the pressure is sometimes 

 alarming." 



No. VL 



On the approximation toxvards the Poles, and on 

 the possibility of' reaching the North Pole. 

 From Mr. Scoresby's paper in the Wemerian 

 Society's Transactions. 



" We have already remarked, that the 80th 

 degree of north latitude is almost annually acces- 

 sible to the Greenland whale-fishers, and that this 

 latitude, on particular occasions, has been exceed- 

 ed. In one of the first attempts which appears to 

 have been made to explore the circumpolar re- 

 gions, in the year 1607, Henry Hudson pene- 

 trated the ice on the north-western coast of Spitz- 

 bergen to the latitude of 80° 23' N. In 1773, 

 Captain Phipps, in " a voyage towards the North 

 Pole," advanced, on a similar track, to 80° 37' of 

 north latitude. In the year 180(i, the ship Reso- 

 lution of Whitby, commanded by my father. 



h 5 



