532 Additmial Notes. 



Verdun de la Crenne, of the Academy of the Marine 

 at Brest, De Borda, Member of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences, &c. and Pingre, Chancellor of the University of 

 Paris, ought not to be omitted. Though the primary objects 

 of this voyage were the making experiments on certain Time- 

 keepers of Le Roy and Bert no ud, and the investigation, 

 in general, of the best mode of finding the longitude at sea; 

 yet its able conductors made many other observations, and 

 ascertained many facts of great importance to geographical 

 science. They pointed out the true situation of a number of 

 places, seas, and coasts, before but imperfectly known ; rec- 

 tified charts which had been long in vogue ; and gave new 

 and more accurate information on a variety of points highly 

 interesting to. navigators. 



In 1715 Don Juan de Ayala, a Spanish navigator, un- 

 dertook a voyage for the purpose of exploring the north- 

 western coast of America. He added a little to the sum of 

 geograpliical knowledge, by discovering some bays, capes, 

 . ad harbours, between the 47th and 57th parallels of north 

 la.itude. 



Our knowledge of Iceland was greatly improved by the 

 voyage of Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Solander, to that 

 island, in 1772. These gentlemen being disappointed in their 

 plan of revisiting the South-Sea, determined on a northern 

 voyage, in which they were accompanied by the Rev. Dr. 

 VoN Troil, Dr. J. Lind, and several other literary and 

 scientific gentlemen. They gave to the public, as the result 

 of this expedition, much new and important information con- 

 cerning the geography and natural history of Iceland. — See 

 Yon 'Troil' s Letters on Iceland. London. 8vo. 1780. 



In 1785 Commodore Billings, an Englishman in the 

 Russian service, was dispatched by the Empress to explore 

 some of the northern parts of Russia; more particularly to 

 determine the latitude and longitude of the mouth of the 

 River Kovima, and the situation of the great Promontory of 

 the Tshutski, as far as the P^astCapc; to form an exact chart 

 of the islands in the Eastern Ocean, extending to the coast of 

 America ; and, in short, to bring to perfection the knowledge 

 acquired of the seas lying between Siberia and the opposite 

 coast of America. Though this expedition did not answer 

 the expectation of its royai patron, it furnished some additions 

 to our geographical knowledge. Commodore Billings, in 

 |:jarticular, ascertained the latitude of the mouth of the Ko- 

 viwa, and returned to Pctersburgh, in 1794, with a variety 



