30 PREFACE 



come under the inspection of so ingenious and indefatigable 

 a geographer as Mr. Dalrymple must be allowed to be. But 

 as the case has turned out otherwise, I have at my leisure 

 hours recopied all my Journals into one book, and in some 

 instances added to the remarks I had before made ; not so 

 much for the information of those who are critics in geography, 

 as for the amusement of candid and indulgent readers, who 

 may perhaps feel themselves in some measure gratified, by 

 having the face of a country brought to their view, which 

 has hitherto been entirely unknown to every European except 

 myself. Nor will, I flatter myself, a description of the modes 

 of living, manners, and customs of the natives (which, though 

 long known, have never been described), be less acceptable to 

 the curious. 



I cannot help observing, that I feel myself rather hurt at 

 Mr. Dalrymple's rejecting my latitude in so peremptory a 

 manner, and in so great a proportion, as he has done ; because, 

 before I arrived at Conge-cathawhachaga,the [vii] Sun did not set 

 during the whole night : a proof that I was then to the North- 

 ward of the Arctic Circle. I may be allowed to add, that when 

 I was at the Copper River, on the eighteenth of July, the Sun*s 

 declination was but 21°, and yet it was certainly some height 

 above the horizon at midnight ; how much, as I did not then 

 remark, I will not now take upon me to say ; but it proves that 

 the latitude was considerably more than Mr. Dalrymple will 

 admit of. His assertion, that no grass is to be found on the 

 (rocky) coast of Greenland farther North than the latitude of 

 65°, is no proof there should not be any in a much higher 

 latitude in the interior parts of North America. For, in the 

 first place, I think it is more than probable, that the Copper 

 River empties itself into a sort of inland Sea, or extensive Bay, 

 somewhat like that of Hudson's : and it is well known that 

 no part of the coast of Hudson's Straits, nor those of 

 Labradore, at least for some degrees South of them, any 

 more than the East coast of Hudson's Bay, till we arrive 



