194 '^' ^' 1789' 



in canoes, and partly by walking, the great extent of wildernefs, in 

 which their pofts are eftablifhed, and proceeded beyond them down a 

 confiderable river running north, till he adually arrived at the Frozen 

 ocean, in which he faw fome fmall whales among fields of ice, and ob- 

 ferved the rife and fall of the tide. On an ifland at the mouth of his 

 river, to which he gave the name of Whale ifland, he ereded a pofl 

 near fome very old deferted huts, and engraved on it his name, the 

 number of perfons with him, the time they remained there, and the 

 latitude, 69° 14 *. 



This journey, or voyage, of difcovery, and alfo that of Mr. Hearne in 

 the year 177 1, (fee V. iii, p. 527) having ftretched acrofs all the un- 

 frequented regions of America, ought furely to be fufficient to prove 

 the utter impofTibility of the exiftence of a navigable communication in 

 any temperate part of that continent : and we might reafonably expedt 

 to have no more conjedlures or fpeculations upon that fubjedl f . 



The conveyance of goods between London and Briftol being very 

 expenfive by land, and very tedious and dangerous, efpecially in time 

 ofwar, byfea, an inland navigable communication, for uniting the 

 Thames with the Severn by an artificial channel of about 40 miles, was 

 projeded in the reign of Charles II. But the execution of it, and of 

 fome other canals projected in that reign, was referved for the prefent 

 more enlightened and fcientific age. In the year 1783 fome individuals, 

 moftly merchants in London, obtained an ad for executing the canal, 

 which was planned and executed by Mr. Whitworth. It extends in a 



• * Mr. Mackenzie obferved in 69" 14' and 69° very probable, that there is a continuation of fea 



7' on the 13'" and 15'" of July. He has not told between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, by 



us which of the latitudes he engraved on his poft, which whales and other fifhes may make a paflage 



and I have retained 69° 14' from the firft account under the ice ; neither ihould it be abfolutely de- 



T obtained of his difcovery. See his Foyages nied, that paflagcs may poffibly have been made 



ihrough North America, pp. 6t,, 66. between the Pacific and the Atlantic through 



f It muft be acknowleged, however, that, in Bering's ftraits, or perhaps fome other ftraits now 



foite of demonftration, fome attempts have been unknown in the north-weft extremity of America, 



made to revive fuch conjedures ; and a II017 has by Maldonado, Urdanielta, Loario, &c. But 



been brought forward, which was told to Sir John granting a few fuch palTages to have been fuccefs- 



Jlacpherfon at the Cape of Good Hope in the fully effefted in the courfe of two centuries, though 



Year 1787 by fome Spaniards, who faid, that a they are all almoft as doubtful as the ftory of Juan 



■paflage had lately been found in the latitude of de Fuca, (of which the ftory of the Spaniards at 



47° 45' °" ^''^ "'"^^ *"^^ °f North America, which the Cape feems a new edition) it does not follow, 



conveyed a vefTel in twenty-feven days almoft to that pafl"ages can be regularly made in fuch frozen 



Hudfon's bay. — Whether thofe Spaniards were feas. Nor is it probable, that, though the route 



the authors, or only the reporters, of the ftory, it were difcovered, any adventurers will now be found 



would be idle to dwell on the abfurdity of any willing to rilk their hves, or even their property, 



navigator flopping ftiort, when he had almoj} ac- in the profecution of a voyage fo very dangerous, 



compliftted fuch a grand dcfideratum in difcover)', which no experience can ever bring to be gener- 



or to prove that a veflel could not pofGbly fail ally ufeful. Indeed, the idea of a praAicable 



acrofs the rivers or land, which Mr. Mackenzie north-weft paffage, though a reward is ftiU held 



naddled or walked upon. Another circumftance, out by parliament for the difcovery of it, is now as 



on which great ftrefs has been laid by the advocates completely given up by all thinking people as that 



for a north-weft paflage, is, that whales have been of the imaginary Terra aufiralh, which for many 



found in the Pacific ocean with European harpoons ages made fo confpicuous a figure in the maps, and 



fucking in their flefh, whertwith th.;y muft have in the writings, of geographers. 3 



been wounded in the Gr««nland feas. It is indeed 



