FURTHER CRITICISMS. 



expedition, as represented on the chart at the beginning of the first 

 volume. They who know how deceptive it is to look at the con 



figuration of such high mountains at a distance from the sea, how 

 all melts together, islands are taken for continents, promontories for 

 islands, and deep spacious fjords and sounds quite disappear, will 

 certainly agree with me in admiring the boldness with which the 

 opposite coast, from Cape John Barrow to Mount Tarry, an extent 

 of more than two degrees of latitude, which they approached at the 

 very nearest, at a distance of 25 to 40 miles, is found marked out 

 on the said map as a clearly defined connecting shaded line, making 

 only a little curve towards the east, in order to limit the Open Polar 

 Sea, and, as if to receive the Gulf-stream, said to flow from Nova 

 Zemhla, and lead it down through Smith Strait to Baffin Bay. The 

 heights of the mountains, according to the guessed distances, are on 

 the other hand just as remarkable as determining the distances 

 without knowing the heights of the mountains. The farthest 

 mountain-top that Morton saw — " the most remote northern land known 

 upon our globe " — has been put at 2500 to 3000 feet, and 100 miles 

 from Morton's last station. Notwithstanding this great distance, 

 Morton saw however that the top was bare, and that it was striped 

 vertically with projecting ledges. Beyond this ultima Tliulc, about 

 60 to 80 miles from Morton's farthest station, and as it seems partly 

 behind the Cape which stopped his view, is indicated " open sea" 

 Had Morton only passed round his cape he would possibly have 

 seen fresh capes shooting forth incessantly until he reached Mount 

 Parry, which might have been thus connected by a neck of land with 

 Greenland, and again on the other side large bays and sounds might 

 have opened themselves on the American side and broken off the line 

 now so nicely laid down on his map. 



I have thus exhausted the most important points respecting these 

 discoveries, which are represented as the crowning glories of the 

 expedition. These Polar expeditions were dispatched for the dis- 

 covery of the North-West Passage and of the remains of the Franklin 

 Expedition, and both these problems have been solved by British 

 enterprise. So far as they fall short of the finding the remains of 

 Franklin or of the North-West Passage, they do not promise any 

 advantages that can in any way answer to the means and efforts 

 they demand. 



Dr. Kane has undeniably gone beyond what ho promised in his 

 preface, namely, to give a simple narrative of the adventures of his 

 party ; and he has hereby, in my humble opinion, injured more 

 than benefited his work ; and the numerous really interesting and 

 remarkable elucidations concerning the nature of North Greenland, 



