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V. 



NOTES ON THE STATE OF THE ICE 



And on the Indications of Open Water, &c, from Behring to 

 Bellot Straits, along the Coasts of Arctic America and 

 Siberia, including the Accounts of Anjou and Wrangell. 



Introduction. 



In undertaking that part of the Arctic manual which has been 

 assigned to me by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, I 

 feel that I am to a gi - eat extent occupying a portion of the Arctic 

 Sea which can be of little importance to the present expedition. 

 Yet there is no doubt that the influence which the Pacific Ocean 

 exercises on the motion of the ice should be considered in the present 

 attempt to reach the Pole. I have, therefore, first endeavoured to 

 give an account of the different voyages by which the exploration 

 of this area has been carried forward, and then to summarise the 

 result. I then purpose to give a short account of the descent of 

 the Mackenzie, the Coppermine, and the Back Rivers, together 

 with the exploration of the coast in boats and birch-bark canoes 

 and the voyages of the Investigator and Enterprise. These, it is to 

 be hoped, will enable the reader to form a correct judgment respect- 

 ing the state and the movement of the ice in the Polar Sea from 

 New Siberia to Bellot Strait. 



In 1725 the Russian Government dispatched an expedition 

 through Siberia to the sea of Ochotsk, which they occupied two 

 years in reaching. They there built and launched the vessels, 

 which, proceeding to the north, discovered St. Lawrence island, 

 and eventually reached the latitude of 67° 18' N. How the Com- 

 mander, in attempting during a second expedition to carry his explo- 

 rations over to the American Continent, and how, by persevering 

 to his uttermost, he came by his death, cannot find a place hero ; 

 but we who are able to appreciate the difficulties he had to encounter, 

 glory to think that the title of Behring is handed down to posterity 

 by the name so justly given to the sea and the strait which separate 

 the continents of Asia and America. 



