124 Polar Explorations. 



stand has been hitherto conducted profitably, although their 

 fuel costs four times as much as it would in many other parts 

 of the country. Why, considering our national spirit of en- 

 terprise, the many inducements arising out of our peculiar 

 situation, together with the remarkable, local advantages, 

 which we undoubtedly possess for carrying on this manufac- 

 ture, should not have produced corresponding investments 

 of capital, is mysterious and unaccountable. It would cer- 

 tainly be very desirable if we could be wholly independent 

 of other countries for this necessary and beautiful article. 



Art. XVI. — Polar Explorations. 

 (Communicated for this Journal.) 



The attempt to obtain a North West passage to the In- 

 dies, has been prosecuted with a zeal far surpassing that 

 which turned the commerce of Europe round the Cape of 

 Good Hope from the wearisome overland journeys through 

 the deserts of Syria and Persia, or from the shifting and dan- 

 gerous navigation of the Levant and Red Sea, by the way 

 of Egypt. 



The adventurous spirit awakened by the improvements in 

 nautical science, suggested as early as 1 527, the idea of a pas- 

 sage to the East Indies through the Polar sea. The attempt 

 to discover it was first conceived by Robert Thorne,* a 

 merchant of Bristol, who submitted proposals to that effect 

 to Henry 8th and to the Emperor Charles 5th, and it is sup- 

 posed probable that Sir Martin Frobisher's attemj)t to find 

 a North West passage, was in consequence of those repre- 

 sentations, although no aid was extended to him by either of 

 those sovereigns. He did not penetrate above 62° N. lat. 

 where he discovered the strait which bears his name. 



Mr. Thome's opinion of the probable success of such an 

 enterprise, was founded upon the great advantage of con- 

 stant daylight for a length of time sufficient to accomplish 

 the voyage, and from a belief that a perpetual sun would 

 warm those regions, so as to give an open sea from the arctic 

 circle to the pole. 



* Hackluvt. 



