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June, 1859. NAVIGABLE N.W. PASSAGE. 315 



could ever be sailed tlirougli by passing west- 

 ward — tbat is, to windward — of King William's 

 Island. 



If the season was so favourable for navigation 

 as to open the northern part of this western sea* 

 (as, for instance, in 1846, when Sir J. Franklin 

 sailed down it), I think but comparatively little 

 difficulty would be experienced in the more 

 southern portion of it until Yictoria Strait was 

 reached. Had Sir John Franklin known that 

 a channel existed eastward of King William's 

 Land (so named by Sir John Ross), I do not 

 think he would have risked the besetment of 

 his ships in such very heavy ice to the west- 

 ward of it ; but had he attempted the north- 

 west passage by the eastern route, he would 

 probably have carried his ships safely through 

 to Behring's Straits. But Franklin was fur- 

 nished with charts which indicated no passage 

 to the eastward of King William's Land, and 

 made that land (since discovered by Rae to be 

 an island) a peninsula attached to the continent 

 of North America ; and he consequently had 

 but one course open to him, and that the one he 

 adopted. 



My own preference for the route by the east 



* This channel is now named after the illustrious navigator 

 Admiral Sir John Franklin. 



