OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



27 



accusers considered as lying open to censure or animadversion. It appears, 1821 - 

 from the documents laid before the public at the time by the respective v^4^' 

 parties*, that Captain Middleton was chargeable with neglect, in having 

 quitted certain parts of the coast traversed by him, and which seemed 

 likely to afford some outlet to the westward, without determining the 

 continuity of the land by actual examination. The first and principal of 

 these was Wager Inlet, to which Captain Middleton gave the appellation of 

 a river, as subsequent examination has, in fact, proved it to be, and Mr. 

 Dobbs that of a strait, leading, as he believed, in the desired direction, 

 towards the Pacific Ocean. Wherever the strict and entire examination of 

 a coast has been neglected, so as still to leave a doubt respecting its conti- 

 nuity, the mind naturally has recourse to all the indications that can be 

 collected to supply the place of facts. In the present instance, the direction 

 of the tides, the degree of saltness in the sea-water, the presence of whales, 

 and other circumstances of minor importance, constituted the chief grounds 

 upon which the disputants rested their respective arguments. The direction 

 of the flood-tide has, indeed, constantly, and to a certain extent, justly been 

 considered as affording an indication of some weight in forming a judgment 

 on the spot, respecting the existence or non-existence of a westerly passage. 

 To this the attention of Captain Middleton was strongly directed in his official 

 instructions, which, in two different places, point out to him the propriety of 

 " meeting the flood-tide," in order to accomplish the proposed object. And 

 in his subsequent endeavour to vindicate his conduct ' f from the aspersions 

 of Arthur Dobbs, Esq.," it is upon arguments deduced from this phenomenon 

 that he has principally laboured to convince the public of the absurdity of 

 expecting to find a passage to the westward, through Wager Inlet. In some 

 parts of the channel which separates Southampton Island from the coast of 

 America, and to which, though erroneously, the name of the Welcome has, 

 of late years, been applied, it was understood that the flood-tide set from the 

 northward ; and it became, therefore, a matter of real interest to ascertain, 

 by " meeting" it, from what sea it flowed. Now, here it was that Captain 

 Middleton and Mr. Dobbs were most at issue ; the former asserting that, in 

 his discovery of the " Frozen Strait," through which he actually saw the 

 tide of flood coming into the Welcome, the question was solved in a manner 



* A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Middleton, &c, London, 1743. Dqebs's 

 Abstract of Captain Middleton's Journal, &c., London, 1744. 



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