[ .6 ] 



After which Mr. Oldenburgh adds, as from himfelf, " This is 



" incredible °." 



It may not be improper, therefore, after mentioning this firft 

 inftance of a navigator's having approached fo near to the Pole, 

 to difcufs upon what reafons Mr. Oldenburgh might found this 

 jhis very peremptory incredulity. 



Was it becaufe the fact is impoffible upon the very ftating it ? 



This puts me in mind of the difbelief which is generally 

 fhewn to a paffage in Pliny, even after the actual fact hath fhewn 

 not only the poflibility, but eafy practicability, of what is alluded 

 to. Pliny informs us p , that Eudoxus flying the vengeance of 

 king Lathyrus failed from Arabia, and reached the Straits of 

 Gibraltar : yet no one fcarcely will believe this account of Eu- 

 doxus's navigation, notwithstanding this courfe is fo often fol- 

 lowed. 



Was it becaufe no Englifhman had then been fo far to the 

 Northward ? 



It is very eafy, however, to account why fuch attempts mould 

 rather be made by the Dutch than the Englifh in the infancy of 

 the Greenland fifhery. 



° See Dr. Birch's Hiftory of the Royal Society, vol. I. p. 202. Thefe 

 queries are nineteen in number, to which the anfwers are very circum- 

 itantial. 1 had an opportunity of reading them over to three very intel- 

 ligent mailers of Greenland ihips, who confirmed every particular. One 

 circumftance I think it right to take notice of, though it does not imme- 

 diately relate to the point in difcuffion, which is, that there are coals in 

 Spitzbergen, by which feven of Mr. Grey's crew were enabled to bear 

 the feverity of the winter, havirig been left behind by an accident. One 

 of the Greenland mafters, to whom I read Mr. Grey's anfwers, confirmed 

 this particular ; faying, that he had burnt. himfelf Spitzbergen coals, and 

 that they were very good. 



p L. II. ch. 67. 



The 



