C 15 3 



that Monf. de Bougainville is foon to be £ent on difcoveries to the 

 Northward 



In the outfet of my former paper, I faid I mould not trouble 

 the Society with any instances of navigators having reached high 

 Northern latitudes, which had appeared in print. During the 

 courfe of this fummer, however, I have happened to find three 

 fuch accounts which were never before alluded to, and which are 

 extracted from books that are not commonly looked into, or at 

 leaft often confulted upon points of geography. 



When the Royal Society was firft initituted, it was ufual to 

 fend queries to any traveller who happened to refide in England, 

 after having been in parts of the world which are not commonly 

 frequented" 1 , 



In the year i66f, Mr. Oldenburg,, then fecretary of the Socie- 

 ty, was ordered to regifter a paper, entitled, " Several Inquiries 

 4t concerning Greenland, anfwered by Mr. Grey, who had 

 " vilited thole parts." 



The 1 9th of thefe queries is the following : 



" How near any one hath been known to approach the Pole?"' 



Anfwer. H I once met, upon the Coaft of Greenland, a Hol- 

 " lander, that fwore he had been but half a degree from the 

 w Pole, mewing me his journal, which was alfo attefted by his 

 ** mate ; where they had feen no ice or land, but all water n ." 



1 I have fince been informed, that this intended voyage was dropt, 

 By the French minifter for the marine department being changed., 



m Richard Hakluyt rode 200 miles to hear the narrative of Mr. Tho- 

 mas Butt's voyage, temp.. Hen. VIII. from England to Newfoundland. 

 Hakluyt, P. III. p. 131. 



n Mr. Boyle mentions a fimilar account, which he received from an 

 old Greenland matter on the 5th of April, 1675. See Boyle's Works, 

 vol. II. p-3-97 to 399. folio. The whole of this narrative is very cir- 

 cumftantial, and deferves to be ftated at length. The title is, Experi- 

 ments and Obfervations made in December and January 1662, 



After 



