AD DITIONAL 



P R OOF S, 6cc. 

 Read at a Meeting of the Royal Society, Dec. 22, 1774- 



AS I happen to have collected many additional fails fince my 

 paper, containing Inftances of Navigators who had reached 

 high Northern Latitudes, was read before the Society in May 

 lift, I mail take the liberty to ftate them according to chronological 

 order ; together with . fome general reafbns why it may be pre- 

 fumed, that the Polar feas are, at leaft fometimes, navigable. 



I think it my duty to do this, not only becaufe I was the un- 

 worthy propofer of the Polar voyage in 1773, which was re- 

 commended by the Council, of the Royal Society to the Board of 

 Admiralty; but becaufe.it would not redound much to the cre- 

 dit of the Society, if they planned a voyage to reach the N. 

 Pole, if poflible, when a perpetual .barrier of ice prevented any 

 difcoveries in the Spitsbergen feas to the Northward of 80 f, 

 which is not a degree beyond the moft common ftation of the 

 Greenland fifhers. . 



I muft here, however, repeat, that no one is more entirely fa- 

 tisned_ than myfelf of the great abilities, perfeverance, and in- 

 trepidity, with which the officers who were fent on this deftina- 

 tion, attempted to profecute their difcoveries; but I conceive, 

 from the arguments and fads, which will follow, that they were 



flopped 



