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thereto, with the eltabliftied courfe of nature, having been alio 

 rendered evident ; there can be nothing more looked for reflec- 

 ting this matter merely in the light of a philofophical fpecula- 

 tion. But if fupporting this had been the only motive, thefe 

 reflections had not employed the time of the writer, or tref- 

 paffed fo long upon the reader's patience. What then remains? 

 To demonstrate, that as the poffibility, practicability, and facility, 

 of fuch an undertaking have been inlilted upon, its national 

 utility mould be fhewn to deferve coniideration ; and that, as it 

 is an object of the greateft importance to the public welfare, 

 its execution mould be no longer delayed. There is unquevtion- 

 ably no country in Europe fo well iituated for fuch an enter- 

 prize as this. The tranfit from Shetland to the Northern parts of 

 Afia would, by this way, be a voyage only of a few weeks. The, 

 inhabitants of thefe iflands and of the Orkneys are, and have 

 been for many years, employed in the Greenland fiiheries, and., 

 the natives of thefe ifles are the perfons moftly fent to the 

 eftablifhments in Hudfon's Bay. By thefe means they are 

 inured to cold, to ice, and hard living, and are confequently the 

 fitted for being employed in fuch expeditions. When this mall, 

 be once executed with fuccefs, it will neceffarily bring us ac- 

 quainted with new Northern countries, where ordinary cloaths 

 and other coarfe woollen goods will probably be acceptable, new 

 channels of commerce would be thereby opened, our navigation 

 extended, the number of our feamen augmented, without ex- 

 haufting our frrength in fettling colonies, expofing the lives of 

 our failors in tedious and dangerous voyages through unwhole- 

 fome climates, or having any other trade in profpect than that of 

 exchanging our native commodities and manufactures for thofe 

 of other countries. This, if it could be brought about, would, 

 in the firft inftance, convert a- number of bleak and barren iflands 

 % into 



