OF THE POLAR SEA. 



24\ 



east and west, nearly in the latitude assigned 

 to Mackenzie's River, the Sound into which 

 Kotzebue entered, and Repulse Bay; and 

 I think there is little doubt of a continued 

 sea, in or about that line of direction. The 

 existence of whales too, on this part of the 

 coast, evidenced by the whalebone we found 

 in Esquimaux Cove, may be considered as 

 an argument for an open sea; and a con- 

 nexion with Hudson's Bay is rendered more 

 probable from the same kind of fish abound- 

 ing on the coasts we visited, and on those 

 to the north of Churchill River. I allude 

 more particularly to the Capelin or Salmo 

 Arcticus, which we found in large shoals in 

 Bathurst's Inlet, and which not only abounds, 

 as Augustus told us, in the bays in his 

 country, but swarms in the Greenland firths*. 

 The portion of the sea over which we 

 passed is navigable for vessels of any size ; 

 the ice we met, particularly after quitting 

 Detention Harbour, would not have arrested 

 a strong boat. The chain of islands affords 



* Arctic Zoology, vol, ii. p. 394. 

 VOL. III. R 



