\ 
Chap. r. for difcovering N o R T H-W estPassage. 445 
Strciglit from the Eaftward. But while Mr. Dohhs and Cap- 
tain Middleton v/ere difputing this Matter in Letters, a new 
Affair broke out, \vhich made a great Noife ; for fome of the 
Officers who had ferved under Captain Middleton declared 
pofitively, that in their Judgment there was a Paffage, 
and that the Captain’s Journal was calculated to conceal 
it. This produced a long Controverfy, attended with 
many perfonal Refledions on both Sides, into which it is 
not my Bufinefs, nor have I any Inclination, to enter j 
but fhall content myfelf with giving the Reader what I 
take to be the moft material Part of Mr. Dobbses, Charge, 
as it fliews upon what Grounds he believed the River 
Wager to be a Streiglit, and the Methods which, in his O- 
pinion. Captain Middleton had taken to conceal its being 
thought fo ; and this I fliall give in Mr. Dobhs‘% own 
Words, that I may not feem prepoffeiTed in Favour of 
one Side, or prejudiced againft the other. 
8. “ In Captain Middletord^ going out, fays Mr. Bobbs^ 
he faw much Ice from Latitude 63 Degrees 35 Minutes 
“ to Cape Dobbs, as well as to Deer Sound in Wager River, 
and in the Streight and Bay near Cape Hope this 
“ Year j but none v/as feen in the Welcome by Button, 
“ Foy:, and Scroggs, the feveral Years they were there at 
“ the fame Seafon, though Button and Scroggs were as 
“ high up z.HVhalebone Point, in Latitude 65 Degrees, 
and Fox fav/ as far from Latitude 64 Degrees 10 Mi- 
“ nutes, without feeing any Ice in the Sea, or Snow up- 
on the Land, but faw great Numbers of fmall Fiili 
leaping, as well as many Whales near Brook Cobh am. 
Captain Middleton had, during his whole Voyage out 
from Churchill and back again to Brook Cobharn, very 
“ fine Weather, without any Storm, or Froft, or Snow, 
“ the Winds for the moft Part blowing from the Eaftern 
Quarter, fo that he had no Pretence upon his Return 
“ to avoid fearching the Weft-fide of the Welcome. It 
was thefe Eafterly Winds that Year which carried fo 
“ much Ice into the Welcome from the South-eaft as well 
as from the Bay and Streight near Cape Hope, dll which 
“ was forced by the rapid Tide into Wager River ; and 
“ it appears from the Journal, that it was thefe Winds 
“ which caufed fo great a Quantity of Ice in the River 
“ as far as Deer Sound, and not from the breaking out 
of the Ice above in a Frefti- water River as he gave out *, 
and he would have made the Flowing-in of the Tide 
“ fo far from the South-eaftv/ard, to have been aConfirm- 
‘‘ ation of it; whereas, by what he has mentioned in 
his Journal, it is by all Circumftances a Salt-water 
Streight or Paffage *, for the Increafe of itsW^idenefs from 
feven Miles at its Entrance to eight Leagues, and of 
its Depth from fourteen to eighty Fathoms, the Bold- 
‘‘ nefs. Height, and Craggednefs of the Coaft, without 
Tree or Shrub, and without any Snow or Ice in the 
“ Valleys or Hills, are all Symptoms of its being a Salt- 
“ water Paffage •, but the Number of Whales and other 
“ Fifli feen above in the Streight, at leaft twenty Leagues 
“ up the River, vdien none were feen below, or in the 
Welcome or Streight, and Bay above CapeMope, is a 
Demonftration they did not come under the Ice into 
Wager River from tire Eaftward, and there being 
“ none ever feen in the Bay or Streights of Hudfon, 
‘‘ but by broken Lands on the North-weft Coaft, it is 
‘‘ next to a Certainty that they came from the Wejiern 
Ocean to that Place •, for it is contrary to Reafon and 
Fadl, to fuppofe that Whales and other Sea-fifti ftiould 
go up a Frefh-water River, as he affirms it to be ; 
but it was very natural for the Whales to be there, if 
they come in from the Weftern Ocean, which was not 
fo liable to be frozen as an Inland Bay, for they would 
puffi their Way through the Streights and broken 
Lands, until they were prevented by the Ice, which 
the Eafterly Winds drove into the Streight from the 
Welcome along wdth the Flood •, and this was jammed 
in among the lilands in the Paffage, and appeared to 
“ to be , firm Ice, as it alfo appeared from the Hills to be 
fo below them to the Mouth of the River. 
This alio eafily accounts for the Number of Whales 
feen from Whalebone Point to Brook Cobharn, and even 
‘‘ to Whalecove, in Latitude 62 Degrees 30 Minutes, where 
“ many are caught by the EJkimaux Indians, when none 
VoL. If. Numb. 99,. 
“ are feen in the other Parts of the Bay, or in the 
“ Streights j for if there be a Communication between 
“ the JVefiern Ocean and the Bay in this Place, the Pre- 
“ fumption is, that it is not by one Paffage, but that it 
“ may be all a broken Land, interfperfed with Elands, 
as the Hands of Ferra del Fuego are at the Streights of 
“ Magellan, which is almoft a parallel Inftance ; and 
“ therefore this Streight of Wager may not be the only 
“ Inlet into the Bay, but from Whalecove unto that Ri» 
“ ver may be all broken Lands, with feveral Sounds a- 
“ mong the Elands which are mentioned by Scroggs and 
“ Fox, and cannot be controverted from this Journal ; fo 
that the Whales might get to that Part of the Bay 
“ fooner, as there was no Ice there to obftruft their Paf- 
“ fage, when there was much Ice in the Welcome and 
“ Eaft Entrance of Wager Streight, which prevented 
“ thefe Whales getting any farther than Deer Sound. 
“ This, I think, makes it highly probable, that there 
“ is a better and eafier Paffage South w’’ard of Cape Dobbs 
“ betwixt that and Whalecove, in Latitude 62 Degrees 
“ 30 Minutes, where there is no Ice to obftruT the Paf- 
“ fage from the Middle of June to October *, and if the 
“ Trade was once opened, this might be difeovered by any 
“ Ships who would go there to fiffi for Whales, or would 
“ trade with the Natjves for Fin or Oil, who might fol- 
“ low them into Inlets, through which they come into 
“ the Bay ; and this may be done without wintering 
“ in the Bay •, for they may return any Time in Septem- 
her or October, fafe from any Obftrudlion from the 
“ Ice.” 
The only feeming Objedlion to this, and which gave 
a Hand to Captain Middleton to reprefent Streight 
as a Frefh-water River was, the Tide flowing into it 
from the Eaftward, when if it had been a Streight, he 
imagined he might have met a Tide of Flood from the 
Weftward, and therefore reprefented it as if the Ice was 
but breaking up in the River after he had entered it. 
But fince this is a Streight, and not an immediate Com- 
munication with the Wejiern Ocean, he could not expeeft 
to meet the Weftern Tide ’till he had got half Way 
through the Streight j for each Tide flows up its own 
End of the Streight, and meet in the Middle. This is 
not only founded upon Reafon, but upon Fa6l, in the 
only parallel Inftance we know, that is, in the Magellan 
nic Streight ; though, by Appearance, this Streight is a 
greater and bolder Streight than the other. 
The Tide at the North-eaft Entrance of Magella?t 
Streight flows from the Eaftward, and rifes four Fathoms 
before’ it comes to the firft Narrow, which is but half a 
League wide, and from thirty to thirty-five Fathom 
deep •, after a League or two it increafes to fix or feven 
Leagues wide, to the fecond, where it is about a League 
wide, and thirty Fathom deep. Within the fecond Nar- 
row it increafeth again to five or fix Leagues wide, and 
the Tide ftill flows from the Eaftward, and rifes about ten 
Feet. In the middle Channel, about thirty Leagues within 
the Streight, it is two hundred Fathom, and the Channel 
but three Leagues wide, and from thence to the Middle 
of the Streight it leffens to two I .eagues wide, and about 
a hundred Fathom deep, and . the Tide ftill flows from 
the Eaftward for above fifty Leagues. As they come near 
the Middle of the Streight, the Current of the Tide is not 
above an Hour at each Tide, and the Tide rifes nine 
Feet. Near Cape^ad, beyond the Middle of the Streight, 
it is but two Leagues wide, and for about thirteen Leagues 
farther it is rather lefs, fometimes not four Miles wide, 
from whence it gradually widens to the Weft Entrance, 
where it is five Leagues wide : So that Wager Streight is 
much larger fo far as they were in it, which was about 
thirty, Leagues j it being by the Account, as mentioned 
in the Journal, fix or feven Leagues wide, and eighty Fa- 
thom deep •, which, if there be no other, is a noble Paffage, 
But there is a great Probability of there being a better 
and fafer Paffage to the Southward of Whalebone Point, by 
which the Whales get into that Part of the Bay. 
Thus, Dobbs, from the former Accounts, and 
what has been divulged by Captain Middleton in his Jour- 
nal, there feems to be ftrong Prefumptions of a Paffage. But 
after Ihewing what he has concealed, and falfified in his Jour- 
5 X ' nal. 
1 
