General Science. 201 
near three hundred villages, or farms, with about sixteen churches* 
two convents, &c. it is well known, was lost to the rest of the 
world, by the setting in of the polar ice, about the year 1406. 
Since this period it has not been considered accessible, all at- 
tempts to reach it having failed ; and the fate of the colonists 
has been constantly wrapped in that perfect obscurity, which 
renders it a subject of the most intense interest* The exten-t 
sive researches and discoveries of our distinguished countryman 
Captain Scoresby, however, made upon this coast last summer, 
show that the barrier of icc is not totally impenetrable ; and 
encourage us to hope, that before long, something respecting 
these unhappy colonists, that have been long shut out from in- 
tercourse with other countries, may be developed. Captain 
Scoresby entered the main western ice in the 76th parallel of lati- 
tude, a single ship, on the 23d of May, and got sight of the 
coast of Greenland, after penetrating about 150 miles, on the 
7th of June. At this time it was impossible to get within ten 
or fifteen leagues of the shore; but in the course of the sum- 
mer Captain Scoresby was enabled to land in several different 
places, in almost all of which traces of inhabitants were dis- 
covered. He remained on the coast until the 27th of August, 
during which interval he obtained an accurate survey of nearly 
the whole line of coast, from latitude 75 p to 69°, consisting of 
an extent, including the various indentations and flexures, of 
near 800 geographical miles. By this survey, he found that 
there was an error in the position of the land in latitude 74°, as 
laid down in most of our maritime charts, of about 15° or 900 
miles of longitude. Captain Scoresby’s chart is indeed so to- 
tally unlike the coast delineated in our best maps, both as to 
form and position, that the greater part of the land he visited 
may be safely considered as a new country. Various islands 
and inlets were discovered ; many of the latter being large and 
without apparent termination at the depth of fifty to eighty miles 
by estimation, are considered by Captain Scoresby as forming 
communications with Baffin’s Bay, to the support of which opi- 
nion several circumstances that he observed were favourable. 
In one of the sheltered bays that he penetrated, to the depth of 
twenty or twenty-five miles, the weather was oppressively hot, 
and the air swarmed with befes, hutterfiies, and musquitoes. The 
