PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
579 
what doubtful ; we should expect it to diverge, and one part to sweep CHAP, 
round Icy Cape and Point Parrow ; but the shoals of the former place, 
like the currents themselves, do not furnish any satisfactory inference, i., Oct 
Ihese shoals lie parallel with the shore, and may be occasioned by ice ' 
grounding off the point. It may be observed here, that voyagers have 
frequently mentioned westerly currents along the northern coast of 
Asia and Nova Zembla, and we know from experience, that, in the 
summer, at least, there is a strong westerly current between Spitzbergen 
and Greenland. In the opposite direction, we find only a weak stream 
passing through the narrow strait of Hecla and F ury, and none through 
Barrow Strait. It seems, therefore, probable, that the principal part 
of the water which flows into the Polar Sea, from the Pacific, finds its 
way to the westward. 
It is curious, and not unworthy of attention, that the margins of 
the ice between America and Asia, Europe and Greenland, and across 
Davis’ Strait, lie as nearly as possible in the same direction, viz. S. W., 
and that navigation on the western shores is, consequently, impeded in 
a much lower latitude than on the eastern. I do not pretend to assign 
a cause for this singular coincidence, but the same, no doubt, operates 
in all. 
By many experiments made on shore at Icy Cape by Lieutenant 
Belcher, it appeared that southerly and westerly winds occasioned high 
tides, and northerly and easterly winds very low ebbs. It would seem, 
from this fact, that the water finds some obstruction to the northward, 
and I think it probable that the before mentioned shoal, which closes the 
land toward Point Barrow, may extend to the northward ; nay, it may 
even lie ofl* the coast of some polar lands, too low and too far off* to be 
seen from the margin of the ice ; and which can only be ascertained 
by journeys over the ice, in a similar manner to that in which the 
mountains to the northward of Shelatskoi Noss were discovered by the 
Bussians. It was this shoaling of the water to the northward of Cape 
Lisburn that induced the late Captain Burney to believe the continents 
of Asia and America were connected. 
To the northward of Beering’s Strait the tide rises about two feet 
six inches at full and change, and the flood comes from the southward. 
4 E 2 
