XIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
a line passing through a hole in a spherical iron weight about 
the size* of a four-pounder shot, which is retained on board till 
the instrument is low enough ; the weight is then let go, and 
running rapidly down the line, strikes the catch so as to release 
it, j and close the apertures, confining the water which has entered 
the cylinder. This instrument, from its extreme simplicity, and 
the certainty with which it obtains the water from a known depth, 
seems the best of any which has yet been adopted for this 
purpose. 
Care has been taken to avoid, as much as possible, the use of technical 
expressions, which might serve to render the Narrative unintelligible 
to any but seamen : as, however, such expressions cannot at all 
times be dispensed with, especially in the navigation among ice, 
the nature of which is totally different from any other, I have sub- 
joined an Explanation of the few terms of this kind which occur 
in the course of my Journal. 
I had once thought to have cursorily drawn up a connected Nar- 
rative of the numerous efforts and the results of former Expedi- 
tions sent out, by this country and other maritime nations, to ex- 
plore the Arctic regions, from the earliest periods to the present 
time ; but as this would have occupied a considerable space, and, 
after all, would have been but a brief abstract of what Forster, 
Burney, and Barrow, have already done, it appeared, on second 
thoughts, a superfluous undertaking. My motive indeed, it must be 
frankly owned, was rather of a selfish kind, the gratification of myself 
and comrades, by thus bringing together the repeated exertions of 
two centuries, and those of a single voyage, and by instituting a com- 
parison of their results, so favourable and so flattering to all of us 
