298 
VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY 
1820. 
Sept. 
we wintered. For this reason, it would perhaps be desirable, that Ships en- 
deavouring to reach the Pacific by this route, should keep, if possible, on the 
coast of America, and the lower in latitude that coast may be found, the 
more favourable will it prove for this purpose. 
Our experience, I think, has clearly shewn that the navigation of the Polar 
Seas can never be performed with any degree of certainty, without a continuity 
of land. It was only by watching the occasional openings between the ice 
and the shore, that our late progress to the westward was effected ; and 
had the land continued in the desired direction, there can be no question 
that we should have continued to advance, however slowly, towards the 
completion of our enterprise. In this respect, therefore, as well as in the 
improvement to be expected in the climate, there would be a manifest 
advantage in making the attempt on the coast of America, where we are sure 
that the land will not fail us. The probability of obtaining occasional sup- 
plies of wood, game, and anti-scorbutic plants ; the chance of being enabled 
to send information by means of the natives,; and the comparative facility with 
which the lives of the people might be saved, in case of serious and irre- 
parable accidents happening to the ships, are also important considerations, 
which naturally serve to recommend this route. Should the sea on the coast 
of America be found moderately deep, and shelving towards the shore, 
(which, from the geological character of the known parts of the continent to 
the south, and of the Georgian Islands to the north, there is reason to believe 
would be the case for a considerable distance to the westward), the facility 
of navigation would be much increased, on account of the grounding of the 
heavy masses of ice in water sufficiently deep to allow the ships to take shelter 
behind them, at such times as the floes close in upon the land. Farther to the 
westward, where the primitive formation, and perhaps even a continuation 
of the Rocky Mountains, is to be expected, a steep and precipitous shore 
would probably occur, a circumstance which the foregoing narrative has shewn 
to be attended with much comparative uncertainty and risk. 
The question which naturally arises, in the next place, relates to the most 
likely means of getting to the coast of America, so as to sail along its shores. 
It would, in this respect, be desirable to find an outlet from the Atlantic into 
the Polar Sea, as nearly as possible in the parallel of latitude in which the 
northern coast of America may be supposed to lie ; as, however, we do 
not know of any such outlet from Baffin’s Bay, about the parallels of 69 
to 70°, the attempt is, perhaps, to be made with better chance of success in a 
