OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
299 
still lower latitude, especially as there is a considerable portion of coast that 1820 . 
may reasonably be supposed to offer the desired communication, which yet 
remains unexplored. Cumberland Strait, the passage called Sir Thomas 
Kowe’s Welcome, lying between Southampton Island and the coast of 
America, and Repulse Bay, appear to be the points most worthy of attention ; 
and, considering the state of uncertainty in which the attempts of former 
navigators have left us, with regard to the extent and communication of these 
openings, one cannot but entertain a reasonable hope, that one, or perhaps 
each of them, may afford a practicable passage into the Polar Sea. 
So little indeed is known of the whole of the northern shore of Hudson’s 
Strait, which appears, from the best information, to consist chiefly of islands, 
that the geography of that part of the world may be considered altogether 
undetermined ; so that an Expedition which should be sent to examine 
those parts, would soon arrive upon ground never before visited, and in 
which, from an inspection of the map in its present state, there certainly 
does seem more than an equal chance of finding the desired passage. It 
must be admitted, however, that any notions we may form upon this 
question, amount after all to no more than conjecture. As far as regards 
the discovery of another outlet into the Polar Sea, to the southward oi Sir 
James Lancaster’s Sound, it is evident that the enterprise is to be begun 
again ; and we should be cautious, therefore, in entertaining too sanguine a 
hope of finding such a passage, the existence of which is still nearly as un- 
certain as it was two hundred years ago, and which possibly may not 
exist at all. 
In the course of the foregoing narrative, it may have been remarked, that 
the westerly and north-westerly winds were always found to produce the 
effect of clearing the southern shores of the North Georgian islands of ice, 
while they always brought with them clear weather, which is essentially 
necessary in prosecuting discoveries in such a navigation. This circum- 
stance, together with the fact of our having sailed back in six days from the 
meridian of Winter Harbour to the entrance of Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, 
a distance which it required five weeks to traverse when going in the oppo- 
site direction, seems to offer a reasonable ground for concluding, that an 
attempt to effect the north-west passage might be made, with a better chance 
of success, from Behring’s Strait, than from this side of America. There are 
some circumstances, however, which, in my opinion, render this mode of 
proceeding altogether impracticable, at least for British ships. The principal 
2 Q 2 
