S44 Observations on the late Expedition of C apt. Parry . 
meritorious and indefatigable efforts of the British Government 
will have completely explored this northern boundary of Ame- 
rica, but it will be done in a different track, and by different 
instruments. It will be the result of the efforts of the land-ex- 
peditions about to proceed and commence their career in succes- 
sive points of this extensive coast. 
Captain Parry’s present idea seems to be, that his main hope 
is by keeping close to the coast of America, and taking advan- 
tage of the occasional openings which occur, when the ice, 
loosened by spring, is drifted out into the open sea. If this 
view be correct, the passage can scarcely be considered as at all 
possible. Recollecting how tedious and obstructed have been 
the short voyages hitherto accomplished in one season, it seems 
inconceivable that such an immense coast as that reaching to 
Behring’s Straits, can be traversed without endless delay, and 
without meeting more than once with impassable barriers. In 
regard to the theory itself, however, though our diffidence must 
be peculiar in opposing our own opinion to that of Capt. Parry 
on such a subject; yet even his own data seem to afford ground 
to suspect, that the above impression may have been formed 
from his long continued habit of navigating in seas comparatively 
narrow, and inclosed by land. It appears clear, that the per- 
manent ice, upon which, year after year, the summer heats are 
in vain exerted, is only that formed in or near land, in bays, 
rivers, and straits. The masses detached by the partial thaw- 
ings of summer from the places of their original formation, are 
drifted into the centre of these mediterranean seas. Here, unit- 
ing from opposite sides, caking together, and annually accumu- 
lating, they form at length a broad mass of perpetual ice, which 
leaves only a narrow passage between it and the land. But the 
case seems likely to be very different with a wide ocean having 
no bordering land whatever. Such an ocean could have little 
ice, except that formed on itself, which is always of too soft and 
loose a texture to resist the heats of summer ; for the partial and 
floating masses of the former ice, which might be wafted by 
wind and tide, could never combine into a permanent barrier. 
In considering, however, the existence of such an open ex- 
panse of ocean as the only favourable case, it remains still 
doubtful whether it exists, and, yet more, what chance there is. 
of ever reaching it. It appears ascertained, that there is a con- 
