rating so as to inciease or aid the gravity 
acting on the molecules of water; hence 
they may be formed and preserved in a 
fixed state, under a less degree of cold 
than is requisite for a like fixation here, 
the elastic molecules of quicksilver must 
be reduced by the same law; therefore, 
the cold there can, at present, only be 
! tested by feeling, and not by the thermo¬ 
meter; hence it is accountable why Par- 
ry's crew hunted in winter, when the av¬ 
erage of the thermometer was below zero, 
and why at that season they were only 
driven under deck when the winds blew 
bard ; and why Ilearne could sleep with¬ 
out fire, by only digging a hole in the 
snow, down to the moss, and lying with 
his sledge set up edgewise to windward. 
X he same law should, continually, oi 
generally, reduce the elastic molecules ot 
the atmosphere there, and hence set free 
heat therefrom; and thus by the reduction 
* The former states, that the grand Athapus- 
covv river is two miles broad with loamy banks 
one hundred feet above the ordinary surface of 
i water; the depth ot the river not ascertain- 
> ed. And the latter describes the river he de¬ 
scended, as being' 300 feet deep and a very ra¬ 
pid and long river, with several large rivers 
coming into it. XV est, where Hearne went, must 
have been in a direction tending toward fcfee 
concave equator, and at right angles with the 
oblique meridians marked on the wooden he¬ 
misphere shown in -the lecture room. Both 
those travellers describe very large trees, and 
mention the country as being amply inhabited 
by men and quadrupeds. 
j f It is thought capt. Parry should have sailed 
southwardly from the extremity of the verge 
towards the concace equator, down Prince Re¬ 
gent, or some other southerly inlet, where it is 
probable he would have found a passage thro’ 
the ice, especially if he waited sufficiently late 
in August or September; and on not succeed¬ 
ing in getting through, he might have proceed¬ 
ed on the ice during the winter, as Hearne did; 
for Parry, as well as Davis, Baffin and Ross 
were doubtless beyond the brow of the ver^e* 
^fter they passed that line where the 'needle* 
varied ninety decrees. 
* O 
\ 
