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N ORT IT 
the (Lore, as well as on the other fide of the ifland which 
lay moft to the north, the ice was firm and immovable. 
He attempted, however, to fteer (till more to the north ; 
and, having advanced about fix miles, he was prevented 
by a thick fog from proceeding: this fog being difperfed, 
he faw nothing every-where but ice, which at laft drove 
him eaftward, and with much danger and difficulty he 
get to the mouth of the Olenek on the 29th of Auguft. 
Another attempt to pals from the Lena to the Jenifei 
was made in 1739 by Chariton Laptieff, but with no bet¬ 
ter fuccefs than that juft mentioned. This voyager re¬ 
lates, that between the river Piafida and Taimura a pro¬ 
montory ftretches into the fea which he could not 
double, the fea being entirely frozen up before he could 
pafs round. 
Befides the Ruffians, it is certain that fome Engliffi and 
Dutch veiTels have palled the ifland of Nova Zembla into 
the fea of Kara : “ But (fays Mr. Coxe in his Account 
of the Ruffian Difcoveries) no veffiel of any nation has 
ever paffed round that cape which extends tc the north 
of the Piafida, and is laid down in the Ruffian charts in 
about 78° lat. We have already feen that no Ruffian 
vefiel has ever got from the Piafida to the Chatanga, or 
from the Chatanga to the Piafida ; and yet fome authors 
have pofitively afler'ted that this promontory has been 
tailed round. In order therefore to elude the Ruffian ac¬ 
counts, which clearly affiert the contrary, it is pretended 
that Gmelin and Muller have purpofely concealed fome 
part of the Ruffian journals, and have impofed on the 
world by a mifreprefentation of tacts. But, without en¬ 
tering into any difpute upon this head, I can venture to 
affirm, that no fufficient proof has been as yet advanced 
in fupport of this aflertion ; and therefore, until fome po- 
titive information fnall be produced, we cannot deny 
plain fads, or give the preference to hearfay evidence 
over circumftantial and vvell-attefted accounts.” 
The Other part of this north-eaft pa ft age, viz. from the 
Lena to Kamtlchatka, though fufficiently difficult and 
dangerous, is yet prafticable; as having been once per¬ 
formed, if we may beiieve the accounts of the Ruffians. 
According to fome authors indeed, fays Mr. Coxe, this 
navigation has been open a century and a half; and feve- 
ral vefiels at different times have palled round the north- 
eaftern extremity of Afia. But, if we confult the Ruf¬ 
fian accounts, we fliall find that frequent expeditions 
have been unqueftionably made from the Lena to the 
Kovyma, but that the voyage from the Kovyma round 
Tfchutfkoi Nofs into the Ealtern Ocean has been per¬ 
formed but once. According to Mr. Euller, this formi¬ 
dable cape was doubled in the year 1648. The material 
incidents of this remarkable voyage are as follow: In 
1648, feven Rotches, or vefiels, failed from the mouth of 
the river Kovyma, in order to penetrate into the Eaftern 
Ocean. Of thefe, four were never more heard of: the 
remaining three were commanded by Simon DeftmefF, 
Gerafim Ankndinoff, and Fedot Alexeeff. Delhneff 
and Ankudinoff quarrelled before their departure con- 
cerningthe divifion of profits and honours to be acquired 
by their voyage; which, however, was not fo eafily ac- 
complifficd as they had imagined. Yet Delhneff in his 
memorial makes no mention of obftruftions from the ice, 
nor probabiy did be meet with any; for he takes notice 
that the fea is not every year fo free from ice as it was at 
that time. The vefiels failed from the Kovyma on the 
20th of June; and in September they reached the pro¬ 
montory of the Tfchutlki, where Ankudinoff’s vefiel 
was wrecked, and the crew diftributed among the other 
two. Soon after this the tw<? vefiels loft fight of each 
other, and never joined again. Delhneff was driven 
about by tempeftuous winds till October, when he was 
fiiipwrecked confiderably to the fouth of the Anadyr. 
Having at laft reached that river, lie formed a fcheme of 
returning by the fame way that he had come, but never 
made the attempt. As for Alexeeff, after being alfo fliip— 
wrecked, he had died of the fcurvy, together with An- 
P O L E. 
kudi'noff; part of the crew were killed by the lavages, and 
a few eicaped to Kamtfehatka, where they fettled. 
On the whole, therefore, it appears, that the infur- 
mountable obftacle in the north-eaft pajfage lies between 
the rivers Piafida and Chatanga; and, uniel's there be in 
that fpace a connection between the Afiatic and Ameri¬ 
can continents, there is not in any other part. Ice,, 
however, is as effectual an obftruCtion as land : and, 
though the voyage were to be made by accident for once, 
it never could be efteemed a palfage calculated for the 
purpofes of trade, or any other beneficial purpofe what¬ 
ever. 
II. With regard to a north-weft paffctg'c, the cafe is dif¬ 
ferent. From the very frequent attempts which have- 
been made for its difeovery, it is now known pretty, 
nearly whereabouts fuch a palfage, if it exifts at all, mult 
be looked for. It has, for inftance, been afeertained, 
that there is no palfage on the coaft of America below the 
arClic circle ; (lee Map of Countries furrounding the 
North Pole, under the article Geography, vol. viii.) 
but beyond this it has not been afeertained, whether this 
coaft rounds off to the eaftward in a continuous line into 
Old Greenland, forming what is named Baffin’s Bay oiv 
the charts, or whether it does not turn in a contrary di¬ 
rection to the weftward, and fall in with the general trend-, 
ing of the northern coaft of America; which from 
three nearly equidiftant points, feen by Cook, Macken¬ 
zie, and Hearne, may be confidered- to run within a de- 
gree either way of the 70th parallel of latitude. Many, 
reafons have been affigned for the latter fuppofition. The 
conftant current that defeends down the Welcome on 
the one fide, and towards the coaft of Greenland on the 
other; the logs of mahogany and the remains of the 
North American ox brought from the north-weft by that 
current; the ice-bergs that come floating down from the 
northward ; and the whale ftruck in the fea of Spitzbergen 
and taken the fame year in Davis’s Strait; (Quarterly 
Review, No. xxxvi. Art. 8.) thefe, and the rude charts 
painted on Heins by the Indians, which, though without 
fcale or compafs, mark the inlets from Hudfon’s Bay 
with tolerable accuracy, and carry the coaft without in¬ 
terruption to the Copper-mine River, are ftrong argu¬ 
ments in favour of a north-weftern communication be¬ 
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific. Indeed the belt 
geographers are now of opinion that Greenland is either 
an ifland or an archipelago of illands ; and this is no new. 
idea. Among the Burleigh Papers in the Britilh Mu- 
feum, is one on the fubjedl of a north-weft palfage to 
Cathaya in bis lordlhip’s own hand writing, which begins 
thus : “ Confidering Groynelande is well known to he an 
illande, and that it is not conjoyned to America in any. 
part; that there is no caufe of doubte but that upon the 
north of Baccalaos the leas are open,” &c. If this fup- 
pofed infularity of Greenland fiiould be determined by 
the forth-going expedition in the affirmative, the next 
queftion that prelents itfelf is, whether an uninterrupted 
communication exifts between the Pacific and the Atlan¬ 
tic. The limple fadl of a perpetual current letting from 
the Pacific into Behring’s Strait, and a perpetual current 
down the coafts of Greenland and Labrador into the 
Atlantic, renders fuch a communication extremely pro¬ 
bable; and it becomes almoft certain, when we find the 
produftions of the fliores of the Pacific carried to the 
northward by the firft current, and brought down into 
the Atlantic by the fecond. The journals of Cook, 
Clerke, Glottof, and Kotzebue, eftablilh this faft. And, 
as we know, from the Ruffian, Englilh, and Dutch, na¬ 
vigators, that a wefterly current lets along the coaft of 
Siberia and Europe, from the Kovyma to the White Sea, 
it is probable that the water, in palling through Behring’s 
Strait into the polar fea, diverges on each fide, and that 
the other part of it, following the trending of the Ame¬ 
rican coaft, gives rife to the current down the Welcome, 
as obferved by Button, Fox, Middleton, and others. It 
mult be admitted at the fame time, that, although a com¬ 
munication 
