211 
NORTH POLK. 
munication may, and in ail probability does, exid be¬ 
tween the two oceans, it by no means follows that there 
mull alfo be found a navigable paliage for large velfels ; 
though it is not unfair to infer that, where large moun¬ 
tains of ice can float and find their way, a (hip may do 
the fame. 
Captain Sabine’s conjedlures upon this point will be 
perufed with great intereft. “ Amonglt the various fpe- 
culations which have been let forth of late, from which 
the probability of a north-well pafTage has been inferred, 
it has furprifed me that fo little notice has been taken of 
the very remarkable fail, that the fame people are found 
on the (hores of Behring’s Strait and on thofe of Baffin’s 
and Hudfon’s Bays. Their perfons, drefs, mode of living, 
and language, (fo far as the latter is known,) diffidently 
prove the whole to be Efquimaux. The interior of a 
habitation at Norton Sound is an exadt refemblance of a 
Greenlander’s in all its difgufling peculiarities. Their 
Angular culloms are the fame : they prefer their meat and 
filh raw, ufe lamps for fires, and have many other minor 
points of identity. But the moll important one towards 
the argument for a pafl'age has been already dated; 
namely, that their canoes and filhing-apparatus attached 
to them are the fame. It is remarked by Capt. Cook, that 
‘ enough is certain to warrant this judgment, that there is 
great reafon to believe that thefe nations (i.e. the inha¬ 
bitants of the north-wed America and the Efquimaux) 
are of the fame extradlion ; and, if fo, there can be little 
doubt of there being a northern communication of fome 
fort by fea, between this welt fide of America and the 
ealt fide through Baffin’s Bay.’ The Efquimaux are 
wholly and radically didindt and different from any of 
the Indians of the interior: they are occupiers of the 
coad alone; they never quit it, nor could they without 
undergoing a total change of habits and of life. There 
is, therefore, the llrongelt preemption that they mud 
have made their w'ay into Hudfon’s and Baffin’s Bays by 
the fea-coafi ; in which cafe their route mud have been 
either by the fhores of a diredt water-communication, or 
by the northern and eaflern coafts. of Greenland, and 
round Cape Farewell; but there is good reafcn to believe 
that the latter was not their route, as the Danes were 
fettled in Wed Greenland before the Efquimaux, of 
whom the firft mention occurs when they come in con¬ 
tact in their progrefs fi/uih in the fourteenth century with 
the mod northern Danifh colonies. The probability, 
therefore, is in favour of the firll route, on which they 
have been found at intermediate points of the American 
coad, by Hearne and Mackenzie. This fadt has always 
appeared to me one of the dronged prefumptive proofs, 
that thefe gentlemen were really in the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of the fea. 
“ May I trefpafs a little further on your fpace, in an- 
fwer to a quedion which is very often put to me, viz. 
What has the late voyage actually eftedled towards a 
north-well pafTage ? This may be fully anfwered without 
entering into much detail. An important fervice has 
been rendered in edablilliing the credit which is due to 
the journals of our old navigators. So far as we purfued 
Baffin's track, we had continual reafon to admire the 
faithfulnels of his defcriptions, and the general corredlnefs 
of his obfervations ; it may be prefumed, therefore, that 
his account is equally to be relied on where he went be¬ 
yond us, or approached the coad nearer than we did. 
His voyages, and thofe of Davis, have left but few por¬ 
tions of the coad unexplored; but then thofe very por- 
tions are the mod intereding, from fituation and from 
^ircumdance. Although the general diredlion of the 
1 and had impreded Baffin’s mind with a perfuafion that it 
formed the Bay which has borne his name, yet it is plain, 
from his own account, that even he did not confider that 
he had proved it to be a bay. He had feen the land only 
at intervals, interrupted by large inlets or openings in 
the coad, to which he gave the name of founds; and he 
felt it necedary to apologize for having fought the coad 
iio better, and to explain the circumltances which had 
prevented him. It is partly on thefe inlets that the hope* 
of perfons who have thought, fince then, on the proba¬ 
bility of a pad'age, have been fixed. It has been expedled 
that one or more will be found to communicate with tho 
northern ocean. The indrudlions to Lieut. Young, in 
1777, direfled him to examine thefe inlets; but he did not 
reach the coad. They have remained unexplored, and 
dill remain fo. 
“ There are all together feven founds, of which five 
only are intereding, from being on the northern and 
weltern coads. Of thefe the fird is Woldenholm Sound, 
the entrance of which we palled at a few miles didance, 
fufficiently near to identify it by “ theidand in the midd, 
which maketh two entrances.” Of Whale Sound we 
could jud difcern the opening in the coad, being thirty 
or forty miles didant from us. Of Smith’s Sound, “the 
greated and longed in all this bay, and which runnetii 
to the north of 78°,” we can lay nothing, as our extreme 
north was in 76. 53. We were near the entrance of Jones’s 
Sound, but not lo near as Baffin, who lent his boaton- 
diore : we had thick weather ; the found was full of ice, 
and not then acceflible. The lad is Lancaller’s Sound, 
which Baffin merely opened, but we failed into for about 
thirty miles. It is needlefs to enter into a detail here of 
the many encouraging coincidences which awaited us in 
this, the only one of Baffin’s founds into which we en¬ 
tered: the great depth of water, the ludden increafe in 
its temperature, the abfence of ice, the diredlion of the 
fwell, the width of the lliores apart, (exceeding that of 
Behring’s Straits,) and the different character of the 
country on the north and fouth fides, efpecially in the lat¬ 
ter appearing to he wooded. This magnificent inlet will 
no doubt he fully explored by the expedition now fitting; 
and thofe who are fo employed will have the privilege of 
being the fird whofe curiofity will he gratified, in fol¬ 
lowing where it may lead, or in putting its termination, 
Ihould there prove one, beyond a quedion. It is worthy 
of notice, and has not been, I believe, remarked before, 
that the only one of Baffin’s feven founds which has been 
fince examined, namely, the ‘ fair found in latitude 70. 
20.’ when he anchored for two days on his way up the 
Greenland coad, proves to have been, in fa 61 , the en¬ 
trance of the Waygat Straits: fo eafy is it for the mod 
experienced perfon to he midaken, except upon a very 
clofe examination. From Lancader’s Sound to the en¬ 
trance of Cumberland Strait the coad was imperfedlly 
known before, and was very imperfe6lly feen by us; from 
thence to Repulfe Bay, a didance in a diredl line of not 
lefs than between four and five hundred miles, nothing 
has been added fince the voyages of Davis, Baffin, and 
of Fox. The little that is known is favourable rather 
than otherwife, efpecially at the Welcome. 
“ It may be therefore faid, that the lad voyage has nar¬ 
rowed the ground of inquiry, by ellablilhing the general 
truth of Baffin’s narrative; and that there remains for 
the employment of the prefent expedition an examination 
of all thofe parts of the coall, which our old navigators 
have left uncertain, from the wed fide of Greenland to 
Repulfe Bay.” 
III. It remains only to confider, whether there he any 
poffibility of attaining the wiffied-for paflage by Iailin«- 
direGthj north, between the eadern and vvedern continents. 
Of the practicability of this method, the Hon. Dairies 
Barrington was very confident, as appearsby feveral tradts 
which he publifned in. the years 1775 and 1776, after the 
unfuccefsful attempts made by Capt. Phipps; (leep. 191.) 
In thefe trails he Alliances a great number of navigators 
who have reached very high northern latitudes ; nay, 
fome who have been at the pole itfelf, or gone beyond it. 
Thefe indances are, 
1. One Capt. Thomas Robertfon aflured our author,, 
that lie had been in latitude S2I 0 , that the fea was open,, 
and he vzas certain that lie could have reached the lati¬ 
tude of 83°. 
2. From the teftijnony of Capt. Cheyne, who gave 311- 
iwers to certain queries drawn up by Mr. Dalrymple con- 
3 cerning 
