GltEENI.AND CURRENTS. 
339 
or four weeks of my time entirely to research, I 
might have coasted the land down to Cape Fare¬ 
well, and seen every station of the colonies by the 
way. In such an investigation I apprehended 
little difficulty. The chief difficulty, that of 
obtaining an entrance through a body of ice, 
100 to 150 miles in width, which skirted and de¬ 
fended the coast, was already’ overcome; and as 
in the 70th, 71st and 72d parallels of latitude, 
we found the best navigation close in-shore, wc 
had some reason to expect, that we should not, at 
any rate, have met with any thing insurmount¬ 
able to obstruct our way to the southward, even 
down to the extreme promontory of Green¬ 
land. 
The Currents upon the eastern coast of Green¬ 
land require a few remarks. The main current 
here, as in other parts of the Greenland and Spits¬ 
bergen Seas, sets to the south-westward, but there 
is a peculiarity along the coast of great import¬ 
ance to the navigator. This is a periodical offset 
and inset; the latter apparently occasioned by the 
action of the great inlets that intersect the coast 
in such various positions. It would appear, that 
there is an offset from the coast in the months of 
June and July, produced probably by the quanti¬ 
ty of water poured into the sea on the melting of 
