jecting point of the American continent had been imperfectly traced by him, and not ascertained to be part of the continent, but was now fully explored by Captain Cook; to him, indeed, mankind will ever be indebted for the knowledge acquired of that part of the world, which, until he visited it, was altogether unknown. It has been justly remarked, that "the fictions of spe culative geographers in the southern hemisphere have been continent, and in the northern hemisphere seas." If Captain Cook in his second voyage annihilated imaginary southern islands, he has made amends in his third voyage, by annihilating northern seas, and filling up the vast space which has been allotted to them, with the solid contents of his new discoveries of American land, farther westward and northward than had hitherto been traced."

On the 7th of August our navigator reached the western extremity of all America hitherto known, which he named Cape Prince of Wales; it is situated in latitude 65° 46', longitude 168° 5' W. On the 9th, the two ships crossed the strait, for the opposite coast of Asia, which they reached the next day: the coasts of the two continents are there distant only thirteen leagues. The people who inhabit this eastern extremity of Asia are called the Tschutski, and were visited by Beering in 1728. This land Captain Cook considers as properly the Tschukotskoi Noss, or eastern promontory of Asia, although the promontory to which Beering gave that name is farther to the south-west. It is a peninsula of considerable height, joined to the continent by a very low and, to all appearance, narrow neck of land, in latitude 66° 6′, and longitude 169° 38′ W. Proceeding to the north-east, they regained the Ameri. can shore, being now in the Arctic or North Sea; on the 17th they had reached latitude 70° 33′, when a brightness in the northern horizon appeared, like that reflected from ice, and which is commonly called "the blink;" in an hour after, a large field of ice became visible, and shortly, when in latitude 70° 41', entirely prevented the farther progress of the ships in that direction. On the 18th the two ships were close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall, and seemed at least ten or twelve feet high; farther north it appeared much higher, its surface was extremely rugged, and here and there pools of water were observed upon it. The depth of water was from seven to nine fathoms. this time the weather, which had been hazy, cleared up a little,

At

and land was seen extending from S. to S. E. by E. about three or four miles distant. As the eastern extreme point of land was much encumbered with ice, Captain Cook gave it the name of Icy Cape, latitude 70° 29', longitude 162° 40'. This is doubtless a continuation of the American continent. Here prodigious numbers of sea-horses were seen, lying upon the ice. The ships were then in a critical situation, being in shoal water, upon a lee shore, the main boly of the ice to windward driving down upon them. the 21st, the ice was found to cover a part of the sea which but a few days before had been clear, and to extend farther to the south than when it was first fallen in with. Captain Cook supposed that the whole body of ice was a moveable mass.

On

Quitting the American coast, and proceeding to the westward, the water deepened gradually to twenty-eight fathoms, which was the greatest depth found in the Arctic or North Sea. In the morning of the 26th, ice was again fallen in with, latitude 69° 36', longitude 176° W. which gave no better prospect of getting to the north in that meridian than nearer shore. Standing to the westward, in the afternoon the ships were in a manner embayed in the ice, which lay E. N. E. and W. N. W. as far each way as the eye could reach. There being little wind, Captain Cook went with the boats to examine the state of the ice, and found it to consist of loose pieces of various kinds, so closely wedged together that it was diffi. cult to enter the outer edge with a boat, and it was as impossible for ships to enter it as if it had been so many rocks. It was all pure transparent ice, except the upper surface, which was a little porous. It appeared to be all composed of frozen snow, and to have been all formed at sea. The pieces of ice which composed the outer edge of the field were from forty or fifty yards in extent to four or five, and Captain Cook supposed the larger pieces to rise thirty feet or more above the surface of the water; and he is of opinion that the sun has very little influence in reducing these great masses of ice, as in this climate it seldom shines out longer than a few hours at a time, and often is not seen for several days together. It is the wind, or rather the waves raised by the wind, that diminish the bulk of these enormous masses, by grinding one piece against another, and by undermining and washing away those parts that lie exposed to the surge of the sea.

On the 29th land was seen, the extreme point of which was

named Cape North, and beyond this the ships were unable to pe netrate it lies in latitude 68° 56', longitude 179° 9′ W. "The coast beyond it," says Captain Cook, "must take a very westerly direction; for we could see no land to the northward, although the horizon was there pretty clear."

As there was now very little probability of finding a passage into the Atlantic, and the season was so far advanced, that the frost was expected to set in, our navigator confined his attention to the obtaining some place where wood and water might be procured, and where he might employ the winter months in making such discoveries as should prove useful to geography and navigation, at the same time that he should be enabled to render his ships and their crews in a better condition to return to the north, in farther search of a passage the ensuing summer.

[Cook's Third Voyage.

SECTION V.

Remarks on the State of the Globe within the Arctic Circle, as it appears from the two preceding Voyages toward the North Pole.

Ir the result of Lord Mulgrave's voyage was unfavourable to the opinion until then entertained of the practicability of making advances in that region of ice, the voyage of Captain Cook on the opposite side of the globe was still more so, being very near eleven degrees short of the approach made by the former; and they con cur in proving the impossibility of navigating in high northern latitudes. Lord Mulgrave made his nearest approach to the pole on the 31st of July; Captain Cook's greatest approximation was on the 18th of August. The latter, on the 30th of January, 1774, proceeded nearer toward the south pole by twenty-six minutes than he was capable of penetrating toward the north. It is like. wise worthy of notice, how very different the arctic regions appeared to be, in many important particulars, on its opposite sides; for instance, Lord Mulgrave could find no bottom with a vast quantity of line; Captain Cook never got a greater depth of water than twenty-eight fathoms. When sailing from Europe, currents were found to set in strong in the highest latitudes which were

reached, and to be very variable; in proceeding from the points of Asia and America, no current could be observed. On one side of the globe the sky was, in general, loaded with hard, white clouds, insomuch that the sun and horizon were never entirely free from them, even in the clearest weather; on the other side, fogs prevailed to such a degree as entirely to obscure the sun, for many days in succession. The degree of cold was likewise much greater on the Asiatic than on the European side of the globe, which accounts for the expansion of the ice being so much greater in the former place.

In the year 1770, the Hudson's Bay Company directed Mr. Hearne, an officer in their service, to explore the American continent to the north-westward of their settlements, in order to ascertain whether it was practicable to reach the northern ocean over land, and how far the continent extended northward. In this la borious enterprise Mr. Hearne was employed eighteen months. He traced the continent to its termination in about 71° 20′ N. latitude, and 123° W. longitude, but the north sea which there presented itself was frozen over, except the parts about the coast, which rendered it unquestionable that no navigation was practicable upon it, and consequently all prospect of opening a communication with Asia by means of that sea will for ever vanish.

Captain Cook having thus finished his northern cruise, visited a cluster of islands between Kamtschatka and the American coast; then proceeding to a group of islands, lying within the tropic, which had been discovered by him on this voyage, and named the Sandwich Islands, on the 1st of December reached a large island in this cluster, which was called by the natives Owhyhee, where he proposed to procure refreshments for his people, and to repair his ships; but whilst so employed he most unfortunately lost his life, in a skirmish with the natives, on the 14th of February, 1779.

On the death of Captain Cook, the command of the expedition devolved on Captain Clerke, who removed on board the Resolu tion, and Lieutenant Gore, who had three times circumnavigated the globe, became captain of the Discovery. At that time, Captain Clerke's health was in a rapid decline; but although his body was fast sinking to dissolution, yet his mind continued zealously in. tent on conducting the two ships northward, and accomplishing

those great objects of discovery which Captain Cook had purposed to attempt, and to have entered on his career in the month of May following.

The present commander proceeded to the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and entering the bay of Awatska, landed at the little town of St. Peter and St. Paul, on the last day of April. No appearance of spring had then cheered that dreary region; here he continued until the 15th of June, in which time the two ships were well vic tualled and watered; but such was the state of Captain Clerke's health, that neither the repose which he enjoyed in the harbour, nor a milk and vegetable diet, with which he was supplied by the humane assistance of a kind-hearted Russian priest, named Ro. manoff Vereshagen, who officiated at the village of Paratounca, about sixteen miles distant from the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, could restore that excellent officer: yet, debilitated and wasted as he was, he resolved to employ the last remnant of his life in a second attempt to find out a northern passage.-So much was he inspired with the spirit of his great master and exemplar!

In this second navigation of the Arctic or North Sea, the farthest advance which the ships were capable of making was to latitude 70° 26', and longitude of 165° 6' W. which was fifteen minutes short of the point reached by Captain Cook the preceding year, in a direction somewhat more than two degrees to the westward of his course, and just a month earlier in the summer, being on the 18th of July. The remainder of that month was employed in na vigating the sea in various directions, gradually proceeding to the southward. On the 31st, he repassed the straits which separate the two continents, and which have received the name of Beering's Straits. On the 18th of August the ships again entered Awatska bay, but the day before Captain Clerke breathed his last; his remains were interred on shore, and under the orders of his successor Captain Gore, on whom the chief command now devolved, an escutcheon was put up in the church of Paratounca, prepared by Mr. Webber, the landscape painter of the Resolution, with an in. scription upon it, setting forth Captain Clerke's age and rank, together with the object of the expedition in which he was engaged at the time of his death. Captain King then became commander of the Discovery.

On the 9th of October Captain Gore quitted Awatska bay, and,