salt. This arises from the freezing point of water falling in a certain ratio, according to the degree of saltness; thus, though pure water, of specifie gravity 1.0000 freezes with a temperature of 32°, water of specific gravity 1.0263, containing about 5 ounces (avoirdupois) of salt, in every gallon of 231 cubic inches; that is, with the degree of saltness common to the Greenland sea, freezes at 2840. Sea-water, concentrated by freezing, until it obtains the specific gravity of 1.1045, requires a temperature of 133°, for its congelation, having its freezing point reduced 183° below that of pure water; and water saturated with sea-salt, remains liquid at a temperature of zero." Scoresby's Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 231.

It can, therefore, be easily understood, that a permanent congelation of the Arctic Sea, or any large portion of it, cannot exist in the temperature with which we are at present acquainted. Indeed, Captain Parry says in his third voyage, he believed "Barrow's Strait was not permanently frozen during the winter." On land, in many parts of the frigid zone, however, the eternal ice holds its rigid sway. At the entrance of the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, where Capt. Parry passed the second winter, on his second voyage, the ice of the preceding year was not detached from the shores, when that of the new began to form. In the morasses, at the mouth of the Obi, one of the great rivers of Siberia, the ground, at the depth of a foot, is permanently frozen, and the same thing exists, we are told by Kotzebue, on the shores of Icy Cape. This commander also mentions a mountain of pure ice, "a real iceberg," in Kotzebue's Inlet, on which the party travelled some time, without knowing or suspecting its composition. Moss and grass covered it on every side but one, where cliffs of pure ice were to be seen. Upon further investigation, they found large quantities of mammoth teeth and bones in this ice.

It has been a matter of some doubt whether ice is ever formed at sea. The testimony of that accurate observer of the phenomena of the Arctic Sea, Captain Scoresby, we think conclusive on this subject. He observed it "from the first appearance of chrystals, until the ice obtained a thickness of more than a foot." This was during the space of a month, and when the sea was free from exotic ice.

The icebergs, those monuments of frost and "wonders of the deep," majestically towering over the waves, and resisting the storms of the ocean, present to us an object worthy of contemplation. All navigators of the Arctic Ocean have gazed on these great natural curiosities with amazement. These huge masses are supposed to be avalanches, generated on land, and filling up valleys and recesses of mountains, down whose sides they are brought by torrents. This may be the case with the smaller

ones-the largest can only be formed by the sides of high perpendicular cliffs, whose base is washed by the sea. The accumulated mass of ages here, by its own gravity, overcoming the force of cohesion, falls with a tremendous crash into the deep, and these "thunder-bolts of snow" are carried, by currents, to the south.

It has been a matter of speculation, how large rocks, and other extraneous matter, could be placed on the icebergs. "I came," says Fox, "by one piece of ice, higher than the rest, whereupon a stone was, of the contents of five or six tonne weight, with divers other smaller stones, and mud thereon." Captain Parry says, "the quantity in which these substances, (stones, shells, sand, mud, weeds, &c.) here occurred, was really surprising, and puzzled us extremely to account for the manner in which they found their way upon the floes." Rocks may be placed on masses of this kind in two ways. 1st. When an avalanche takes place from the side of a naked rock, large pieces, detached by the frost, would be carried away by the ice, and remain firmly attached to it. 2d. These icebergs often remain aground for years, and when removed from their moorings, by the rising of the waters, by the effect of storms, or by the diminution of their bulk, they are launched into the current, and their centre of gravity becoming changed by the detachment of considerable portions, from abrasion, their equilibrium is destroyed, and the summit may be inverted, and become the base.

Solar heat frequently acts upon their masses, and, by melting away the sides, portions fall into the sea, with a tremendous noise. This is technically called calving, and the crash is heard sometimes several miles. While it has this rolling motion, the mass sometimes falls to pieces "like a wreck." The Straits of Hudson and Davis, Fox's Channel, and Baffin's Bay, are prolific nurseries of icebergs. Ellis saw one 500 or 600 yards in thickness, and Frobisher describes one to be "near four score fathoms above water. Captain Ross mentions the almost incredible number of 700 being in sight at one time; some of these, too, were of an enormous size. One was aground in 150, and several together, in 250 fathoms. An accurate calculation of the dimension of one which was aground in 61 fathoms, was made by Lieutenant Parry, and was estimated to weigh 1,292,397,673 tons. It may be well to remark here, that the specific gravity of ice, being one-sixth less than water, one-seventh part of the whole bulk only appears above water.

It is a curious fact, that icebergs are rarely seen in the Spitzbergen seas; and, when seen, are universally small, although the northern part is in 80°. There is no approach to the pole, so easily and securely obtained, as by Spitzbergen. It is doubtful, however, if any one has ever approached to the 83d parallel of lati

tude. The Hon. Daines Barrington, has taken infinite pains to collect accounts made by various whalers, which he read before the Royal Society. Agreeably to these statements, the latitudes of 83°, 83° 50′, S6°, 88°, 89°, and even 89° 30', have been reached; but we agree with Captain Scoresby, a man of experience and observation, that little reliance can be placed upon relations of any voyages, beyond 81° or 82°. He says, none of the navigators, who had been sent expressly to explore the Polar regions, have been able to reach the parallel of 81°. The only approximation to the Pole, beyond 81°, which he thinks well established, was that made by his father, while he served as chief mate, when 81° 30' was reached with great trouble and risk, being the only opportunity Captain Scoresby sen. ever had, during his numerous voyages, to advance so far. Captain Phipps, with all his efforts, was not able to approach nearer than 80° 48'. The persevering and able navigator Capt. Parry, however, in his last voyage, penetrated with his vessel to 81° 5' 32", near to which parallel, having made previous preparations, he disembarked on the ice, and after having travelled thirty-five days to the north, was obliged to return, after attaining perhaps the greatest northern latitude, under which any human being had ever breathed, 82° 45′ 15′′. We ought not to pass here unnoticed, a most extraordinary expedition undertaken by that excellent officer Baron Wrangel. He proceeded from the mouth of the Kolyma to the northward, over the ice, and was stopped by an open sea free from ice or land in every direction. In a second attempt, a gale of wind broke up the ice, and he was tossed about on a small floe, which fortunately landed him at length, almost dead, on the coast of Asia, near Behring's Strait.

The currents of the Polar Basin, have excited the liveliest interest in those who have studied the geography of the Frigid Zone. All navigators of those seas, and particularly the more recent ones, have observed with considerable exactness their course and rapidity. We believe there is evidence enough, in the numerous voyages to the north, to sustain us in affirming, that the current which "rushes through Behring's Strait," passes over the pole, spreading itself partially to the right and left. On the left, it sweeps by North-East Cape, and brings down the ice to the east of Spitzbergen-to the right, after turning Icy Cape, it probably passes at no great distance from the northern coast of America, and finds an exit through Barrow's Strait and Prince Regent's Inlet, into Baffin's Bay, and through the Straits of the Fury and Hecla, into Fox's Channel. The principal part, however, of this current, passes to the south between the east coast of Greenland and Spitzbergen, bringing thousands of square leagues of ice with it every season, at the rate of five to twenty miles per day. Drift-wood is found in "considerable quantities,

in almost every part of the Greenland Sea." The shores of the island of Jan Mayen, and those of Spitzbergen, have annually immense deposits on them, and the bays of Iceland have sometimes been filled up with it. A few years since, the governor of Disco, a Danish settlement on the western coast of Greenland, had in his possession a mahogany table manufactured from a plank carried there by a current undoubtedly from the west. This mahogany must have grown on the west side of America, and within the tropics. A tree of logwood was also picked up, at no great distance from this place; and Admiral Lowenorn, on the east coast of Greenland, found so large a piece of mahogany, that he was obliged to saw it in half, before he could take it on board. These woods from warm climates, are frequently perforated by worms, (perhaps vermiculares and pholades,) which are said not to exist in the northern seas.

The navigators who have penetrated Behring's Strait, all agree in the fact of there being a constant current to the north, through this strait. On the southern shores of the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago, quantities of drift-wood are deposited. Forster says, "an enormous quantity of drift-wood is found in the sea, between Kamtschatka and America, and along the northern coast of Siberia ;" and it may be remembered, that Captain Cook supplied his ship with firewood, from the ice of this strait. We can trace this floating wood into the strait, and, in fact, almost through the whole passage. Kotzebue found it in considerable quantity, in the sound which bears his name; and Captain Franklin says, "large pieces of drift-wood gave us assurance that we had finally escaped from the bays;" that is, being at Point Turnagain, the effects of the current of the sea were again visible. Kotzebue observed, that the floors of the houses of the natives, in the north-west part of America, were raised three feet from the ground-these floors were made from the drift-wood brought by the currents of the south. Some curious and well authenticated facts, relating to the passage of whales from one sea to the other, are mentioned by navigators. "Whales which have been harpooned in the Greenland Seas, have been found in the Pacific Ocean; and whales, with stone lances sticking in their fat, (a kind of weapon used by no nation now known,) have been caught both in the Spitzbergen Sea, and in Davis's Strait." Scoresby's Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 8.

A whale was caught in the Tartarian Sea, from the back of which was taken a Dutch harpoon, with the letters W. B. upon it. This proved to belong to William Bastiaanz, admiral of the Dutch Greenland fleet, and was struck in a whale, in the Sea of Spitzbergen. A Captain Franks, in 1825, struck a whale in Davis's Strait, which was afterwards killed by his son, near Spitzbergen, who found VOL. III.-NO. 6.

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the harpoon in the fat of the whale, with his father's name on it. It must have passed to the north of Greenland, perhaps through Wellington Channel, as it is well ascertained they seldom pass down Davis's Strait, into the Atlantic Ocean. It is stated, on good authority, that whales have been as low down the western coast of America, as Nootka Sound, which had been struck in Davis's Strait, or the Sea of Spitzbergen.

It has frequently been asked, what advantage would result to the world from the discovery of a passage round the northern part of America? The fur companies of the north could well answer this query. If a trade could be opened in furs with the natives on the northern coast, most important benefits might arise,the voyage to the East Indies, too, would be shortened one-third, and to our traders to the western coast it would be exceedingly advantageous.

In a geographical point of view, it would be exceedingly interesting; and such discoveries, Malte Brun justly observes, "enhance the dignity and value of human nature."

If we look at the relative position of the land, in the northern part of our continent, four interesting points at once strike the eye-Icy Cape, Cape Turnagain, Cape Dundas, and Cape Garry of Prince Regent's Inlet. These may be considered as beacons to direct to the path by which the passage may possibly be made. The distance from Icy Cape to Prince Regent's Inlet is about 1500 miles, and might be run in fifteen days, unless some obstruction, not yet discovered, intervene. The space yet undiscovered seems to narrow with great rapidity. The distance from Cape Dundas, (extreme southern point of Melville Island,) to Icy Cape, is little over 800 miles-from the same cape to Point Turnagain, of Franklin, 350-and to Cape Garry but very little more. These are interesting objects, and arrest the attention of all readers of northern voyages of discovery; and the time cannot be far distant when the geography of this part of the continent will be almost as perfect as of that which is inhabited by more civilized man.

It appears to us that a voyage, the results of which would be eminently successful, could be made with less risk and less expense, than most of Parry's voyages, and with more certainty. Since the recent expeditions of Franklin and Beechey, there cannot be a doubt of there being a navigable communication round Icy Cape into the Polar Sea. We are unfortunately yet without the official statements of these gentlemen, but we have seen that their approach was separated by a distance of only about 130 miles. It appears from Captain Beechey's letter of November 4th, 1826, that he left St. Paul's, in Kamtschatka, on the 4th July, and proceeded to Kotzebue's Sound, where he remained only four days,