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iii the Western Antic Sea. 37 compelled to pass, in such a situation, a range of dreary helpless months, the duration, and the effects of which, no one on board, not even our Greenland mariners, could conjecture. The dura tion of the sun’s absence in any given latitude within the Arctic circle, we could calculate; but what might be the state of the land, and especially of the sea around us, what resources, if any, could be drawn from them, how we were to occupy ourselves in a night of many weeks, how to withstand the incessant assaults of intense cold, and to guard against the consequences of a long course of inactivity on the health and spirits of all on board ; on these, and various other topics, we had conjecture alone to guide us. When our story comes to be known in Europe, some of those good- natured friends, of whom Sir Peter Teazle speaks in the School for Scandal, will be ready to comfort us with the reflection, that had we left England a little sooner in the year, had we used more strenuous exertions during our passage out, had we displayed a little more ingenuity in searching for a passage across the Ame rican Arctic seas, or a little more perseverance in contending with the obstacles which opposed themselves to our progress ; had we, in fact, done any thing but what we have done, instead of freezing to death in the parallel of 75°ofN. latitude, we might now be indulging the hope of basking in the genial climes of the Asiatic Pacific. That we shall convince the world that, as far as our knowledge and zeal were concerned, we have not been want ing to ourselves, is perhaps too much to be expected ; that we have already convinced ourselves, and one another, is beyond a doubt. After assuring you thatwe all, one excepted, now possess perfect health, notwithstanding the severe labours to which every man in the expedition, none excepted, has been subjected, 1 will return to my usual account of our proceedings. My last letter concluded rather abruptly, with announcing our arrival, on the 1st of September, on the eastern part of what ap peared to be an island detached from any land before examined or seen ; for we had run about seven leagues to the westward, with out discovering any land from the southern extremity of Byatn Martin Island. The part we came upon was a low point, and standing to the S.W. fora few miles, we found ourselves at noon of Wednesday, 1st September, in N. lat. 74° and W. long- 106 0 O/'i. The land, like the immediate preceding islands, was of a character wholly different from that of the coasts of the eastern parts of the strait, being low along the shore, and more elevated, but neither mountainous nor precipitous, in the interior. Little snow was observed on the land, but the sea to the south ward was completely invested witli ice, as far as our best glasses could penetrate. Large masses of ice are aground on the shore; but still the channel between the land and the great body of ice