LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM CAPTAIN COCHRANE, R. N. [Containing Arguments against the Opinions expressed in the Quarterly Review, in its notice of Captain Parry's last Voyage.]

SIR, AS you were good enough to give publicity to some remarks of mine respecting the practicability of a N. W. and the probability of a N. E. navigation round the continent of America, permit me to request the insertion of the following supplement to those remarks, principally arising out of the demi-official review which the Quarterly has given respecting Captain Parry's last voyage. I call it demi-official, because there are parts of the article in question, which prove beyond a doubt that it comes from some person connected with the naval branch of the government. Commodore Krusenstern's letter, the information respecting baron Wrangel, and the knowledge that Captain Franklin had offered to go to the Polar Sea, with several other particular observations, could only have emanated from a direct official employé. I may call it also an exparte review, because the writer of it seems to consider the question not as to the best mode of circumnavigating America, but from what part of the eastern coast the pending expedition shall commence its operations. This is indeed putting the matter in a new light, and evincing a spirit of determination to continue opposing the stream, that it is more than probable would years ago have carried a ship from the Pacific to the Atlantic, had but one attempt been made. The space of six years' endeavour from the Atlantic side has but served to add a small increase to our geographical knowledge. And notwithstanding the sanguine expectations and promises which the Quarterly has made us, we have not approached one inch nearer the accomplishment of a N. W. navigation.

Previously to my going further into the subject, it is but justice to Captain Parry, and all those engaged with him, to premise that they deserve well of their country and merit every praise and reward they have received, and that, situated as they were, no human effort could have effected more, either as regarding their ability or their zeal and perseverance in the discharge of their laborious and perilous duties. After asserting this, I shall not be mistaken by the reader while discussing the propriety or impropriety of the present course of proceeding, as I refer only to the plan, and not to its execution.

Forty pages of the Quarterly Review are devoted to Captain Parry, and not one line tends to shake the opinion I ventured to give the world, namely, that a N. W. passage is nearly impracticable but that a N. E. passage is in all likelihood possible. The last expedition seems to have decided the exact situation and form of the N. E. termination of America, named Melville Peninsula, and that its latitude is 69° 41′ longitude 82° 35′ W. being nearly in the line of latitude with the N.W. Cape of America and the N.E. Cape of Asia, as well as of that which might be termed the N.W. Cape of Europe. Thus much Captain Parry's exertions have effected, having proved also that the statements of former navigators are not as unfounded as the Quarterly would have them to be. It is rather a singular circumstance that the N.E. Capes of Asia and America should be similarly formed, being each a bastion or peninsula running out in a due north line with a very narrow isthmus between it and the main land; both these peninsular terminations form

deep bays to the westward, one called Akkolee and the other Tchaon Bays. They differ however in this circumstance, that the N. E. termination of America forms the southern side of a strait which leads to the American, while the N. E. termination of Asia is in the Asiatic, frozen or Polar Sea: both are considered as impassable for ships: they differ also in the circumstance that the N. E. Cape of Asia is surrounded on three sides N. E. and W., a great part of the year, by mountain or polar ice, without the proximity of numerous islands; while the N. E. Cape of America has extensive lands North, East, and West, hemmed in only by low and impassible ice; the one has a periodical current going to it, while the other is said to have a perpetual current coming from it.

In speaking again of these Currents, it is acknowledged that Captain Parry in the Straits of the Fury and Hecla observed an easterly current of four miles per hour, while on the opposite side of America, and in the same month, the Russian expedition observed the same direction, though at a less rate. This then is a current from the Pacific to the Polar Sea, and from the Polar to the Atlantic. On one side of America a current runs into the Polar Basin, and on the other side out of it. To account for this, is generally considered a difficult task; but, as the question is put by the Quarterly and in part accounted for, I will offer a remark-premising first that I consider the autumnal current in Behring's Straits from the Pacific as only periodical, and that a portion of the water returns to the southward during the period of the greatest expansion of the ice.

To account then for this material difference of current as affecting the extreme points of America; I conceive that the autumnal northern and eastern current which runs from the Pacific to the Polar Sea by Behring's Straits is the direct cause of the autumnal outlet from the Poler to the Atlantic, via the Fury and Hecla Straits. It is the local situations of the two terminations of America, which cause a draught on one, and an ejection on the other side of the Polar Basin. The eastern half of America is composed of inlets, outlets, gulfs, sounds, straits, islands, &c. eternally ice-bound, while the western half of America, as far as we are able to judge, is not only free, but has a clear open navigable sea and easterly current running along its north shore. From the circumstantial statements of Captain Parry when at Melville Island, I do not think that any land will be found within a reasonable distance west of Melville Island or Bankes' Land; and this will account for the ice beyond those lands being extensive fields and hummocks, and consequently impassible from East to West, pressing continually as it does upon the weaker and more detached ice. The same fact, the same peculiarity of situation in which Captain Parry was placed at Melville Island, he found at the Straits of the Fury and Hecla. The Western side of the North-east termination of Asia will also most likely be found an almost endless extent of ice. Had Captain Parry not met with the North Georgian Islands, he would never have penetrated beyond the entrance of Lancaster Sound,-they protected him from the heavy Polar Ice: but the moment he got to the extremity of those isles, he was stopped.

In the wide and extensive but shallow sea north of Behring's Straits, there may be land-it is generally supposed there is—but it cannot join either Asia or America. Whether it be an extensive polar continent, or a large archipelago of isles, (along the sea of Kolyma such is the case,)

it is pretty certain there can be no land south of 72. or 72 1-2. of latitude. The shallowness of the water is, however, no direct proof of land: it may be an extensive sand-bank; yet this shallowness over an extensive wide-spread sea will occasion a greater autumnal void by evaporation and melting of the ice, than would take place on the eastern and more confined side of America. The more free of land ice is, the more power the sun has over it; and as the ice melts so must it be supplied; and the nearest supply is by Behring's Straits, to which there is a direct and uninterrupted route from the South to the North Pole. The more this sea in Behring's Straits expands during the severity of winter, the greater will be the autumnal demand; and greater still, the hotter the summer and in the event of there being a periodical southerly current (a fact I doubt not) during the greatest severity of the winter by the increased expansion of the ice, still greater then will be the autumnal demand. A northerly current through Behring's Straits during the winter could never exist, as the expansion of the ice would prevent it; but although a northerly and easterly current on one side is not perpetual, yet a southern and eastern one on the other may be, and agreeably with my ideas of the subject must be the case. Indirectly speaking, this may be called a circumvolving current: for if the waters of the Pacific do not directly go to the Atlantic, they go there via the Polar Basin, by refunding to that place what the Atlantic had drained it of: in other words, the Pacific supplies the Polar necessity in Autumn, and the Polar surplus in winter finds an outlet at the nearest part, or at the Straits of the Fury and Hecla.

Having thus accounted for the periodical current from the Pacific, which takes place during the thawing, and consequently the navigating season, (a current favourable for a N. E. and therefore against a Ñ. W. passage), I will now account for the perpetual easterly current found from the Polar to the Atlantic Ocean. On the east side of America a periodical thaw must take place, with perhaps an influx of water into the Polar Sea from the Continent: this thaw will principally be along the eastern edge of the ice, which being pressed upon by the heavy fieldice from the westward, gives way occasionally, and these discharges and meltings of the snow can only have an outlet by the Straits of the Fury and Hecla, because any other is too far off. The more the ice melts in the sea north of Behring's Straits, and along the west line of America, the more of it will be found on the castern coast, as the prevailing westerly winds and constant autumnal current will keep it home at the mouth of the Straits of the Fury and Hecla. If, therefore, the same evaporation takes place on either side, of course the Atlantic must receive the whole of that which proceeds along the eastern coast of America; and the greater that evaporation is, the stronger will the current be. Any current found setting from the north coast of America to Regent's Inlet, would be accounted for in the same manner. All the evaporations and meltings, and consequently voids, which take place in the centre of America and to the North, are more likely to be supplied by the waters of the Pacific than by those of the Atlantic, because the former run by a direct and uninterrupted route, which is not the case with the latter, as being circuitous and obstructed.

Thus much for the autumnal eastern current, as observed in the Straits of the Fury and Hecla: the continuance of it during winter

arises from the severity of the cold, which expands the ice in such an amazing manner, that it must have an outlet; and it can hardly be supposed to find any other outlet against the extensive fields of Polar ice which are wedged upon it from the westward. This expansion of ice, I think it is clearly proved, will also cause a southerly current from the sea North of Behring's Straits; as by the last accounts of Baron Wrangel, in the months of March and April was driven upon a floe of ice, separated from the great field, during a gale of wind, and escaped upon it to the Asiatic shore near Behring's Straits: this circumstance would seem to prove that a periodical southerly, as well as a periodical northerly current attends the vicinity of Behring's Straits.

If I have succeeded, therefore, in accounting for the North and East currents during the navigating season, in the sea of Behring's Straits, I trust I have also accounted for the same sort of current from the Polar to the Atlantic, as well during the navigating as the icy season. Nor will my arguments be lessened in weight, if what I wrote to the Royal Society from the shores of the frozen sea be correct (a letter by the bye which has been so ill received, that I shall never trouble that learned body any more), viz. that the currents in Behring's Straits and the sea of Kolyma have always attended the wind, going in the same direction: then will it also make the present hypothesis good, inasmuch as the prevailing winds are Westerly, and therefore a stronger argument for a perpetual Easterly current, along the East side of America.

In reviewing the subject as connected with the results of the late Expedition under Captain Parry, as well as of that which enabled him to reach Melville Island, I can see nothing which tends to lessen the probability of a N. E., or the impracticability of a N. W. passage. Captain Parry's first opinion is, I think, correct; that opinion he has not only expressed but recorded, yet his opinion is not followed; it is set aside, in his own words, for an attempt by a less practicable route. But supposing that Captain Parry is enabled to clear Prince Regent's Inlet, will he not, in rounding it, again meet the same peculiarity in the state of the ice as he met with at Melville Island? if he does not in rounding Regent's Inlet, he will farther on, that is, he will the moment he arrives at the most Western land, whatever may be its latitude, for then he will immediately come against the heavy Polar ice. I do not, however, think he will penetrate beyond Regent's Inlet; he will most likely meet a current; and if otherwise, how is he to cross the field of ice which will lie between him and the North coast of America? Nay farther, suppose he does get through it, he will merely reach Akkolee at the back of Repulse Bay, because he will find a perpetual counter current, and a generally foul wind. Arriving in Akkolee Bay, he will either leave his vessels there, or run the chance of getting out by the Straits of the Fury and Hecla into the Atlantic, thence to England, and so perhaps will terminate the fourth Expedition.

Supposing, however, Captain Parry does not push beyond Regent's Inlet, across the field of ice, or that he again meets the peculiar ice which was observed at Melville Island, what is he to do,-where is he next to grope for a passage? Surely he will not again attempt the course by Melville Island; because he has recorded an opinion unfavourable to such an attempt. Will he attempt to push to the North of the North Georgian

Islands, or will he not return to England?-If the latter, then I hope this determination of opposing the stream will be set aside, and those dreadful situations, threatening instant destruction, to which he has so often and so unnecessarily been exposed, will be for the future avoided.

To get upon the American coast, that is, close to it, appears to be the grand and primary desideratum-once there, it is confidently hoped, I do not say expected, that the voyage is accomplished; I think such would be the case, provided the ships got upon the coast via Behring's Straits; they would then find neither difficulty, danger, nor labour in getting along. Wind and current in their favour, they may, once round Icy Cape (which is proved easy of accomplishment,) reach Akkolee in twenty or thirty days, or Regent's Inlet, if it be possible to get from North to South across the same field of ice. The one feat is more likely than the other; both are not only difficult and laborious, but highly perilous. A ship to start from Icy Cape to the East, in the fall of this year, would by the 1st of October reach the back of Repulse Bay; and if Captain Kotzebue should attempt it (though I fear he is not sufficiently provided, or free to act on an Arctic voyage), then Captain Lyon will bring home the particulars and report, and probably also bring him and his crew; this is the year he will act, if at all. Î agree, that were once the vessels on the American Northern coast, they would, near the shore, be free from heavy ice, because it will take the ground at some distance from the shore, and thus leave the ships at liberty to move. I do not, however, think it so easy or certain a thing to round Icy Cape from the Eastward. With respect to the Straits of the Fury and Hecla, a passage through them from the Westward may not be impracticable, or very dangerous: it would indeed be a tedious operation, but it is perhaps to be accomplished. Once arriving at Akkolee Bay, and coasting Melville Peninsula, à canal might be cut, and the ships would move forward at the same rate as the Eastern bank of the ice should waste away. If Captain Parry was enabled to gain forty or fifty miles in advance towards the passage of the Straits, in the face of a perpetual current, surely he would have passed through the Strait in the same time, going with the stream. Patience alone, independent of nautical skill, would ultimately get the ship through. A ship in approaching the great body of ice would be in danger of being hemmed in, but not very liable to destruction; because the monient it had got on the Western side of the ice, which seals, as it were, the Straits of the Fury and Hecla, a harbour might be cut for its reception, to be had recourse to in case of necessity, when any extensive floe from the Westward should threaten it.

It would be supposed that the ocular evidences of Captains Franklin, Vasillieff and Kotzebue, upon the West and centre of America, with those of Captains Parry and Lyon upon the Eastern coast, would, in the succeeding and pending voyage, have been more appreciated than they have been. The little hope or expectation of a successful N. W. attempt which we had prior to the late Expedition is weakened, if not destroyed by its results, while it has tended to increase the expectation of a successful termination to the labours of a N. E. Expedition.

In my last letter I stated what I considered Captain Parry's only material objection to a N. E. attempt, viz. the health of the crews.. VOL. VII. No. 41.-1824.

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