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but said it was too large for them to kill; it has, by their account, a horn on its back, and is very swift, I therefore suppose it must be a reindeer. They have also an animal known to both countries by the name of Ancarok,* but which I cannot find to be mentioned by writers on Greenland. Saccheuse says, it is not uncommon about North-east bay and Disco bay, where its cry is continually heard at night. It is very wild, and can seldom be approached, being very active and fierce; the Esquimaux are afraid of it. He says it resembles a cat, but is three times larger, that it moves by jumping more than by running, and lives in holes and caverns in the rocks; that it eats hares and partridges, which it lies in wait for, and catches by springing on them.'

The dogs are the only animals domesticated by these Arctic Esquimaux: they are of various colours, chiefly a dark brown; of the size of a shepherd's dog, a head like a wolf, and a tail like a fox. The natives appeared to prefer the black. Weasels and mice seem to finish their known list of animals. Nor are their birds very numerous. The merlin falcon, eider duck, garrot, sea-dove, petrel, scraber, guilemot, diver, tern, and gull, almost exhaust the catalogue. A new species of gull, called xeme, was discovered, associating with the greater tern, which in its habits it nearly resembles. Of invertebrate animals a few novelties were also found; but as they were not well preserved, we shall not describe them further than by stating generally that they belonged to the Anneleides, Crustacea, Gasteropoda, and Acephela classes. A gull was shot, two feet five inches in length, which disgorged a little awk entire, and these awks were in such myriads that they covered the whole surface of the water, and sometimes the boats killed 1500 in a day for food, commonly bringing down fifteen at a shot.

In concluding our analysis of this work, it becomes our duty to deliver an opinion upon the merits of the writer, as the commander of a voyage of discovery; and while on one hand we shall have to notice some traits very honourable to his character as a naval officer and gentleman, we must, reluctantly, say that we think he has failed in the principal objects of the expedition. It seems to us that all the east side of Baffin's bay has been satisfactorily explored, but that in regard to the west coast, where, as the very name implies, there was the greatest likelihood of a North-West passage, we are very little better informed than we were fifty years ago. Not one of the great inlets on this coast has been sufficiently examined, and it is evident from the pains captain R. takes to set himself right, that the conclusiveness of his arguments are neither allowed by the admiralty at home, nor by his associates in the voyage. Indeed captain Sabine distinctly says, that there are seven probable inlets, the nature and termination of which are still unascertained, and the new expedition fitting out for this quarter proves, that hopes are cherished of finding a passage to the north of Cum

* Called Amarok by Sabine!!

berland straits, where captain Ross conceives he has settled that there is none. We confess that we are against him in this hypothesis: he may be correct, but he certainly has not solved the problem. The very sound, the Lancaster sound of Baffin in latitude 74o 19', which was most investigated, seems to be left in as much doubt as those straits which were passed without examination. We know not what is meant by there being no indication of a passage,' nor does the absence of a current, of drift wood, and of a swell from the north-west, at all decide the question. After standing up this bay (if it must be called so) about eighty miles, captain R. says, I distinctly saw the land, round the bottom of the bay, forming a connected chain of mountains, with those which extended along the north and south sides. The land appeared to be at the distance of eight leagues: at this moment I also saw a continuity of ice, at the distance of seven miles, extending from one side of the bay to the other, between the nearest cape to the north, which I named after sir George Warrender, and that to the south, which was named after viscount Castlereagh. The mountains, which occupied the centre, in a north and south direction, were named Croker's mountains, after the secretary to the admiralty. The south-west corner, which formed a spacious bay, completely occupied by ice, was named Barrow's bay.'

Notwithstanding the worthy navigator appears thus to have shut us out from all access to the Pacific in this direction, by employing the names of the whole board of admiralty and some of the cabinet to boot, we are still so sceptical as to imagine that a way through is as likely to be found in Lancaster sound, as any where else on the coast. It is strange that captain Ross should speak so positively of chains of mountains entirely crossing the bay, when his own description of the illusions caused by the refraction of light must show that vision was little to be depended upon even for the shape of objects; and surely a sailor need not have gone far from England to be aware that the most obvious and apparent obstacles of land are not always sure indications of the impossibility of discovering winding and sinuous passages by water. The river Thames would never have been sailed up from the Nore to London bridge, had such appearances been deemed infallible; and Milford Haven, from the cross-bearings of the land about it, could never be suspected from the sea-view of being aught but a small and shallow bay. On sounding too, when nearest the termination of this bay, 650 fathoms of line were out, and five new species of worms were brought up by the clamm; both of which we take to be considerable indications hostile to captain Ross's theory, though he passes over the latter in silence, and meets the former by observing, that the bays were always the deepest water on the opposite coast, and also in some parts of Norway and the Baltic. In fine, we consider, that the inquiry in this quarter utterly fails.

On the first of September, however, the boats landed a party on the southernmost cape of Lancaster's sound, called cape Byam

Martin, and took formal possession of the country in the name and on behalf of his Britannic majesty. Of our new dominions, the following is the account:~~

At six, the boats returned with many specimens of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. A white bear had been seen and wounded, but escaped by swimming to an iceberg. The skeleton of a whale was found about 500 yards above high water mark, and two small pieces of wood at a still greater distance from the sea. No traces of any inhabitants were seen, and the circumference of the bones of the whale being entire, seems to strengthen the supposition that this part of the country was not, nor had been, inhabited for a great length of time. The deer, fox, ermine, and white hare, were either seen, or proved to be in abundance, and specimens of the two latter were brought on board. It appeared from the reports of all the officers, that they landed on a shingle beech, at the mouth of a small river, which was described to be one hundred feet wide, and the water two feet deep: the bed was twelve feet deep, and several pieces of birch bark were found in it; and, at a little distance from these, another smaller river was discovered. The valleys from which these proceed, were found to be covered with verdure and wild flowers; the mountains on each side were immensely high, and covered with snow. On the SE. of the valley there was a small plain, which was also covered with verdure, and the scenery, altogether, was much more pleasing than any that had been seen during the voyage. The rise and fall of the tide was represented to be by some five, by others four, feet, but the stream was not perceptible; the water was deep close to the shore, and there was no anchoring ground found.'

To this rather interesting account of our rather barren new possessions, we have only to add that the latitude is 73° 37′ N. long. 77° 25′ W. and variation 110° 00′ W.

Though it appears to us that captain Ross has not succeeded in accomplishing the principal objects of the expedition, and indeed done little more than corroborate the wonderfully accurate observations of Baffin, who had no such advantages in shipping, in instruments, and in equipments; yet it should be recorded, to his honour, that, during the whole voyage, there was not a single punishment, nor one case of sickness. A trait of noble conduct, worthy of a British seaman, is also disclosed in the following, where, speaking of the newly found tribe of Esquimaux, it is stated, 'They could not be made to understand what was meant by war, nor had they any warlike weapons; and I gave strict and positive orders that no fire-arms, or other warlike weapons, should be shown them, or given to them on any account, and when they were with us all shooting parties were called in. They seemed to have no diseases among them, nor could we learn that they died of plaints peculiar to this or any other country. We saw no deformed persons among them, nor could we find out that there were any,'

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It is to the first sentence of this extract that we desire to point attention. Like the happy people of Loo Choo, even these rude savages are blessedly ignorant of some of the worst fruits of civilization, and captain Ross's admirable proceedings in this respect alone, entitles his name to be enrolled with that of the intrepid and illustrious Cook, whose humanity redounded, as much as his gallant perseverance, to the everlasting fame of his country.

The invention of the machine for taking soundings from the bottom of any fathomable depth, called the Deep Sea Clamm, is also a credit to the author of the volume before us. It consists of A hollow parallelogram of cast iron, (1 cwt.) eighteen inches long, six by six, and four by five inches wide. A spindle passes through it, to a joint of which the forceps are attached and kept extended by a joint bolt: when the bolt touches the ground the forceps act, and are closed by a cast-iron weight slipping down the spindle, and keeping fast the contents till brought up for examination.'

By this intrument the deepest soundings ever reached in Baffin's bay, were taken at 1050 fathoms! and it was ascertained that the bottom of the sea, like the land was very mountainous. The mud was extremely soft: Lat. 72° 23′.

'The instrument came up completely full, containing about six pounds of mud, mixed with a few stones and some sand. Although this mud was of a substance to appearance much coarser than that which we had before obtained, it was also of a much looser nature, and had in it no insects or organic remains; but a small star fish was found attached to the line below the point marking 800 fathoms. The instrument took twenty seven minutes to descend the whole distance. When at 500 fathoms, it descended at the rate of one fathom per second, and when near 1000 fathoms down, it took one second and a half per fathom.'

It took an hour' for all hands' to get it up again from this prodigious depth, and the result of the experiments, by the self-registering thermometer, which it took down, proved that the water was colder in proportion as it became deeper. The temperature at 660 was 251o; at 400, 28°; at 200, 29; and at 100, 30o.

We cannot pass uncommended the excellence of all the nautical and philosophical observations, and the very superior manner in which they are demonstrated by the expensive tables, &c. given in this work. It is true that, owing apparently to the misunderstanding with captain Sabine, the geological and natural history departments are defective; of the former we learn little more than that gneiss and granite are the chief formations in these northern regions, and of the latter nothing beyond what has been stated in small compass, in a preceding number of the Literary Gazette. The facts relative to variations of the compass are more correctly and intelligently ascertained. The result is, that every ship has an individual attraction, which affects the compasses on board her;

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different in different ships, not always progressive, but often irregular, and impossible to be reduced to rule.

"That the point of change is not the same in different parts of a ship.

"That the deviation does not always continue the same under the same apparent circumstances, and varies according to the point the ship's head is on.

That the deviation is materially affected by heat and cold, as well as by the atmospheric humidity and density; and that the direction of the wind as well as the dip, has an irregular effect on the deviation.'

We have already noticed some remarkable natural phenomena. In latitude 74o 19', in one place, nearly between cape Fanshaw and Elizabeth's bay, two rocks, resembling human figures, of a gigantic size, were seen in a sitting posture, on the very highest peak; and as it was considerably above the clouds, their appearance was both extraordinary and interesting.'

The aurora borealis was frequently visible in September and October: occasionally all round the horizon, and sometimes in the true south! These coruscations were amazingly brilliant.

We have now only to notice the return of the expedition to Brassa sound, on the 7th of November. All the journals, even those of a private nature, were claimed by the admiralty, and given up. The conduct of the officers and crews of both ships was approved of, and it was intimated that they might volunteer for the new expedition in the spring (now about to sail,) when nearly the whole embraced the offer.

The ornamental parts of the volume are beautiful and splendid; the scientific part, of the utmost value; and the whole a credit to the spirit of the publisher.

ART. II.-Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene, Major General in the Army of the United States, and Commander of the Southern Department, in the War of the Revolution. By Charles Caldwell, M. D. Professor of Natural History in the University of Pennsylvania. 1819.

GENERAL GREENE was the son of Nathaniel Greene, a respectable anchor-smith, of the town of Warwick in Rhode Island, and was born in the year 1741. Being intended,' we are told, by his father, for the business which he had himself pursued, young Greene received, at school, nothing but the elements of a common English education. But, to himself, an acquisition, so humble and limited, was unsatisfactory and mortifying. Even now, his aim was lofty; and he had a noble ambition, not only to embark in high pursuits, but to qualify himself for a manly and honourable acquittance in them. Seeming, at this early period of life, to realize the important truth, that knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it, became, in a short time, his ruling passion.

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