probably as high as the latitude of 63°, the second settlement was formed. For some centuries, both of them maintained a sort of commercial intercourse with Norway; but this trade became afterwards very much reduced, in consequence of its being seized as an exclusive privilege of the Danish court. About the year 1376, the natives of the country, or Esquimaux invaders, whom the Norwegian settlers had in contempt called Skræl lings or Dwarfs, attacked the western colony, which now claimed the assistance of its elder brother. The scanty population, however, was enfeebled by such repeated alarms; and that dreadful pestilence, termed the Black Death, which raged over Europe from the year 1402 to 1404, at last extended its ravages to Greenland, and nearly completed its destruction. In fertile regions, the waste of the human species is always quickly repaired; but poor and barren countries can seldom recover from the depression of such severe calamities. The colonies which occupied Greenland appear to have languished near one hundred years afterwards, till they became finally extinct about the commencement of the sixteenth century.

But a notion has very generally prevailed, that only the western settlement of Greenland had perished, while the eastern was merely secluded from communication with the rest of the world by a vast barrier of ice at length accumulated on its shores. The only question lately entertained was, whether these ill-fated colonists have survived the catastrophe, or have been suddenly entombed in ice and snow, as the unhappy citizens of Herculaneum were anciently involved in a dense shower of volcanic ashes. Tremendous stories are told of the east side of Greenland being now tenanted by giants and stalking ghosts. For more than a century past, the court of Denmark has, at different times, despatched ships to search after its lost colony, which, evidently' under the impression of superstitious awe, found it impossible to penetrate on that enchanted coast farther than Cape Discord, in the latitude of 61°. But, in favourable seasons, small boats can, without much difficulty, creep along the shore to a much higher parallel. If any settlers had ever occupied the narrow bays, they might surely have escaped, either in their canoes or in sledges.

The supposed existence of a colony on the east side of Greenland is clearly a fable, originating in a misapprehension of the import of the designations applied severally to the two settlements. The one, first made, lay no doubt to the east, as well as to the south of the other; but the ships which resorted from Norway held a westerly course for them both. Between them, a mutual intercourse appears likewise to have been maintained,

which surely could not have taken place, had they been divided by a chain of lofty and impassable mountains covered with eternal snow. Traces of those ancient settlements are besides observed even at present, scattered along the western shores of Greenland, as low down as the latitude of 61°, though not corresponding altogether with the poetical descriptions of the Icelandie Sagas. Except the very slight remains of a church, the only vestiges now remaining consist of low naked walls, which had served as pens for sheltering the cattle.

It may be safely affirmed, that the settlements which, during the last hundred years, the Danes have been forming at various points on the west side of Greenland, are more numerous and thriving than those which existed at any former period. They consist of twenty-one colonies, stretching over an extent of 800 miles. The first establishment is only a single family, occupying Bear Island, a little to the east of Cape Farewell. Ten other hamlets, composed chiefly of Moravians, are planted at different points, from the latitude of 60° to that of 68°. Three settlements are distributed round Disco Bay, about the latitude of 69°; and seven more have been extended thence as far as the latitude of 73°, But the remoter settlers are a depraved and degenerate race, consisting of Danish convicts and their progeny by the Equimaux women, or aboriginal Greenlanders. The whole population of those settlements, including the natives themselves, does not exceed seven thousand; and the annual amount of their trade with Copenhagen, both in exports and imports, is only about 30,000l. Sterling.

So far, therefore, from the population having been extirpated by the increased severity of the climate, the truth appears to be, that the present establishments on the coast of Greenland extend ten degrees farther north than the ancient settlements at their most flourishing period. This advance of the colonies has been owing, no doubt, to the increased activity of the whale fisheries, and to the circumstance of these haying been lately carried with success into Davis's Strait. But there is nothing certainly in their history which betrays any radical or permanent change in the climate of the Arctic regions. The same continent of ice still remains during the far greater part of the year, to bar the access of the navigator to the Pole.

It was before observed, that icebergs are always formed in the bays of a rocky and indented coast. But these huge masses are seen floating only in Davis's Strait, and are very seldom met with in the castern Greenland sea, which is yet so much incumbered with the saline drift ice. It seems probable, therefore, that this sea extends, without any interruption of islands or continent, from Spitzbergen northwards, perhaps even be

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yond the Pole. As the cold increases but very little in advancing to the higher latitudes, the vast expanse of ice which generally covers that basin, may be nearly dissolved at the close of every summer. If the intrepid navigator, therefore, could seize the short and quivering interval, he might perhaps push onwards to the Pole itself. But there, we conceive, he would be obliged to winter; nor could he expect, with the slightest degree of probability, to escape, till the following season should release him from his frozen chains. What may be the fate which awaits our Polar Expedition, it is rather painful to surmise, and is, at all events, hazardous to conjecture. The chances of success, we must say, appear to us to be exposed to a fearful odds. Yet, if it should reach only the latitude of 85°, it will have surpassed all that is well authenticated in the history of former attempts.

The bold plan suggested by Mr Scoresby, for approaching to the Pole over the icy continent, though liable to very serious and formidable objections, affords perhaps, after all, the only tolerable prospect of accomplishing the design. Adopting the mode which the Russian hunters have employed with such advantage in exploring the frozen sea from Nova Zembla to the shores of Kamtschatka, he proposes to pass the winter in the island of Spitzbergen, and, starting in the spring with sledges drawn by dogs, to pursue a direct journey of 6 or 700 miles to the Pole. He might then expect to find a continuous sheet of ice stretching through his whole track. This ice, being little exposed to irregular currents, would likewise, it seems probable, be on the whole smooth and level: Or, if any hillocks should occur on its surface, they could probably be surmounted, or at least avoided by the sledges. The successful traveller would, before the ice broke up, have sufficient time to return to his former quarters.

But to undertake such a perilous journey, would require exalted enthusiasm, and the most unshaken and determined resolution. If an observatory could be planted at the Pole, we might expect to have some interesting experiments on the vibration of the pendulum, and on the direction and intensity of the magne tic forces. This, however, is obviously impracticable; and the most prosperous explorer, therefore, would probably reap no scientific harvest, and earn little but the glory of having performed that which no mortal before him had ever achieved. If he indulged more flattering expectations, he would, in all likelihood, be grievously disappointed. The appearance of the heavens would still be nearly the same as at Spitzbergen; and, even if the traveller passed over the magnetic pole itself, the edle, so far from suddenly reverting, would most probably

become sluggish in its oscillations, and rather indetermined in its direction; since the centre of its attraction being deep seated under the surface of the globe, scarcely any portion of this power would be exerted horizontally.

It only remains to consider the probability of finding a northwest passage to Asia; but this article has already extended to such undue length, as to leave no room for a full discussion of the question. The arguments generally advanced are, besides, of a very loose and inconclusive nature, resting chiefly on obscure and doubtful narratives, or on partial observations of tides and currents, in the Northern seas. We must therefore content ourselves, for the present, with a brief summary of the successive voyages undertaken to explore that famous passage.

It is a curious circumstance, that all the great geographical discoveries achieved in modern times, have originated in the attempts to find out a short route to India, the land of wealth and brilliant promise. Columbus, deceived with regard to its real position, sought to abridge the length of the voyage, by holding a westerly course-and thus discovered, for Spain, the American archipelago; and the Portuguese navigators, in one of their first visits to India, having, to avoid the dangers of sailing along the shores of the African Continent, taken a wider compass, were carried by the trade winds to the coast of the Brazils.

The other maritime powers of Europe now strained every effort to reach India by the North. From England, such attempts were generally made, by associations of merchants, or private adventurers. Between the years 1553 and 1556, Sir Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chandler, and Stephen Burroughs, performed three several voyages in quest of a North-east passage. They doubled the North Cape, touched at Archangel, and reached Nova Zembla and the Strait of Waigats; but could proceed no farther, on account of immense shoals of ice. Their discoveries, however, led to the establishment of the Russia Company, with valuable exclusive privileges.

The prospect of reaching India by the North-East having thus failed, hopes were next entertained of discovering a communication by the North-West. Sir Humphry Gilbert, brotherin-law of the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, wrote a learned discourse to prove the existence of such a passage, from the reports of former voyagers, fortified by all the arguments which the physics of Aristotle, and the tenets of the schoolmen, could supply. In the reign of Elizabeth, the native energy of the English shone forth with new lustre; and that able and politic princess, though sparing of the public treasure, encouraged the activity and enterprise of her subjects, by zealous patronage

and the judicious distribution of honours. A company of adventurers having been formed to discover the North-West passa e it was, through the influence of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, recommended to the Queen's especial protection. On the 15th of June 1576, Martin Frobisher, afterwards knighted for his courageous repulse of the Spanish Armada, sailed from Blackwall, with two barks, the Gabriel of 25 tons, and the Michael of 20 tons, and a pinnace of only 10 tons. In ten days he reached the Shetland Isles, and in three or four days more, he met with large quantities of floating timber, chiefly fir. On the 11th of July, being then in the latitude of 61°, he got sight of Frizeland, or Greenland, rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snow. The weather continued extremely foggy, and the drift-ice prevented his approaching the shore. The pinnace was lost in a storm; and the Michael, disheartened by the prospect, sailed home, and reported that the Gabriel had foundered at sea. But Frobisher, undismayed by the appalling dangers he encountered, and the serious injury which his bark had sustained from the violent storms, pursued a northwesterly course; and, on the 20th of July, he descried, on the coast of Labrador, a high promontory, which he named Queen Elizabeth's Foreland. He met with store of exceeding great ice all this coast along; but, within a few days, it was well. ⚫ consumed and gone, either there ingulft by some swift cur-, rents, or carried more to the southwards. The intrepid commander then surveyed the coast in his boat, and about the latitude of 63° 8' he discovered a large inlet, which he believed to divide the American continent, and which he therefore called Frobisher's Strait. He saw many of the natives; and, having tempted one of them to approach, by holding out some trifling present, he seized the credulous savage as a trophy. He now, in the name of his sovereign, laid claim to the country, which, on his return, was styled the Meta Incognita; and being anxious to obtain some token of Christian possession, some of his company brought flowers, some green grass, and one brought a piece of black stone, much like to a sea-coal in colour, which, by the weight, seemed to be some kind of metal or mineral. The season being now far advanced, Frobisher thought of returning. On the 1st of September, he again came in sight of Frizeland, but could not get near it for the monstrous ice which lay about it.' After conflicting with much stormy weather, he arrived safely at Harwich on the 2d of October.

The prospect which this voyage afforded of a North-West passage was certainly not very inviting; and perhaps no farther search would have been made, had not a circumstance occur red which powerfully stimulated the passion of adventure.

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