this deficiency; but that the expectations of the reader may not be wholly
disappointed, I must beg his candid acceptance of the following
observations, as well as of those I have already ventured to offer him,
relative to the extent of the N.E. coast of Asia.

The evidence that has been so fully and judiciously stated in the
introduction, amounts to the highest degree of probability that a N.W.
passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, cannot exist to the
southward of 65° of latitude. If then there exist a passage, it must be
either through Baffin's Bay, or round by the north of Greenland, in the
western hemisphere, or else through the Frozen Ocean, to the northward of
Siberia, in the eastern; and on whichever side it lies, the navigator must
necessarily pass through Beering's Strait. The impracticability of
penetrating into the Atlantic on either side, through the strait, is
therefore all that remains to be submitted to the consideration of the
public.

As far as our experience went, it appears, that the sea to the north of
Beering's Strait is clearer of ice in August than in July, and perhaps in a
part of September it may be still more free. But after the equinox the days
shorten so fast, that no farther thaw can be expected; and we cannot
rationally allow so great an effect to the warm weather in the first half
of September, as to imagine it capable of dispersing the ice from the most
northern parts of the American coast. But admitting this to be possible, it
must at least be granted, that it would be madness to attempt to run from
the Icy Cape to the known parts of Baffin's Bay, (a distance of four
hundred and twenty leagues), in so short a time as that passage can be
supposed to continue open.[30]

Upon the Asiatic side, there appears still less probability of success,