[Footnote 23:  This subject has been alluded to in the Introduction, and will in all probability receive consideration in the course of this Collection.  It is unnecessary, therefore, to enter upon it in this place.  We shall merely mention a few particulars.  The west coast of Greenland has not been explored beyond 72 deg. latitude.  Little or nothing, that can be relied on, is known concerning the sea of Davis or Baffin’s Bay; the latter, indeed, being generally considered as imaginary, and having no other evidence for its existence, than the assertions, of a man conceived unworthy of credit.  The whole distance from the coast of that bay, as commonly laid down, to the point where Hearne saw the sea, viz. in 69 deg. latitude, being about sixty degrees of longitude, is totally unknown.  The same thing is to be said of both the space betwixt the last mentioned spot, and that at which Mackenzie’s river is conceived to enter, which is denominated the Arctic Sea, amounting to upwards of twenty degrees more, and also of about an equal space betwixt this last position and Icy Cape, the highest point at which Captain Cook arrived in this voyage.  If any passage do exist, it is certain, that it must be beyond 69 deg. latitude, as high as which, it has been indubitably proved by the labours of Cook, Mackenzie, and Hearne, that the continent of America is unbroken by any navigable passage from sea to sea.  Above that latitude, it is not only possible, but also even probable, that the Arctic Sea, supposing it to be the same which Mackenzie and Hearne saw, and that it is equally low down, or nearly so, throughout the other spaces alluded to, may, in some peculiarly mild seasons, admit the passage of canoes, if not of larger vessels.  The circumstance of a much higher latitude having been actually navigated in the Atlantic Ocean, might seem to warrant such an opinion, and would, of course, justify some renewed attempts in such an enterprise, were it not, that it has been proved by the present voyage, that the ice extends lower down in the Pacific Ocean, and that there is no small reason to believe, that Greenland forms an integral part of the American continent.  Still, however, in every view of the subject, there does appear encouragement to make some experiments of the nature of Hearne’s and Mackenzie’s, particularly towards the east of the track explored by the former; and it is even extremely probable, that some marine co-operation in the direction of both Hudson’s Bay and Davis’ Strait, would facilitate and secure some discovery of more utility, than a mere improvement of our maps.  But it is improper to disburden imagination on such a subject in this place.—­E.]

I shall now quit these northern regions, with a few particulars relative to the tides and currents upon the coast, and an account of the astronomical observations made by us in Samganoodha harbour.

The tide is no where considerable but in the great river.[24]