THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.
THE subject of the North-west Passage is likely to be renewed, through the exertions of Mr. RICHARD lingo, one of two officers despatched by the Government in 1833 in search of Sir JOHN Ross and his com- panions. At a lecture on Friday evening the 11th instant, delivered by Mr. KING at the Royal Institution, the whole of the known bound- aries of the Polar Seas were described, and a plan proposed for the com- pletion of the unexplored portion. It will be in the recollection of our readers, that the lecturer, in 1836, offered to conduct an expedition overland to complete the delineation of the Polar coast from Point Ttsznagain of FRANKLIN to the Fury sad Heels Strait of PARRY.* • See Spectator of 19th November 1836.
The greater part of that coast has since been surveyed by Messrs. DEASE and SIMPSON ; but there still remains to be explored the space
between the Fury and liecla Strait and the Great Fish River Est , in order to complete the North configuration of America ; and, if the land of Boothia Felix is a part of the American continent, in addition, the Western coast of that laud to its Northern limit. That the whole of this may be completed in the course of one summer, seems evident from the late surveys between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine and the Coppermine and the Great Fish River, which were accomplished in both instances in less than six weeks of boat-navigation, and without the loss of a single life. Mr. KING is of opinion that a practicable North-west passage exists, and that in all probability it will be found between the Western land of Boothia Felix and that mass of coast laid down, from its respective bearings, as Banks's Land, Wollaston Land, and Victoria Land. Not only geographical science, but commerce, may therefore be benefited by the complete survey of America at its North- ern limit.
Mr. KING has submitted to the Government the following plan, at an estimated expense of 1,000/. That an expedition, consisting of one officer and six men, should proceed from Montreal in Lower Canada to the Athelosca Lake ; then due North to the source of a river called the Fish River, in about lat. 64 deg. N. and long. 104 deg. W.; and after wintering there, reach the Great Fish River by one of its tributaries. By following the course of that stream to the sea, and then the Eastern boundary of the Great Fish River Estuary to the North or East, as the case may be, either the Fury and Hecht Strait will be reached, or, as Mr. Kneel thinks more probable, the North- western termination of the land of North Somerset. In the former case, a passage will have been discovered, but one that is not practicable for commercial purposes ; but if the latter should prove to be, as Sir JOH/4 Ross has described, and a broad sea should be discovered washing the Western coast of Boothia, the grand problem of a practicable North- west passage is at once solved I
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