contemplation. His sublimest discourses were in the beginning didactic and argumentative, then descriptive and pathetic, and, finally, in the highest and best sense, imaginative. Truth was their universal element, and to enforce its claims was his constant aim. Whether he attempted to engage the reason, the affections, or the fancy, all was subsidiary to this great end. He was always in earnest-profoundly in earnest. He lost himself in the glories of his theme; and amidst the fervours of his eloquence, the force of his argumentation, and the beauty of his diction, it was manifest that his supreme aim was to "win souls

to Christ."

Notwithstanding many hesitations at the outset, there was a continual flow-a flow of elegant expression, exquisite turns of thought, pure sentiment, and exalted feeling. Among other qualities of his public speaking, it was one of the most extraordinary that, even while the rapidity of the utterance was such as almost to outrun the apprehensions of his hearers, every word, though by no means minutely premeditated, was as proper in itself, and as beautifully collocated, as if it had been the result of long and laborious consideration. He could touch at will the inner springs of emotion, dive into the recesses of the mind, expose sophism, vanquish error, and stem the fierce revolt of prejudice; and with equal success could he speak to the experienced and aged Christian, awakening at a touch his liveliest and holiest sensibilities, imparting consolation to the troubled mind, unfolding the mysteries, while he breathed the spirit of the gospel, dissipating the influence of evil agency, encountering the efforts of inherent corruption, opening Heaven to view, making its glories palpable, and by leading you through the gates of the celestial city, rendering the enchanted hearers conscious of strange joys, which seemed not to belong to earth, but to some more elevated state of existence. Then the bodily organs would appear to be almost incapable of furnishing a channel wide enough for the stream of thought, which expanded as it flowed, till it spread as into an ocean glowing with the morning light of eternity.

ART. III.—Undersögelses-Reise til Östkysten af Grönland, efter Kongelig Befaling udfört i Aarene 1828-31, af W. A. GRAAH, Captain-Lieutenant i Soe-Etalen. (A Voyage of Discovery to the East Coast of Greenland, undertaken by Royal Command, in the years 1828-31, by W. A. GRAAH, Captain-Lieutenant in the Navy.) Copenhagen, 1832.

THE expedition which is now in Lancaster Sound in search of a passage round the north coast of America into the Pacific, is of great commercial importance, independently of its main object. The Erebus and the Terror, fitted out, manned, officered, in the most effective style, are provided with steam-power and screw-propellors, as well as the usual equipment of sailing vessels of their class. This is the first application of steam-power to geographical discovery in those regions. In the latitudes in which the sea is obstructed with small floating ice, the ordinary machinery of paddle-wheels would be altogether inapplicable to navigation; but the screw seems peculiarly adapted to the wants of a vessel beset in the ice, a situation which the power of steam would evidently give the means of avoiding or escaping. The value of this power in navigating in the polar seas was acknowledged, but the usual machinery of paddle-wheels was so evidently liable to be clogged or broken in the ice, that no vessel fitted out for the whale fishery was ever provided with steam-power. In the ordinary business of the whale fishery, the command of the vessel independently of calms or contrary winds, would be of the greatest importance for following the boats in search of fish, or passing through the narrow lanes of water in the ice-fields which lead to open water in which the fish are found. This expedition, under a commander so well acquainted as Sir John Franklin with what would be useful in navigating through the ice in high latitudes, will bring to the test the applicability of steampower to the whale fishery. It may be the most valuable result of this voyage of discovery.

The northern coast of the American continent, from Behring's Straits eastwards, has been traced by Captain Belcher, by Captain Franklin-whose land journey connected Captain Belcher's farthest advance eastward with the mouths of the Mackenzie River and by the lamented traveller the late W. Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company's service, who carried on this sea line of the American coast to the Great Fish Estuary. What remains to be explored is the coast from the most easterly point of Mr. Simpson's advance, to the most westerly point

reached by our navigators, who penetrated into Lancaster Sound in search of a north-west passage. If we had only the ordinary means of discovery and navigation in our hands,-vessels propelled by wind and tide,-it might reasonably be asked, whether our Government is justifiable in again fitting out ships filled with human beings, who leave at home a wide circle of anxiety and sorrow for their fate, to encounter an almost certain death in the most hideous and appalling form in which death can assail the living, healthy man,—that of starvation in an icebound sea. The escape of Captain Ross, when even Government had given up the attempt to rescue him or to discover his fate,-the fate, the escape of Captain Franklin by land from a death of starvation, should be a warning to Government not lightly to expose the bravest of its officers and men for objects rather of scientific curiosity than of practical utility. But the application of steam-power in the expedition of the Erebus and Terror reduces the danger, and furnishes a new element in the navigation of the northern ocean which it is the duty of an enlightened Government to use for the great end of discovering a practicable communication between Europe and Asia round the northern coast of the American continent. A passage between the coast and the ice-barrier which besets it, or a passage through the zone of ice which encircles the globe in a high latitude, enclosing, it is supposed, an open sea within, is not impossible with the new means which Providence has bestowed on man for exploring the earth. Should no other discovery be made than that there is no practicable passage to be discovered, it is an object worthy of a great nation to ascertain this point, and to know the face of the earth which the Almighty has given man to inhabit. If it can be done without any wanton and evident exposure of human beings to greater risk than the benefit would warrant, (and with steam-power the risk is reduced and the chance of success increased,) the accomplishment of this passage would be a great era in the history of the human race.

Looking with great interest for the issue of this expedition of the Erebus and Terror, we were naturally led to inquire what other countries have done during this half century in the field of discovery in the northern hemisphere. France sent a frigate, the Astrolabe, if we are not mistaken in the name, about the year 1840, to prosecute discovery in the northern Atlantic, and plant the tricolor flag on the Pole. A ball to the ladies of Reikavig in Iceland, another to the fair at Alten and Hammerest in Norway, a landing at Bell Sound in Spitzbergen, and a distant view of Berendt or Cherry Island, appear to have been all the achievements of this voyage, although the vessel carried a

naturalist, a draughtsman, and an historian to record the discoveries. The object of the French Government in sending out this expedition was probably to display the French flag on coasts on which it was forgotten, as the vessels were not prepared for encountering ice, and the range of their voyage of discovery was not beyond that of a gentleman's summer cruize in his yacht. If discovery was the object, it was a total failure.

Denmark claims as her own the vast peninsula called Greenland, included between the great inland sea of Baffin's Bay and the northern Atlantic, and which, commencing in the hitherto unknown north, ends at Cape Farewell, in latitude 59. 48. N. Within Davis' Straits, leading to Baffin's Bay, and of which Cape Farewell and the western coast of the peninsula of Greenland form one side, and Labrador, Cumberland Island, and America the other, the Danish Government, or rather the Danish Greenland Company trading with a monopoly from the Government, has ten or twelve small stations or colonies from Fredericsthal, the nearest settlement to Cape Farewell, in latitude 60. N., longitude 44. 38. W. of Greenwich, to Uppernavik, the most northerly settlement, on an island in latitude 72. 48. N., longitude 55. 54. W. The coast between these two points is surveyed, and laid down in sailing charts, as far as the Whale-fish Isles, at the south end of Disco Island, in latitude 68. 59. N., longitude 53. 13. W., where the Erebus and Terror parted with their transport on the 18th July. The coast from the south end of Disco Island to the Women Islands, of which Uppernavik is one, seems to be as yet only in sketch, or known only in prominent points. The coast on the other side of Cape Farewell, the east coast of the peninsula of Greenland, was not known at all previous to this voyage of Captain Graah.

It appears from the instructions of the Royal Commissioners to Captain Graah, that this voyage of discovery had two objects. The one was to explore the coast of East Greenland, that is the coast of the peninsula of Greenland bordering the Atlantic, and opposite to Iceland, from Cape Farewell at the entrance of Davis' Straits, up to latitude 69. 0. N., at which in 1822, Captain Scoresby had seen and fixed the position of a headland, which he called Cape Barclay, in latitude 69. 13. N., and longitude 24. 25. W. That enterprizing navigator had, in 1822, made this coast in latitude 73. 0. N., and had visited and fixed many points of it. When he left it at Cape Barclay, in latitude 69. 13. N., he was of opinion that he could have run down the coast all the way to Cape Farewell, as he saw no insurmountable obstacle from ice when he left it. The object of his voyage, however, which was an ordinary whale fishing adventure, did not permit him to make the attempt. To determine this point, and to lay down the coast from

Cape Farewell to Cape Barclay, from which, northwards, Captain Scoresby had given an outline with several well determined points, was the object of Captain Graah's voyage, as a voyage of maritime discovery. The voyage had also an antiquarian object.

This east coast of Greenland was long considered to have been the seat of a flourishing Icelandic colony, with towns, churches, bishops, and 190 parishes, or parish divisions. Monasteries, a cathedral, and endowments of land for their support, and all the civilization known in other northern lands in the 14th century, existed here; but in the beginning of the 15th century all communication ceased-was cut off apparently by the accumulation of ice which prevented all access. There were not wanting, in the last century, people who imagined that this Christian colony might still be existing, shut in by a wall of ice from the rest of the world, and retaining still the religion, manners, and language of their forefathers of the fourteenth century. Some navigators even, who at various periods attempted to approach the coast, imagined they had seen across the ice, houses and steeples, had heard church bells ringing, and had perceived flocks pasturing on the hills. It was a fine foundation for imagination to build upon, because there was recorded undeniable truth for a foundation. It was a fact resting upon historical documents, that, in the year 983, one Gunbiorn had been driven by a storm to the west of Iceland, and had discovered land. It was equally beyond doubt that one Eric Raude, or the Red, who was under sentence of banishment from Iceland, went to settle in this new country, and that fourteen years after he had settled there, his son Leif went to Norway, adopted Christianity while he was at the court of King Olaf Trygvesson, and returned with a priest to Greenland. Leif's grandson, Sokke, assembled the colonists at a town, or farm, called Brattalid, represented to them that they required a bishop for the honour of the colony, and for the sake of religion; and a learned priest, called Arnold, was selected and consecrated bishop of Greenland, in the year 1121, by the Archbishop of Lund in Scaria. The bishops were at first suffragans of the Archbishop of Lund, and afterwards of Dronthiem, when that See was made an archbishopric; and seventeen bishops of Greenland are known by name, including the last Endrid Andreasson, consecrated in 1406. There is proof of a marriage-contract prepared by him and executed at Garda, the town and episcopal seat in Greenland, three years after his consecration; but from about this date all communication with this colony appears to have ceased. Pontanus, in his history of Denmark, supposes that the extraordinary pestilence in the northern parts of the world, called the Black Death, which appeared about the year 1349, may have extended to Greenland, and have swept off the colonists. Traditions are still current