ely
lamented by all who knew him, as a zealous, active, and enterprising
seaman, and an amiable and deserving man. Mr. Crawford had accompanied
us in five successive voyages to the Polar Seas, and I truly regret the
occasion which demands from me this public testimony of the value of his
services and the excellence of his character.

* * * * *

Having finished my Narrative of this Attempt to reach the North Pole, I
may perhaps be permitted, in conclusion, to offer such remarks as have
lately occurred to me on the nature and practicability of the
enterprise.

That the object is of still more difficult attainment than was before
supposed, even by those persons who were the best qualified to judge of
it, will, I believe, appear evident from a perusal of the foregoing
pages; nor can I, after much consideration and some experience of the
various difficulties which belong to it, recommend any material
improvement in the plan lately adopted. Among the various schemes
suggested for this purpose, it has been proposed to set out from
Spitzbergen, and to make a rapid journey to the northward with sledges
or sledge-boats, drawn wholly by dogs or reindeer; but, however feasible
this plan may at first sight appear, I cannot say that our late
experience of the nature of the ice which they would probably have to
encounter has been at all favourable to it. It would, of course, be a
matter of extreme imprudence to set out on this enterprise without the
means of crossing, not merely narrow pools and "lanes," but more
extensive spaces of open water, such as we met with between the margin
of the ice and the Spitzbergen shores; and I do not conceive that any
boat sufficiently large to be efficient and safe for this purpose could
possibly be managed upon the ice, were the power employed to give it
motion dependant on dogs or reindeer. On the contrary, it was a frequent
subject of remark among the officers, that reason was a qualification
scarcely less indispensable than strength and activity in travelling
over such a road; daily instances occurring of our having to pass over
difficult places, which no other animal than man could have been easily
prevailed upon to attempt. Indeed, the constant necessity of launching
and hauling up the boats (which operations we had frequently to perform
eight or ten, and, on one occasion, seventeen times in the same day)
would alone render it inexpedient, in my opinion, to