“Notwithstanding I have now distinctly considered every obvious objection and difficulty to be surmounted, I am nevertheless sensible, that in the realising of any project or discovery, whether by sea or on land, there will occur many adventitious circumstances, which may tend to mar the progress of the best regulated expedition. Therefore, it may not be improper to confirm and strengthen the whole, by directing the attention to what has been done, in journeying under difficulties which may bear a comparison with the undertaking here alluded to, and occasionally under circumstances the most unfavourable to success.
“1st, When treating of icebergs, I alluded to the journey of Alexei Markoff, in which it appears, that he performed near eight hundred miles across a surface of packed ice, in the spring of 1715, in a sledge drawn by dogs; and consequently, that he might be supposed to have encountered the principal difficulties that could be expected in the proposed scheme, whilst we have the advantage of improving by his experience.
“2d, Speaking of the south-western tendency of the ice, I have also noticed the loss of several of the Dutch Greenland fleet in 1777, from which we learn, that part of the unfortunate suffering crews, under every privation of provision and clothing, and exposed to the severity of an Arctic winter, accomplished a journey on foot, along the coasts of Old Greenland, from the east side, near Staten Hook, to the Danish settlements on the west, a distance of near a hundred leagues.
“3d, On contrasting the projected polar journey with the catalogue of marvellous occurrences, and wonderful preservations which are exhibited in the records of maritime disasters,[41] the difficulties of the undertaking in a great measure vanish, and its dangers are eclipsed by the wonderful results which necessity has, in various instances accomplished.”
FINIS.
[Extracts from Reviews in Recommendation of this Work.]
“Mr. Laing performed two Voyages to Greenland, in the successive years of 1806 and 1807, as Surgeon, under the elder Captain Scoresby; whose son acted, at that time, as chief mate. His narrative is written with neatness, simplicity, and taste; and comprises, in a very small compass, what information could be desired on the subject of which it treats.”
Edinburgh Review, No. LIX.
“Mr. Laing’s sensible and unpretending Narrative of a ’Voyage to Spitzbergen,’ forms an admirable contrast to the pompous and frothy quarto of Bernard O’Reilly, Esq.”
Quarterly Review, No. XXXVII.
“In the little Volume before us, we have an interesting addition made to the natural history of regions of which our knowledge is as yet, comparatively speaking, but imperfect. Mr. Laing has been evidently a diligent and acute observer, and communicates the fruits of his observation in a simple and perspicuous manner.”
Philosophical Magazine, Vol. LI. No. CCXXXVIII.