Besides these voyages by sea, which satisfy us that we must not look for a passage to the south of 67° of latitude, we are indebted to the Hudson's Bay Company for a journey by land, which has thrown much additional light on this matter, by affording what may be called demonstration, how much farther north, at least in some part of their voyage, ships must hold their course, before they can pass from one side of America to the other. The northern Indians, who come down to the company's forts for trade, had brought to the knowledge of our people, the existence of a river, which, from copper abounding near it, had got the name of the Copper-mine River. We read much about this river in Mr Dobbs's publications, and he considers the Indian accounts of it as favourable to his system. The company being desirous of examining the matter with precision, instructed their governor of Prince of Wales's Fort, to send a proper person to travel by land, under the escort of some trusty northern Indians, with orders to proceed to this famous river, to take an accurate survey of its course, and to trace it to the sea, into which it empties itself. Mr Hearne, a young gentleman in their service, who, having been an officer in the navy, was well qualified to make observations for fixing the longitude and latitude, and make drawings of the country he should pass through, and of the river which he was to examine, was appointed for this service. Accordingly, he set out from Fort Prince of Wales, on Churchill River, in latitude 58° 50', on the 7th of December, 1770; and the whole of his proceedings, from time to time, are faithfully preserved in his journal. The publication of this is an acceptable present to the world, as it draws a plain artless picture of the savage modes of life, the scanty means of subsistence, and indeed of the singular wretchedness, in every respect, of the various tribes, who, without fixed habitations, pass their miserable lives, roving throughout the dreary deserts, and over the frozen lakes of the immense tract of continent through which Mr Hearne passed, and which he may be said to have added to the geography of the globe. His general course was to the northwest. In the month of June 1771, being then at a place called _Conge catha wha Chaga_, he had, to use his own words, two good observations, both by meridian and double altitudes, the mean of which determines this place to be in latitude 66° 46' N., and, by account, in longitude 24° 2' W. of Churchill River. On the 13th of July (having left _Conge catha wha Chaga_ on the 3d, and travelling still to the west of north) he reached the Copper-mine River; and was not a little surprised to find it differ so much from the descriptions given of it by the natives at the fort; for, instead of being likely to be navigable for a ship, it is, at this part, scarcely navigable for an Indian canoe; three falls being in sight, at one view, and being choaked up with shoals and stony ridges.