strait the name of Barrow's strait was given. In this the water was deep, and clear from ice; but on entering the Polar sea, the barrier of ice preventing further progress westward, capt. Parry bent his course in a southerly direction, and entered a large Sound or inlet, 25 miles in breadth. Having sailed 120 miles down this inlet, the ships were obstructed by ice, and returned to the western extremity of Barrow's straits, where the ice was found broken up to such an extent that they were enabled to proceed westward, and the ships pursued their course between the parallels of 74° and 75°, passing a number of islands, one of which, in about 104° W. lon. they named Byam Martin island. Proceeding still westward, a very large island was discovered, extending from 106° to 114° W. on. and from 74° 30′ to nearly 76° N lat. This island was called Melville island. The polar winter now commenced, and the ships anchored in a harbor on the south side of this island, where they were imprisoned by the ice during a period of 310 days. Having sailed again on the 6th of August, 1820, they reached the western extremity of Melville's island, in lon. 114° W. where, owing to the immense and impermeable barriers of ice, further progress became impossible, and the ships returned to England. Outline of the Ice.] The ice in the northern Polar regions fills, on an average, a circle around the north pole of about 2,000 miles in diameter, and presents an outline, which, though subject to partial variations, is found at the same season of each succeeding year. to be generally similar and often strikingly uniform. each recurring spring it presents the following general outline. Filling the bays of Hudson and Baffin, as well as the straits of Hudson and part of that of Davis, it exhibits an irregular, waving, but generally continuous line, from Newfoundland or Labrador to Nova Zembla. From Newfoundland it extends in a northerly direction along the Labrador shore, generally preventing all access to the land as high as the mouth of Hudson's strait; then, turning to the N. E. forms a bay near the coast of Greenland, in lat. perhaps 66° or 67° by suddenly passing in a southerly direction to cape Farewell at the extremity of Greenland. The quantity of ice on the east side of Davis's strait, being often small, the continuity of its border is liable to be broken, so as to admit of ships reaching the land: and sometimes the bay of ice in 66° or 67° does not exist, but the sea is open up the strait to a considerable distance beyond it. After doubling the southern promontory, or cape Farewell, the line advances in a N. E. course along the east coast, sometimes enveloping Iceland as it proceeds, until it reaches the island of Jan Mayen. Passing this island on the N. W. but frequently inclosing it, the edge of the ice then tends a little more to the east, and usually intersects the meridian of London, between 71° and 73° N. lat. Having reached the meridian of 6° or 8° E. lon. in 73° or 74° N. lat. it forms a remarkable promontory, and suddenly stretches to the north, sometimes proceeding on a meridian to the lat. of 80° N.: at other times, after running 2 or 3 degrees to the north, it turns and runs S.E. to Cherie island, thus forming a deep bay. After passing Cherie island it assumes a more direct course a little S. of E. until it forms a junction with the Siberian or Nova Zemblan coast. To the east of Nova Zembla, the ice, during the winter and spring, seems closely to embrace the whole of the northern shores of Russia, and filling in a great measure Behring's strait and the sea north of it, continues in contact with the polar face of the American continent. That remarkable promontory, midway between Jan Mayen and Cherie islands, formed by the sudden stretch of the ice to the north constitutes the line of separation between the east or whaling and the west or sealing ice of the fishers. The deep bay lying to the east of this promontory may be called the Whale fisher's bay, and invariably forms the only pervious tract for proceeding to the most northerly fishing latitudes. When the ice at the extremity of this bay is so strong and compact as to prevent the approach to the shores of Spitzbergen, and the advance northward beyond the lat. of 75° or 76° it is said to be a close season; and on the contrary, it is an open season, when the navigation is uninterrupted along the whole western coast of Spitzbergen. In an open season, therefore, a large channel of water lies between the western coast of Spitzbergen and the ice, from 20 to 50 leagues in breadth, and extending to the latitude of 79° or 80° N. -The place where whales occur in the greatest abundance is generally found to be in 78° or 79° N. lat.-In close seasons, though the ice joins the southern part of Spitzbergen, and thus forms a barrier against the fishing stations, yet it is often of limited extent, from 20 to 30 or 40 leagues across in the shortest diameter, and beyond this is an open sea forming the retreat of the whales. This formidable barrier, whenever it occurs, is regularly encountered by the whale ships in the month of April, though it costs the fisherman immense labor and anxiety to penetrate it. It is generally removed by natural means as the season advances, so that he rarely meets with any difficulty in his return. GENERAL VIEWS. GENERAL TABLE. Showing the number of square miles of each state in the Union; the population in 1820; the average population on a square mile; the estimated value of manufactures in 1810; the value of houses and lands in 1815; and the time when each state was admitted into the Union. CON Pop, on a sq. m. D. C. Estimated value of manufactures Proportion of Dollars. Maine, 31,750 298,335 10 3,741,116 16 40 1,733,74423 84 11,468,794 30 00 15,263,473 15 66 6,653,15211 98 3,623,595 8 72 3,658,481 14 54 419,073 13 51 1,222,357 16 08 3,611,029 13 83 6,181,02415 22 2,894,290 12 58 300,000 12 50 120,000 10 00 Value of houses Dollars. Proportion of When admitted into the Union. D. C. 1820 1820 172,762,676 17 951,631,657,224 230 00 Remarks. The numbers in the fifth column, showing the value of the manufactures in 1810, are an estimate, made by Mr. Tench Coxe of Philadelphia, and founded principally upon the official returns made to the government. These returns were in many cases very imperfect, and the deficiency was supplied by the estimate of Mr. Coxe, at the request of the Secretary of the Treas ury. The numbers in the sixth column are obtained by dividing the estimated value of the manufactures in each state by its population. They enable us, of course, to determine at a single view which state manufactures most in proportion to its population.The numbers in the eighth column are obtained by dividing the value of houses and lands in 1815 by the population. They show us at a single glance in which states the inhabitants on an average are most wealthy, so far as real estate is concerned. Questions. 1. Which is the largest state in the Union? 2. Which is the smallest ? 3. Which state contains less than 10,000 square miles? 4. Which states contain more than 30,000? 5. Which state contains the greatest population? 6. Mention the five next in the order of their population. 7. Which of the states is most thickly settled? 8. Which next? 9. Which next? 10. Mention the states that contain less than 10 on a square mile. 11. Mention those that contain more than 30. 12. Which state is the first in the value of manufactures? 13. Which next? 14. Which next? 15. Which state manufactures most in proportion to its population? 16. Which next? 17. Which next? 18. In which state is the value of houses and lands the greatest? 19. In which state are the inhabitants most wealthy so far as real estate is concerned? 20. In which, next? 21. In which, next? 22. How much real estate has each individual in the Union, on an average? 23. Mention the names of the thirteen original states. 24. Mention the names of the new states in the order in which they were admitted into the Union.. TABLE II. Showing the total population of each of the United States according to the enumerations in 1790, 1800, 1810 and 1820, with the increase and rate of increase between those periods. States. Maine, Vt. Mass. R. I. N. Y. N. J. Population. Increase Rate of increasel from 17901790-1800-18104 In 1790 In 1800 In 1810 In 1820 to 1820. 1800 1810 1820 per c. per c. per c 96,540 151,719 228,705 298,335 201,795 57.2 50.7 30.4 N. H. 141,885 183,858 214,460 244,161 102,276 29.6 16.6 13.8 85,539 154,465 217,895 235,764 150,225 80.5 41.0 8.2 378,787 422,845 472,040 523,287 144,500 11.5 11,6 10.9 68,825 69,122 76,931 83,059 14,234 0.4 11.4 8.0 237,946 251,002 261,942 275,248 37,202 5.5 4.3 5.1 340,120 586,050 959,049 1,372,8121,032,692 72.0 63.6 43.1 184,139 211,149 245,562 277,575 93,436 14.3 16.3 13.0 437,373 602,548 810,0911,049,398 615,025 38.6 34.4 29.5 72,674 59,094 64,273 319,728 349,692 380,546 407,350 87,622 6.8 11.4 747,610 886,149 974,6221,065,366 317,756 17.6 10.7 393,751 478,103 555,500 638,829 245,078 21.4 16.2 11.4 240,073 345,591 415,115 490,309 250,236 38.6 20.1 18.1 82,548 162,686 252,433 340,989 258,441 97.0 55.1 35.1 127,901 8,850 31,502 356.0545.0 75,448 100 76,556 153,407 Pa. Dela. Md. Va. N. C. S. C. Geo. Mis. Lou. Ten. Ken. Ohio, Ind. Illi. Miss. Ark.T. MichT Col.D. 35,691 105,602 261,727 422,813 387,122 196.0147.8 61 73,677 220,959 406,511 564,317 490,640 200.0 83.9 39 3,000 45,365 230,760 581,434 578,4341400 408 152 Remarks. In 1790, the population of the Union was almost confined to the country on the Atlantic coast; the states west of the Alleghany mountains containing scarcely 100,000 inhabitants. Since that period, thousands have migrated every year to the states west of the mountains, and in 1820, those states, including Alabama and Mississippi, contained more than 2,000,000 inhabi tants. Emigrants have also flocked in great numbers to Georgia, Vermont, Maine, and especially to the western district of NewYork, which was almost a wilderness in 1790. The states which have lost most by these migrations are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, New-Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. At the present time the tide of emigration appears to be flowing with great rapidity towards Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, and Mississippi. |