The Evansville Daily Journal

WEDNESDAY MORNING, DEC. 6.

Solution of a Great Geographical Problem.

Soon after the discovery of America adventurous navigators were employed to seek for a passage by water from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, along the northern coast of this continent. As early as the reign of Elizabeth it was ascertained that if there were any such passage its perpetual obstruction by ice would make it useless for navigation.

Still the geographical question continued, and the scientific world was concerned to know whether the continent of America extended to the north pole, or whether short of that extent, its northern limit was bounded by a continuous reach of those frozen seas, straits, and channels, parts of which had been frequently visited.

Explorations both by land and water were made at different times, until finally the discoveries of Messrs. Simpson and Deas, officers of the Hudson Bay Company, in 1838 and 1839, left yet to be surveyed only a section of the coast, extending westward from Parry's straits of the Fury and Hecla, and including the large extent of land called Boothia Felix, generally represented on maps as an island.

In 1846 the Hudson's Bay Company sent out John Rae, Esq., to survey this unexplored portion. He accomplished the task, and on the 10th of September last made his report to the Governor of the Company. The principal fact which he ascertained is that Boothia Felix is a part of North America—a peninsula as Captain Ross supposed it to be. His explorations, taken in connection with those that preceded them, settle the long mooted question, and show that, with the exception of Boothia Felix, which stretches as far northward as 74 deg. of latitude, the northern coast of America extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific in a line varying but little from the 70 deg. of north latitude.—Cin. Atlas.