knighthood, he then resigned in favor of the present Admiral Beaufort, and, obtaining permission from the Admiralty, proceeded to New South Wales as resident Commissioner to the Australian Agricultural Com pany, taking charge of their recently acquired large territory in the neighborhood of Port Stephen. He returned from Australia in 1834. From the 7th of March, 1835, to the 3d of February, 1836, he acted as Poor Law Commissioner in Norfolk. Early in 1837, he was appointed to organize the Mail Packet Service, then transferred to the Admiralty, and afterward, in April, was appointed Controller of steam machinery to the Navy, which office he continued to hold up to December, 1846. From that period to the present time he has filled the post of Captain Superintendent of the Royal Navy Hospital at Haslar.

CAPTAIN JOHN Ross's SECOND VOYAGE, 1829-33.

In the year 1829, Capt. Ross, the pioneer of arctic exploration in the 19th century, being anxious once more to display his zeal and enterprise as well as to retrieve his nautical reputation from those unfortunate blunders and mistakes which had attached to his first voyage, and thus remove the cloud which had for nearly ten years hung over his professional character, endeavored without effect to induce the government to send him out to the Polar Seas in charge of another expedition. The Board of Admiralty of that day, in the spirit of retrenchment which pervaded their councils, were, however, not disposed to recommend any further grant for research, even the Board of Longitude was abolished, and the boon of 20,000l. offered by act of parliament for the promotion of arctic discovery, also withdrawn by a repeal of the act.

Captain Ross, however, undaunted by the chilling indifference thus manifested toward his proposals by the Admiralty, still persevered, having devoted 3000%. out of his own funds toward the prosecution of the object he had in view. He was fortunate enough to

meet with a public-spirited and affluent coadjutor and supporter in the late Sir Felix Booth, the eminen distiller, and that gentleman nobly contributed 17.0007. toward the expenses. Captain Ross thereupon set to work, and purchased a small Liverpool steamer named the Victory, whose tonnage he increased to 150 tons. She was provisioned for three years. Captain Ross chose for his second in command his nephew, Commander James Ross, who had been with him on his first arctic expedition, and had subsequently accompanied Parry in all his voyages. The other officers of the vessel were-Mr. William Thom, purser; Mr. George M'Diarmid, surgeon; Thomas Blanky, Thos. Abernethy, and George Taylor, as 1st, 2d, and 3d, mates; Alexander Brunton and Allen Macinnes as 1st and 2d engineers; and nineteen petty officers and seamen ; making a complement in all of 28 men.

The Admiralty furnished toward the purposes of the expedition a decked boat of sixteen tons, called the Krusenstern, and two boats which had been used by Franklin, with a stock of books and instruments.

The vessel being reported ready for sea was visited and examined by the late King of the French, the Lords of the Admiralty, and other parties taking an interest in the expedition, and set sail from Woolwich on the 23d of May, 1829. For all practical purposes the steam machinery, on which the commander had greatly relied, was found on trial utterly useless.

Having received much damage to her spars, in a severe gale, the ship put in to the Danish settlement of Holsteinberg, on the Greenland coast, to refit,_and sailed again to the northward on the 26th of June. They found a clear sea, and even in the middle of Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait perceived no traces of ice or snow, except what appeared on the lofty summits of some of the mountains. The thermometer stood at 40°, and the weather was so mild that the officers dined in the cabin without a fire, with the skylight partially open. On the 10th of August they passed Cape York, and thence crossed over into Regent Inle

making the western coast between Sepping's and Elwin Bay on the 16th.

They here fell in with those formidable streams, packs, and floating bergs of ice which had offered such obstructions to Parry's ships. From their proximity to the magnetic pole, their compasses became useless as they proceeded southward. On the 13th they reached the spot where the Fury was abandoned, but no remnants of the vessel were to be seen. All her sails, stores, and provisions, on land, were, however, found; the hermetically-sealed tin canisters having kept the provisions from the attacks of bears; and the flour, bread, wine, spirits, sugar, &c., proved as good, after being here four years, as on the first day they were packed. This store formed a very seasonable addition, which was freely made available, and after increasing their stock to two years and ten months' supply, they still left a large quantity for the wants of any future explorers. On the 15th, crossing Cresswell Bay, they reached Cape Garry, the farthest point which had been seen by Parry. They were here much inconvenienced and delayed by fogs and floating ice. While mountains of ice were tossing around them on every side, they were often forced to seek safety by mooring themselves to these formidable masses, and drifting with them, sometimes forward, sometimes backward. In this manner on one occasion no less than nineteen miles were lost in a few hours; at other times they underwent frequent and severe shocks, yet escaped any serious damage.

Captain Ross draws a lively picture of what a vessel endures in sailing among these moving hills. He reminds the reader that ice is stone, as solid as if it were granite; and he bids him "imagine these mountains hurled through a narrow strait by a rapid tide, meeting with the noise of thunder, breaking from each other's precipices huge fragments, or rending each other asunder, till, losing their former equilibrium, they fell over headlong, lifting the sea around in breakers and whirling it in eddies. There is not a moment

in which it can be conjectured what will happen next; there is not one which may not be the last. Th attention is troubled to fix on any thing amid such con fusion; still must it be alive, that it may seize on the single moment of help or escape which may occur Yet with all this, and it is the hardest task of all, there is nothing to be acted,- no effort to be made,- he must be patient, as if he were unconcerned or careless, waiting, as he best can, for the fate, be it what it may, which he cannot influence or avoid."

Proceeding southward, Ross found Brentford Bay, about thirty miles beyond Cape Garry, to be of considerable extent, with some fine harbors. Landing here, the British colors were unfurled, and the coast, named after the promoter of the expedition, was taken possession of in the name of the King. Extensive and commodious harbors, named Ports Logan, Elizabeth, and Eclipse, were discovered, and a large bay, which was called Mary Jones Bay. By the end of September the ship had examined 300 miles of undiscovered coast The winter now set in with severity, huge masses of ice began to close around them, the thermometer sank many degrees below freezing point, and snow fell very thick. By sawing through the ice, the vessel was got into a secure position to pass the winter, in a station which is now named on the maps Felix Harbor. The machinery of the steam engine was done away with, the vessel housed, and every measure that could add to the comfort of the crew adopted. They had abundance of fuel, and provisions that might easily be extended to three years.

On the 9th of January, 1831, they were visited by a large tribe of Esquimaux, who were better dressed and cleaner than those more to the northward. They displayed an intimate acquaintance with the situation and bearings of the country over which they had traveled, and two of them drew a very fair sketch of the neighboring coasts, with which they were familiar; this was revised and corrected by a learned lady named Teriksin, the females seeming, from this and former

instances, to have a clear knowledge of the hydrography and geography of the continent, bays, straits, and rivers which they had once traversed.

On the 5th of April, Commander Ross, with Mr. Blanky, the chief mate, and two Esquimaux guides, set out to explore a strait which was reported as lying to the westward, and which it was hoped might lead to the western sea. After a tedious and arduous journey, they arrived, on the third day, at a bay facing to the westward and discovered, further inland, an extensive lake, called by the natives Nie-tyle-le, whence a broad river flowed into the bay. Their guides informed them, however, there was no prospect of a water comunication south of their present position. Capt. Ross then traced the coast fifty or sixty miles further south.

Several journeys were also made by Commander Ross, both inland and along the bays and inlets. On the 1st of May, from the top of a high hill, he observed a large inlet, which seemed to lead to the western sea. In order to satisfy himself on this point, he set out again on the 17th of May, with provisions for three weeks, eight dogs, and three companions. Having crossed the great middle lake of the isthmus, he reached his former station, and thence traced an inlet which was found to be the mouth of a river named by them Garry. From the high hill, they observed a chain of lakes leading almost to Thom's Bay, the Victory's station in Felix Harbor. Proceeding northwest along the coast, they crossed the frozen surface of the strait which has since been named after Sir James Ross, and came to a large island which was called Matty; keeping along its northern shore, and passing over a narrow strait, which they named after Wellington, they found themselves on what was considered to be the mainland, but which the more recent discoveries of Simpson have shown to be an island, and which now bears the name of King William's Land. Still journeying onward, with difficulties continually increasing, from heavy toil and severe privation, the dogs became exhausted with fatigue, and a burden rather than an aid to the travelers.