This Gentleman Was Very Sanguine Of Success, And Very Zealous
In The Cause In Which He Was Employed.
But this attempt also was
unsuccessful:
Mr. Duncan, after a considerable lapse of time, reaching no
farther than Chesterfield Inlet.
The attention of scientific men, and of the public at large, was called
again to this important problem in the geography of the northern seas, by
some elaborate and well informed articles in the Quarterly Review, which
are generally supposed to be written by Mr. Barrow, the under secretary of
the Admiralty, who also published an abstract of voyages to the Northern
Ocean.
The British government, influenced by a very laudable love of science, and
perhaps regarding the discovery of a north-west passage as of the same
importance to commerce as the reviewer evidently did, resolved to send an
expedition for the purpose of attempting the discovery. Accordingly, on the
8th of April 1818, two ships, the Isabella and Alexander, well fitted by
their construction, as well as strengthened and prepared in every possible
manner for such a voyage, sailed from the Thames. Captain Ross had the
principal command. It is not our design here to follow them during their
voyage to their destination: suffice it to say, that on the 18th of August,
exactly four months after they sailed from the Thames, the ships passed
Cape Dudley Digges, the latitude of which they found to agree nearly with
that assigned to it by Baffin, thus affording another proof of the accuracy
of that old navigator, whose alleged discoveries have been latterly
attempted to be wrested from him, or rather been utterly denied. The same
day they passed an inlet, to which Baffin had given the name of
Wolstenholme Sound. Captain Ross, in his account of his voyage, says it was
completely blocked up with ice; but in the view taken of it, and published
by him, there is a deep and wide opening, completely free from ice. In
fact, on this occasion, as well as others of more consequence, to which we
shall presently advert, Captain Ross, unfortunately for the accomplishment
of the object on which he was sent, contented himself with conjecture where
proof was accessible; for all he remarks respecting this sound is, that it
seemed to be eighteen or twenty leagues in depth, and the land on the east
side appeared to be habitable. When it is considered that in these high and
foggy latitudes much deception of sight takes place, it ought to be the
absolute and undeviating rule of the navigator to explore so far, and to
examine so carefully and closely, that he may be certain, at least, that
his sight does not deceive him. The same negligence attended the
examination of Whale Sound: all the notice of it is, that they could not
approach it in a direct line, on account of ice; it was, in fact, never
approached nearer than twenty leagues. Captain Ross does not seem to have
been fully sensible of the nature of the object on which he was sent out.
If there existed a passage at all, it must be in a strait, sound, or some
other opening of the sea:
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