ROSS AND PARRY. 79 



that the sea could be reached by their means. We may 

 here observe, once for all, that these land expeditions, 

 whose prime object has been to determine the northern 

 coast-line of America, are not to be confounded with 

 the attempts to discover the north-west passage. 



The result of these discouragements was a cessation 

 of naval researches, which continued for many years ; 

 but at length a change took place, as sudden and inex- 

 plicable as the accumulation of ice from centuries before 

 which cut off the Danish colonies in Greenland from 

 communication with the mother country. In 1816-lt, 

 the Greenland whalers reported the sea to be clearer 

 of ice than at any former time within their knowledge. 

 This fact engaged the attention of the British Admiralty ; 

 and the Council of the Royal Society were consulted as 

 to the prospects of renewed operations in the Arctic 

 regions. Their reply was favorable ; and in 1818 two 

 expeditions were fitted out the one to discover the 

 north-west passage, the other to reach the pole. Cap- 

 tain (soon Sir John) Ross and Lieut, (soon Sir Ed- 

 ward) Parry, in the vessels Isabella and Alexander, 

 were intrusted with the former of these objects. They 

 were especially charged to examine the great openings 

 described by Baffin as existing at the head of the vast 

 bay which he so diligently explored ; and, in carrying 

 out these instructions, the commanders found full reason 

 to applaud the care and perseverance of the able navi- 

 gator, who had preceded them by two hundred years. 

 It must be remembered that we are now treating of a 

 period when science put forward its imperative claims, 

 and when, as at present, something more was required 

 than a meagre chart of a previously-unexplored coast, 

 and graphic accounts of new countries and their inhab- 

 itants. Astronomy, geology, meteorology, magnetism, 

 natural history, were all clamorous >r new facts, or for 



