46 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. II. 



North Corner from the sea — for he never came 

 near even the entrance of Lancaster Sound, " there 

 being," says this old and able navigator, " a ledge of 

 ice between the shore and us." All this is deplorable 

 enough, and it may be considered as not worth the 

 while to dwell longer on this part of the narrative, 

 or to notice " the accurate view of Baffin's Bay," 

 and "the special chart of the land,"— the putting 

 about the ship, assisted by a whale-fisher, the only 

 officer on deck — the sole spectators of Croker's Moun- 

 tains and the vast barrier of ice, seen only by Mr. 

 Lewis and James Haig, the leading-man, while all 

 the other officers were enjoying their dinner, and ig- 

 norant of what was going on, — which is not the usual 

 custom in a man-of-war when the ship is going about. 

 Too glad to get out of Lancaster Sound, " It 

 became advisable," says Ross, "to stand out of 

 this dangerous inlet, in which we were embayed, 

 being within it above eighty miles!' Captain 

 Parry and Captain Sabine both say thirty miles. 

 Since the period of this dangerous inlet being 

 navigated by Parry, not less than four times, it 

 has been visited annually by whalers, without 

 danger, and without molestation by the ice. Nay, 

 Ross himself had the courage— can it be called 

 "moral courage?" — to revisit, some years afterwards, 

 this horrible spot in a miserable kind of ship, fitted 

 out at the expense of a private individual for some 

 purpose or other, which ship, however, he left frozen 



