Chap. II. COMMANDER JOHN ROSS. 43 



of any country, ancient or modern, is known ever 

 to have entered this sound, is it not surprising 

 that an officer of the navy, intrusted with the 

 command of an expedition of discovery, should 

 quote, as it were, in his own justification, and be 

 guided by, the opinion of an artillery officer, who 

 perhaps was at sea for the first time? What, in 

 fact, could Captain Sabine then know of either 

 Lancaster Sound or Cumberland Strait, except, as 

 to the latter, that it was well known to lead only to 

 a parcel of islands, and that Fox's Channel, South- 

 ampton Island, the Welcome, — all must be passed 

 before the coast of America could be approached by 

 that route ? A brief account of the expedition, by 

 an officer engaged in it, was published in a monthly 

 journal, and is pronounced by Captain Sabine to be 

 " a well- written and, which is more important, a 

 faithful account of the proceedings of the expedi- 

 tion :" in this account, so praised, it is stated, among 

 other matters relating to Lancaster Sound, that 

 " every officer and man, on the instant as it were, 

 made up his mind that this must be the north-west 

 passaged And it is added, " I firmly believe that 

 every creature on board anticipated the pleasure of 

 writing an overland dispatch to his friends, either 

 from the eastern or western shores of the Pacific." 

 But to return to Commander Ross's narrative : — 



" Soon after midnight the wind began to shift ; I therefore 

 made all sail, and left the Alexander considerably astern. 



