Chap. II. COMMANDER JOHN ROSS. 39 



sun at midnight through the opening of the sound in 

 question, just skimming above the horizon. These 

 are powerful grounds for believing that Burleigh 

 did not make the assertion at random, " that Green- 

 land was well known to be an island." 



Of the remaining sound of Baffin, which he 

 names Alderman Jones's Sound, all we learn from 

 Ross is, that " it answered to the description of Alder- 

 man Jones's Sound, given by Baffin, who discovered 

 it." " We were near the entrance of Jones's 

 Sound," says Captain Sabine, " but not so near as 

 Baffin, who sent his boat on shore." So might 

 Commander Ross have done, who remained there 

 from the 21st to the 23rd, when " towards evening," 

 he says, " we successively made out the north and 

 south points of the land across the bottom of this bay 

 or inlet ; at midnight a ridge of very high mountains 

 was seen to extend nearly across the bottom of it, 

 and joining another from the south ; on the 24th 

 we had a still better view of the land about Jones's 

 Sound :" but still no boat was sent on shore on any 

 of these four days. 



It has been thought right to notice the total 

 want of any information, in addition to that obtained 

 by Baffin, respecting his discovery of these several 

 sounds, as he has called them ;* and the more so 

 after reading the following extraordinary paragraph 

 in Commander Ross's Introduction, which can only 



* Probably from their affording 1 soundings for ships to anchor in. 



