32 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. II. 



may safely satisfy himself that it will not only 

 appear, in some points, to be defective, but will be 

 so pronounced in all ; in point of fact, he never set 

 his foot on shore, and could not by any possibility 

 have known anything of the stuff he has set down, 

 which is of that kind of manufacture not worth the 

 paper on which it is printed. Most readers will agree 

 with the writer in a popular Journal, who calls it 

 " a bill of fare like that of the landlord in the play 

 — all the good things are stuffed into the bill, 

 while nothing is found in the larder." 



Ross may certainly plead examples without num- 

 ber, in the books of modern travellers, wherein ima- 

 gination has very materially assisted in supplying 

 the details ; but something approaching to fact is 

 expected in a voyage like the present, as any de- 

 viation, even in a trifling subject, is apt to throw 

 a doubt on those of greater moment. No doubt, 

 however, can be entertained of the discovery of a 

 physical object (not new, however) found on the 

 cliffs of this part of the coast of Baffin's Bay, not 

 far from Cape Dudley Digges. " We now disco- 

 vered," says Ross, " that the snow on the face of 

 the cliffs presented an appearance both novel and 

 interesting, being apparently stained or covered by 

 some substance which gave it a deep crimson colour. 

 This snow," he adds, " was penetrated even down to 

 the rock, in many places to a depth of ten or twelve 

 feet, by the colouring matter." Mr. Fisher says, 



