Chap. VIII. PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 235 



Lieutenant Foster is highly spoken of hy 

 Captain Parry " for the various and multiplied 

 branches of useful science to which his attention was 

 at all times directed ;" and he adds, " our observa- 

 tions upon atmospheric refractions in high latitudes, 

 and on the diurnal variation, and change of inten- 

 sity of the magnetic needle, together with Lieu- 

 tenant Foster's experiments with an invariable 

 pendulum, have been communicated to and read 

 before the Royal Society. He was also first Lieu- 

 tenant of the Hecla, which carried Parry to Spitz- 

 bergen on his attempt to reach the Pole. He ac- 

 companied Clavering and Sabine in the Griper to 

 Spitzbergen and Greenland in 1823, and proved a 

 most useful and intelligent assistant in the pen- 

 dulum observations. His last service was that of 

 co-operating with Mr. Lloyd in levelling across the 

 isthmus of Panama, when he was unfortunately 

 drowned in the river Chagres. By his death, the 

 service was deprived of one of its most useful, able, 

 and scientific navigators ; and his loss was felt and 

 deeply lamented by all who had the pleasure of his 

 acquaintance. His character, in fact, was esta- 

 blished as among the first scientific officers of his 

 time. 



Lieutenant James Clark Ross. — Too much 

 cannot be said in praise of this young officer, who 

 worked himself, entirely by his own exertions, 

 to the rank of Lieutenant ; and by his own self- 

 taught acquirements, which extended to every de- 



