Chap. XIV. MISCELLANEOUS. 521 



mander Ross made five or six journeys from the 

 ship, of about a month to ten days or a fortnight 

 each. On the first he discovered and crossed the 

 isthmus of Boothia which joins it to a peninsula. 

 On a future journey he ascertained it to be fifteen 

 miles in width, with a lake in the centre, and five 

 miles of land. To a question of the Committee as to 

 what part he took in the geographical discoveries 

 made, his reply was — "The whole extent of geogra- 

 phical discovery is perhaps between 600 and 700 

 miles of new land ; out of that probably about 260 

 miles were discovered in the ship as she proceeded 

 down the coast ; the remaining 400 or 500 were dis- 

 covered by myself, with parties of three or four men 

 detached from the ship — expeditions that were seve- 

 rally planned and conducted by myself." He also 

 states, in reply to further questions, that observa- 

 tions in geology, natural history, and botany, with 

 the collecting of specimens, were made by himself, 

 he being the only person who at all understood the 

 nature of those subjects. He is then asked if he 

 personally made the observations, from which he 

 inferred that he had discovered the true position of 

 the magnetic pole ? "I did," he says, rt for two 

 years previous to the time I went to the magnetic 

 pole. I was engaged in observations necessary to 

 determine its exact position ; having ascertained 

 that spot, I then conducted a party to the point so 

 determined, and there I made a series of observa- 



