163 



ROSMINI, CARLO DE'. 



ROSS, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR JOHN. 



164 



and exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, the Psalms, 

 Job, Ezekiel, the minor prophets, Jeremiah, the writings of Solomon, 

 Daniel, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. The first edition was published 

 1795-1826, the second 1823-34. In the second edition several Rational- 

 istic interpretations which appeared in the first are greatly modified. 

 Rosenmiiller's profound oriental learning and untiring industry have 

 made this work one of the most valuable commentaries upon the Old 

 Testament. In some cases he leans too much to the interpretations 

 of the Jewish Rabbis. A ' Compendium of the Scholia,' in 5 vole. 8vo, 

 containing the Pentateuch, Isaiah, the Psalms, Job, Ezekiel, and the 

 minor prophets, has been executed by Dr. J. C. S. Lechner, under the 

 author's superintendence. Rosenmiiller did not live to complete his 

 larger work. 2, ' Handbuch der Biblischen Alterthumskunde,' 4 vols. 

 8vo, 1823-31. This work was also left incomplete at the author's 

 death. The volumes published were three on the geography and one 

 on the natural history of the Bible. Translations of parts of this work 

 are published in the ' Biblical Cabinet,' namely, ' The Geography of 

 Central Asia,' 2 vols., and ' The Mineralogy and Botany of the Bible,' 

 1 vol. 3, 'Institutiones Linguae Arabicse,' the best manual of Arabic 

 grammar, chiefly founded upon De Sacy's 'Qrammaire Arabe.' 4, 

 ' Analecta Arabica.' 5, ' Vocabularium Veteris Testament!.' 6, ' Das 

 Alte und das Neue Morgeuland," 6 vols. 8vo. 



ROSMI'NI, CARLO DE' was born in 1758 at Roveredo, in the 

 Italian Tyrol. He studied first at Innsbruck, and then in his native 

 town, where he began early to show his aptitude for literary composi- 

 tion by writing several disquisitions on poetry. He afterwards removed 

 to Ferrara, where he published in 1789 a Life of Ovid : ' Vita di 

 Ovidio Nasone,' to which were added a letter by Vannetti on the style 

 and the language of Ovid, and a parallel between the Orpheus of Ovid 

 and the same character in Virgil. This work obtained for Rosmini 

 the honour of being inscribed among the members of the Florentine 

 academy. He next wrote 'Delia Vita di L. Anneo Seneca libri quattro,' 

 Roveredo, 1793. In 1801 he wrote an account of Vittorino da Feltre, 

 a celebrated preceptor of the 15th century, and of his system of 

 education, ' Idea dell* ottimo Precettore nella Vita e Disciplina di 

 Vittorino da Feltre e de' suoi Discepoli.' This book may be called a 

 treatise on pedagogy, as well as the next work published by Rosmini 

 on Guarino Veronese, a contemporary of Vittorino da Feltre, and upon 

 his school, ' Vita e Disciplina di Guarino Veronese e de' suoi Discepoli,' 

 3 vols. 8vo, Brescia, 1805-6. In 1808 Rosmini published an elaborate 

 biography of the learned Filelfo, ' Vita di Francesco Filelfo da Tolen- 

 tino,' 3 vols. 8vo. His next work was a Life of Trivulzio, a great 

 captain of the 16th century, ' Dell' Istoria interne alle Militari Imprese 

 ed alia Vita di Gian Jacopo Trivulzio detto il Magno Libri XV.,' 2 vols. 

 4to, 1815, a biography enriched with handsome engravings and valuable 

 documents. The last work of Rosmini was his history of Milan, 

 ' Dell' Istoria di Milano Libri XVIII.' This history embraces the 

 period from the reign of Frederic Barbarossa down to 1535, when 

 Milan was annexed to the dominions of Charles V. The author wrote 

 a continuation of it down to the beginning of the reign of the Empress 

 Maria Theresa in 1740, which continuation is still inedited. Rosmini 

 ranks among the principal Italian biographers of our times. He died 

 at Milan in 1827. 



ROSS, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR JOHN, Knight, was born June 24, 

 1777, at Balsarroch, Wigtownshire, Scotland. He was the fourth son 

 of the Rev. Andrew Ross, of Balsarroch, minister of the parish of 

 Inch. He entered the navy as a first-class volunteer November 11, 

 1786, on board the Pearl, 32 guns, and served in the Mediterranean 

 till 1789. From November 7, 1790 till 1791, he served on board the 

 Impregnable, 98 guns, in the English Channel. After being some 

 years in the merchant-service he became, in September 1799, a mid- 

 shipman on board the Weazel, sloop-of-war, which in that year formed 

 part of the expedition to the coast of Holland. After having served 

 on board several other king's ships, he received his commission as 

 lieutenant, March 13, 1805. While attached to the Surinam, 18 guns, 

 in 1806, he was severely wounded in four places in cutting out a 

 Spanish vessel under the batteries of Bilbao, for which, in 1808, he 

 was granted a pension of 982. a year, increased in 1815 to 150?. He 

 attained the rank of commander February 1, 1812, and was appointed 

 to the Briseis, sloop-of-war, and afterwards to other vessels, till the 

 termination of the war in 1815, during which period he performed 

 several valuable services. He married his first wife in 1816. 



In December 1817, while in command of the Driver, sloop-of-war, 

 in Loch Ryan, on the coast of Scotland, he received a letter from Sir 

 George Hope, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, informing him that 

 two ships were to be sent out, to " ascertain the existence or non- 

 existence of a north-west passage j " and inquiring whether he was 

 disposed to undertake the command of the expedition. Having 

 expressed his willingness to do so, he was directed to repair to London, 

 where he arrived on the 30th of December. On the 15th of January 

 1818, he received bis commission as commander of the Isabella, 385 

 tons, Lieutenant W. E. Parry being appointed to the command of the 

 Alexander, 252 tons. The two ships departed from the Thames, April 

 25, 1818. They sailed up the eastern side of Davis's Strait and 

 Baffin's Bay, and returned by the western side. They entered Lan- 

 caster Sound, and after proceeding some distance up it, Ross and the 

 officer of the watch thought that they saw "land round the bottom 

 of the Bay, forming a chain of mountains connected with those which 



extended along the north and south sides." The Alexander, being a 

 slow-sailing vessel, was a considerable distance behind the Isabella. 

 Parry however and his officers could see no mountains, and were greatly 

 surprised and disappointed when the Isabella turned her head east- 

 wards, and gave the signal for the Alexander to follow the example. 

 Ross named the supposed high land the Croker Mountains, and has laid 

 them down hi his chart as a continuous chain closing up the bottom 

 of the supposed bay. This was a mistake, as Parry believed at the 

 time, and as he proved the following year when he sailed through 

 Lancaster Sound into Barrow's Strait. [PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD.] 

 The ships arrived in the Thames on the 14th of November, 1818. 

 On the 7th of December, the same year, Ross was advanced to the rank 

 of po.-t-captaiu. In 1819 he published 'A Voyage of Discovery, made 

 under the Orders of the Admiralty, in his Majesty's ships Isabella and 

 Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and enquiring 

 into the Probability of a North- West Passage,' 2 vols. 8vo. 



After the unsuccessful attempt of Captain Parry to reach the north 

 pole, in 1827, Captain Ross submitted to the Lords of the Admiralty and 

 to the Lord High Admiral the plan of another voyage of discovery to 

 the Arctic seas. The government however did not undertake it ; but 

 after some delay a steam-ship was equipped at the expense of Mr. 

 Felix Booth (afterwards Sir Felix Booth), then sheriff of London. 

 The ship was named the Victory, and was fitted with an engine, 

 invented and patented by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson, which 

 proved to be so bad as to be almost useless. Commander James 

 Clark Ross, nephew of Captain Ross, was chosen as second in command. 

 They had an attendant vessel of 16 tons burden, granted to them by 

 the Admiralty, named the Krusenstern. The Victory, with its 

 attendant, left the Thames May 24, 1829, and using partly her sails, 

 and partly her " execrable machinery," as Ross calls it, entered 

 Davis's Straits, July 5. Captain Ross expected to find a north-west 

 passage through Prince Regent Inlet, which Parry had discovered, 

 and in which one of his ships, the Fury, had been wrecked. The 

 Victory and the Krusenstern entered the Inlet on the 12th of August, 

 and on the following day discovered the wreck of the Fury. They 

 afterwards took such of her stores as they required, passed farther 

 down the Inlet, and on the 8th of October were frozen up in Felix 

 Harbour, on the west side of the Gulf of Boothia. They were not 

 released from the ice till the 17th of September 1830, and were able 

 to advance but a very short distance before they were again frozen up 

 on the 31st of October. On the 29th of August 1831, the Victory 

 was again released from the ice, but on the 25th of September was 

 forced by the pressure into another harbour. In April 1832 the 

 sailors commenced carrying northwards two boats, with sledges and 

 provisions, and on the 29th of May the vessels were finally abandoned. 

 Captain Ross, in his journal, observes, " In the evening I took my own 

 adieu of the Victory. It was the first vessel that I had ever been 

 obliged to abandon, after having served in thirty-six, during a period 

 of forty-two years." Some of the crew had died, and the rest were 

 much weakened, but they struggled on till the 15th of August 1833, 

 when the ice broke, and they were enabled to set sail iu the boats. 

 On the 26th of August, when near the entrance of Lancaster Sound, 

 they came in sight of the Isabella, which was out on a whaling 

 voyage. The mate in command of a boat that was sent to them, on 

 Captain Ross asking him the name of the vessel, said it was the 

 Isabella of Hull, once commanded by Captain Ross^ "on which I 

 stated that I was the identical man in question, and my people were 

 the crew of the Victory." Unshaven as they all were, dirty, dressed 

 in tattered skins, and wasted almost to the bones, the man doubted 

 the statement, and said that Captain Ross had been dead two years. 

 He was easily convinced of his error, and they were received on board 

 the Isabella, with the yards and rigging manned, and with three hearty 

 cheers. The Isabella arrived at Hull on the 18th of September 1833, 

 and on the 19th Captain Ross reached London by steamer. 



While the ships were frozen up in the Gulf of Boothia, many 

 journeys and surveys were made by Commander Ross, and some by 

 Captain Ross himself, chiefly of the coasts and country which they 

 named Boothia Felix. During one of these journeys Commander Ross 

 discovered, June 1, 1831, a spot which he considered to be the north 

 magnetic pole, 70 5' 17" N. lat., 96 46' 45" W. long., where the 

 dipping needle indicated a dip of 89 59', or within one minute of 

 the vertical. 



On the 24th of December 1834, Captain Ross received the honour 

 of knighthood, together with the companionship of the Bath. Many 

 other honours and several rewards were conferred upon him. In 

 1835 he published a ' Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a 

 North- West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during 

 the years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, by Sir John Ross, C.B., &c., 

 Captain in the Royal Navy, including the Reports of Commander (now 

 Captain) James Clark Ross, RN., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., and the Dis- 

 covery of the Northern Magnetic Pole,' 4to, with Maps and Plates. 

 In the same year was published an ' Appendix to the Narrative,' &c., 

 also in 4to, chiefly consisting of accounts of the Esquimaux, and of the 

 zoology, the meteorology, and similar matters. On the 8th of March, 

 1839, Sir John Ross was appointed consul at Stockholm, where he 

 remained till February 1845. In 1850 he went out in search of Sir 

 John Franklin, in a small vessel of 90 tons, named the Felix, and 

 remained one whiter in the ice. The government lent him no assist- 



