FIRST EXPEDITION OF JOHN EOSS. 103 



its firm-rooted position on the eastern coast of Old Greenland, and its reappearance in a more 

 southerly latitude, where it was met with ; as was attested by various persons worthy of credit, 

 in the years 1815, 1816, and 1817, by ships coming from the East Indies and America, by 

 others going to Halifax and Newfoundland, and in different parts of the Atlantic, as far down. 

 as the 40th parallel of latitude." Large islands of ice had impeded some voyagers for days 

 together; icebergs miles in extent, and from one to two hundred feet high, had been reported.. 

 A vessel had been beset for eleven days on the coast of Labrador in floes of ice mixed with ice- 

 bergs, many of which had huge rocks, gravel, soil, and wood upon them. In short, there was 

 so much testimony from various sources to the vast break-up which had occurred that it 

 created a great deal of attention among scientific men and navigators. 



It was perfectly understood whence the larger part of this ice must be derived. 

 Scoresby the younger, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, recorded the fact that some- 

 1S/JOO square miles of the surface of the Greenland seas included between the parallels 

 of 74 and 80 were known to be void of ice, and that this immense change had 

 been effected within two years. Intelligence received at Copenhagen in 1810 from/ 

 Iceland indicated that the ice had broken loose from the opposite coast of Greenland, 

 and floated away to the southward, after surrounding the shores of Iceland and filling 

 all the creeks and bays of that island. This was repeated in 1817. 



The public notice taken of the above facts led to two expeditions being ordered, 

 the first of which, under Commander (afterwards Sir) John Ross, was remarkable for the 

 number of officers who accompanied it, and who, later, acquired distinction in the Arctic 

 explorations of this century. Parry, J. C. Ross (the commander's nephew), Sabine (long 

 President of the Royal Society, and a most distinguished savan], then a captain of the 

 Royal Artillery, Hoppner, and others, were among the number. The ships employed were 

 the Isabella and Alexander, and the commander's instructions were to attempt the north- 

 west passage by the western route. 



On the 1st of June, 1818, they had reached the eastern side of Davis's Strait, 

 but detained by ice, and it was not till the 3rd of the following month that they arrived 

 at the Women's Islands. The delay did not prevent them from having some pleasant 

 intercourse with .the Danes and Esquimaux of the Greenland settlements. Extempore 

 balls were organised, where their interpreter, Jack Sackhouse (or Saccheous), was of great 

 value. Jack combined in his person the somewhat discordant qualifications of seaman, 

 interpreter, draughtsman, and master of ceremonies, with those of a fisher of seals and 

 a successful hunter of white bears. 



A favourable breeze sprang up, and Ross was anxious to leave, as the ice began 

 to separate. Jack had gone ashore, and when a boat was sent for him he was found 

 in one of the huts with his collar-bone broken, from having greatly overloaded and 

 discharged his gun. His idea was, as he expressed it, " Plenty powder, plenty kill ! " 

 Proceeding northward, and passing many whalers, he examined and named Melville Bay. 

 On August 10th, the ships being at anchor near shore, eight sledges of Esquimaux 

 were observed, and Saccheous was despatched with a flag and some presents in order 

 to parley with them, they being on one side of a field of ice, in which was a canal 

 or chasm. After much shouting and gesticulating, Saccheous held out his presents, and 



