an agony of suspense the ship saw them and hove to. It was the 

 Isabella, the ship in which Commander John Ross had sailed to 

 Baffin Bay in 1818. 



The explorers received a tremendous welcome on their return 

 home, and John Ross, having made good his reputation, was 

 awarded a knighthood. Never before had an expedition spent four 

 winters in the Arctic. They had charted five hundred miles of new 

 coast line, discovered the northern extremity of the mainland of 

 North America, located the approximate position of the North 

 Magnetic Pole, and brought back a large collection of natural 

 history specimens. 



It was now fifteen years since James Clark Ross had first sailed 

 to the Arctic as a midshipman. During that time he had personally 

 helped piece together the jigsaw puzzle of islands and lands that 

 form the northern shores of North America. Another fifteen years 

 were to pass before he would revisit those regions. Meanwhile, 

 plans were afoot which were to give him his first real opportunity 

 for leadership. 



Steam navigation was dawning. Marine engineers were speaking 

 of ships of iron that would soon replace ships of wood. Navigation 

 techniques would have to be refined. The Royal Society and the 

 British Association, the two major scientific organizations in Eng- 

 land, had been urged by Edward Sabine to fill in the gaps in knowl- 

 edge of the Earth's magnetism. 



While these learned bodies were deliberating, France and the 

 United States sent expeditions to find the South Magnetic Pole. A 

 German mathematician and astronomer, Karl Friedrich Gauss, 

 had calculated that the Pole must be in the region of lat. 66° S., 

 long. 146° E., in that part of the Antarctic continent that faces New 

 Zealand. Eventually, in 1838, the British government authorized a 

 naval expedition to carry out magnetic observations in the southern 

 latitudes. The Admiralty chose as leader Captain James Clark Ross, 

 the man with more Arctic seasons to his credit than any other man 

 alive, and the "discoverer" of the North Magnetic Pole. The choice 

 was a natural one and could scarcely have been bettered. In 1839, 

 when the expedition sailed, Ross was forty years old and in his prime. 



The expedition was entirely naval. Two ships, H.M.S. Erebus, 

 370 tons, and H.M.S. Terror, 340 tons, were chosen. Both were 

 former mortar-carrying vessels and were strengthened for ice navi- 

 gation. Francis Crozier, who had been with Ross and Parry on the 

 Hecla, commanded the Terror, while Ross sailed in the Erebus. They 

 took a huge quantity of tinned meats and soups, and mountains of 

 vegetables. 



. James Clark Ross' instructions were to carry out magnetic 

 observations at various landfalls, and then to sail for Van Diemen's 

 Land (Tasmania), where he was to set up a magnetic observatory 

 at Hobart. From there they were to voyage south, determine the 

 position of the Magnetic Pole, and reach it, if they could. This 

 accomplished, they could then spend a second summer exploring 

 some of the Antarctic coast fine. 



After months of preparation Erebus and Terror sailed through 

 the English Channel and south for Van Diemen's Land. Following 

 two months of magnetic observations at the Kerguelen Islands, a 

 dreary sub-Antarctic group in the Indian Ocean, the ships reached 

 Hobart where they were given a warm welcome by the governor. 



An engraving of Sir John Ross being 

 greeted by Eslfimos of Prince Regent 

 Inlet, 1818. On tfiis voyage Ross mistook 

 clouds for mountains and abandoned 

 his search for a Northwest Passage. 



49 



