554 HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



garb which appeared as if borrowed from the looms and dyes 

 of Tyre. The spot is marked upon the maps as " The Crimson 

 Cliffs." The color was at the time supposed to be a quality 

 inherent in the snow itself ; but subsequent investigations have 

 established its vegetable origin. 



The ships were now at the northern point of Baffin's Bay, 

 among the numerous inlets which Baffin had failed to explore. 

 They all appeared to be blocked up with ice, and none of them 

 held out any nattering promise of concealing within itself the 

 long-sought Northwest Passage. Smith's Strait, where the bay 

 ends, was carefully examined ; but it proved to be enclosed by 

 ice. Returning towards the south by the western coast of the 

 bay, they arrived at the entrance of Lancaster Sound on the 

 30th of August, just as the sun, after shining unceasingly for 

 nearly three months, was beginning to dip under the horizon. 

 The vessels sailed up the sound some fifty miles, through a sea 

 clear from ice, the channel being surrounded on either hand by 

 mountains of imposing elevation. It was here that Ross com- 

 mitted the fatal mistake which was to cloud his own reputation 

 and to put Parry, his second, forward as the first of Arctic 

 navigators. He asserted, and certainly believed, that he saw a 

 high ridge of mountains stretching directly across the passage. 

 This, he thought, rendered farther progress impracticable, and 

 the order was given to put the ships about. Ross returned to 

 England, convinced that Baffin was correct in regarding Lan- 

 caster Bay as a bay only, without any strait beyond. It was 

 destined that Parry should thread this strait and find the Polar 

 Sea beyond. 



In the same year the British Government sent an expedition 

 under Captain Buchan and Lieutenant — afterwards Sir John — 

 Franklin, to endeavor to reach the Pole. The objects were to 

 make experiments on the elliptical figure of the earth, on mag- 

 netic and meteorological phenomena, and on the refraction of the 

 atmosphere in high latitudes. The two vessels — the Dorothea 



