202 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
The expedition sailed in April, 1818, proceeded up 
Davis Strait, and. reached Hare Island off the north-west 
cape .of Disco I. on June 17th. Here 45 whalers were 
found waiting to go north, and Ross received the excellent 
advice from the captain of the whaler Larkin to " stick 
to the land floe/' The reason why all the attempts 
by the Spitsbergen route failed is that there is no land 
floe to stick to. On July 2nd the Isabella and Alexander 
were off Sanderson's Hope, the further point of Davis, 
and entering upon Baffin's work. Up to this time the 
whalers had never been north of 75 0 10'. 
The formidable ice-encumbered sea to the north 
received from Ross the name of Melville Bay. Here 
they were beset, pressure raised the ships out of the water, 
and they had to track through narrow lanes in the ice. 
The point at the north end of Melville Bay, so well known 
in after years, received the name of Cape York. Between 
Cape York and Cape Dudley Digges the crimson snow was 
seen from the ships, and Mr Beverley landed on August 
17th, and Ross's nephew on the 18th, to collect specimens 
of it 1 . 
It was on the 9th of August that people were first 
seen, coming over the ice in dog sledges. Sacheuse was 
sent out to meet them, but found that they spoke a 
different dialect from his own. Afterwards several were 
induced to come on board. A most interesting people 
had been discovered, for they had been isolated, possibly, 
for centuries. Captain Ross took great pains to collect 
information about them. He minutely described their 
persons, clothing, and weapons, and careful drawings were 
made of a dog sledge, narwhal-horn spear, and a knife 
made of thin circles of meteoric iron fixed into a bone 
handle. The iron was said to come from a place near 
called Sewallik. Ross and Sacheuse also collected 38 
words, 24 of which had the same meaning as in the 
1 Sir John Ross was much hurt at the doubting remarks and criticisms 
respecting the brilliant crimson on his plate of the crimson snow. They 
still rankled 32 years afterwards when the present writer served with 
him, and he wrote an article on the subject in our Arctic periodical, the 
Aurora Borealis. Mr Bauer, of Kew Gardens, it appears, pronounced the 
crimson snow to be of the genus Uredo, allied to smut " in wheat, and 
he grew some in snow. It was first green, then as bright a crimson as in 
Ross's plate. Ross called it Uredo nivalis of Bauer in his 2nd edition. 
