250 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
and as we have seen came of a family of soldiers and 
sailors. At the age of twelve he entered the navy, being 
placed under the care of his uncle, in whose ships he 
sailed until 1818. In 1819 he served on board H. M. S. 
Hecla under Sir Edward Parry, and continued for eight 
years with that great Arctic officer, taking part in several 
expeditions to the northern seas including the famous 
attempt to reach the North Pole by travelling over 
the ice beyond Spitsbergen in 1827. On returning from 
this expedition he was promoted to the rank of Com- 
mander, and sailed again in 1829, with his uncle Sir 
John Ross in Sir Felix Booth’s ship Victory. On this 
occasion the expedition spent four years in the Arctic 
regions and was almost given up as lost. In the course 
of it James Clark Ross did an immense amount of sledg- 
ing work, and on June 1, 1831, he reached the North 
magnetic pole and had the pleasure of hoisting the 
British flag on that interesting spot. He was promoted 
to the rank of Captain in 1834, and was in command of 
H. M. S. Cove in Baffin Bay in 1836. 
Ross, who was reputed to be the handsomest man in 
the navy, was an excellent officer with a rigid sense of 
duty. There is a curious note by one of the members 
of the expedition which proves the firmness of the com- 
mander’s character and may be viewed as a compli- 
ment, though intended as a censure. “ Notwithstand- 
ing my having some personal influence with Captain 
Ross ” — so runs the complaint — “ both of us having 
served together as youths under our mutual old com- 
mander and friend, Sir Edward Parry, I could not in- 
duce him to cancel any order he had once placed in the 
order-book, so strong were his prejudices, and as a 
sequence so difficult reason with.” 
