151 
Account of the Expedition to Baffin'' s Bay. 
that the Pole, guarded by a frozen barrier, could only be ap- 
proached by the alternate use of boats, and of sledges drawn by 
dogs ; while his learned opponent, on the authority of every 
iceberg that travelled to the south, insisted that a change 
of temperature had effected an opening through the frozen 
ridge ; and that, while we accomplished the great object of a 
passage across the Pole, we might execute, also, the more ro- 
mantic enterprize of releasing the lost colony of Eastern Green- 
land, whom the accumulated ice was supposed to have for ever 
separated from the rest of the world. 
The public took a deep interest in speculations like these, 
where the dry details of hydrography were enlivened by discus- 
sions and schemes almost bordering upon romance ; and though 
they were assailed by poetical theories of climate, and the usual 
allowance or malevolent predictions, yet the general expectation 
of advancing the interests of natural science, and of practical na- 
vigation, would not permit itself to be damped ; and there were 
a few, more sanguine than the rest, who expected that the Bri- 
tish flag would be fixed upon the Pole of the world, whether it 
was deposited from a sledge and four, or more formally trans- 
planted from the quarter-deck of a British vessel. 
With the greatest liberality and love of science, the British 
Government equipped four vessels, viz. the Isabella of 385 tons, 
and the Alexander of S52t tons, under the command of Cap- 
tain Ross and Lieutenant Parry, for the purpose of exploring the 
passage through Baffin’s Bay ; and the Dorothea of 382 tons, 
and the Trent of 249, under the command of Captain Buchan 
and Lieutenant Franklin, with the view of penetrating directly 
into the Polar regions, by the way of Spitzbergen. These ves- 
sels were adapted in the most scientific manner for the perils 
which they had to encounter, and every precaution was taken 
for insuring the health and comfort of their respective crews, 
and for accomplishing in the most satisfactory manner the ge- 
neral object of the expedition. 
The expedition under Captain Ross left Deptford on the 
18th April 1818. It reached Lerwick in Shetland on the 30th, 
and on the 1st of June it entered Davis’ Straits, after encoun- 
tering an iceberg about 40 feet high and 1000 feet long* On 
the 14th of June it reached Whale Islands, in latitude 63° 54', 
