Account of the Expedition to Baffin's Bay. 15T 
admitting, that the land round the bottom of Lancaster Sound 
was not seen by Captain Sabine, or any of the officers of the 
Isabella and the Alexander, beside Captain Ross ; but this is 
no evidence at all against the continuity of the land, unless these 
gentlemen assure us, that they were upon deck, looking out for 
the land, during the ten minutes when the fog cleared away, 
and enabled Captain Ross to trace the outline of the hills round 
the bottom of the bay. 
The variation of the needle in Lancaster Sound, as observed 
on board the Isabella, was no less than 114°; and it is deeply 
to be regretted, that Captain Ross could find here no harbour, 
where the variation and the dip of the needle might have been 
accurately ascertained, out of the reach of the ship’s attrac- 
tion. 
As Captain Ross was required, by his instructions, to look 
for the north-east point of America, or the North-West pas- 
sage, (as he understood this to mean,) about the 72d degree of 
latitude, he did not allow himself to be detained by any minor 
objects, in so high a latitude as Lancaster Sound, and therefore 
made the best of his way to the south. On the llth of Sep- 
tember, when about seven leagues to the eastward of the island 
called Agnes’s Monument, they fell in with an enormous ice- 
berg, about 4169 yards, ornearly miles long, S869 yards broad, 
51 feet high, and aground in 61 fathoms of water, so that 
its real altitude must have been 417 feet. After ascending this 
iceberg, for the purpose of measuring the dip, and the variation, 
the party were received on its flat summit, by a white bear. 
They immediately advanced to attack it, but though at first it 
shewed some disposition to stand on the defensive, it made for 
We were near the entrance of Jones’ Sound, but not so near as BaflSn, who sent his 
boat on shore. We had thick weather : the sound was full of ice, and not then acces- 
sible. The last is Lancaster’s Sound, w'hich Baffin merely opened, but we sailed 
into it for about thirty miles. It is needless to enter into a detail here, of the many 
encouraging coincidences which aw^aited us in this the only one of Baffin’s Sounds 
into W'hich w'c entered ; the great depth of w'ater, the sudden increase in its tem- 
perature, the absence ot ice, the direction of the sw'cll, the width of the shores 
apart, (exceeding that of Behring’s Straits,) and the different character of the 
country on the north and south sides, especially in the latter, appearing to be 
wooded. This magnilicent inlet, will no doubt be fully explored by the expedi- 
tion now fitting; and those w'ho are so employed, will have the privilege of being 
the first, whose curiosity will be gratified in following where it may lead, or in 
putting its termination, should there prove one, beyond a question.”— 
Jfmrnalf No, xiii. p, 93. 
