LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
107 
tains were not an illusion, caused perhaps by the power of refract¬ 
ion, he would have been spared a great part of the odium which 
was subsequently cast upon him, and have been perhaps the 
discoverer of those lands, which was afterwards effected by Capt. 
Parry in the same quarter. 
It was by no means improbable that a narrow strait might have 
existed through the mountains, but this objection was answered 
by Capt. Ross himself, who says, that even if such strait did 
exist, it must be evident that it would be for ever unnavigable, 
and in fact that there was not any chance of ascertaining its exist¬ 
ence, since all approach to the bottom of the bay was prevented 
by the ice, which fills it to so great a depth, and which appears 
never to have moved from its position. 
This is all very plausible on the part of Capt. Ross, and is given 
by him in extenuation of his defective conduct, but the gravamen 
of the charge still remains unaltered with all its force and damna¬ 
tory adjuncts. Capt. Ross by acting in opposition to the advice 
and opinion of his officers, took upon himself the whole weight 
of the responsibility, and on his return to England, the satirists 
and the caricaturists selected him as a choice object, on which to 
exercise the severity of their talents. By the latter he was repre¬ 
sented marching in procession to the admiralty, with all the 
trophies of his successful voyage, and the name of Ross and the 
north west passage became the by-word for every thing that was 
highly farcical and comical. 
The next best thing, which a man can do after having lost his 
character, is to do all he can to retrieve it, and it was not to be 
expected that Capt. Ross could sit tamely down with all the load 
of obloquy upon his shoulders, and not make some attempt to 
remove it. There is even some merit attached to the attempt, 
for it shows that there is still a spirit of conscious rectitude resid¬ 
ing within, and an anxious desire to shew to the world the great 
errors, and blunders which it is apt to make, in forming an esti¬ 
mate of private character; in fact, it must be so far complimentary 
and consoling to Capt. Ross to reflect that, even if any other 
person than himself had projected another expedition to the 
Arctic Regions, for the discovery of the north west passage, it 
