294 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
by the force of stratagem to bring the animals within the range 
of his shot. 
Respecting however the principal object which he had in view, 
to ascertain the existence of an open sea, the knowledge which 
he obtained of the possibility of prosecuting the voyage to the 
westward was by no means satisfactory. To the north east, the 
water appeared to be more open, but then the whole presented 
such a fixed body of ice, as to frustrate every expectation of forcing 
a passage through it, and the experience of Commander Ross 
told him, that the ice was always firmer packed in the bays and 
inlets, than where the sea was open. The distance of the 
Victory from the strait of the Hecla and Fury was very small; 
The latitude and longitude of the wintering place of the former 
being 69° 59 north and 92° 2' west, whereas that of the latter, 
taking it at the northernmost point of Melville Peninsula was, 
latitude 69|° O' north and 88° 0 f west; thus the Victory was 
actually very nearly in the same latitude as the strait of the Hecla 
and Fury, and differing only four degrees in the longitude. In the 
expedition of 1821, Capt. Parry penetrated up the Strait between 
Cockburn Island and Melville Peninsula as far as 82° 35 west 
and gave to it the name of the Strait of the Hecla and Fury; 
in the map however laid by Capt. Ross before the Committee of 
the House of Commons, he gives its utmost longitude as 88°, but 
on what authority is left wholly to conjecture. There must 
however be some gross mistake in the reports of Captns. Parry 
and Ross, for according to the former, the length of the Strait, 
which is the width of Melville Peninsula is not more than sixty 
geographical miles, whereas according to the latter, taking it 
in the direction of E by S, it commences in longitude 80° west 
and its supposed termination is in 88°, making a difference of 
nearly three hundred miles between the calculation of Captns. 
Parry and Ross. The general result of all the arctic voyagers 
has been, that they have distinctly pointed out the route by 
which the North West Passage cannot be discovered, Capt. 
Parry proved the total inutility of any further attempt up 
Hudson’s Strait, and along the eastern coast of America up Fox’s 
Channel, the navigation of which, perhaps, is the most danger- 
