300 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
striking, and the answer of Commander Ross is well deserving 
of attention, as it is strongly indicative of the inimical dispos¬ 
ition of his mind towards his uncle, at the same time that it 
is corroborative of our previous statement respecting that want of 
friendly feeling, which ought naturally and professionally to 
have existed between them. 
Capt. Ross is asked. Did you observe the difference in the 
altitude of the two seas, east and west of Boothia Felix ? Yes. 
Do you draw any conclusion from that difference of altitude 
which bears on the subject of the North West Passage? I con¬ 
sider it to be negative. 
You consider it a presumption * Yes, a presumption that there 
is no such passage, but not a proof. 
What was the difference ? The difference is thirteen feet. 
Upon the supposition that the land is continuous, northward 
from the seventy-fourth degree to the pole, should you expect to 
find that difference of altitude in the seas ? I should certainly 
from the rotative motion of the earth. 
On this subject Commander Ross is asked, Are you aware of 
the fact, that the two seas, right and left of the isthmus which 
unites Boothia with the continent of America, are of different 
altitude? No, 1 am not , nor had we the means of ascertaining 
the fact with accuracy. It would take at least two or three 
months to ascertain it with the accuracy such an observation 
would require. 
You have no reason to suppose such a thing ? None whatever; 
no, I never heard of it till this moment . 
Has Capt, Ross never told you that he had ascertained that to 
be the fact? Capt. Ross may have made observations which 
have satisfied his own mind, but I doubt whether he can have 
made observations that would satisfy the minds of those, who 
may investigate the matter. 
There is an imputation, accompanied with a sneer in the last 
answer, which must have been rather mortifying to Capt. Ross, 
but it is by no means a solitary instance in which a latent dis¬ 
position exhibits itself, on the part of Commander Ross, to de¬ 
preciate the observations, which Capt, Ross reports to have been 
