LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
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made by himself, and which certainly could not have been made 
under the circumstances in which Capt. Ross was at the time. 
We give him some credit for the dexterous manner in which 
he parried some of the questions that were put to him by the 
members of the committee, and which if answered in a direct, 
straightforward manner, would have proved on whose brow the 
laurels were to be placed, and at the same time, that that brow 
was not his own. 
On the same day that Commander Ross took the excursion, 
which has been already described, the purser and the surgeon, 
set out on an expedition to the huts of the Esquimaux, which 
were situate to the south east. On their way thither, they killed 
a bird, called the white-winger scraber, but the common name 
of which is the black guilemot. The body was entirely black, 
with the exception of a white spot on the wing, which is a dis¬ 
tinguishing mark of the bird in all its ages. The bill is black, 
and the legs and feet are crimson. It generally lays two eggs, 
about the size of a pullet’s, of a dirty white with black spots. 
It makes its nest in the holes, which are found in the fragments 
of the rocks on the shore. The measurement of the bird is gene¬ 
rally about twelve inches in length, and from nineteen to twenty 
in breadth. The plumage of the young birds is varied black 
and white, but the legs and feet are dusky, instead of the 
crimson colour which distinguishes the older birds. The bird 
is sometimes killed in the Shetland Islands, but its chief habit¬ 
ation may be considered to be BaffbTs Bay, and the surround¬ 
ing inlets. 
During the excursion of Commander Ross, he made some ob¬ 
servations respecting the geology of the country, but they did 
not agree with those, which were made by Mr. Thoms and 
Mr. Mc’Biarmid, although the direction in which they respect¬ 
ively bent their course, was not at so great a distance from each 
other, as to give rise to the conjecture that any great difference 
could be found in the formation of the rocks or the inclination 
of the strata. According to Commander Ross the general out¬ 
line of the interior and a considerable portion of the north 
