LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
597 
Pi ofessor Barlow was in possession of the knowledge of the exact 
spot where the magnetic pole is situated ; this, is however, 
more than can be said of Capt. Ross himself, for, on being 
asked by one of the committee, to state the point where the 
magnetic pole is, he answers, “ That the longitude of it has not 
yet been determined, but he supposes it to be about 96° 47'. “ Now 
we are borne out in our conjecture, by the information transmitted 
to us by two individuals, who were with the expedition, that Capt. 
Ross knew nothing of the position of the magnetic pole 
until his return to England, when it was communicated to him 
by Commander Ross; it is certain that the latter officer was not 
in the least in the habit of imparting to Capt. Ross the result of 
his scientific discoveries; and we can assert, with the utmost con¬ 
fidence, that Capt. Ross, so far from his being able to state, that 
he was within forty miles of the magnetic pole, was hardly 
within a hundred of it. 
The only two individuals, who were on the supposed position 
of the magnetic pole, were Commander Ross, and Blankey, the 
mate: the distance from the ship being about 132- miles to the 
westward, as laid down in our chart. The first experiments, 
made by Commander Ross, to determine the exact position of 
the magnetic pole, were made in the spring of 1830, during 
the sojourn of the Victory in Felix Harbour: they were con¬ 
tinued from Sheriff’s Harbour, in 1831, and finally from Victory 
Harbour, in 1832; but, whatever the respective discoveries 
might have been, it is most certain that they were not commu¬ 
nicated to Capt. Ross, from the impression, that existed in the 
mind of Commander Ross, that whatever discoveries he made, 
they were exclusively his own ; and that he was not under any 
obligation to communicate them to the commander of the ex¬ 
pedition, of whom he considered himself, in regard to his 
scientific researches, as wholly independent. That this absence 
of all confidential intercourse between the two officers, must 
have been highly detrimental to the general design of the ex¬ 
pedition, cannot for a moment admit of a doubt. Whatever 
might have been the physical infirmity of Capt. Ross, so as to 
disable him from taking those long excursions into the country. 
