LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT, ROSS* 
685 
claim, which Capt. Ross himself possessed, upon the liberality 
of the British people. It, however, appears that Capt. Ross, in 
his letter to Capt. Elliott, had modestly withheld the full extent 
of his discoveries, and that, but for his examination before the 
committee of the House of Commons, the public would never 
have been made acquainted with the important circumstance, 
that the expedition had been distinguished by any other disco¬ 
veries, than those mentioned in the letter to Capt. Elliott. 
On this subject we must first remark, that we are not cogni¬ 
zant with any surveys, which Capt. Ross made of the harbours 
and creeks of Lancaster Sound, on his outward passage, his sole 
aim being to push on to the westward, as the breeding places of 
the whales, and the harbours, in which ships could repair, were 
then subjects of minor importance, and not deemed deserving of 
his attention. After Capt. Ross bad been received on board the 
Isabella, we know that he went on shore for a day in Possession 
Bay, which is almost the north-easterly point of Lancaster 
Sound, but he was not then in a quarter to take a survey of the 
harbours and creeks of Lancaster Sound ; nor would Capt. Hum¬ 
phreys have endangered his insurance, and sacrificed the interests 
of the owners of his ship, by altering its destination, merely for 
the purpose of enabling Capt. Ross to take a survey of the 
breeding places of the whales. 
The 159th question of the committee runs thus :—“ Your 
answers have hitherto referred to the commercial advantages 
derived from your first expedition V —“ Yes.” 
“ Can you state any, that you conceive to be derived from the 
secoud expedition? 1 ’—“ I have surveyed several of the harbours, 
which ships receiving damage might go into to repair, and also 
the places where the whales resort to breed. I have re-surveyed 
and fully determined the whole of the fishery, by actual difference 
of longitude.” 
On this answer we shall make one remark, en 'passant , that 
from the time of the Victory entering Lancaster Sound, in 1829, 
till her abandonment in 1833, the surveys were all made by 
Commander Ross, and we are not sensible of a single survey, 
