in the proper direction, ought to have been practically and closely examined, not merely viewed at a distance in a foggy atmosphere.  As for the impediments, they were what were to be expected, what the ships were sent out to meet and overcome; and till persevering and even highly hazardous efforts had proved that they could not be overcome, they ought not to have been suffered to weigh the least with the captain or his men, and especially not with the former.

But to proceed:  about midnight on the 19th of August, the sound described by Baffin to be the largest of all the sounds he discovered, and called by him Sir Thomas Smith’s Sound, was distinctly seen; and the two capes which formed its entrance were called by Captain Ross after the two ships Isabella and Alexander.  “I considered,” he informs us, “the bottom of this sound to be about eighteen leagues distant, but its entrance was completely blocked up by ice.”  Here again, a sound which seemed to promise fair to lead them into the great Polar Sea was left undiscovered, and in fact unapproached; for at the distance of eighteen leagues, in that deceptive climate, nothing could be really known of its real state or practicability.  Had Captain Ross made the attempt; had he spent but a couple of days, and actually encountered serious obstacles, even though he had not experienced that those obstacles were insurmountable, he would have had some excuse; but it is impossible not to censure him for approaching no nearer than eighteen leagues to a sound such as this, and pronouncing at this distance that the ice blocked it up completely.  His reasoning to support his belief that this sound afforded no passage, and to defend his not having explored it, is weak and inconclusive; but we shall not examine it, because the commander to whom such an expedition is entrusted, should never reason, where he can prove by actual observation and experiment.  It is unsafe in him to reason, because he will most assuredly be tempted to make his line of conduct bend to his hypothesis and reasoning.

Captain Ross returned down the western side of Baffin’s Bay.  On the 21st an opening was seen, which answered to the description of Alderman Jones Sound, given by Baffin; but here again the ice and fog prevented them from approaching near; as if the fog might not have cleared up in a day or two, and the ice might not either have been drifted off in as short a space, or, if it could not, have been passed by the crew, so far, at least, as to have gained a nearer and better view of this sound.

Baffin describes this sound as a large inlet, and adds, that the coast tended to the southward, and had the appearance of a bay.  This is confirmed by Captain Ross; for he informs us that the land was observed to take a southerly direction.  On the 28th of August the sea became more clear of ice, and no bottom was found with three hundred fathoms of line:  in the afternoon of that day they succeeded in getting