A Voyage of Discovery, made under the orders of the Admiralty in his Majesty's Ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of Exploring Baffin's Bay, and inquiring into the probability of a North-We

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Author: John Ross (1777-1856) Year: 1819 Publisher: J ohn Murray Place: London Description: xxxix+252+cxliv with folding frontispiece map, errata slip, 6 additional maps and charts (6 folding), 25 aquatint or engraved plates and coastal profiles (15 colored and 7 folding). Quarto (11" x 8 3/4") bound in full leather with five raised spine band and red label in gilt lettering to spine. (Abbey Travel 634; Arctic Bib 14873; Books on Ice, 2.5; Sabin 73376) First edition. Sir John Ross CB was a Scottish Royal Navy officer and polar explorer. He was the uncle of Sir James Clark Ross, who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to Antarctica. In 1818, Ross received the command of an Arctic expedition organized by the British Admiralty, the first of a new series of attempts to answer the question of a North West Passage. This entailed going around the extreme north-east coast of America and sailing to the Bering Strait. He was also to note the currents, tides, the state of ice and magnetism and to collect specimens he found on the way. The expedition left London in April, with Ross commanding Isabella, a vessel that the Admiralty had hired, and accompanied by Alexander, another hired vessel, under Lieutenant William Edward Parry. Ross sailed anti-clockwise around Baffin Bay repeating the observations made by William Baffin two hundred years before. In August, he entered Lancaster Sound at the north end of Baffin Island; this later proved to be the eastern gate of the

• Binding: Hardcover

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