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1006  of a north-west passage. In Dec. 1818, having returned to England, he joined the 40, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, lying in the Downs. Between Jan. 1819 and Oct. 1825 he was engaged, under the present (to whose memoir refer), in three other voyages to the Arctic regions. During the first two he was attached to the and  bombs, commanded in person by Capt. Parry; and while absent on the second he was promoted, 26 Dec. 1822, to the rank of Lieutenant. On the last occasion he was again in the, with Capt. Henry Parkyns Hoffner, and was in that vessel wrecked in lat. 72° 42' 30", long. 91° 50' 5". In 1827 Mr. Ross, as First of the, was the companion once more of Capt. Parry in his attempt to reach the Pole from the northern shores of Spitzbergen, by travelling with sledge-boats over the ice. On his return to England he was presented with a Commander’s commission dated 8 Nov. 1827. He was next, from 1829 until 1833, employed under his uncle in the Polar expedition equipped by Sir Felix Booth. His eminent services during that period (he had the honour of planting the British flag on the North Magnetic Pole) were rewarded (after he had officiated for a year as Supernumerary-Commander of the 104, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Williams at Portsmouth) by his elevation to Post-rank, 28 Oct. 1834. In Dec. 1835 Capt. Ross was invested with the command (which he retained about 12 months) of the, a sixth-rate, for the purpose of proceeding in quest of, and of conveying relief to, some missing whalers who had been frozen up in Baffin Bay. He was subsequently, until 1838, employed in making a magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland, by order of the Admiralty; and on 8 April, 1839, he was appointed to the command, in the bomb, of an expedition (consisting of that vessel and of the ) which, in the ensuing Sept., sailed from England for the purposes of magnetic research and geographical discovery in the Antarctic seas. During an absence of four years three persevering attempts were made to penetrate the icy limits of the South Pole. In the course of their cruizes the ships discovered a vast continent, fringed with a barrier of ice 150 feet in height; they nevertheless adventurously persisted, and, in spite of many perils, succeeded in arriving within 157 miles of the Pole (lat. 78° 10'). Among other discoveries they met with an active volcano in lat. 77° 32' south, and long. 167° east – seated amidst eternal snows, and gaining an altitude of 12,400 feet. To this was imparted the name of “Mount Erebus,” as had been to the continent that of “Victoria Land.” Valuable contributions during the voyage were made to botany, zoology, and geology; and meteorology and terrestrial magnetism derived much benefit from the assiduity bestowed on them. The expedition returned in ; and as a proof of the skill, humanity, and attention with which it had been conducted, we must add that in the whole of the four years it had only lost 3 men by accident and 1 by illness. A short time after his arrival in England Capt. Ross received the honour of Knighthood; and on 3 1 Jan. 1848 he was appointed to the discovery-ship, now in search of the expedition under Sir John Franklin.

Sir Jas. Clark Ross was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1823, and a Fellow of the Royal Society 11 Dec. 1828. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical and Royal Geographical Societies of London and of other places in England, a Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, and a Corresponding Member of the Geographical Society of Paris. In 1833 he received the thanks of the common council of London, and a piece of plate from the Subscribers to the Land Arctic Expedition; in 1841 the “Founder’s Gold Medal” from the Geographical Society of London; in 1842 the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Paris; and in 1844 the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. He married, 18 Oct. 1843, Ann, eldest daughter of Thos. Coulman, Esq., of Whitgift Hall, and niece of R. J. Coulman, Esq., of Wadworth Hall.

 ROSS, Kt., C.B., K.C.S., K.S.A.

, born 24 June, 1777, at Balsarroch, co. Wigton, is fourth son of the Rev. And. Ross (of the family of Ross of Balnagown), Minister of Inch and proprietor of Balsarrooh, by Elizabeth, second daughter of Robt. Corsane, Esq., of Micklenox, in Dumfriesshire, and sister of Robt. Corsane, Esq., a Captain in the Foot Guards – the last of a family whose representatives had for 18 successive generations been Provosts of Dumfries by the same Christian and surname, “Robert Corsane.” Sir John is brother of the late Major-General And. Ross; and of Robt. Ross, Esq., Secretary at the Cape of Good Hope and at Surinam, who died in 1837; cousin of Major-General Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, K.C.B., Deputy-Adjutant-General Royal Artillery, and of Major-General Sir Adolphus John Dalrymple, Bart.; and a distant relative of Major-General Ross, who was killed at Baltimore. His great-grandfather was Aide-de-Camp to Field-Marshal the Earl of Stair, and fought as a Captain in the Black Horse at the battle of Culloden in 1745.

This officer entered the Navy, 11 Nov. 1786, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 32, Capt. Hon. Seymour Finch, with whom he served in the Mediterranean until Dec. 1789. He was next, from 7 Nov. 1790 until 10 Sept. 1791, employed in the Channel in the 98, Capt. Sir Thos. Byard; and in Sept. 1799, after he had been for several years in the merchant-service, he became Midshipman of the sloop, Capt. Wm. D’Urban, part of the force engaged in the expedition to Holland. On his return from a voyage to the Mediterranean he was received, in the course of 1802, on board the 38, Capt. Chas. Cunningham, and sloop, Capt. Alex. Robt. Kerr; in both which vessels he acted for a time as Lieutenant. He was subsequently employed, on the Home and Baltic stations – as Midshipman, in the 64,  sloop, and  and  50’s, all flag-ships of Sir Jas. Saumarez – as Acting-Lieutenant, in the 38, Capt. Geo. Mundy – as Acting-Lieutenant and Commander, in the 14 – as Master’s Mate, under Sir J. Saumarez, in the, , and  again – as Acting- Lieutenant and Commander, in the  cutter – as Acting-Lieutenant, in the  18, Capt. Wm. Goate – a second time, as before, in the – as Lieutenant (commission dated 13 March, 1805), in the  36, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, 18, Capt. John Lake, and  98,  120,  50, and  100, all flag-ships of Sir Jas. Saumarez – as Acting-Commander (order dated 28 July, 1809), in the 18, in which vessel he remained upwards of two months – and, again as Lieutenant, in the. While attached to the, Mr. Ross was severely wounded in the head and body at the cutting-out of a Spanish vessel from beneath the batteries of Bilboa. For this he was granted, in 1808, a pension of 91l. 5s., increased, in 1815, to 150l. per annum. Towards the close of 1808 he was sent from the to act as Captain of the Swedish fleet on board the Swedish Admiral’s ship. Attaining the rank of Commander 1 Feb. 1812, he was in that capacity appointed – 31 March, 1812, to the 10, in which sloop, stationed in the Baltic, North Sea, and Downs, he captured, 9 Oct. following, Le Petit Poucet French privateer, of 4 guns, 4 swivels, and 23 men, and drove on shore three vessels of a similar description – 7 June, 1814, to the