Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/463

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ROSS ROSS AND CROMARTY 443 bering 323 distinct species; his collection in entomology numbers more than 10,000 species; and his botanical collection comprises 620 va- rieties of flowering plants native to Canada. He has published "Birds of Canada" (1871), and " Butterflies and Moths of Canada" (1872). ROSS, George, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in New Castle, Del., in 1730, died in Lancaster, Pa., in July, 1779. He commenced the practice of Jaw at Lancas- ter in 1751, and was a member of the colonial assembly of Pennsylvania from 1768 to 1776; and after the- substitution for the legislature of the general convention, he was elected to that body also. In 1774 he was one of the committee of seven who represented Pennsyl- vania in the continental congress, and he re- mained a member of congress till January, 1777. In April, 1779, he was appointed judge of the court of admiralty. ROSS. I. Sir John, a British navigator, born at Balsarroch, Scotland, June 24, 1777, died in London, Aug. 30, 1856. He served as a vol- unteer in the British navy from 1786 to 1791, after which for several years he was in the merchant service. In 1799 he became a mid- shipman, and in 1805 a lieutenant. The next year he received severe wounds in a desperate engagement, for which two years later he was pensioned. He was appointed to the com- mand of the Briseis in 1812, and subsequently to that of other vessels. On April 25, 1818, he set sail from the Thames in the Isabella, the larger of two vessels sent out to settle the question of a northwest passage, accompanied by Lieut. Parry in the Alexander. (See AKO- TIO DISCOVERT.) He was promoted to the rank of post captain on his return, and pub- lished an account of his voyage. In 1829 he made a second voyage to the arctic regions, in a badly constructed steamship called the Victory, equipped at the expense of Mr. (after- ward Sir Felix) Booth, a distiller of London, and accompanied by a small tender of 16 tons, called the Krusenstern. He was frozen up in the ice for four years, and was finally rescued with his crew by the Isabella, then on a whaling voyage, in August, 1833, after abandoning his ship in April, 1832. In 1834 he was knighted. From 1839 to 1845 he was consul at Stock- holm. In 1850 he went in search of Sir John Franklin in a vessel of 90 tons, and remained one winter in the ice. He attained the rank of rear admiral July 8, 1851. He published "A Voyage of Discovery " (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1819), "A Narrative of a Second Voyage" (2 vols. 4to, 1835-'6), and "A Treatise on Navi- gation by Steam" (4to, 1828). II. Sir James Clark, a British navigator, nephew of the pre- ceding, born in London, April 15, 1800, died at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, April 3, 1862. At the age of 12 he entered the navy as a vol- unteer on board the Briseis, then commanded by his uncle. He accompanied Capt. Ross in 1818 as midshipman on his first arctic voyage, was an officer under Parry in his four voyages between 1819 and 1827, and was promoted while absent on the second voyage to the rank of lieutenant. In 1827, on his return from the fourth voyage, he received a commission as commander. He accompanied his uncle's 'second expedition, 1829-'33, and in 1834 was made post captain. In 1835 he again visited Baffin bay to search for some missing whale ships, and after his return was employed for several years in a magnetic survey of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1839 he commanded the Erebus, to which, with the Terror, Com- mander Crozier, was assigned the duty of ex- ploring the Antarctic ocean. In this voyage, which occupied four years, he made many val- uable discoveries. He made an independent discovery of the antarctic continent, which Commander Wilkes, U. S. N., had a few months before discovered and traced at a dif- ferent point, and gave it the name of Victoria Land; a volcano, 12,000 ft. high, was named Mt. Erebus from his vessel. He returned in 1843, and in 1844 was knighted. In 1848 he was appointed to the Enterprise, and made a voyage as far as Barrow strait in search of Sir John Franklin. His only published work is "A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions " (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1847). ROSS, John, or Kooweskoowe, a chief of the Cherokee Indians, born in the Cherokee coun- try, Georgia, about 1790, died in Washington, D. C., Aug. 1, 1866. He was a half-breed, and at an early age had acquired a good Eng- lish education. He became principal chief of the Cherokees in 1828. In 1835 a treaty was concluded between the United States and Ma- jor Ridge, his son John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and about 600 other Cherokee Indians, by which they agreed to surrender their lands and remove west within two years. Against this treaty Ross and over 15,000 of his tribe pro- tested in an appeal written by Ross and ad- dressed to the president of the United States. But the government sent a force to compel the fulfilment of the treaty, and the Cherokees removed to their new home. Ross continued to be the principal chief, and in 1861 entered into a treaty with the seceding states. ROSS, Sir William Charles, an English paint- er, born in London, June 3, 1794, died there, Jan. 20, 1860. In 1837 he was appointed min- iature painter to Queen Victoria, and in 1842 he was knighted. He early abandoned his- torical for miniature painting, but he prepared in 1842 a fine cartoon for the new houses of parliament. Among his original paintings is "The Judgment of Solomon." ROSS AND CROMARTY, two N. counties of Scotland, which, being politically connected, are generally treated under one head. They border on Sutherland, Inverness, the North sea, and the Atlantic; area, including the N. portion of the island of Lewis, one of the Hebrides, which belongs to Ross, 3,151 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 80,909. Both coasts are