SCORESBY, Wit.mAm, D.D., a celebrated Arctic explorer and savant, was the son of William Scoresby, the most distinguished whale-fisher of his time, and was born at Crop ton in Yorkshire, Oct. 5, 1789. He commenced a sea-faring life at the age of 10, and in his 21st year succeeded his father as commander of the Resolution, and carried on the business of whale-fishing. After having made 17 voyages to the Spitzbergen and Green land whaling-grounds, he published the results of his observations of the countries within the Arctic circle in An Account of the Arctic Regions (2 vols., 1320),'a work which not only increased and extended the author's reputation, but added largely to the sciences of meteorology, hydrography, and natural history. In he explored the e. coast of Greenland, a tract hitherto wholly unknown, and published in the following year at Edinburgh an account of this expedition and its fruits. In 1824 he was elected a fellow of the royal society of Loudon, and some time after was chosen correspondent of the French institute. He had retired from his profession in 1822, and now proceeded to give effect to a strong desire which had long possessed him, of becoming an author ized teacher of religion, by entering himself at Queen's college, Cambridge; he nradu ated B.D. in 1834, subsequently (1839) received the degree of p.n., and labored
faithfully and zealously, first at Liverpool and afterward at Bradford, till failing health compelled him to retire to Torquay. He still continued his physical researches, giv' lug special attention to terrestrial magnetism, especially in its relation to navigation; and published the results, many of which were of great value and interest, in the form of memoirs in the Philosophical Transactions, the Transactions of the Il(wal Society of Edinburgh, the Reports of the British Association, and subsequently in an improved form in his Magnetical Investigations (Loud. 2 vols. 1839-52). For the better prosecution of these researches he made a voyage to the United States in 1S47, and to Australia in 1853, returning from the last-named country in 1856, enfeebled in health by the arduous labors which he had undergone. He died at Torquay on Mar. 21. 1857. Besides his work on Zoistic _Magnetism, which described a series of researches entered into for the purpose of eliciting some natural connection between magnetic and mesmeric agencies, he published various works of a religions nature. His life has been written by his nephew, H. E. Scoresby-Jackson (Loud., 1801).