204 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 



with so much enthusiasm can now only show where it 

 was. According to Hansteen, the pole moves 11' 4" 

 every year, and revolves within the frigid zone in 1890 

 years, so that it will not reach the same spot in Boothia 

 until the year 3722 ! The precise determination of this 

 point, however, is said to be comparatively unimportant, 

 because its position can always be ascertained by ob- 

 servations of the compass and dipping-needles. 



As soon as Commander Ross and his party returned, 

 it was thought time, amid alternate hopes and fears, to 

 watch the progress of the ice, and escape, if possible, 

 from the prison of a third dreary winter. The season 







was not, on the whole, more favorable than that of 

 1830 ; yet, on the 28th August, a somewhat earlier 

 period, they contrived to warp out into the open sea, 

 and on the morning of the 29th were in full sail. But 

 they were baffled by changes of wind and heavy gales. 

 On the 14th of September they could again take exer- 

 cise by skating on the newly-formed ice. On the 27th 

 they found themselves completely fixed for a third win- 

 ter. Their last year's navigation had been three miles 

 this season it was extended to four ! 



The spirits of the adventurers now began to droop in 

 earnest. Their only means of escape seemed to be to 

 proceed in the boats, or draw them over the ice to the 

 wreck of the Fury, when, after supplying themselves 

 with a fresh stock of provisions out of her stores, they 

 might reach Davis's Straits, and be taken up by a whale- 

 ehip. In November the scurvy began to appear. The 

 extraordinary exemption hitherto enjoyed from this 

 dreadful malady, in the absence of the grand specific of 

 vegetable food, Ross is inclined to ascribe to the abun- 

 dance with which the men were supplied with water, 

 notwithstanding the quantity of fuel requisite to melt 

 the snow ; to their never having been too long at once 



