ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 193 



ing. The moving masses of ice had either earned it 

 out in a body, or broken it into fragments and scattered 

 it as drift-wood over the surrounding sea. But it was 

 an ample compensation to find that the canisters of 

 preserved provisions, after being exposed during four 

 years, were in as perfect condition as if they had been 

 newly prepared. The tightness of these vessels had 

 prevented the bear from smelling the rich feast they 

 contained for him, and to which otherwise he would 

 soon have forced his way. The wine, spirits, sugar, 

 bread, flour, and cocoa, were, with little exception, 

 equally good, and the sails were found in complete pres- 

 ervation. -After taking in all the provisions they could 

 conveniently stow, raising their stock to two years and 

 three months' supply, the accumulated pile seemed 

 scarcely diminished. Here, also, they procured a store 

 of coal. 



Crossing now the broad mouth of Cresswell Bay, they 

 reached, on the 15th of August, a cape to which the 

 name of Garry has been attached, the furthest point 

 seen by Parry. The land trended in a south-south-west 

 direction, which, with few variations, it continued to 

 follow. Deprived of all aid from the compass, and often 

 enveloped in fogs, they worked their way slowly, amid 

 many difficulties and frequent dangers, being obliged 

 to steer merely according to the direction which the 

 wind, or even the floating ice, had, in the last clear 

 interval, been observed to pursue. While mountains 

 of ice were tossing around them on every side, they 

 were often forced to seek safety by mooring themselves 

 to these formidable masses, and drifting with them, 

 sometimes forward, sometimes backward. In this man- 

 ner, on one occasion, no less than nineteen miles were 

 lost in a few hours ; at other times they underwent fre- 

 quent and severe shocks, yet escaped any serious clam- 



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