282 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 



and formed a firm barrier all the way over to the 

 shore of North Somerset. Even if the Enterprise had 

 got out, she could not have proceeded far ; and in all 

 probability would either have been perilously beset in 

 the pack, or compelled to sail away from it to England. 

 On the 12th October, therefore, the two ships were laid 

 fast in their wintering position, within two hundred 

 yards of each other. 



The earliest days after entering the harbor were de 

 voted to the landing of a good supply of provisions 

 upon Whaler Point. In this service the steam-launch 

 proved of most eminent value, not only carrying a large 

 cargo herself, but towing two deeply-laden cutters at 

 the rate of four or five knots through the sheet of ice 

 which then covered the harbor, and which no boat, 

 unaided by steam, could have penetrated beyond her 

 own length. The crews spent the dead of winter in a 

 similar manner to those of former Arctic expeditions. 

 But they probably felt much depressed by thinking on 

 the fate of those whom they had been unsuccessfully 

 seeking, and they had to contend against a rigorous 

 cold, prolonged unusually far into the spring ; so that, 

 though they had more comforts, better appliances, and 

 much richer fruits of experience, than the crews of Sir 

 Edward Parry's and Sir John Koss's ships, they were 

 not by any means so healthy. During the winter a 

 great many white foxes were taken alive in traps, and, 

 as they are well known to travel great distances in 

 search of food, they were fitted with copper collars, 

 containing engraved notices of the position of the ships 

 and depots of provisions, and then set at liberty, in the 

 hope that they would be caught by the crews of the 

 Erebus and the Terror. 



In April and the early part of May short journeys 

 vere made to deposit small stores of provisions west- 



