Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 597 



immediately took the consistency of ice, and thus we actually became 

 the inhabitants of an iceberg during one of the most severe winters 

 hitherto recorded. Our sufferings, aggravated by want of bedding, 

 clothing and animal food, need not be dwelt upon. Mr. C. Thomas, 

 the carpenter, was the only man who perished at this beach j but three 

 others, besides one who had lost his foot, were reduced to the last 

 stage of debility, and only thirteen of our number were able to carry 

 provisions, in seven journeys of sixty-two miles each, to Batty Bay. 



" We left Fury Beach on the 8th of July, carrying with us three 

 sick men, who were unable to walk, and in six days we reached the 

 boats, where the sick daily recovered. Although the spring was mild, 

 it was not until the 15th of August that we had any cheering pro- 

 spect. A gale from the westward having suddenly opened a lane of 

 water along shore, in two days we reached our former position, and 

 from the mountain we had the satisfaction of seeing clear water almost 

 directly across Prince Regent's Inlet, which we crossed on the 17th, 

 and took shelter from a storm twelve miles to the eastward of Cape 

 York. The next day, when the gale abated, we crossed Admiralty 

 Inlet, and were detained six days on the coast by a strong north-east 

 wind. On the 25th we crossed Navy Board Inlet, and on the fol- 

 lowing morning, to our inexpressible joy, we descried a ship in the 

 offing, becalmed, which proved to be the Isabella, of Hull, the same 

 ship which I commanded in 1818. At noon we reached her, when 

 her enterprising commander, who had in vain searched for us in 

 Prince Regent's Inlet, after giving us three cheers, received us with 

 every demonstration of kindness and hospitality which humanity could 

 dictate. 1 ought to mention also that Mr. Humphreys, by landing 

 me at Possession Bay, and subsequently on the west coast of Baffin's 

 Bay, afforded me an excellent opportunity of concluding my survey, 

 and of verifying my former chart of that coast. 



'* I now have the pleasing duty of calling the attention of their 

 Lordships to the merits of Commander Ross, who was second in the 

 direction of this expedition. The labours of this officer, who had the 

 departments of astronomy, natural history and surveying, will speak 

 for themselves in language beyond the ability of my pen j but they 

 will be duly appretiated by their Lordships, and the learned bodies 

 of which he is a member, and who are already well acquainted with 

 his acquirements. 



" My steady and faithful friend Mr. William Thorn, of the Royal 

 Navy, who was formerly with me in the Isabella, besides his duty as 

 third in command, took charge of the meteorological journal, the 

 distribution and ceconomy of provisions; and to his judicious plans and 

 suggestions must be attributed the uncommon degree of health which 

 our crew enjoyed ; and as two out of the three who died the four years 

 and a half were cut off early in the voyage, by diseases not peculiar 

 to the climate, only one man can be said to have perished. Mr. 

 M'Diarmid, the surgeon, who had been several voyages to these re- 

 gions, did justice to the high recommendation 1 received of him ; he 

 was successful in every amputation and operation which he performed, 

 and wonderfully so in his treatment of the sick } and I have no hesi- 



