506 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
were not Jiberated in the ensuing summer, their diminishing 
food gave them but little hope of surviving another year. 
It may be imagined how anxiously the aspect of the sea was 
watched during the ensuing summer, and with what beating 
hearts they at length embarked on the 15th of August. The 
spot which the year before they had attained after the most 
strenuous exertions was soon passed, and slowly winding their 
way through the ice-blocks with which the inlet was encumbered, 
they now saw the wide expanse of Barrow’s Strait open before 
them. With spirits invigorated by hope they push on, alternately 
rowing and sailing, and on the night of the 25th rest in a good 
harbour on the eastern shore of Navy Board Inlet. “ A ship in 
sight!” is the joyful sound that awakens them early on the 
following morning; and never have men more hurriedly and 
energetically set out, never have oars been more indefatigably 
plied. But the elements are against them, calms and currents 
conspire against their hopes, and to their inexpressible dis- 
appointment the ship disappears in the distant haze. 
But after a few hours of suspense the sight of another vessel 
lying to in a calm relieves their despair. This time their exer- 
tions are crowned with success; and, wonderful! the vessel which 
receives them on board is the same “Isabella” in which Ross 
made his first voyage to these seas. 
They told him of his own death, and could hardly be per- 
suaded that it was really he and his party who now stood before 
them. But whenall doubts were cleared away, you should have 
heard their thrice-repeated thundering hurrahs ! 
The scene that now followed cannot better be told than in 
Ross’s own words :— 
«Every man was hungry, and was to be fed; all were ragged, 
and were to be clothed; there was not one to whom washing 
was not indispensable; nor one whom his beard did not deprive 
of all human semblance. All, everything, too was to be done 
at once. It was washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all inter- 
mingled; it was all the materials of each jumbled together; 
while in the midst of all there were interminable questions to be 
asked and answered on both sides; the adventures of the “ Vic- 
tory,” our own escapes, the politics of England, and the news, 
which was now four years old. 
“ But all subsided into peace at last. The sick were accom- 
