234 The Rosses at Fury Beach. 



and found the mess-tent of the " Fury's " officers 

 still standing, where James Ross, who was with his 

 uncle, had rested after those days of heavy toil just 

 four years before. The ship had been carried 

 bodily off, probably ground to atoms, and floated 

 away to add to the drift timber of these seas. Ross 

 carried off an immense quantity of stores, ten tons 

 of coal, and sails for housings, and made sail on the 

 14th. 



The Rosses passed three long years on the shores 

 of Boothia to the south, during which time James 

 Ross discovered the magnetic pole. At last the 

 crew of the " Victory " had to abandon her, and 

 retreat to the north in order to seek safety by 

 reaching the whalers in Baffin's Bay. The friendly 

 stores of Fury Beach were to be their half-way 

 resting-place, and they arrived there, travelling 

 wearily over the ice, on June 30th, 1832. Here 

 they built a house, with two rooms, which was 

 named " Somerset House/' and then set out in three 

 of the " Fury's " boats for the northward. But 

 they were stopped by the ice near Port Leopold, 

 and resolved to return to Fury Beach, and there 

 pass the winter. The boats were left in Batty Bay, 

 and the Rosses went back on foot, establishing 

 themselves, with their men, in Somerset House, on 

 the 7th of October. Here they lived on the 

 ' ' Fury's " stores, and only lost one man during 

 the winter. In July, 1833, they finally departed, 



