SUFFERINGS OF ROSS S CREW. 505 



moved on this occasion; for, after having served forty-two years in 

 thirty-five different ships, this was the first he had ever been 

 obliged to abandon as a wreck. 



Provisions and boats had now to be transported over long 

 tracts of rugged ice, and as their great weight rendered it im- 

 possible to carry all at once, the same ground had to be 

 traversed several times. Terrific snow storms retarded the 

 progress of the wanderers, and invincible obstacles forced them 

 to make long circuits. Thus it happened that during the first 

 month of their pilgrimage through the wilderness, although 

 they had travelled 329 miles, they only gained thirty in a direct 

 line. 



On the 9th of June, James Ross, the leading spirit of the 

 expedition, accompanied by two men and with a fortnight's pro- 

 visions, left the main body to ascertain the state of the boats 

 and supplies at Fury Beach. Eeturning, they met their com- 

 rades on the 25th of June, and gratified them with the intelli- 

 gence, that, though they had found three of the boats washed 

 away, enough still remained for their purpose, and that all the 

 provisions were in good condition. 



On the 1st of July the whole party arrived at Fury Beach, 

 whence, after having repaired the weather-worn boats, they set 

 out again on the 1 st of August, and, after much buffeting among 

 the ice in their frail shallops, reached the mouth of the inlet by 

 the end of the month. But here they were doomed to disappoint- 

 ment ; for, after several fruitless attempts to run along Barrow's 

 Strait, the obstructions from the ice obliged them to haul the 

 boats on shore and pitch their tents. 



Barrow's Strait was found from repeated surveys to be one 

 impenetrable mass of ice. After lingering here till the third 

 week in September, it was unanimously agreed that their only 

 resource was to fall back again on the stores at Fury Beach, and 

 spend their fourth winter in that dreary solitude. Here they 

 sheltered their canvass tent with a wall of snow, and setting up an 

 extra stove made themselves tolerably comfortable until the in- 

 creasing severity of the winter, and the rigour of the cold, added to 

 the tempestuous weather, made them perfect prisoners, and sorely 

 tried their patience. Scurvy now began to appear, and several 

 of the men fell victims to the scourge. At the same time cares 

 for the future darkened the gloom of ( their situation, for, if they 



