THE THIRD WINTER IN THE ICE. 



salted. The natives assisted at the fishery, and thus became acquainted for 

 the first time with the use of nets, of the value of which they showed full appre- 

 ciation. Ross, perceiving that the natives were fully aware of the value of the 

 fishing-net, ordered his men to instruct them in the method of manufactur- 

 ing it, and thus made them a present of a contrivance which would be of 

 the highest importance to them. Indeed, throughout all the intercourse 

 between the Englishmen and the Eskimos, the latter were always treated 

 with the greatest humanity and considerate kindness. Eeflecting on the 

 character of this intercourse, Ross states, with a justifiable pride : " We had 

 sold them no rum, we had introduced no diseases among them, nor had we 

 in anything done aught to corrupt their morals or injure their healths — to 

 render them less virtuous or less happy than we had found them. Nor had 

 they learned anything from us to make them discontented with their present 

 and almost inevitable condition. On the contrary, while we soon hoped to 

 leave them as happy as we had found them, we had reason to believe that 

 they would hereafter so far profit by our example, and by the displays of 

 knowledge and ingenuity which they had seen with us, as well as by the 

 various useful things we had distributed among them, as to augment their 

 own ingenuity and resources, and thus improve their condition of life as far 

 as that was capable of improvement." 



During the summer months every necessary preparation had been made 

 to fit the " Victory " for the open sea. The gunpowder was taken on board 

 on August 5th, and the vessel was hove some little distance out of its icy 

 bed on the 11th ; but there was heavy snow on the 16th, followed by fog 

 and rain, and though the ice had now begun to shift about the ship, an 

 adverse wind drove it all back and packed the bay as before on the 21st 

 August. On the 27th the ice began to drift out of the bay to the eastward, 

 and on the evening of that day the passage out of the bay was deemed prac- 

 ticable. The " Victory " was accordingly warped a quarter of a mile to the 

 south-west into a convenient place for taking advantage of the first opening. 

 " As soon as this was done," writes the captain, " we got under sail, but 

 unfortunately carrying away the mizzen-boom, could not weather a piece of 

 ice. She was then brought about by it, and equally failed in weathering a 

 large iceberg on the other tack, which was grounded, by which means she 

 took the ground herself. We soon, however, hove her off by hawsers to the 

 shore ; and though her bottom did not prove to be damaged, the lower 

 rudder iron was broken, so that there was an end to our progress for the day." 

 In other and in simpler words, Ross had again missed his opportunity, and 

 there was now every likelihood that the " Victory " should be imprisoned in 

 the ice on this most inhospitable of all known coasts for yet another year. 

 On the following morning a western wind, the very wind that Ross had been 

 praying for, sprang up, and hope once more fluttered the pennon of the 



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