FOURTH WINTER IN THE ICE. 317 



also may be, but let painter and poet come hither and try ; try how far cold 

 and hunger, misery and depression, aid those faculties which seem always 

 best developed under the comforts of life, and under that tranquillity at 

 least of mind, if not much more, which the poet and the writer require to 

 bring their faculties into action. Our 'fmcundi calices' were cold snow- 

 water ; and though, according to Persius, it is hunger which makes poets 

 Avrite as it makes parrots speak, I suspect that neither poet nor parrot would 

 have gained much in eloquence under a ' fox ' diet, and that an insufficient 

 one, in the blessed regions of Boothia Felix." 



But stirring times were at hand, and, from this point onwards, there can 

 be no reason to complain of the want of incident in the fortunes of the 

 unfortunate explorers. The bright days of early summer were soon to 

 shine, and one last desperate effort must be made to break through the icy 

 barrier that had hitherto forbidden their return to civilisation. Ross had 

 now determined to carry forward sufficient provisions to last for three 

 months, to the spot near the north cape of Batty Bay, where the boats were 

 lying, to march the whole party up to the dep6t, and to be in readiness, 

 early in July, to launch the boats from that point, as soon as the ice should 

 break up. Carrying out this programme, he had succeeded, before the 30th 

 April, in getting all his provisions advanced eight miles — a quarter of the 

 distance to the dep6t — and he considered that the labour of transporting 

 them the whole distance would be work enough for the next month, as the 

 sledge-parties would be under the necessity of travelling over the ground 

 eight times, thus making the entire distance 256 miles. On the 8th May, 

 at eleven at night, the first journey northwards was commenced, and at 

 three in the morning, the first stage — at a distance of eight miles from 

 Somerset House — was reached. Three sick men had been left at the house 

 to be brought forward at a later period. On the evening of the 9th the 

 advance party again started, and after travelling a distance of ten miles 

 to Two River Bay, with six casks of bread, and depositing the provision 

 there and resting, retraversed the ten miles to the first stage, to bring up 

 another load. There were four loads in all,, and to transport each of these 

 from stage to stage, between each of the four halting-places between Somer- 

 set House and Batty Bay, a separate journey had to be made. The suffer- 

 ings of the men — ill-fed, weak, stricken with snow-blindness, and in some 

 cases lame^were such as it rarely falls to the lot of men to endure. By 

 the end of May, however, all these arduous preliminary labours were suc- 

 cessfully ended. On the 1st June Ross writes : " Having thus carried for- 

 ward to the boats all that could be spared from our actual wants, that 

 everything might be in readiness for moving, whenever the ice should open, 

 we had now to occupy ourselves as we best could at our ' Somerset House,' 

 and to make ourselves as content as might be, till it was time to move 



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