THE FATE OF THE " FUEY." 297 



again to be remembered, and it would not have been referred to here but 

 for the curious circumstance that Ross, who is always unwilling to grant due 

 credit to Parry, only reached Eegent Inlet by sailing along the coasts that 

 Parry had discovered, and that he lived for four years upon the stores which 

 Parry had securely deposited, for the use of the first comer, on Fury Beach. 



" We proceeded now to the beach where the 'Fury' had been abandoned," 

 continues Ross, " but not a trace of her hull was to be seen. There were 

 many opinions, but all were equally at liberty to conjecture what had 

 become of the wreck. Having often seen, however, what the moving 

 masses of ice could do on this coast, it was not difficult to guess in general 

 what we could not explain in detail. She had been carried bodily off, or 

 had been ground to atoms and floated away to add to the drift timber of 

 these seas. At any rate, she was not to be found. , . . We therefore 

 returned on board, and made preparations for embarking a sufficiency of 

 stores and provisions to complete our equipment for two years and three 

 months, being what we expected to want on the one hand, and to obtain on 

 the other. I need not say that it was an occurrence not less novel than 

 interesting, to find in this abandoned region of solitude and ice and rocks, 

 a ready market where we could supply all our wants, and, collected in one 

 spot, all the materials for which we should have searched the warehouses of 

 Wapping or Rotherhithe, all ready to be shipped when we chose, and all 

 free of cost ; since it was the certainty of this supply, and a well-grounded 

 one it proved, that had formed the foundation of the present expedition." 



A list of the provisions, fittings, etc., required by the "Victory," to com- 

 plete her supplies for a period of two years and three months, having been 

 made out by the purser, Mr Thorn, Ross landed with most of his officers and 

 crew to take over such of the "Fury's" stores as were required. They took 

 away all the canisters they could stow in the " Victory," yet the piles of 

 these with which the shore was covered seemed scarcely to have suffered any 

 diminution. On the following day, the 14th August, the embarkation of the 

 stores, including ten tons of coals, was completed. The spare mizzen top- 

 mast of the "Fury" was found, and was made a prize of by the carpenter, 

 who converted it into a boom for the "Victory," in place of one that had 

 been lost in a gale. Anchors, hawsers, together with boatswain's and carpen- 

 ter's stores, were obtained to make up deficiencies, and a number of the best 

 sails were taken to be used as housings. From the powder magazine Ross 

 selected as many of the patent cases — in which the gunpowder was found 

 to be in perfect preservation — as he considered he should require ; " and 

 with this," exclaims the lucky captain, " we ended our new outfit, storing 

 ourselves, somewhat like Robinson Crusoe, with whatever could be of use 

 to us in the wreck." 



All preparations being now completed, and a breeze springing up from 

 6 2P 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



