Winterings in the Arctic Regions during the last fifty years. 349 



the coast as a bay (Brentford Bay). The second winter he was 

 obliged to pass nearly in the same place where he had remained 

 during the first winter ; and he then had to decide upon wintering 

 for the third time quite close to his previous winter quarters, in 

 Victoria Harbour. At the end of May 1832 he was obliged to 

 quit his ship (the ' Victory ') and to endeavour to save himself 

 by means of sledges, taking his boats with him. They reached 

 Fury Beach and afterwards Batty Bay. In this retreat Parry's 

 precaution of bringing tliCj { Fury's ' stores on shore saved the 

 brave band from starvation. After pressing on to Batty Bay, 

 Ross was surprised by the winter, and compelled, in order to 

 save the lives of himself and his men, to return to Fury Beach. 

 Here, in a house built of planks and coated with blocks of ice, 

 they continued, by means of good stoves, to provide themselves 

 with a comparatively warm and comfortable dwelling. 



In the following summer they at last succeeded in reaching 

 Barrow's Strait, and thence they sailed on in their boats and 

 were taken up at the entrance of Lancaster Sound by the 

 1 Isabella/ which had been sent to their assistance. 



As regards the health of this expedition, we may say that in 

 the first two winters it was very good. In the winter of ] 829-30 

 Ross lost only a single man, who had concealed a disease of the 

 lungs which had previously brought him several times to the 

 hospital. No scurvy made its appearance. The first case of 

 this disease occurred on the 20th of November, 1831, conse- 

 quently at the beginning of the third winter, and it carried off 

 two men. 



When the expedition at last returned to England, after an 

 absence of four years and a half, the crew was naturally in a very 

 low state, and one of them died after the return to England in 

 consequence of the hardships he had undergone ; but nevertheless 

 it must be a matter of wonder that no more fatalities occurred 

 during so long a sojourn. 



Again there was a period of twelve years during which all ex- 

 peditions for the discovery of a north-west passage ceased. But, 

 much as had been done in the exploration of the arctic regions 

 of North America, there was still much to do before these regions 

 could be regarded as even tolerably well known. The question 

 as to the theoretical or practical possibility of a north-west pas- 

 sage was still unsolved ; and the Government, finally yielding to 

 the pressing instances of the Secretary to the Admiralty, Sir 

 John Barrow, and to public opinion, ordered the ships ' Erebus ' 

 and ' Terror/ which had just returned from the antarctic expe- 

 dition under Sir James Clarke Ross, upon a new voyage of dis- 

 covery in the regions already so frequently visited, and conferred 

 the command upon Sir John Franklin. 



