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VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. had soon the satisfaction to find, was occasioned by the heavy field-ice setting 
rapidly to the eastward, at the distance of five miles from the land, and ap- 
parently at the rate of a mile an hour. The wind was at this time moderate, 
but on the preceding day it had blown a fresh northerly gale. 
Lieutenant Hoppner likewise reported that he had, in the course of his 
late excursion, met with a lake between four and five miles in circumference, 
situated at the distance of twelve or fourteen miles to the westward of 
the entrance of Winter Harbour, and four miles from the sea. This lake was 
still frozen over, but, from the nature of the banks, had the appearance of 
being deep ; and it is, probably, the same which Mr. Fife had fallen in with, 
at the time he lost his way in September 1819, and of the situation of which 
he had not been able to give any satisfactory account. 
On the 27th of June, William Scott, of whose complaint I have before had 
occasion to speak, had become quite delirious, and could only be kept in bed 
by force. Mr. Edwards was at first in hopes that this was the effect of some 
temporary cause, but was afterwards of opinion that it resembled, in every 
respect, a state of absolute and permanent derangement ; and this opinion 
was subsequently strengthened by some circumstances which only now came 
to our knowledge, and of which an account will be given in another place. 
Frid. 30. For some days past Scott had been gradually growing worse, and on the 
evening of the 29th, he was so far exhausted, that Mr. Edwards did not 
expect him to survive through the night. At two A.M. on the 30th, I was 
informed by that gentleman, that Scott was dying, and before I could get 
my clothes on, he had breathed his last, without any apparent pain. As it 
was proper and desirable, in every respect, that his body should be opened, 
notwithstanding the prejudice which seamen entertain against this practice, 
and which it would, perhaps, be as well to overcome by more frequently 
insisting upon it, I willingly complied with Mr. Edwards’s request to be 
allowed to perform the dissection. The result was satisfactory to the 
medical gentlemen in whose charge this unfortunate man had been placed ; 
and, I may be permitted to add to myself also, inasmuch as it proved his 
death to have been immediately occasioned by a disease which, perhaps, no 
skill nor attention could have cured in any climate, or under any circumstances, 
and having no immediate connexion with our present peculiar situation, or 
with the nature of the service in which we were engaged. As this case has 
proved the only fatal one during a voyage, differing in many respects from 
any before undertaken, a more particular account of it may not, perhaps, be 
