LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
157 
plan adopted was cutting a canal astern of the vessel, and then 
by means of a hawser attached to the land, hauling the length 
of the canal that had been made. Some idea may however be 
formed of the extreme arduousness of this undertaking, when the 
first day, one foot was the whole of the progress, which they had 
made—the second day they succeeded in cutting six feet, and 
the greatest extent which they ever reached was twenty feet, 
the sailors having in their labour to wear leathern boots on account 
of the water, caused them to suffer most severely with cold feet, 
and as the thermometer was sometimes below zero, their boots 
were sometimes a mass of ice at the soles, which kept the feet in 
a continual state of numbness. The interior of the ship also 
underwent some alteration, the carpenters enlarged the ship's 
company’s mess-berth, by shifting the fore bulk head four feet 
further forward, and other methods were adopted for contributing 
to the comfort of the crew, during the dreary season which was 
before them, although it was in many respects found impossible 
to accomplish that desirable purpose, to the extent to which it had 
been carried in the Hecla and Fury; in fact it has been without 
hesitation repeatedly stated by several of the crew, that they 
would never sail again on an expedition of that kind in any other 
vessel than one fitted out by government. The apparatus on 
board the government ships for diffusing a regular and com¬ 
fortable temperature in the ship's company’s berths was complete 
in every respect, and during the most intense frost which they 
experienced, the thermometer never fell below 60° in the lower 
deck, whereas in the Victory the temperature never exceeded 45°, 
being only thirteen degrees above the freezing point. 
The clearing of the ship was now proceeded in with the utmost 
alacrity, all the sails were unbent, and she was literally stripped. 
On taking the engine to pieces an accident happened to one of 
the men, which obliged him to keep his bed, and deprived the 
ship for some time of his services, which under the present cir¬ 
cumstances was much to be deplored, as the labour, which the crew 
had to undergo, exposed as they were to the continual incle¬ 
mency of the weather, required every hand, which the ship could 
afford to spare in bringing her to her desired station. 
