162 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. RGSS. 
the complete comfort of the crew. On the whole, the erroneous 
judgment of Capt. Ross, in the selection of a vessel of the 
second rate qualifications of the Victory, for a service of so pecu¬ 
liar a nature as that for which she was destined, was apparent 
to all the crew, and was the cause of many murmurs and com¬ 
plaints, which tended to disturb that harmony and good fellow¬ 
ship, which could alone render a service, in which the crew of 
the Victory were employed, in any degree supportable. 
In order that an immediate communication might be obtained 
from the cabin to the ship’s company’s berth, the steward’s room 
was removed and a passage was made, which rendered it un¬ 
necessary for any of the crew, having to communicate with their 
officers to go on deck, independently of which, a more equal 
temperature was kept up, than if it were required on all 
occasions to open the hatchway. 
Commander Ross having observed a fox a short distance from 
the ship; he went on shore and laid a trap for him, and on the 
following day he was caught. It was the hope of Commander 
Ross that the animal could be kept alive, and conveyed to 
England as a specimen of its species, but it did not live for two 
days, having been seriously injured by the trap. 
Towards the latter end of the month, the chief duty of the 
crew consisted in housing the ship and banking her up with 
snow, but from the extreme violence of the weather, the wind 
blowing a heavy gale with storms of snow, the crew were fre¬ 
quently interrupted in their labour, from their total inability to 
withstand the severity of the season. On drawing a comparison 
between the temperature of the lower deck of the Victory and 
the Hecla, it will be found that the temperature of the former, 
was* at its maximum, fourteen degrees lower, than the minimum 
of the temperature of the Hecla, the former ranging from 38° to 
45°, the latter from 59° to 75°, 
