LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
169 
Yet not for ever is man’s glory Bed, 
Kis name for ever numbered with the dead. 
Like yon bright orb, the immortal part of man, 
Shall end in glory as it first began— 
Like him encircled in celestial light 
Shall rise triumphant ’midst the shades of night. 
Her native energies again resume 
Dispel the dreary winter of the tomb 
And bidding death with all its terrors fly, 
Bloom in perpetual spring through all eternity. 
This day the 14th, one of those extraordinary and sudden 
changes took place in the temperature of the air, which had 
been observed in the voyages of Capt. Parry, and which set all 
philosophical principles at defiance to account for. The weather 
was fine with the wind at south east, when on a sudden about 
mid-day, the astonishing difference of forty-eight degrees took 
place in the temperature of the air, the thermometer rising from 
15 degrees above zero, to 21° above the freezing point. The 
change however was of very short duration, as the thermometer 
soon after fell to 14 degrees above Zero. 
Towards evening an object was observed at the base of one 
of the smaller icebergs, and a party set out from the ship to ascer¬ 
tain what it was. On approaching it they discovered by its large 
tusk or horn, to be a sea unicorn, and it being the first that 
they had seen in that part of the country, they were the more 
anxious to obtain possession of it. By some dexterous manoeuv¬ 
ring, three of the crew got within shot of it, when all of them 
firing at once, the animal was killed. The prize was conveyed 
on board, and on measuring it, it was found to be twenty-two 
feet long, and twelve round, the head nearly one fourth of the 
body, round, small, and terminating in an obtuse rounded snout. 
The mouth was small, but no teeth. It is not always found with 
its tusk entire, but, in this specimen, the tusk was complete, 
proceeding from the upper jaw, diverging to one side, and 
8. z 
