LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
195 
steam engine to bis vessel, unless he could, by bis ingenuity 
have converted an iceberg into such a combustible substance 
as to supply the deficiency of coals, or that a floe could be made 
to yield to the propelling power of the paddles, with the same 
facility, as the waters of the Thames at Richmond. When 
therefore we find the health of the crew actually endangered in 
attempting to regain possession of such a mass of lumber, which 
certainly entitled Capt. Ross to have the inscription of “ Dealei 
in Marine Stores,” painted on the stern of his vessel, we cannot 
but consider it as one of those preposterous acts, which even a 
wise man will sometimes commit, in order to shew to the world 
that in some things, he is as great a fool as some others of his 
fellow creatures. 
Capt. Ross was at this time taken ill, but his indisposition 
was not of long duration. The severity of the season had pre¬ 
vented the officers from pursuing their sports on land, but on the 
20th, Commander James went on an excursion into the country, 
and shot one grouse, several others were seen, but the sportsmen 
could not get within shot of them. The party visited the huts of 
the Esquimaux, but very few of them were there, as they were 
employed in sealing, having caught from 17 to 20 in two days. 
At a quarter past twelve on the 20th, the first gli mpse of the sun 
was obtained after an absence of fifty-two days, and the hearts of 
the crew became exhilirated, as their long dreary night was 
drawing to a close, and the period fast approaching when they 
were to be emancipated from their icy imprisonment, and once 
more hoist their sails in the prosecution of their adventurous en¬ 
terprise. The feelings which animated the breasts of the whole 
crew of the Victory, on the return of the sun, can only be appre¬ 
ciated by those, who, suffering under a great and heavy depri¬ 
vation, behold themselves on a sudden emancipated from the 
weight of it, and a bright and animating prospect opening itself 
before them. To the aspiring and ambitious mind, the view of 
the object, which was to light him to his deeds of fame and 
noble enterprise, was hailed with all the fervour natural to the 
enthusiast, whose whole soul is absorbed in the accomplishment 
of some great and noble purpose, and who feels his energies 
