250 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
the country could scarcely endure, clothed as they were in their 
almost impenetrable coverings of seal and bear skins. Thus on 
the 11th February, when the thermometer was at 45° below 
Zero, or 77° below the freezing point, the men were sent on 
shore to erect a monument, as they termed it, by which they 
meant a monument of the folly of its projector, from which useful 
service they all returned frost-bitten, the pain of which was ex¬ 
treme, and the only palliative for which they found to be con¬ 
tinual friction with the hand. The usual custom of rubbing the 
part affected with snow was seldom resorted to, as the cure was 
found to be not only uncertain, but very slow in its operation. 
Despite of the severity of the frost, the Esquimaux came to the 
ship, but the cold was so intense, that their stay was of very 
short duration. Capt. Ross tried the temperature of the air, and 
found it to range from 50 to 55°, making 87° below the freezing 
point, an extreme of cold, which scarcely any animal life can 
endure. Every method was adopted to increase the temperature 
of the sailors berths; the cook’s fire was ordered to be kept in 
until 10 p.m. ; the fires in the oven were kept constantly lighted, 
and by these salutary measures, the crew were enabled to main¬ 
tain a comfortable heat in their berths, and to protect themselves 
from an extreme of cold, which if it did not actually endanger 
their lives, would be most probably attended with the loss of 
some of their limbs by mortification, which generally affects the 
parts that are frost-bitten. 
The morning of the 12th was beautifully serene, although no 
abatement took place in the intensity of the frost; nothing dis¬ 
couraged nor discomfitted however by the weather, eight Esqui¬ 
maux women with their children came to the ship, and it was a 
most lamentable sight to behold the poor shivering creatures 
crouching behind a mound of snow, and expecting every moment 
that some relief would be afforded them from the vessel. After 
waiting some time and finding that their hopes were not realized, 
one of the women ventured on board, but her visit was no sooner 
made known to Capt. Ross, than he ordered her away; some 
perhaps, not ill-founded suspicions being excited in his mind, 
that the lady visited the ship from a different motive than the 
