454 LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
mander Ross gave the Esquimaux as many as they could carry; 
and he gave them to understand, that after three seniks, he 
should be at the lake again, when, if he were equally success¬ 
ful, a further supply should be given them. 
On the 12th, the mess-berth of the crew was removed to the 
fore head, for the purpose of having the winter one cleaned, and 
painted : for, what with the constant burning of the lamps and 
other accidental causes, the winter habitation had assumed a 
blackness, very much resembling a blacksmith’s forge, or the 
interior of a gasometer, 
“ Black were its sides, as dens of Erebriis, 
And they, who dwelt therein, look’d like the fiends, 
Who in Tartarean caves the damned vex, 
And from their throats belch forth huge wreaths of smoke. 
Of sulphurous stench, stifling the breath of life.” 
A part of the labor of the crew now consisted in getting on 
board the flags, pikes, &c. as well as all the instruments, that 
had been used in the observatories; and every thing indicated 
the approaching departure from a place, which might never be 
visited again, and where few circumstances had occurred to ren¬ 
der the recollection of it agreeable. The monument of snow 
would in a short time be the only record, that the place had been 
visited by the stranger: but there was no one left behind, to 
tell whither he was gone, or the fate, that had befallen him. 
The rigging of the ship was now nearly finished; on the *20th, 
the crow’s nest was got up, and the Victory, as the sailors ex¬ 
pressed themselves, began to look like herself again; on the 
21st, some of the sails were bent, and the crew got their chests 
and bedding ashore, for the purpose of giving them a proper 
airing previously to moving into the half-deck. The sailors were, 
however, greafly tormented by the mosquitoes, which swarm 
in those latitudes in the summer months, and from which they 
could scarcely find any protection either by night or day. 
The chief business of the Esquimaux, at this season of the year, 
