iAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
46 1 
which they might have been able to extricate themselves from 
their imprisonment. 
On the 21st, the ice cleared away a little to the northward, 
where, on account of the prevalence of the winds from that quarter, 
it appeared to be closer packed than in any other place. Com¬ 
mander Ross went in a boat, to examine the state of the ice; 
and, on his return, he reported, that no immediate prospect pre- ! 
sented itself of prosecuting the voyage, and even then his hope i 
was not great of being able to effect a considerable advance¬ 
ment ; at all events, that they had to look forward to a most 
difficult and intricate navigation, in which it would be neces¬ 
sary to call all the nautical skill of the officers into action, to 
save the ship from destruction. 
The dismal prospect, which the present situation of affairs 
held out to the men, tended in a great degree to dispirit them, 
for nothing presented itself before them, but another winter en¬ 
campment, if the term may be applied to the operations of a 
ship, with the certainty also pressing upon their minds, that they 
should have to endure a scarcity both of fuel and provisions: 
of the former, their stock was getting low, and well indeed was 
it for them, that the steam engine had not been found applicable 
to the navigation of the Polar seas, or they would not have had 
fuel enough even for their present purposes, much less to sup ¬ 
port them through the rigour of another winter; during which, 
perhaps, their very lives depended upon the fires, which they 
would be enabled to keep in the respective berths of the ship. 
It must be admitted, that, during the two or three preceding 
months, no scarcity whatever of provisions had been experienced, 
arising from the almost inexhaustible supply of fresh fish, which 
the lakes produced, and the birds and animals, which were daily 
brought to the ship by the officers and men. This regular and 
wholesome supply of provisions not only tended to improve the 
health of the men, but it prevented that heavy and constant 
drain upon the stores of the ship, which in a short time would 
have so far exhausted them, as actually to make them dependent 
for their maintenance, upon the very animals, which frequent 
