EAST voyage of CAPT. ROSS. 
499 
other the usual terms of common civility. Commander Ross visit¬ 
ed the observatory, perfectly indifferent to any of the proceed¬ 
ings, that were going on on board, as far as his uncle was con¬ 
cerned ; and, having returned to take his meals, he would follow 
his scientific pursuits, without holding any communication witl 
his uncle, or appearing as if he were in the least dependent upoi 
him, as to the course of action, which it was his pleasure t( 
pursue. It is most certain, that Commander Ro«s seldom ap¬ 
proved of the measures, which were adopted by Capt. Ross, ii 
regard to the management of the ship ; and, he hesitated not 
openly to express his opinion, in which he was supported by the 
majority of the crew, that the awkward and dangerous situation, 
in which the Victory then lay, was solely to be ascribed to the 
want of skill and judgment on the part of Capt. Ross, and parti¬ 
cularly to a lack of that boldness and determination, on which 
success, in general, so materially depends. Capt. Ross was not 
a character to attend to the advice of others, as he considered it 
an imputation upon his own professional skill : to expostulate 
with him on the impropriety or danger of any particular step, 
on which he had determined, was a most certain method of 
incurring his highest displeasure; and the more manifest the 
disposition appeared to oppose and thwart him, the more de¬ 
termined and resolute he showed himself to carry his projects 
into execution. It has become proverbial, that a smoky house 
and a scolding wife are amongst the greatest miseries, which a 
man can endure ; but we cannot conceive a more unpleasant and 
irksome situation, than for two individuals to be cooped up 
with each other, in the same cabin, under the circumstances, in 
which the Victory was placed, and from which there was no 
escape, except taking a walk on land, with the thermometer at 
70 or 80 below the freezing point; or perhaps sitting in a cor¬ 
ner, and attempting a few chords on the fiddle, to the great 
annoyance and vexation of the ears of the opposite party. For 
several weeks, the uncle and the nephew appeared as if they had 
sent each other to Coventry; but, on Wednesday, the 2nd of 
March, the fire, which had been concentring for some time in 
their breasts, like the lava in the craters of Vesuvius and Etna, 
