518 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
than on the preceding’ year, and returned by the isthmus, which 
divides the sea, that is, the head of Prince Regent’s Inlet, and 
the sea where Nichilli is situated ; the distance from sea to sea 
is about fifteen miles, intersected by several lakes. Commander 
Ross was informed by the natives, that this newly discovered’ 
sea abounded with whale, seal and walrus; but the report of the 
natives was not confirmed by any personal experience, on the part 
of Commander Ross, for although a seal would have been highly 
acceptable as food for the dogs, not one was to be caught. 1 
Commander Ross gave the name of Isabella Cape to the longest 
point of land in this sea; and to an island he gave the name of 
Abernethy Island. 
One of the most singular effects of the cold, that exhibited 
itself on this expedition, was the frost smoke, that rose from the 
sea in thin volumes, as if from a furnace. This was more inju¬ 
rious to the human frame, than the keenest atmosphere ; for it 
was no sooner wafted by the wind over the land, than it created 
such a cutting and exquisite cold, that the men were obliged 
to put on all the elothing they could muster, to prevent their 
hands and feet from being frost-bitten. The rising of these 
wreaths of smoke, from the moveless surface of the sea, was a 
most extraordinary sight; the feeble moon struggling through 
them, and even the natives were afraid to stir abroad at this 
hour. In the dim twilight of the day, that followed, the daring 
hunter would sometimes venture forth to seek the deer, or track 
the musk ox to his snowy lair. But in the midst of the night, 
superstition might have conjured up some portentous forms, 
accompanied by a host of terrors; for strange sounds were often 
abroad in the air, caused by the meeting of masses of disjointed 
ice, or the splitting of the rocks with the intensity of the cold ; 
even the piteous cry of the seal was sometimes sufficient to 
create an alarm; there were noises also on the deep and the 
shore, for which they could not account: so that these tempoiary 
exiles from their native land, were often, like the people in 
Egypt, during the plague of darkness, when in the sublime 
description of the Apocrypha, “ they heard the sound of fearful 
things rushing by, even by their doors, and in their chambers. 
