LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT, ROSS. 
547 
feeling 1 of desperation, which takes possession of a man when 
he finds himself in a dilemma, from which there appears scarcely 
any hope of extrication. It may happen that success sometimes 
attends the individual under those circumstances, and then he has 
the meed awarded to him of discretion and of talent; whereas 
he has been merely acting upon the coute qui coute, neck-or- 
nothing system, and, like the desperate gamester, trusting his 
all to the hazard of a single throw. 
The two officers returned at half past eight in the evening, 
neither of them very well satisfied with their excursion ; for 
some very unpleasant suspicions could not fail to rise in the 
breast of Capt. Ross, that the expedition, as far as the discovery 
of the North West Passage was concerned, was drawing fast to 
a close. 
Commander Ross, however, with that perseverance and un¬ 
daunted spirit, which characterized him during the whole of 
the voyage, and which rendered him so justly a favorite with the 
whole of the crew, was not perfectly satisfied with the result of the 
observations, which he had made during his excursion with his 
uncle ; and, therefore, after stopping a short time on board, for 
the purpose of taking some refreshment, he set off with a boat’s 
crew to examine the state of the ice at the entrance of the 
bay. To his great mortification, he found it completely 
blocked up, and no signs exhibiting themselves of an immediate 
change. Two seals were shot this day, one by Capt. Ross, and 
the other by Abernethy. Towards evening, to the great satis¬ 
faction of the crew, the wind came on to blow hard from the 
.W., and before the night closed, it blew a gale direct from 
the south. This was the very wind, for which they had 
earnestly prayed, as being the most favorable for driving the 
ice out of the bay, and removing the blockade at the entrance, 
so as to enable them to get out. 
On the morning of the 1st September, the wind continued to 
blow strong from the south and south-west: the crew considered 
that their return to England, depended upon the continuance of 
this wind, and it was, therefore, with the most anxious feelings, 
that they watched even the slightest change of it, dreading the 
