566 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
of their situation ; the prospect before them was good and cheer¬ 
ing, but the vessel was as firmly bound, as if she had been! 
wedged in with iron. It was suggested hy Commander Ross, 
whether it were not practicable to cut a groove or canal through 
the ice, sufficiently large to allow of the passage of the ship, 
and it was generally believed on board, that if the commandi 
had been vested in that officer, the experiment would have been 
tried ; at all events, that some plan would have been put in 
operation, by which the Victory could have been got into the, 
open sea. The extraordinary and sudden variation of the wind 
at this time, was also a great impediment to the execution of 
any scheme, which had for its design the liberation of the ship; 
for, if it blew from a favorable quarter in the morning, in the 
evening it blew from a wholly opposite one, hanging also chiefly 
to the northward, which, although favourable for clearing the 
bay of ice, was directly against the sailing of the ship. 
It was, however, evident to Commander Ross, that as the 
situation of the Victory was desperate, some means of the same* 
nature ought to be employed to remedy the evil; but there was 
always a counteracting power existing, to render abortive any; 
plans, which he might propose, and to throw those obstacles in 
the way of their execution, which rendered him at last, in a 
certain degree, indifferent to their situation, and careless about 
the adoption of any of the measures, which were at times pro-1 
posed, for effecting the liberation of the ship. The report of 
the man, who had been sent on the evening of the 7th, was 
considered to be so favorable, that Commander Ross determined, 
on the following day, to take a personal survey of the position 
of the ice, and if the sea to the westward were clear of ice, it 
was his intention to attempt to reach it in a boat, and arrive at 
once at the knowledge of the existence of a western passage 1 
or whether, as it had been hitherto conjectured, they were in 
* reality entangled amidst a number of bays and islands, which 
were bounded to the westward by the main land. 
Early on the morning of the 8th, Commander Ross, accom¬ 
panied by Mr. Mc’Diarmid, set out upon their expedition. They 
had scarcely lost sight of the ship., when turning suddenly round 
