LAST VOYAGE OK CAPT. ROSS. 
569 
etice of open water. The prospect to Commander Ross was 
one of complete tantalization—he could see at a distance the 
very object, which he wished to reach, it was, comparatively 
speaking*, almost within his grasp, and yet the impossibility 
stood manifest before him, that he never could arrive at the en¬ 
joyment of it. Deeply in his heart then did he blame the in¬ 
fatuated obstinacy of the individual who, in despite of all advice 
and remonstrance, and in defiance of the common principles 
of nautical science, could wilfully throw away every chance of 
succeeding in the object which he had in view, and exposing 
those, who were under him, to a series of privations and suffer¬ 
ings, which could scarcely be paralleled in the most disastrous 
vovag-es, which are recorded in our maritime annals. With the 
knowledge of the fact, that the closer a ship is in shore, the 
greater is the danger of being surrounded, and eventually jam¬ 
med up with the ice, it appeared most unaccountable to the 
majority on board, and to no one perhaps more so than to 
Commander Ross himself, that Capt. Ross should have persisted 
in keeping the Victory some times so close in with the land, 
that the jib-boom could have touched the rocks, when, by 
steering a more open course, a great portion of the danger 
arising from the accumulation of ice on the shore, and par¬ 
ticularly of ground ice, would have been wholly avoided. 
The result of this excursion of Commander Ross, was, the 
confirmation, that the Victory, unless some most extraordinary 
circumstances should occur, was doomed to pass another win¬ 
ter amidst a scene of desolation, danger and darkness; it was 
also evident to him, that all chance of success in the great 
object of their expedition was thrown away, not to be again re¬ 
covered, for, on the supposition that on the breaking up of 
the ice in the ensuing spring, a passage to the westward could 
be effected, it would not be prudent to attempt it, and thereby 
ru!i the risk of being blocked up again for another winter, with 
a dearth of fuel, and dependent, in a great degree, upon the 
casual success of the sportsmen for their maintenance. To at¬ 
tempt to pass another winter exposed, above all things, to a 
scarcity of fuel, would be tantamount to the death of the whole 
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