LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
605 
passage might be found, and it was with this expectation that 
Commander Ross visited it in 1830-1, but the fact was then 
ascertained, that no passage existed in that part of the inlet. 
By the beginning of November, the watering of the ship 
was completed, she was stripped and unrigged, and all the 
materials got on shore; the anchors were fixed on shore, and 
the cables put to them, by which means the chain led to 
the ship over the ice, a precaution that was necessary, in case 
she could be got out at any time during the winter. Part of the 
housing was got over the ship, but it was soon blown away 
again; it was, however, repaired without loss of time, and by 
the middle of November it was completed; the decks were 
covered with snow, the ship banked round and by the beginning 
of December the vessel may be said to be complete in her 
winter trim. 
As the abandonment of the vessel was determined upon, 
the further preservation of the live animals on board, became a 
matter of serious consideration; the number of dogs were indeed 
reduced to a very small number, as on the last expedition of 
Commander Ross to the head of the bay, he had been obliged 
to shoot several of them as food for the remainder; so greatly 
attached however was he to a dog named Tookto, that rather 
than he should be left behind, he carried him part of the way, 
but he died from the eating of some poison, as was con¬ 
jectured at the time, but it was subsequently discovered, that 
his death, as well as that of almost all the dogs on board, was 
occasioned by licking the pipes belonging to the engine, the 
poisonous corrosions of which, caused almost their instantaneous 
death; the number of dogs, whilst the ship was in Victory 
harbour, was reduced to two. Tookanuk a bitch, and Aningga 
(the Moon) a dog: the former had a litter of pups in Victory 
Harbour, two of which were kept; but both the old dogs met 
the same fate as their companions, on which, the puppies were 
killed, and thus as far as the Victory was concerned, the canine 
species was extinct. 
Dreary and dismal was now the appearance of the ship, and 
gloomy and dispirited were the inmates of it; every hope was 
