LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
611 
valuable treasures should not fall into the hands of the natives, 
that he ordered the whole of them to be taken to the summit 
of one of the neighbouring hills, and there buried in separate 
heaps, according to the size of the holes, which the men could 
make. It was, however, the opinion of the whole of the crew, 
that if the Esquimaux should ever chance to visit the depository 
of the treasures, little doubt existed but the discovery of them 
would take place : and, as the last boon, perhaps, which a Euro¬ 
pean will ever grant to these poor benighted creatures of the 
north, we sincerely hope that, in their rude-fashioned way, they 
may ere now have converted the iron into their hunting spears, 
and the wood into the construction of their sledges. 
At the commencement of the year 1832, the carpenter was 
employed in making six sledges, four of large dimensions, for 
carrying the two boats, and the other two rather smaller, for 
the conveyance of provisions. The boats were the same as 
Capt. Franklin had on his journey, and were peculiarly adapted 
for navigating amongst ice : it was in fact, on these two boats, 
that the hopes of the crew depended of ever reaching their 
native land again, and therefore they were put in the best 
possible repair, which the skill of the carpenter could accom¬ 
plish : they had been buried in the snow during the whole of 
the winter, in order to keep the wind from renting them, and 
they were now got on board, for the purpose of being caulked 
and otherwise repaired. 
In the beginning of January, James Dixon, a landsman, died, 
and great was the difficulty, which the crew experienced, in 
making his grave. They were for a time taken off from the 
important labor of making the excavation, to dig his grave; 
but severe as was the task, not a murmur was heard amongst 
the crew, as it was the last office, which they would have to 
perform for one of their companions, who had shared with them 
their dangers and their sufferings, but who was now to be laid 
in his narrow house, to sleep his eternal sleep in the unbroken 
silence of nature’s dreariest solitude. It was a week before 
the men could penetrate to a depth, sufficient to hold the body, 
and then the labor was similar to that of digging at a rock. 
