LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 647 
reach the shore, the distance being about two miles. The cold 
was here so excessive, that one of the men lost the tops of his 
fingers, and there was scarcely one, who was not frost-bitten in 
some part of his extremities. The name of the man was Barney 
Lachy, and the accident was occasioned by his rolling an empty 
bread cask on shore, having no mittens on at the time. During 
the night, that they slept on the ice, they had scarcely fuel 
enough to melt a little of it for the purpose of making some cocoa, 
for which reason they were obliged to burn the lime-juice cask, 
and commenced cutting up the boat’s cable as a part of their 
fuel. 
Under these adverse circumstances, a consultation was held 
between Capt. and Commander Ross, as to the steps, which 
should be taken with the boats, as well as the measures, which 
were to be adopted, to secure their return to Fury Beach. It 
was agreed that, considering the rapid growth of the young ice, 
and the impossibility of reaching Fury Beach in the boats, that 
no time should be lost in the unloading of them, and then hauling 
them over the ice on shore, where they might remain housed 
over, until the breaking up of the ice, when they would be able 
to make another attempt to reach the seas frequented by the 
whaling ships. 
The task of unloading the boats was commenced; and when it 
is considered, that every article was obliged to be carried over 
the ice separately, to a distance of above two miles, and some 
of the articles of a very heavy and cumbersome kind, an idea 
may then be formed of the labor, which the men had to undergo, 
exposed during the whole of the time, to an intensity of cold, 
which it was thought scarcely possible for the human constitu¬ 
tion to endure. 
It was on the morning of the 2nd of October, that they com¬ 
menced hauling the boats on shore, all the hands being put to 
one boat. With great difficulty they had succeeded in dragging 
it about halfway, when the ice suddenly gave way under her, 
and she lay as snug as if she were in a cradle. Every en¬ 
deavor was made to get her out again, but as fast as they hauled 
her on the ice, -it broke in again; and for some time it was ex-* 
