LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
665 
which had shown itself in several cases, in rather an alarming' 
degree, and which, in fact, had proved the death of Chimham 
Thomas. 
As the day-light increased, the officers and some of the crew 
went on a shooting expedition, and, on one occasion, they shot 
two bears, and saw a wolf, at which they fired, and severely 
wounded him, but he contrived to make his escape. Com¬ 
mander Ross followed him, by the track of his blood, a consi- 
derable distance, but the day-light closed upon him, and he 
was obliged to relinquish the pursuit. It was on one of those 
occasions, that the crew were threatened w r ith one of the greatest 
calamities, which, under their present circumstances, could pos¬ 
sibly have befallen them, and which would inevitably have 
plunged the whole of them into a state of the deepest despair 
and disconsolation. The calamity was no other than the death 
of Capt. Ross himself, which was likely to have ensued from 
the rather too ofrcible embraces of a bear, which had been at- 
tracied to the place where he was reposing, by some particular 
odour grateful to his olfactory sense. 
The weather being propitious, Commander Ross, with a 
chosen party, set out on a hunting expedition, one aim of which, 
was, to obtain possession of the body of the wolf, which had been 
so seriously wounded on a former day, and which it was not 
thought possible that he could survive the wound. During their 
absence Capt. Ross, for the purpose of communing with him¬ 
self on the difficulties of his present situation, and at the same 
time luxuriating in imagination on the honors that would be 
paid to him, should he succeed in reaching the shores of Eng¬ 
land, determined to compose himself on his bed of skins, whilst 
his head reposed in soothing softness on his downy pillows. 
We believe that Capt. Ross may, at one period of his life, 
have read Tristram Shandy, in which it is stated, upon the 
authority of Mr. Shandy himself, that man cogitates upon some 
subjects, better in a horizontal position than in any other ; and 
therefore as it may be rationally concluded, that Capt. Ross had, 
at this particular period much to cogitate upon, there cannot 
be the slightest blame attached to him, if he placed himself 
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