LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
673 
Bay, where a tent was immediately pitched for the accommoda¬ 
tion of the sick and the surgeon, as well as for Curtis, the cook, 
to prepare their victuals, and attend upon them. 
The spring-tides took place on the 19th, when the ice, on 
which they had travelled the day before, was all smashed up, 
and driven mountains high, whilst the main body of the ice was 
setting rapidly to the northward, which excited some strong 
hope, that their liberation was near at hand. 
A regular distribution of the provisions, that were at Batty 
Bay, was made amongst the three boats, so that no complaint 
could be made, as to a larger supply being given to one boat 
than to another ; even the coals were measured out by a bouilie 
canister, by which an ample supply of fuel was given to each 
boat. On their passage from Fury Beach to Batty Bay, they 
fell in with a colony, or, to use the phraseology of the sailors, a 
rookery of kittewakes, of which they killed a considerable 
number; but the most valuable treasure, which they found, 
was a bank of very fine sorrel, of which they gathered a consi¬ 
derable quantity, and which proved a most efficacious restorative 
to the health of the sick. A visible improvement took place in 
both Buck and Wood, the latter approaching fast to convales¬ 
cence, but the former was so afflicted with fits, that his ultimate 
recovery was for some time deemed hopeless. In 24 hours he had 
thirty-two fits, succeeding each other about every quarter of an 
hour, two of the crew being appointed constantly to watch over 
him. He was, however, in a great measure, cured of them, by 
adopting the process, as soon as his eyes began to twinkle, and 
his forehead to turn red, of applying a wet cloth to his forehead 
which stopped the progress of the fit, and in time he was com¬ 
pletely cured. 
The ice in Batty Bay now began to be, what the sailors 
termed honey-comby, or, in other words rotten, with a great 
many holes in it, and the outside began to go regularly up and 
down with the tide ; from which it is evident, that with the 
approaching spring tides, an endeavor would be made to drag 
the boats, or to track them inside of the land ice to the ex¬ 
treme point of Batty Bay, a distance of about two miles: this, 
29. 4 r 
