of the Enterprise, had died of consumption. Several of the crews of both ships were in a declining state, and the general report of health was by no means cheering. While Captain Ross was away, Commander Bird had dispatched other surveying parties in different directions. One, under the command of Lieutenant Bar nard, to the northern shore of Barrow's Strait, crossing the ice to Cape Hind; a second, commanded by Lieutenant Browne, to the eastern shore of Regent Inlet; and a third party of six men, conducted by Lieutenant Robinson, along the western shore of the Inlet. - The latter officer extended his examination of the coast as far as Cresswell Bay, several miles to the southward of Fury Beach. He found the house still standing in which Sir John Ross passed the winters of 1832-33, together with a quantity of the stores and provisions of the Fury, lost there in 1827. On opening some of the packages containing flour, sugar and peas, they were all found to be in excellent preservation, and the preserved soup as good as when manufactured. The labors of these searching parties were, however, of comparatively short duration, as they all suffered from snow-blindness, sprained ankles, and debility. As it was now but too evident, from no traces of the absent expedition having been met with by any of these parties, that the ships could not have been detained anywhere in this part of the arctic regions, Captain Ross considered it most desirable to push forward to the westward as soon as his ships should be liberated. His chief hopes now centered in the efforts of Sir John Richardson's party; but he felt persuaded that S John Franklin's ships must have penetrated so far beyond Melville Island as to induce him to prefer making for the continent of America rather than seeking assistance from the whale ships in Baffin's Bay. The crews, weakened by incessant exertion, were now in a very unfit state to undertake the heavy labor which they had yet to accomplish, but all hands that were able were set to work with saws to cut a channel toward the point of the harbor, a distance of ather more than two miles, and on the 28th of August the ships got clear. Before quitting the port, a house was built of the spare spars of both ships, and covered with such of the housing cloths as could be dispensed with. Twelve months' provisions, fuel, and other necessaries were also left behind, together with the steam launch belonging to the Investigator, which, having been purposely lengthened seven feet, now formed a fine vessel, capable of conveying the whole of Sir John Franklin's party to the whale ships, if necessary. The Investigator and Enterprise now proceeded toward the northern shore of Barrow's Strait, for the purpose of examining Wellington Channel, and, if pos sible, penetrating as far as Melville Island, but when about twelve miles from the shore, the ships came to the fixed land-ice, and found it impossible to proceed. On the 1st of September a strong wind suddenly arising, brought the loose pack, through which they had been struggling, down upon the ships, which were closely beset. At times, during two or three days, they sustained severe pressure, and ridges of hummocks were thrown up all around; but after that tine the temperature falling to near zero, it formed the whole body of ice into one solid mass. The remainder of the narrative, as related by the Commander of the expedition in his official dispatch, will not bear abridgment. "We were so circumstanced that for some days we could not unship the rudder, and when, by the laborious operation of sawing and removing the hummocks from under the stern, we were able to do so, we found it twisted and damaged; and the ship was so much strained, as to increase the leakage from three inches in a fortnight to fourteen inches daily. The ice was stationary for a few days; the pressure had so folded the lighter pieces over each other and they were so interlaced, as to form one entire sheet, extending from shore to shore of Barrow's Strait, and as far to the east and west as the eye could discern from the mast-head, while the extreme severity of the temperature had cemented the whole so firmly together that it appeared highly improbable that it could break up again this season. In the space which had been cleared away for unshipping the rudder, the newly-formed ice was fifteen inches thick, and in some places along the ship's side the thirteen-feet screws were too short to work. We had now fully made up our minds that the ships were fixed for the winter, and dismal as the prospect appeared, it was far preferable to being carried along the west coast of Baffin's Bay, where the grounded bergs are in such numbers upon the shallow banks off that shore, as to render it next to impossible for ships involved in a pack to escape destruction. It was, therefore, with a mixture of hope and anxiety that, on the wind shifting to the westward, we perceived the whole body of ice begin to drive to the eastward, at the rate of eight to ten miles daily. Every effort on our part was totally unavailing, for no human power could have moved either of the ships a single inch; they were thus completely taken out of our own hands, and in the center of a field of ice more than fifty miles in circumference, were carried along the southern shore of Lancaster Sound. "After passing its entrance, the ice drifted in a more southerly direction, along the western shore of Baffin's Bay, until we were abreast of Pond's Bay, to the southward of which we observed a great number of icebergs stretching across our path, and presenting the fearful prospect of our worst anticipations. But when least expected by us, our release was almost miraculously brought about. The great field of ice was rent into innumerable fragments, as if by some unseen power." By energetic exertion, warping, and sailing, the ships got clear of the pack, and reached an open space of water on the 25th of September. "It is impossible," says Captain Ross, in his con cluding observations, "to convey any idea of the sen sation we experienced when we found ourselves once more at liberty, while many a grateful heart poured forth its praises and thanksgivings to Almighty God for this urlooked for deliverance." "The advance of winter had now closed all the harbors against us; and as it was impossible to penetrate to the westward through the pack from which we had just been liberated, I made the signal to the Investigator of my intention to return to England." After a favorable passage, the ships arrived home early in November, Captain Sir J. C. Ross reporting himself at the Admiralty on the 5th of November. As this is the last arctic voyage of Sir James C. Ross, it is a fitting place for some record of his arduous services. Captain Sir James Clarke Ross entered the navy in 1812, and served as volunteer of the first class, midshipman and mate until 1817, with his uncle Commander Ross. In 1818 he was appointed Admiralty midshipman in the Isabella, on Commander Ross's first voyage of discovery to the arctic seas. He was then midshipman in the two following years with Captain Parry, in the Hecla; followed him again in the Fury in his second voyage, and was promoted on the 26th of December, 1822. In 1824 and 1825, he was lieutenant in the Fury, under Captain Hoppner, on Parry's third voyage. In 1827, he was appointed first lieutenant of the Hecla, under Parry, and accompanied him in command of the second boat in his attempt to reach the North Pole. On his return he received his promotion to the rank of commander, the 8th of November, 1827. From 1829 to 1833, he was employed with his uncle as second in command in the Victory on the pri vate expedition sent out by Mr. Felix Booth. During this period he planted, on the 1st of June, 1831, the British flag on the North Magnetic Pole. For this, on his return, be was presented by the Herald's College with an add tion to his family arms of an especial crest, representing a flag-staff erect on a rock, with the union jack hoisted thereon, inscribed with the date, "1 June, 1831." One 23d of October, 1834, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and in the following year employed in making magnetic observations, preparatory to the general magnetic survey of England. In the close of 1836, it having been represented to the Ad miralty, from Hull, that eleven whale ships, having on board 600 men, were left in the ice in Davis' Strait, and in imminent danger of perishing, unless relief were forwarded to them, the Lords Commissioners resolved upon sending out a ship to search for them. Captain Ross, with that promptitude and humanity which has always characterized him, volunteered to go out in the depth of winter, and the Lieutenants, F. R. M. Crozier, Inman, and Ommaney, with the three mates, Jesse, Buchan, and John Smith, and Mr. Hallett, clerk in charge, joined him. They sailed from England on the 21st of December, and on arriving in Davis' Strait, after a stormy passage, found that nine of the missing ships were by that time in England, that the tenth was released on her passage, and that the other was in all probability lost, as some of her water-casks had been picked up at sea. From 1837 to 1838, Captain Ross was employed in determining the variation of the compass on all parts of the coast of Great Britain; and from 1839 to 1843, as Captain of the Erebus, in command of the antarctic expedition. In 1841, he was presented with the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, for his discoveries toward the South Pole; and he has also received the gold medal of the Geographical Society of Paris. On the 13th of March, 1844, he received the honor of knighthood from the Queen, and in June of the same year the University of Oxford bestowed on him their honorary degree of D. C. L. In 1848, he went out, as we have just seen, in the Enterprise, in Command of one of the searching expeditions sent to seek for Franklin. VOYAGE OF H. M. S. "NORTH STAR." The North Star, of 500 tons, was fitted out in the spring of 1849, under the command of Mr. J. Saunders, who had been acting master with Captain Back, in the Terror, in her perilous voyage to the Frozen Strait, in 1836 |