248 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VIII. 



a more refined assembly ; while the latter might not have 

 disdained, and would not have been disgraced by, copying 

 the good order, decorum, and inoffensive cheerfulness which 

 our humble masquerades presented. It does especial credit 

 to the dispositions and good sense of our men, that, though 

 all the officers entered fully into the spirit of these amuse- 

 ments, which took place once a month, alternately on board 

 each ship, no instance occurred of any thing that could 

 interfere with the regular discipline, or at all weaken the 

 respect of the men towards their superiors. Ours were 

 masquerades without licentiousness — carnivals without ex- 

 cess." — pp. 49, 50. 



But an occupation of less amusement, perhaps, 

 but not less assiduously pursued, and of infinitely 

 more eventual benefit, was furnished by the re- 

 establishment of schools, under the voluntary super- 

 intendence of Mr. Hooper in the Hecla, and of Mr. 

 Mogg in the Fury. 



" By the judicious zeal of Mr. Hooper, the Hecla's school 

 was made subservient, not merely to the improvement of the 

 men in reading and writing (in which, however, their pro- 

 gress was surprisingly great), but also to the cultivation of 

 that religious feeling which so essentially improves the 

 character of a seaman, by furnishing the highest motives for 

 increased attention to every other duty. Nor was the 

 benefit confined to the eighteen or twenty individuals whose 

 want of scholarship brought them to the school-table, but 

 extended itself to the rest of the ship's company, making the 

 whole lower deck such a scene of quiet rational occupation 

 as I never before witnessed on board a ship. And I do not 

 speak lightly when I express my thorough persuasion that 

 to the moral effects thus produced upon the minds of the 

 men, were owing, in a very high degree, the constant yet 



