LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
173 
It must indeed have been a noygl exhibition, and a most de¬ 
lectable treat must it have been to the caricaturist, to catch a 
glimpse of the weather-beaten sailors, in their Flushing 
jackets and their Arctic dresses, “ with hair unkempt/' seated 
on their forms with their primer in their hands, and audibly 
repeating, as they were in their turns called up before their 
highly-gifted domine, a-b ab, e-b eb, o-b ob, and then with 
their iron fists, which had been inured to the handspike, and the 
handling of the main braces from their infancy, scrawling O’s 
and pothooks, and commencing the formation of the figure 3, 
with the lower semicircle instead of the upper one. On referring 
to our documents, the existence of which, however, is most posi¬ 
tively denied by Capt. Ross, we certainly confess that we cannot 
discover any minutes of the proceedings of the school, nor is 
there any information extant, which could authorize us to denounce 
any of the scholars as being so refractory as to incur the dis¬ 
pleasure of the domine or monitor, for which transgression he 
was condemned to be put into the corner, with the fool’s cap, 
made of a seal’s paunch, placed on his head; nor is there any 
proof that the domine was obliged to have recourse to the salu¬ 
tary infliction of the titillating punishment of flagellation, for any 
breach of the discipline of the school, by which according to 
Dr. Johnson, that which was put into the head was whipped out 
again at the tail. Minuteness is particularly to be recommended 
in the narrative of all voyages which have been made to countries, 
which no one has ever visited before, and all the proceedings 
ought to be noted down with an accuracy and fidelity which 
cannot leave a doubt, even in the minds of the most sceptical, of 
the authenticity, and reality of the circumstances which are 
reported to have taken place. 
It is to be sure an undoubted fact that Capt. Ross in his first 
voyage, did describe the Croker Mountains with an accuracy 
and fidelity, which, could leave no one to doubt their existence, 
but let it be considered, that although there may be an accuracy 
in the description of an object, there may be an inaccuracy in 
the observation of it. and to the latter circumstance is to be 
attributed all the wonders, miracles, monstrosities, errors and 
