LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
181 
pressed, but still it was a striking 1 specimen of the great pliability 
of the human character, which can conform itself to the circum¬ 
stances under which it is placed, and find an enjoyment, and a 
satisfaction in an amusement or pursuit, even when the chief 
object is wanting from which that gratification is derived. The 
evening was spent in singing the old national songs, ‘‘the army 
and navy for ever ; the king God bless him ; and God save the 
king.” 
During the morning of the 26th, Commander Ross was em¬ 
ployed at the observatory taking observations, but the weather 
was too severe to allow the crew to follow their avocations in 
the open air, and the greatest apprehensions were now enter¬ 
tained, that unless a change in the weather speedily took place, 
the frames of the engine and the cylinders would be irrecover¬ 
ably lost in the ice. 
The 27th being Sunday divine service was performed, and in 
the afternoon the crew took their customary exercise on deck. 
Since the establishment of the school, Sunday evening was ap¬ 
propriated for the examination of the pupils by the officers; a 
duty which generally devolved on Commander Ross, and it 
speaks no little for the stock of patience which that able officer 
must have possessed, to undergo the trying occupation of listen¬ 
ing to the rude attempt of the aspiring pupil, to get through a 
verse in the bible, by spelling every word, and then stammering 
out the pronunciation of it, which was perhaps any thing but 
the real one. It is perhaps not to be wondered at, that on some 
of these scholastic examinations, the gallant Captain of the expe¬ 
dition was observed to be comfortably asleep in his arm-chair, 
chiming now and then with a sonorous snore, in with the draw¬ 
ling tone of the pupil, steering his way to the best of his ability 
through the first six verses of the appointed chapter, and being at 
times obliged to bring up in order to take a correct observation of 
the difficult course which was before him, and where the greatest 
danger existed of his sticking fast, without the chance of getting 
off again. In all cases where it becomes a difficult matter to 
find a subject for the employment of our leisure time, it generally 
happens that some extraordinary and monstrous scheme is thought 
