278 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. EOSS. 
one of their evening 1 sederunts (we believe that to be the term, 
in the country which has the honor of having given birth to 
Capt. Ross, for the meeting of scholars,) and therefore Capt. 
Ross could not have been led by any previous acquaintance which 
he had collected, touching the state or extent of lllictu 9 s family. 
There was however one bump on the head of lllictu, which in 
the M.S. before us, appears as No. 16, and on referring to the 
organic scale it was found to denote the organ of intelligence,* 
now Capt. Ross himself experienced that lllictu was one of the 
most stupid of his race, and where all are most notoriously 
stupid, he who is the most so, must have reached the very climax 
of stupidity; then what was to be done with bump No. 16? it is 
true that Capt. Ross had verified the principles of the science in 
two instances, and where a man has succeeded in any attempt 
twice out of thrice, no one has a right to throw a stone at him, 
as a blunderer in his profession: it was however thought advis¬ 
able not to push the phrenological researches any further, and the 
ultimate destination of the head of lllictu was seriatim determined 
upon. It was put into a net, and let down close to that of the 
bear under the ice, for the shrimps to take their choice, between 
the flesh of a savage animal and a savage man, but the shrimps 
appeared not to entertain any relish for either of them, for on 
the departure of the Victory from Felix Harbour, no great pro¬ 
gress had been made in the consumption of the flesh, and in the 
third winter harbour, the two heads were entirely forgotten. 
This attempt to obtain a complete skeleton of the two heads, 
was however attended with one bad effect, that it gave the ma¬ 
jority of the crew such a disgust for the shrimps, that they could 
never be prevailed upon afterwards to eat them, although this 
* We rememoer when the bust of Corder, the murderer of Maria Martin, was sent by Mr. Or- 
ridge, the Governor of Bury Goal, to the present Alderman Kelly, it was submitted to the exam¬ 
ination of the leading phrenologists of the day, but they were kept in ignorance of the exact sub¬ 
ject from which the bust was taken. The report was, that the organ of destructiveness was very 
minute indeed, whilst those of amiableness and humanity were strongly developed. When they 
were informed that they had been examining the bust of Corder, they looked significantly in each 
other’s face, and exclaimed, “ Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong.” This was a Second 
Edition of the Edinburg Turnip. 
