318 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
has committed an error, that an immediate remedy for it is at 
hand, and that man approaches very fast to the character of the 
finished fool, who hesitates for a moment to apply that remedy 
as soon as it presents itself; thus, if the gift of a thing has oc¬ 
casioned a quarrel between two persons, the most efficacious 
method of putting an end to it, is to take it away again, and 
so thought the sailors of the Victory; the gift of the seal’s flesh 
had aroused the pugnacious dispositions of the Esquimaux, and 
therefore to quell the violence of them, they took the seal’s flesh 
away again, but after every storm there remains for some time 
a heavy swell, and although the Esquimaux rolled themselves 
round like two large bears to take another senik , yet ever anon 
a groan and a growl burst forth, like the muttering of thunder 
at a distance, indicative of the storm that was past, and threat¬ 
ening to return, if the slightest provocation were given. 
Having passed their senik without any further disturbance, 
they made their appearance at the breakfast table in the morn¬ 
ing, but a basin of cocoa and a biscuit was to them a fare by no 
means of that substantiality as to accord with their voracious 
appetite; the steward therefore repaired to the hole in which 
the seal’s flesh was kept, and having extracted thence a lump, 
or clod of about eight pounds, it was put into the oven, and in 
the space of a short time it appeared reeking on the table to the 
great delight and gratification of the august visitors of the Vic¬ 
tory. A bucket of water containing a gallon was placed between 
them, from which their libations were long and frequent—and 
as long as a morsel of flesh remained on the board, or a drop of 
water in the bucket, the visitors showed no disposition to alter 
the position in which they had placed themselves. Their 
sumptuous repast being over, they proceeded to put a top to 
to the snow house, which when finished very much resembled a 
house in England that has by some means found its way into 
the Court of Chancery, for no tenant could be found to inhabit 
it, and its only use was to shew Capt. Ross the emptiness of human 
grandeur, and that the Esquimaux is as happy with his roof of 
snow as the monarch with his roof of golden fretwork. 
Commander James took the opportunity of the stay of the 
