LAST VOYAGE OF GAPT. ROSS. 
321 
they unanimously declared that all of them had found it so ex¬ 
tremely cold, that they were obliged to relinquish their task of 
monument-building, from the fear they entertained that they 
should all be frost-bitten ; Capt. Ross shut the log-book and 
retired to his cabin. 
The sagacity of the dog has been long proverbial, but a cir¬ 
cumstance occurred on the 12th, which exhibited that property 
in the highest degree. Commander Ross had extended his 
excursion to a considerable distance from the ship, according to 
his own calculation, about 12 miles, and his dogs not accustom¬ 
ed to such long stages, were completely weather-beaten. 
Amongst the dogs was one of the name of Peter belonging to 
the steward, who became the ringleader in as serious a conspira¬ 
cy as ever threatened the empire of Rome under the govern¬ 
ment of Catiline. This conspiracy was no other than to leave 
Commander Ross in the lurch, and make the best of their way 
back to the ship, where, basking before the oven fire, they should 
be more comfortable than skulking behind hummocks of ice 
with scarcely anything to eat. A man, and so has a dog a right 
to improve his circumstances by every lawful means in his 
power, and we know that the former, whatever the latter may 
do, is very prone to have recourse to unlawful ones, when it is 
found inconvenient or inexpedient to adhere to the lawful mode. 
Whether however the canine conspirators viewed the matter in 
that light previously to putting their project into execution is 
not to be found in any of the records before us, nor does it 
appear by what signs, gestures, arguments, or expostulations, 
Peter so worked upon thd passions of his companions as to 
induce them to join him in his criminal scheme. Commander 
Ross was well known to be particularly humane towards his ani¬ 
mals, and therefore it may be considered as a gross act of ingra¬ 
titude on the part of Peter, to have concocted such a barefaced 
conspiracy, but Peter, like the human biped had an argument ready 
at hand to show, that so far from ingratitude being attached to his 
character, it was a sense of duty and obedience which urged him 
to the step, for as he was not the property of Commander Ross, 
he owed him neither service nor fidelity, on the contrary, it was 
14. 2 t 
