LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
333 
few slices, when it was discovered that the exterior of the joint, 
from its long exposure to the influence of the frost, had assumed 
a positive degree of ossification, which the common process of 
thawing had been unable to mollify, and which as an encrusta¬ 
tion had prevented the water from penetrating fully to the interior. 
The flesh was however uncommonly sweet, the frowns of cha¬ 
grin gradually disappeared, and the remainder of the day was 
spent in joviality. Thus, as in the general affairs of human 
beings, if the individual will but call a little philosophy to his 
a’d, and look upon the evils and disappointments of this life, 
as merety so many clouds, which will quickly pass away, to be 
succeeded bY a bright and splendid sunshine, an energy of 
character would be gradually acquired, which would not allow 
him to be diverted from bis purpose, by any temporary obstacles 
which might present themselves, but which on the contrary, 
would act as a stimulus to him to continue his exertions until his 
ultimate aim was accomplished. 
The speculation of monument-building was carried on with 
great activity on the 15th ; the crew first commencing their 
operations to the northward, and then directly in the opposite 
quarter, in verification, we suppose, of the old English adage, 
of, why should not one fool look at another. It was a task at 
once onerous and unpleasant to the men, for they could not 
discern an iota of utility in piling lumps of snow upon each 
other, and having formed a rude unshapen mass, to have it 
designated by the sounding name of a monument. As a matter 
of exercise it was perhaps allowable, but the question was, 
whether other objects could not have been found, which would 
have given an equal degree of wholesome exercise to the crew, 
and to which some advantage or utility might have been attached, 
without subjecting them to the inclemency of the weather, and 
to the accomplishment of a task to which their physical powers 
were scarcely competent. It was a principle of action of Frederic 
the Great, and of Napoleon the Great, for great he will he 
although he died as a prisoner on a barren rock, even when the 
names of those, who have since his time strutted their brief hour 
upon the stage of this world, considering themselves also to be 
