344 
LAST VOYAGE OF OAPT. ROSS. 
a ghost from a tomb, his shaggy vestments so covered with the 
contents of the vessel, and his visage apparently so crusted 
with the farinaceous substance, amalgamating itself with the oil 
with which it was besmeared, that had the minds of the as¬ 
tonished spectators been imbued with superstition, they would 
have thought that one of the domdaniel caves had been opened 
by the wand of a magician, and its tenant let loose, to choose 
perhaps for his future residence one of the monuments of snow, 
which now towered so nobly on the surrounding heights. It 
is said, that there is only one step from the sublime to the 
ridiculous, and it is equally certain, that there is but one stage 
from the fearful to the ludicrous. To say that the hair of 
Capt. Ross stood erect, or that any of his companions exhibited 
any of the well known signs of excessive fear and tribulation 
when the hobgoblin in the flour tub first broke upon their 
vision, were to falsify the records that are before us, and lay us 
under the imputation of being extensive dealers in calumny and 
detraction. It is however true that as their eyes had never 
before beheld such an extraordinary object, they gazed upon 
it with all the intensity of the most excited curiosity, and it is 
equally true, that the object gazed upon them, not with the 
slightest tokens of fear, but rather with a look of satisfaction 
and contentment. That the object, which had placed itself 
in such an extraordinary predicament, was no other than the 
newly elected representative of the Esquimaux nation was soon 
acknowledged by every one present—no doubt also existed 
that he was the individual, who had appropriated to himself 
certain viands which did not belong to him, and it was most 
evident to all, that the remaining contents of the tub, which 
he had in such an unaccountable manner chosen as his refect¬ 
ory, were rendered, as far, as human sustenance was concerned, 
of no further use whatever. It would be contrary to the code 
Napoleon, or to any code, with the exception perhaps of the 
sanguinary and inhuman one of England, to punish an indi¬ 
vidual for the commission of an act, in which it is his firm 
belief that he has not committed any moral wrong, and es¬ 
pecially, when from his infancy he has lived in the darkest 
