V LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 375 
other station, no matter in what direction of the compass that 
station might be, a remedy would at once be found for the evil; 
for, it was not probable, that the Esquimaux would take the trou¬ 
ble of removing their goods and chatties to a considerable dis¬ 
tance, merely for the purpose of being in the immediate vici- 
city of the ship, unless indeed their designs were of a most 
desperate and villainous character. Not a dissentient voice was 
raised to the truth of these observations, but on Mr. Thoms 
being called upon to deliver his opinion, he unequivocally de¬ 
clared, that the removal of the Victory to another station was 
a most judicious plan, if it could be carried into execution, but 
that he recommended a more easy and feasible one, which was, 
the removal of the huts of the Esquimaux, and this could be 
most easily and legally carried into effect, for as they had con¬ 
structed their huts upon the land which Capt. Ross had taken 
possession of, in the name and on the behalf of his Britannic 
majesty, the Esquimaux ought to be made to pay the forfeit of 
their indiscretion in building their huts on the land which did 
not belong to them, by having the said huts burnt to the ground. 
As our Gallic neighbours would express themselves, there was 
here a strong sensation manifested both on the right, the left 
and the centre, for it confounded the intellects of some of the 
members of the council, to ascertain in what manner a hut of 
snow could be burnt to the ground. However Mr. Thoms 
immediately explained, that he had certainly expressed his 
opinions rather hyperbolically, but having finished his education 
at the University of St. Andrews, where it was once the cus¬ 
tom to indulge in all kinds of tropes, metaphors, and figures, 
which had not the slightest relation nor affinity to the subject 
under discussion, he had inadvertently transgressed the laws 
which Aristotle had laid down, as the guide for all orators and 
rhetoricians. He, however, hesitated not to confess that he 
had certainly expressed himself rather figuratively, but his real 
meaning was, that the huts of the Esquimaux should be so per¬ 
forated by a few balls from their brass six-pounders, as to 
allow all the winds of heaven to pass through them, and by 
those means render them so uninhabitable, that they would 
