LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. BOSS. 
395 
steam engine, the result of which was to pronounce its condem¬ 
nation, and the application of its parts to any other purposes for 
which they might be required. It was impossible for the 
engineers to raise any opposition to the condemnation of an 
article, of which no effectual use could be made, and which in 
its unserviceable state, was a heap of lumber in the ship ; where¬ 
as its most useless parts could be applied as articles of barter 
with the natives, and be the means of filling a few more Hour- 
tubs with skins, trousers, and hoods. The fate of the steam 
engine was, however, sealed; Brunton and McTnniss affixed their 
signatures to the statement as drawn up by Capt. Ross, which 
went so far as to exonerate him from all blame in the inefficiency 
of the machine, and that every exertion had been used to make 
it applicable for the purposes, for which it was intended ; but 
that a great difference had been discovered between a steam 
engine, and an engine that is to be worked by steam; for although 
the former may be complete and integral in all its parts, it by 
no means follows as a certainty, that it will perform a single 
one of its evolutions with accuracy and safety, as was exempli¬ 
fied in the engine, that was on board the Victory. 
The abandonment of the steam engine, however, gave a new 
character to the ship, the ponderous and unseemly paddle-boxes 
were unshipped, the funnel was removed, which elicited the 
$ joke from the sailors, that they had fortunately got rid of one 
thing on board, which was a great bore, although there were 
some other things, or persons deserving of that character, from 
which they could not so easily emancipate themselves. 
On the following day the violence of the wind ceased, and 
a prospect of fine weather presented itself. Some of the Esqui¬ 
maux came to the ship for food, amongst whom, was a young 
man, who had an aged mother, scarcely able to crawl out 
of her hut, and who was almost in a state of complete star¬ 
vation. His young wife had just brought him an addition to 
his family, and she was then pining with want. A few rashers 
from the ribs of a seal, would, it was alleged, greatly revive 
her; at the same time, she was not $ery particular whether they 
were raw or cooked. It may be, that the constitution of an 
