406 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
bad made in the respective branches of learning ; and whether 
it was their perfection, which rendered it unnecessary to con¬ 
tinue the scholastic duties any longer. This was, however, a 
subject of a very'delicate nature, for it went to expose certain 
individuals to an examination, which could not be very agree¬ 
able to them., and the exact result of which it was not difficult 
for them to foretell. This examination, however, inconsequence 
of some able manoeuvres practised by the interested parties, w r as 
never entered into ; and after tacking in every direction, to dis¬ 
cover the real cause, it was determined, that the case had only 
two sides, from which it could be regarded ; the first of which 
was, that the preceptors had made the discovery, that they were 
incompetent to teach ; and the second was, that the discovery 
had been made, that the pupils were too stupid to learn;—from 
our own knowledge we are disposed to lean to the latter view 
of the case; although actuated by a genuine spirit of liberality, 
we are bound to confess, that if a field will not produce any crops, 
the fault is to be ascribed to the ignorance and incompetency 
of those, who have the tillage of it; for the soil may be in 
itself naturally good, but rendered unproductive by an erroneous 
system of management ; on the other hand, there are some soils 
that, with the most skilful management, still retain their na¬ 
tural barrenness; perhaps the mental soil of the pupils of the 
Victory, was of the latter description; and therefore the tillers 
of it deemed it to be the most prudent method, to give themselves 
no further trouble in the business. 
In a former part of this work, mention was made of a sledge 
that was purchased of the natives, by Mr. Light, the steward, the 
principal materials of which were known to be salmon lapped 
over each other, with great ingenuity; and which is a method, 
frequently adopted by the natives, of conveying their stores of 
salmon to their different stations; as, at any time, when pressed 
for food, they can cut up a sledge, and a supply is immediately 
obtained. In the present case, the sledge had been left exposed 
to the influence of the sun ; and the steward, in some measure 
forgetting the nature of the materials of which it was formed, 
or not perhaps suspecting that any change in the salmon could 
