LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
407 
be effected by ibe heat of the sun, had omitted to pay that 
attention, which common prudence or caution should have 
prompted him to do. An accidental circumstance, however, 
led him to the examination of the sledge, when he found it fast 
falling to pieces ; for the salmon had been gradually subject to 
the process of being thawed by the solar power ; and therefore, 
without any further deliberation/he took one of the salmon, and 
having thoroughly thawed it, it was produced on the breakfast 
table; and although there were some rather unpleasant associa¬ 
tions stored up in the memory, relative to a trout, and a certain 
part of a musk ox; yet it was generally agreed upon by all who 
partook of the salmon, that although it had answered many 
purposes, of which they were conscious, and some perhaps of 
which they were happily ignorant, it was no despicable addition 
to the breakfast table; and the sledge, in consequence, under¬ 
went a regular dissection, by which a supply of salmon was 
procured, which furnished many a hearty meal, both for the 
officers and the crew. 
On the 14 th, several Esquimaux came from the south east, 
and fished in the very mouth of the harbour, where the Victory 
lay. The anglers of the Thames and the Lee, would do well 
to take a lesson of patience from an Esquimaux fisherman, for, 
squatting himself on the bank of his fishing place, a casual ob¬ 
server would take him for some nondescript animal, bereft of all 
motion ; for an hour to him is not an hour ill spent, if in that 
time he succeeds in catching a fish. His bait is generally a bit 
of seal’s blubber ; but he has not the delight of the English 
angler, in watching the bobbing of his float on the nibble of 
the fish, for the best of all reasons, that he never condescends 
to use one; the tug of the fish is the signal of his caption, when 
he manages his prey with a coolness, which is very seldom ob¬ 
servable in an English angler. The Esquimaux had not the 
slightest idea of catching fish by means of a net, until they saw 
it practised by the crew of the Victory; but it was an advantage 
they were obliged to forego, on account of the impossibility of 
procuring the materials necessary for the formation of the nets. 
