560 LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
the latter ; in fact, in many instances, the officers have brought 
home four brace of grouse, and a leash of hares; but, although 
the game latvS were not actually introduced into the country, 
the whole of it was a kind of preserve, in which only a few 
particular individuals were allowed to sport; and if, now and 
then, leave were granted to an unqualified person, to sport over 
the manor, it was under the restriction, that, like the hired 
game-keeper, the whole of the game, that was killed, was to be 
brought to the individual, who, as the representative of the 
monarch, that, by some precious instance of good fortune, had 
lately had so valuable a territory annexed to his dominions, was, 
until the will of the said monarch be further known, justly 
entitled to receive all the produce of the country, no matter 
where, nor by whom it was obtained. 
It was, perhaps, no bad stroke of policy, on the part of Capt. 
Ross, to impress upon the minds of the poor benighted natives, 
the belief, that the propriatorship of all the seals and walruses 
was vested in him, and that they were so far under his controul, 
that not one of them could be killed, unless his will ordained 
it. Acting under this false impression, the natives sometimes 
brought a seal to the ship, as if it were nothing more, than deli¬ 
vering up the property to the rightful owner; and by those 
means, a regular supply of food was obtained for the dogs, with¬ 
out which, it would have been difficult to keep them alive, or to 
maintain them in such a condition, as to enable them to draw 
the sledges. This very circumstance was, however, frequently 
seized upon by the crew, as the basis of the comparison be¬ 
tween themselves and the brutes: for if it could not be expect¬ 
ed of the latter, that they could perform the labor imposed 
upon them, if not properly fed, how much less could it be ex¬ 
pected of them, if they were fed on such weak insipid food, as 
cocoa and barley broth, the nutrition of which, particularly the 
latter, consisted in the insignificant quantity of gluten, which 
could be extracted from three pints of barley, and the juices 
which could be drawn by decoction, from 3 or 4 pounds of 
salted beef or pork. There is, however, always a great uncer¬ 
tainty existing as to the time, when the consequences of human 
