342 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
seem to be endowed with higher qualities of head and 
heart than animals enjoying a more temperate zone. 
On the one hand the less gifted are able to escape 
from their more powerful and more highly organized 
enemies ; and on the other, they demand all the skill 
the hunter can master in his hunting craft in order 
to effect their capture. It is stated that the Eskimo 
found money in plenty, weapons of precision, and 
suitable ammunition in abundance, lying near the 
remains of Franklin and his party ; but the few fea¬ 
thers that lay scattered about proved to these keen¬ 
witted folk that the men must have failed altogether 
in procuring food for themselves. A fowling-piece in 
the hands of a blue-jacket is as absurd an anomaly as. 
a sewing-machine would be, and armed with such a 
weapon he is at all times more liable to do himself or 
others an injury, than to bring down any food for his 
party. Nor are the authorities justified in believing 
that private enterprise is incapable of obtaining valu¬ 
able results in Arctic exploration. We have the 
records of all that has been done, and we are con¬ 
vinced that but for the results of private enterprise 
our Arctic attempts would be the laughing-stock of 
Europe. To lay out public money, to fritter it away 
in hopeless waste, has ever been the tendency of 
scientific enterprise at the expense of the Government. 
