282 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
to the conclusion that they had belonged to 
pieces of salt beef ordinarily supplied to the 
navy, and that probably they and the other 
bones had been exposed to the atmosphere and 
friction in rivulets of melted snow for four or 
five summers. The rope was proved by the 
ropemaker who examined it to have been made 
at Chatham, of Hungarian hemp, subsequent to 
1841. The fragment of canvas which seemed to 
have been part of a boat’s swab, had the Queen’s 
broad arrow painted on it, and the chip of wood 
was of ash, a tree which does not grow on the 
banks of any river that falls into the Arctic 
sea. It had, however, been long exposed to the 
weather, and was likely to have been cut from 
a piece of drift timber found lying on the spot, 
as the mark of an axe was recent compared to 
the surface of the wood, which might have been 
exposed to the weather for a century.” “ The 
grounds of these conclusions were fully stated 
in a report made to the Admiralty by Sir Ed¬ 
ward Parry, myself, and other officers.” Is not 
here an instance of the civilized man’s detect¬ 
ing the traces of a friend or foe with a skill at 
least equal to that of the savage ? Indeed it 
is in both cases but a common sense applied to 
the objects, and in a manner most familiar to 
both parties. The skill of the savage is just 
such a science, though referred sometimes to in¬ 
stinct. 
