LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
613 
boat a quarter of a mile, owing to the irregularity of the ice ; 
and the whole strength of thirteen hands was required to drag 
one boat along to a certain distance, and then to return for 
the other boat, and frequently for the sledge also. It is there¬ 
fore difficult to say what distance the men travelled, for although 
the boats were got between thirty and forty miles in a straight 
line from the ship, yet it is impossible to fix the number of miles 
which they travelled, in their frequent trips from one boat 
to the other; and sometimes they were employed in this labor 
during the chief part of the night, sleeping in their snow houses, 
with the thermometer sometimes 39° below zero. The manner 
in which the snow houses were built, was as follows: the walls 
were made of square pieces of snow, cut with a cutlass and 
spade, so that some of the slabs were as large as three feet by 
\wo ; some larger, and some smaller, accordingly as they could 
be cut; there were four sides to the house, but it was found 
necessary to have two houses, and they were built close to¬ 
gether, so that the middle wall was the partition between 
the two. The walls were built about five or six feet high, on 
which were laid two boat oars, and a sail was spread over 
the top. Lumps of snow were put on the sail, to keep it from 
being blown away. The bedding of the men, during the first 
part of the journey, was made of deer skins, the lower part of 
which, was like a bag, coming a little above the hip. The 
other part covering the head. Frequently in the morning has 
this sleeping dress been so stiffened with the frost, that rather 
than bend, it would break. This was in a great measure attribut¬ 
ed to the breath, which, imparting a certain degree of moisture 
to the deer skin, rendered it liable to the influence of the frost, 
and in this state, without the skin ever having* been thawed, 
the men were obliged to put on the dress, and to throw them¬ 
selves on their bed of snow to sleep. 
On the 24th, all hands were turned out at 6 a. m., and after 
breakfast they started back for the boat, which had been left 
behind on the preceding day, at which they arrived by 10 
o'clock, and succeeded in getting her up to the other boat by 
2 p. M. They then proceeded to take one of the boats further 
