656 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
That yields opaque, the purple zone of eve. 
Lo! now he conquers, now subdued awhile, 
Awhile subduing, the departed mist 
Yields to a brighter beam. 
One of the first plans, that was put in operation, was, the 
fitting 1 up of some bed places for the crew, of which eight were 
to be made, four on each side of the house, and each sufficiently 
capacious to hold two persons; when these were finished, 
the carpenter was employed in constructing some cot frames, 
whilst the crew busied themselves in the making of some mats 
or quilts to cover them, one for each bed-place; and they now 
enjoyed the comparative comfort of a wooden bedstead, to one 
of frozen snow. 
The last time, that the sun was visible, was on the 14th No¬ 
vember, on which day the thermometer stood at S‘Z° below zero, 
or 64° below the freezing point of Fahrenheit. 
By the 1st of December, the house began to assume the ap¬ 
pearance of a regular establishment:—the bed-places were com¬ 
pleted ; the oven, which the engineer had made of the copper 
belonging to the Fury, and constructed on Slater’s principle, 
was put up; a mess table was run along the middle part of the 
house ; four bed-places were made for the officers, and a table 
in the middle part, so that from the officer’s mess berth, each door 
opened to their respective cabin. The stove was placed at 
the front of the table, the funnelling was carried under it, and 
thence to the outside of the house. Two out-houses were built 
on the outside of the house : one for the reception of lumber; and 
the other as a snow-house, which was regularly filled with snow, 
whenever the weather would permit. 
The general state of the health of the crew, was, at this time, 
by no means of a favorable nature. John Wood; Anthony 
Buck, the blind man, and Thomas, were very ill of the scurvy; 
Henry Ayre, the cook, affected with the rheumatism; Barney 
Lachey, with the loss of the tops of two of his fingers, having 
been frost-bitten at Batty Bay; and the last on the list, was 
poor George Taylor, who was again frost-bitten in travelling 
