602 LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
flooring of the house; the seamen’s berth being floored with 
the staves of the empty casks, which were very plentiful on the 
beach, and the officers’ berth, with planks. 
An attempt was at this time made by the steward, to make a 
pack of cards from the tin of the canisters, from which the pre* 
served meats had been taken, but they were found to scratch too 
much ; which put his ingenuity to the test, to discover some other 
method of accomplishing his task. He therefore took one of 
the pickaxes, and dug out of the ice and snow, two boxes of 
candles, for the mere purpose of obtaining the paper, in which 
they were wrapped, which being cut into pieces of the shape 
of cards, were pasted together until they attained the necessary 
thickness. The engineer then made four moulds, representing 
Clubs, Spades, Diamonds, and Hearts. They were, however, 
all of one colour, namely black ; but, nevertheless, the sailors 
contrived to beguile away many a wearisome hour at cribbage 
or put, Thomas, the carpenter, made a board and a set of 
chess men for the use of the cabin; but Capt. Ross having been 
himself so often checked in reality, during the voyage, soon grew 
tired of being checked in sport : and the kings and queens and 
bishops of Fury Beach met with a fate, which, if it cpuld be 
visited upon some of the kings, queens, and bishops of certain 
other countries, it would be conferring an inestimable blessing 
upon those, who have to contribute the greater portion of their 
hard-earned wages for the support of the useless pomp, the ex¬ 
travagance, and the vices of royalty and episcopacy. 
During the winter, a considerable number of foxes were 
killed; indeed there .were not four Sundays throughout the 
winter, that the officers had not a roasted fox on their table for 
dinner. On Christmas-day, there were four foxes baked in the 
oven, for the dinner of the officers and men. But, instead of 
Booth’s cordial, or Barclay’s entire, they were obliged to be 
satisfied with lime juice; this however refers only to the sea¬ 
men’s berth, for the snow not being of a transparent nature, the 
seamen could not discern the proceedings, that were going on 
in the officers’ berth; but, from certain effluvia, that by somp 
means penetrated through the porosity of the snow, a conjecture 
