“Felix Harbour” [drawn from original sketch by John Ross]

The regulations adopted on other matters were the following; and I point them out, that future adventurers in this country may gain, without labour, the experience which had now been purchased by many successive voyages. . . . The men slept in hammocks, which were taken down at six in the morning, and hung up at ten at night, being also aired twice a week. The lower deck, being the dwelling floor, was covered with hot sand every morning, and scrubbed with sand till eight, when the men breakfasted. Monday was settled in future as washing day; and this operation being finished by noon, the linen was dried at the stove. The upper deck having been at length covered with snow two feet and a half in thickness, it was trod down till it became a solid mass of ice, and was then sprinkled with sand, so as to put on the appearance of a rolled gravel walk. Above this, was the roof already mentioned, of which the canvas sides were continued so low as to cover those of the ship. The surrounding bank of snow, being completed, reached to the ship's gunwale, so that the union of this with the roof formed a perfect shelter from all wind, and thus excluded, very materially, the impressions of the external cold. In the same manner there was a covering of snow to the cabin deck, while the skylight was fitted with double sashes. . .[Ross, pp. 211- 212.]