122 OBSERVATORY ERECTED. [September, 



topgallantmasts were merely housed, and sails securely 

 furled. 



The absurd fittings of the Sylvester warming-appa- 

 ratus, requiring the main hold to be nearly cleared be- 

 fore the fires could be lighted, compelled us to place the 

 provisions, etc. on shore, as well as the greater part of 

 our sails, boats, hawsers, etc. In all this I of course ac- 

 quiesced, because it was the routine of my predecessors ; 

 but I must say that, for many reasons, I doubted the 

 propriety. In the case of provision especially, I do not 

 think that salt meat, subjected to excessively low tem- 

 perature, is improved, but, on the contrary, vitiated; 

 first, by the freezing process rupturing every vessel 

 which before resisted the pickle ; and, secondly, when 

 thaw takes place, permitting that same pickle to take 

 greater effect on the meat. It is very near akin to cu- 

 ring meat or Burnetizing timber by exhaustion. 



The Magnetic Observatory, constructed from pieces of 

 wreck saved in Melville Bay, I found well advanced, and 

 near to it, beyond any possible influence of the iron em- 

 ployed, at a distance of twenty yards, one of the cut- 

 ters was inverted, on supports, to afford a thermometer 

 house. In this it was purposed to submit all the ther- 

 mometers supplied, to direct exposure on 180, or half 

 the circle, facing the south (true). The Observatory was 

 also fitted for two transits, which could be brought to 

 act together, independently, or on certain stars at fixed 

 altitudes. This was eventually given up, and the instru- 

 ments removed; first, on account of the cold affecting 

 the clamps, but principally from the breakage of two 

 levels by meddlers, and, finally, some influence which I 



