1852.] ELECTRIC SNOW-HOUSE SINKS. 167 



my own person, provided as we are with such a perfect 

 set of instruments, the lowest temperature yet registered 

 by reliable instruments and observers. I shall then be 

 able to afford my humble opinion as to its effects. This 

 is not foolhardiness, it is solely the pursuit of science; 

 but I have no wish or intention to brave it by any un- 

 necessary exposure. I merely hope that the minimum 

 temperature may not occur when I am in bed : I should 

 be strongly inclined to defer its registry until I saw the 

 minimum gauge in the morning. 



November 30. About this period the season becomes 

 extremely monotonous, and one is reduced to all kinds 

 of imaginary reasons to account for the absence of ex- 

 pected phenomena, more especially the aurora, for which 

 every kind of solicitation had been adopted ; from mast- 

 head to mast-head of ship, as well as ' Pioneer ;' thence to 

 the shore ; up the hill ; along the hill, on elevated poles ; 

 indeed, wherever it could be supposed to pass, there a trap 

 was in readiness. Possibly we had overdone the business, 

 exhausted the atmosphere, and it had not wherewithal 

 to support itself, or held aloof at least from combination 

 with our protected neighbourhood. 



The Crystal Palace, constructed as the sanctum sanc- 

 torum of the electric operations, had shared the fate of 

 such castles, had proved too heavy for the floe, sub- 

 sided, water flowed in, and the gale of the 9th November 

 had almost obliterated the site ! 



This evening a beautifully defined paraselena was ob- 

 served about north-north-east true. By measurement 

 with sextant the interior circle was found to have a ra- 

 dius of 22 10', vertical as well as horizontal; the ex- 



