1853.] PROCESS OF FREEZING BENEATH THE FLOE. 75 



that until the temperature rose they maintained a con- 

 stant motion towards the surface. No ice formed ; it 

 was like brilliant snow, and not cohering. It immedi- 

 ately occurred to me that such a process, constantly in 

 action beneath the floe, may possibly, by cohesion, afford 

 the small daily increment which we have just noticed. 



At noon today the light was as clear and bright as 

 a December morning in England ; the stars were still 

 brightly visible to the northward, but the southern arch 

 of light, only illumined to about twenty degrees of alti- 

 tude, and tinted pale rose and yellow, rendered even 

 those of the first magnitude very indistinct. We have 

 not now for some time experienced any decided motion 

 of the ice, and begin to feel that we have a chance of 

 resting quietly in our ships for the remainder of the 

 winter. 



The cold has undoubtedly penetrated the ships late- 

 rally, and to such a degree that some of Allsopp's ale, 

 stowed at the end of Sylvester's apparatus, and which 

 does not freeze until the temperature falls to 22 '5, was 

 found congealed in the neck of the bottle. I have there- 

 fore had an ice wall built round the after-part of the 

 ship, and filled in with loose snow. To those who may 

 take bottled fluids to such climates it may be useful to 

 know that, if champagne bottles be used, the ice forms 

 in the neck, expels the cork, and performs its duty. 



The deck temperatures now average from nineteen to 

 twenty degrees warmer than the external air, excepting 

 when we have a strong wind, when the bare hangings, of 

 loose sails, will not of course impede the passage of snow- 

 drift ; but this does not at all affect our internal tempe- 



