1854.] EXTREME COLD BENEATH SNOW. 173 



has been improved in colour lately by exposure to a very 

 faint ray of light down the companion skylight. The 

 interval in which this fine crop has been produced is 

 168 hours. I find, from my notes, the following : " The 

 light in forty-eight hours produced a vivid green instead 

 of a sickly pea-green." The amount raised in the holds 

 alongside the Sylvester furnace, under a temperature of 

 54, has reached eight pounds, and has been distributed 

 principally to those of scorbutic diathesis. 



May 1 . On this day I had hoped to start for Beechey 

 Island, but that event now appears to be postponed for 

 some time, or at least until the season permits of floating 

 the ship, an operation demanding more than the present 

 force of our debilitated and absent crew will afford. The 

 temperature last night fell as low as 15, but the 

 means of the concluding days of April afford as under : 



April 28, max. +21; min. +15; mean, 17'875. 

 April 29, +23; +16; 19'666. 

 April 30, +20; -3; 9'500. 



The monthly result affords : 



Max. +23-00; min. - 37'50; mean, -5'197; 



the mean for the corresponding term last year being 

 8'127. The thermometers buried in the snow-bank, 

 although most critically and carefully managed by Mr. 

 Loney, do not appear to be trustworthy as instruments 

 for reliable results ; still they afford certain proof of the 

 warmer temperature of the snow, as may be seen from 

 the annexed Plate. The thermometer inserted in the 

 wooden tube at four feet below the earth's surface coin- 

 cides nearly with No. 6 in the snow. The indices, when 



