128 WINES FROZEN. [March, 



customary superstition, has declared him "charmed," 

 and that he is one of the officers of the ' Erebus.' It is 

 a ridiculous feeling ; yet who is free from it ? Indeed, I 

 have been so far, at times, a victim to some such feeling, 

 as even to attach the name of one of my friends to this 

 cunning visitor ! 



March 11. Further experiments were made today 

 on the freezing temperatures of port-wine, sherry, and 

 lime-juice : these of course would vary according to 

 their respective ingredients. I shall therefore merely 

 observe that the fluids under experiment froze as fol- 

 lows : 



The Sherry became frozen (soft) at 10 



Port 12 



Lime-juice 10 



But the latter had not frozen to the core at 10, which 

 induces me to doubt very many reports of jars found 

 broken in the hold, as being truly attributable to low 

 temperature ; other fluids, as vinegar and pickles, did 

 not burst the cask-heads ! 



March 15. Our ice-gauge having been raised, we 

 content ourselves with the simple measurement of the 

 in-shore ice, principally with the intent of discovering 

 the approximate moment when the sea-water season ter- 

 minates ; or when the ice crystals, constantly pervading 

 the sea beneath the floe, cease to attach themselves to 

 the under surface, and thus increase the homogeneous- 

 ness of the floe. Our thickness today affords sixty-five 

 inches, = five feet five inches, and the last ten-day tem- 

 peratures as under : 



Max. -19-00; min. -49-02; mean, -34'629 ; previous, 32-733. 



