Discoveries in the Polar Regions, 369 



of warm water, occasioned its instant congelation, accompanied 

 by the fracture of the glass. 



It is curious that during such intense colds, no inflammatory 

 diseases made their appearance, and that so few instances oc- 

 curred of what has been termed /ros^^Mrniw^r, or mortification 

 of the exposed parts of the body. Only two serious cases of 

 this kind, we believe, occurred ; one in a servant of Captain 

 Sabine, whose observatory-house having caught fire, the man 

 was incautiously exposed without having covered his hands ; he 

 lost four of his fingers. The other case was of a marine, who 

 lost four fingers of his right hand in consequence of carrying 

 his musket in his bare hand. 



Our readers will readily perceive the impossibility of keeping 

 such an exposed place as a ship's cabin, or any part of it, of 

 a tolerably comfortable temperature by artificial means, with an 

 exterior cold of the degree we have stated ; and accordingly our 

 travellers had recourse to the careful preservation of their 

 own animal heat, by furs and woollen clothing; they slept 

 under skins in a kind of blanket-bag drawn over their heads, 

 and these precautions, with regular exercise, which was enforced 

 throughout the crew, preserved perfect health ; one only death 

 occurred, in the case of an individual whose heart was diseased, 

 and who, probably, would have died at least as soon, at home. 

 Towards the spring some of the sailors suffered slightly from 

 scurvy, which, however, was speedily cured by a copious supply 

 of fresh sorrel, growing on the island, and almost the only 

 esculent vegetable met with in these islands. 



On the 11th of November the sun entirely disappeared, and 

 they were deprived of its light for a period of eighty-three 

 days^, it re-appearing on the 3rd of February. The horrors of 

 a night thus protracted, in a region barren and desolate in the 

 extreme, covered with snow, and surrounded by immeasurable 

 plains of ice, with an atmosphere of excessive cold, it is diflScult 

 to conceive, and impossible to describe ; yet amidst these, the 

 gallant crew kept up their spirits by various amusements : they 

 acted plays ; published newspapers ; and in other ways con- 

 trived to pass this formidable and dreary season, of the real 



