SCIENTIFIC WORK. 97 



column ; and it remained serviceable throughout the 

 winter, as no fire of any kind was allowed in this 

 abode of science.^ 



In order to obtain an accurate record of tempera- 

 ture, we erected near the Observatory a suitable shel- 

 ter for the thermometers. In this were placed a num- 

 ber of instruments, mostly spirit, wdiich w^ere read 

 hourly every seventh day, and three times daily in 

 the interval.^ In addition to this, we noted the tem- 

 perature every second hour with a thermometer sus- 

 pended to a post on the ice. Mr. Dodge undertook 

 for me a set of ice measurements, and the telescope 

 was mounted alongside the vessel, in a dome made 

 with blocks of ice and snow. 



But the wind would still give us no rest, and, set- 

 ting in again from a southerly direction, the ice was 

 once more broken up, and we were again driven upon 

 the rocks, and a second time compelled to saw a dock 

 for the schooner and haul her off-shore. This opera- 

 tion was both laborious and disagreeable, even more 

 so than it had been on the former occasion. The ice 

 was rotten, and so tangled up with the pressure that 

 it was not easy to find secure footing ; and the result 

 was that few of the party escaped with less than one 

 good ducking. These accidents were, however, un- 



1 It is proper to mention here that the pendulum and magnetic observa- 

 tions, as well indeed as all others in physical science, were, upon my return, 

 sent to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and were placed in the 

 very competent hands of Mr. Charles A. Schott, Assistant in the United 

 States Coast Survey, to whom I am indebted for most able and efficient 

 cooperation, in the elaboration and discussion of my materials, preparatory 

 to their publication in the " Smithsonian Contributions," to which source I 

 beg to refer the reader for details. 



2 These instruments were carefully compared at every ten degrees of 

 temperature down to — 40°, and the records were subsequently referred to 

 our " standard," a fine instrument which I had from G. Tac^liabue. 



7 



