Nov. 1857. SUDDEN RISE OF TEMPERATURE. 53 



Two large icebergs drift in company with us ; our relative 

 positions have remained pretty nearly the same for the last 

 month. 



23/7/. — A heavy gale commenced at N.E. on the 21st, 

 and continued for thirty-six hours unabated in force, but 

 changed in direction to S.S.W. It appears to have been a 

 revolving storm, moving to the N.W. Yesterday, as the 

 wind approached S.E., the temperature rose to + 32 ; the 

 upper deck sloppy ; the lower deck temperature during 

 Divine Service was 75 ! ! As the wind veered round to the 

 S.S.W. it moderated, and temperature fell ; this evening it 

 is — 7 . How is it that the S.E. wind has brought us such 

 a very high temperature ? Even if it traversed an unfrozen 

 sea it could not have derived from thence a higher tempera- 

 ture than 29° Has it swept across Greenland — that vast 

 superficies partly enveloped in glacier, partly in snow ? No, 

 it must have been borne in the higher regions of the atmo- 

 sphere from the far south, in order to mitigate the severity of 

 this northern climate. 



Petersen tells me the same warm S.E. wind suddenly 

 sweeps over Upernivik in midwinter, bringing with it 

 abundance of rain; and that it always shifts to the S.W., 

 and then the temperature rapidly falls : this is precisely the 

 change we have experienced in lat. 75° I believe a some- 

 what similar, but less remarkable, change of temperature was 

 noticed in Smith's Sound, lat. 78J N. 



25^.— Position, 75 2' N., 70 22' W. Mild, "Madeira 

 weather," as Hobson calls it, temperature up to + 7 . It is 

 commonly asserted that sea ice produces fresh water ; and 

 even Dr. Kane, who had the opportunity of testing the 

 fact, states (at page 377 of his narrative of 'The Grinnell 

 Expedition, 1850-51 ') that "it will produce from salt water 

 a fresh, pure, and drinkable element." 



By my desire, Dr. Walker is occupied upon making a 



