162 SCHOOL FOR THE CREW. 



turbance of the ice, and now that they had 

 come round again, we were nearly in the same 

 place as before, the only change being, that the 

 ship's head was turned something more in shore. 

 The calmness of the weather, so different from 

 what had hitherto been experienced at this 

 period, excited general observation. On most 

 former occasions the usual attendants of the 

 spring-tides were squalls and boisterous gales, 

 charged with snow and drift. But now every 

 thing was still except the dull grinding of the 

 ice along the rocks — a sound which time and use 

 do not familiarize, but which still comes like a 

 warning, useful, perhaps, though disagreeable. 

 It was odd enough, that having made a large 

 kite for the express purpose of sending up a 

 register thermometer, we had not even wind 

 enough to raise it. A faint aurora was seen 

 during the night for a short interval, but that 

 phenomenon, so vivid and brilliant in the territo- 

 ries of the Hudson Bay Company, is evidently 

 rare in this locality. An evening school for the 

 men was instituted under the superinten dance 

 of the first Lieutenant and occasionally visited by 

 myself. 



I ought to mention, that though our sub- 

 stitutes of stoves on the lower deck answered 

 tolerably well, yet they did not keep the place 

 effectually dry \ for notwithstanding our tank 



