ANOTHER EXCURSION. 141 



thermometer having been at 3°-+- rose to 9°+, 

 the wind from the westward. In the early morn- 

 ing two prismatic lunar halos had been seen. The 

 pack was now arrested by the young ice, which 

 on the following day I went to examine, in 

 company with a small party of the officers, who 

 continued their w r alk to the shore. They re- 

 turned in the evening with an account of the 

 toil they had had in scaling the precipitous sides 

 of the rocks, which, there, were of red granite. 

 Seals and a recent track of a bear were seen, as 

 well as the excrement of Alpine hares. From 

 the summit of the hills, the young ice could be 

 traced ahead or to the eastward of the ship, almost 

 surrounding the pack, which was decidedly the 

 heaviest in sight. The weather being obscure 

 to the westward, nothing could be ascertained 

 in that quarter. 



On November 1st, the thermometer was 10°+, 

 and the ice stationary. The holds having now 

 been arranged, as well as the coals would allow 

 with more advantage, the articles liable to 

 injury from the frost placed in midships, and 

 six months' provisions stowed near the hatches ; 

 there remained little of duty to occupy the at- 

 tention beyond the important one of setting to 

 rights the warming apparatus. Assuredly, no 

 pains were "spared to solve the puzzling 

 question, why it would not act. Some of the 



