CHAP. IV.] INVALIDS. 185 



comparatively few, yet remained on our hands. 

 A pure and equable temperature was the thing 

 most required, and unfortunately most difficult 

 of attainment. A snow hut, at the requisite 

 warmth, could not be kept free from vapour, and 

 our only resource was to screen in a place on the 

 forecastle under the housing, which with a stove 

 in it we thought might answer. The project was 

 accordingly carried into execution, and two of the 

 greatest invalids slept there on the night of the 

 10th ; but though the weather was rather mild for 

 the season, the interior temperature could not be 

 raised beyond 45°+ : nor could this, which might 

 perhaps have been sufficient, be maintained, in 

 consequence of the necessary ingress and egress 

 of the attendants and visiting officers. Those 

 who were able to support the cold remained until 

 the next day \ the weaker patients returned to 

 their old abode on the lower deck. 



Daylight of January 11th shewed us abreast 

 of the ridged cliff, which the westerly breeze was 

 driving us past, at a distance of about three or 

 four miles from it. Beyond was a kind of open 

 bay, terminated by a rocky bluff headland nearly 

 ahead, and closing the view. Immediately off 

 the latter, as well as farther east, there was all 

 the appearance of a water sky, though it was 

 hardly possible to imagine that there could be 

 any thing more than a few holes or lanes so far 

 from Hudson's Straits. 



