CHAP. IV.] WEATHER. 199 



During the night the breeze occasionally fresh- 

 ened, and the sky was more or less overcast. 

 The C Z 1st brought the spring-tide, but up to 

 noon there was no difference in the ice per- 

 ceptible from the ship, though one of the people 

 had seen, while walking, a narrow lane caused 

 by the separation of the ice, near the shore. 

 Wind W.N.W., squally ; thermometer 21°, and 

 cold ; barometer 29. 72. The night was some- 

 what variable, the wind occasionally freshening, 

 and then decreasing again, but towards the morn- 

 ing of January 22d the weather became clear 

 and almost calm, and we were left, much to our 

 satisfaction, in the same situation as before. We 

 had reason, indeed, to apprehend that the wind 

 which generally accompanies the spring-tide 

 might be boisterous enough to blow the ship 

 round the Cape ; for the light and moderate 

 airs which had prevailed throughout the last 

 neaps, could not be expected to continue through 

 the springs, our experience hitherto coinciding 

 with the following remark of Ellis, (who, in 

 1746, wintered in Hudson's Bay,) as reported in 

 Barrow's Chronological History of Northern 

 Voyages : " It seems, however, that the severity 

 " of cold is seldom felt above four or five days 

 " in a month, and generally about the full and 

 " change of the moon, at which times the 



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