174 PREPARATIONS — SEVERE COLD. 



climate, and, considering its latitude, an un- 

 usual proportion of mild unsettled weather. 



The party who had offered to winter here 

 were landed in 1633, and the fleet which brought 

 them out quitted the island on the 26th August 

 the same year, and took a last farewell of 

 these devoted men. As soon as the ships were 

 gone, the party began to examine the ground 

 about them ; and, aware of the necessity of mak- 

 ing use of all the antiscorbutics they could, they 

 selected a place near Red Hill, to which they 

 frequently resorted for " saletting." About the 

 middle of September, the sun was so powerful 

 and the weather so warm, that they pulled off 

 their shirts, but this did not last long : towards 

 the beginning of October the cold became very 

 severe, and in one night froze so hard that the 

 ice would bear on the south side of the island. 

 This was succeeded by a change equally rapid ; 

 on the 7th the frost was all gone, and there 

 fell a great quantity of rain ; and yet on the 

 9th it froze so hard that the party were com- 

 pelled to stay in doors, and sit over the fire 

 to keep life within their bodies : their casks of 

 beer which stood in their apartment were frozen 

 nearly solid, and in short they experienced all 

 the severity of an Arctic winter. 



These extraordinary vicissitudes, which indeed 



