CHAPTER VI. 



THE DEAD OF WINTER. 



December, 1^1^ — 2^ January, 1880. 



Auroral Displays. — Daily Walks. — Trouble with Water. — The 

 Darkness. — Monotony of Life in the Arctic. — Tests of Light. — 

 Discomfort. — The Shortest Day. — Christmas. — Tidal Action. — 

 The Old Year and the New. — Festivities. — Danenhower's Mis- 

 fortune. — A Cold Snap. — A Leak. — Serious Business to close 

 it. — The Pumps. — Reappearance of the Sun. 



December 1st, Monday. — The clear and beautiful 

 weather of yesterday continues to-day. The barometer 

 rises from 36.36 to 30.56, an unusual circumstance, 

 and one worthy of attention as to its results. These 

 areas of high and low pressures follow each other lik^ 

 waves, and bring us generally quite as bad weather in 

 the high as in the low. The atmosphere is remarkably 

 clear, and sounds made on the ice, while being trans- 

 mitted to great distances, seem to reverberate like 

 sounds made under a large dome. The human voice 

 has all the intensity noticed when one speaks in an 

 otherwise empty hall or in a cave. The highest tem- 

 perature was plus 4° ; the lowest minus 5°. A halo was 

 about the moon. A mirage to the southward of an 

 open water space was very clearly defined in the sky. 



Sounded at noon in thirty and a half fathoms (blue 

 mud). Ice quiet and ship remaining immovable. 



The usual monthly physical examination of officers 

 and men was begun to-day. I shall notice with much 



