LATELY PREPARED. 247 



not always accessible to shipping ; and, with regard to this, 

 the variableness of the winters in the north should be taken 

 into account, some being dreadfully severe, Avhilst others 

 are mild and fit to be endured by the human constitution. 

 Thus the native inhabitants of Greenland are capable of 

 enduring much severity of cold, but in very inclement 

 winters they are comparatively as sensible of extraordinary 

 cold as Europeans. Even the birds of passage and other 

 migratory animals exhibit similar sensations. But here it 

 is worthy of mention, that when the Avinter in southern 

 latitudes is known to be severe, the subsequent or preceding- 

 winter in Greenland is mild, and it is then not unusual to 

 see birds migrating to the northward from southern lati- 

 tudes to enjoy the milder climate of Greenland. 



This evidence of severity of climate does not therefore 

 depend on the presence of ice ; it must be sought for in 

 a far different cause : not but that where ice is present 

 a greater degree of cold is experienced ; but, from my 

 own experience, I declare that the most intolerable heat 

 I ever suftered was felt at a moment when I was stand- 

 ing up to the knees in snow on a wide field of ice in 70° 

 of N. latitude, and such a recollection is impressed upon 

 my mind from that circumstance, that I should not like to 

 make the experiment a second time. The Uskee children 

 sit and play upon the snow with their heads uncovered in 

 the same manner as European children enjoy the pleasures 



