ATMOSPHEROLOGY. — EFFECTS OF COLD. 331 



mulated or disordered by the severity of the cold. 

 The hands, if exposed, would have been frozen in a 

 few minutes ; and even the face could not have re- 

 sisted the effects of a brisk wind, continued for i ny 

 length of time. A piece of metal when applied to 

 the tongue, instantly adhered to it, and could not 

 be removed without its retaining a portion of the 

 skin ; iron became brittle, and such as was at all of 

 inferior quality, might be fractured by a blow ; 

 brandy of English manufacture and wholesale 

 strength, was frozen ; quicksilver, by a single process, 

 might have been consolidated ; the sea, in some 

 places, was in the act of freezing, and in others ap- 

 peared to smoke, and produced, in the formation of 

 frost-rime, an obscurity greater than that of the 

 thickest fog. The subtile principle of magnetism 

 seemed to be, in some way or other, influenced by 

 the frost ; for the deck compasses became sluggish, 

 or even motionless, while a cabin compass traversed 

 with celerity. The ship became enveloped in ice ; 

 the bows, sides, and lower rigging were loaded ; and 

 the rudder, if not repeatedly freed, would, in a short 

 time, have been rendered immoveable. A consider- 

 able swell at this time prevailing, the smoke in the 

 cabin, with the doors closed, was so intolerable, that 

 we were under the necessity of giving free admission 

 to the external air to prevent it. The consequence 

 was, that in front of a brisk fire, at the distance of 

 a yard and a-half from it, the temperature was 25° ; 



