334 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



sions a diminution in the mobility of magnetic 

 needles, when the degree of cold is very much in- 

 creased. 



Many remarkable effects of severe cold, are to be 

 met with in the journals of the polar navigators, 

 who have wintered in Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, 

 Greenland, Hudson's Bay, Iceland, and other situa- 

 tions, subject to the visits of the polar-ice, or where 

 ice is formed on the sea. 



Captain James, when wintering in Hudson's Bay, 

 latitude S^'' N., experienced such a severity of cold, 

 that on the 10th of December, many of the sailors 

 had their noses, cheeks, and fingers frozen as white 

 as paper. On the 21st of the same month, their 

 sack, vinegar, and oil, with every other thing that 

 was liquid, were frozen so hard, that hatchets 

 were required for cutting them with ; the inside of 

 their hut, at the same time, was lined with ice, to 

 within a yard of the fire ; and the clothes on their 

 beds were sometimes covered with hoar-frost. 



Ellis, who wintered in Hudson's Bay in 1746-7, in 

 a creek of Haye's River, latitude 57° 30', remarked 

 several curious effects of cold. In the creek where the 

 vessel lay, much ice appeared on the 5th of October ; 

 on the 8th, it was covered with a sheet of ice ; and 

 on the 31st, the river was frozen over quite hard. 

 By the 3d of November, bottled beer, though wrap- 

 ped in tow and placed near a good constant fire, 

 was foiuid to be frozen solid; and in the course of 



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