cxii ANALYSIS OF FLUIDS, &c. 



The salts therefore contained in the water are most probably — 



2.— BRINE FROM FURY BEACH. 



Having found this fluid in a beef-cask at Fury beach on our return to winter there, 

 and still in a fluid state while the temperature was below zero, I made use of it as an 

 artificial horizon ; and as it was subsequently exposed to a temperature of forty degrees 

 below zero (at which point the finest mercury freezes) without being frozen, I thought 

 it worth while to preserve some for analysis, and the following is Mr. Jones's report : 



The specific gravity of this brine was 1.171 at a temperature of sixty-four degrees of 

 Fahrenheit. Two fluid drachms contained thirty-one grains and a quarter of solid 

 matter, of which twenty-eight grains were pure chloride of sodium, the remainder 

 contained traces of sulphates of magnesia and lime, and a small quantity of animal 

 matter ; a portion placed in a thin glass tube was submitted in succession to the action 

 of some of the most powerful freezing mixtures without undergoing congelation. 



3._WATER FROM THE RIVER SAUMAREZ. 



This river, which is in the latitude of seventy degrees nortli, was found flowing and 

 unfrozen by us early in May, 1830, and, according to the account of the natives, never 

 freezes. As the cause of this phenomenon was unexplained, and might be attributed 

 to the nature of the water, I took some carefully out of the river and found its temperature 

 then at thirty-three degrees of Fahrenheit ; since which it was, like that of the western 

 sea, never out of my possession, but kept in a bottle with a ground glass stopper, and 

 carried by me from the time the Victory was abandoned until our return, when it was 

 handed to Mr. Jones, and the following is his report : 



