TEMPERATURE. 103 



Even at mid-winter we had three hours and a 

 half of daylight. On the 20th of December I 

 required a candle to write at the window at ten in 

 the morning. On the 29th the sun, after ten 

 days' absence, rose at the fishery, where the hori- 

 zon was open ; and on the 8th of January, both 

 limbs of that luminary were seen from a gentle 

 eminence behind the fort, rising above the centre 

 of Fishery Island. For several days previously, 

 however, its place in the heavens at noon had 

 been denoted by rays of light shooting into the 

 sky above the woods. The lowest temperature in 

 January was 50° F. 



On the 1st of February the sun rose to us at 

 9 o'clock and set at 3, and the days lengthened 

 rapidly. On the 23d I could write in my room 

 without artificial light from 10 a.m. to half-past 

 2 p. m., making four hours and a half of bright day- 

 light. The moon in the long nights was a most 

 beautiful object ; that satellite being constantly 

 above the horizon for nearly a fortnight together 

 in the middle of the lunar month. Yenus also 

 shone with a brilliancy which is never witnessed in 

 a sky loaded with vapours, and unless in snowy 

 weather, our nights were always enlivened by the 

 beams of the Aurora. 



In February the lowest temperature was 56° F. 

 (or 62° corrected), and in March, 44° F. (48°) 



ii 4 



