164 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
presented itself by chance on this occasion con- 
tains a good moral lesson, I hope it will not be 
considered an idle or impious thing to quote 
the sentence that happened to be the subject of 
experiment. It was the first verse of the forty- 
sixth Psalm : God ts our hope and strength : a very 
present help in trouble. In addition to what has 
been said, I ought also to mention that the wea- 
ther at the time was rather cloudy, so that very 
few stars could be seen, and the moon’s declin- 
ation was about 154°S., consequently below the 
horizon ; therefore the twilight was the only source 
from which we could receive any light at the time. 
My object in being so minute in detailing this cir- 
cumstance is simply to give an idea of the degree 
or quantity of light which we still receive from the 
sun. It must not be understood, therefore, that I 
mention it as any thing extraordinary or unex- 
pected ; for even if such were my design, I should 
be only exposing my own ignorance, since it is 
known to every person that the twilight does not 
cease until the sun is eighteen degrees below the 
horizon, or has passed the imaginary line called 
the crepusculum. 
I have omitted to mention until this time, that, 
ever since we came into this harbour we have used 
no other water except that which is obtained by 
the melting of snow; and yet we have not found 
any of those bad effects from it that are mentioned 
by Captain James in his disastrous voyage in search 
of the north-west passage in the year 1631. He 
says, that the snow-water made himself and his 
people so short-breathed that they could hardly 
