TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. (169 
at 12°, and some parts of the theatre, if I may use 
that word, must have been considerably colder, 
as the stoves and hot shot with which it was 
warmed, were much nearer the place where the 
thermometer hung up, than the after-part of the 
deck where the people sat. The thermometer 
outside the ship at the time was only 27°; but 
there happened to be a fresh breeze of wind, a 
circumstance that rendered the cold, as I have 
often observed, less tolerable when the tempera- 
ture is comparatively high, than we find it in the 
severest frost during calm weather. 
Wednesday, 12th.— A very noted instance of 
this occurred indeed to-day, for I was out walking 
in the afternoon when the thermometer was 51° be- 
low zero, and, owing to the weather being calm at 
the time, I felt no more inconvenience from it 
than if it had been at zero in a breeze of wind. A 
small quantity of strong brandy was exposed in the 
open air this afternoon for the purpose of experi- 
ment. Ithad not been above ten minutes on deck 
when it began to congeal, and in the course of half 
an hour it became of the consistence of honey, 
and not unlike it indeed in appearance. It never 
became harder than this, although left on deck for 
upwards of an hour; it was tried again in the 
evening, and after being exposed about an hour 
longer to the same temperature, we found the only 
difference produced was, that it became dryer, 
being in consistence and appearance somewhat like 
moist brown sugar. ‘The freezing did not appear 
to alter either its taste, or strength, in the least ; 
we tasted it in its frozen state, without suffering 
