TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 179 
very much disfigured, and one or two of them ren- 
dered unserviceable altogether; but, upon the 
whole, much less damage was done than we 
had at one time reason to expect, for the con- 
flagration when the roofing was taking off, gave 
little hopes of any thing being saved. Consider- 
able as the fire was, its influence or heat extended 
but a very little way, for several of the officers and 
men were frost-bitten. The two men in particular, 
who were in the house at the time the accident 
commenced, suffered very severely; one of them, 
indeed, is in great danger of losing some of his 
fingers, for, notwithstanding every effort was, and 
is still making to restore them te life, most of them 
are, as yet, without the least sensation. Some idea 
may be formed of the state they were in when he 
came on board, from the circumstance that when 
they were immersed in a small tub of cold water 
for the purpose of thawing them, the cold they 
communicated to the water was so great that a 
thin film of ice was immediately formed on its sur- 
face. This may appear to some to be so extraor- 
dinary, as to be almost incredible, and I have no 
doubt that I should be. apt to disbelieve it also, 
had I not been an eye-witness of it myself; 
but this was certainly one of the coldest days I 
ever experienced, for it blew very fresh, and the 
thermometer was at the time we were out at 43° 
below zero. What therefore must be the effect of 
such a cold on a man having his bare hands ex- 
posed to it for an heur, as was the case with the 
man in question ? The way in which the fire broke 
out at first, was from some clothes which were hung 
nN 2 
