The Arctic Regions. : 311 
ships got out of sight of us about the middle of August; and, 
from the appearance it had when we left the ice, I doubt not but 
they may find their wished-for passage.” 
The following is an extract of another letter, dated Stromness, 
9th October : 
“¢ The Everthorpe of Hull, Captain Hawkins, is arrived here, 
all well, with fifteen fish, one of them a small one, said to be the 
last ship fom Davis’s Straits this season—says, he is certain the 
discovery ships have got round the land, as he was in lat. 76. 28. 
on the 4th September, and could not see a bit of ice to the N. W. 
or N.E., of him at that time.” 
The Arctic Regions. 
As it is now very probable that the persons employed on the 
northern expeditions will winter in these drear and inhospitable 
regions, it may not be uninteresting to our readers to recall to 
their recollection the features of the revolving year, as observed 
in the Arctic Circle. 
After the continued action of the sun has at last melted away 
the great body of ice, a short and dubious interval of warmth oc- 
curs. In the space of a few weeks, visited only by slanting and 
enfeebled rays, frost again resumes his tremendous sway, It 
begins to snow as early as August, and the whole ground is co- 
vered to the depth of two or three feet before the month of Oc- 
tober. Along the shores and the bays, the fresh water, poured 
from rivulets, or drained from the thawing of former collections 
of snow, becomes quickly converted into solid ice. As the cold 
augments, the air deposits its moisture, in the form of a fog, 
which freezes into a fine gossamer netting, or spicular icicles, 
dispersed through the atmosphere, and extremely minute, that 
might seem to pierce and excoriate the skin. The hoar frost set- 
tles profusely, in fantastic clusters, on every prominence. The 
whole surface of the sea steams like a lime-kiln ; an appearance 
called the frost-smoke, caused, as in other instances of the pro- 
duction of vapour, by the water’s being still relatively warmer 
than the incumbent air. At length the dispersion of the mist, 
and consequent clearness of the atmosphere, announce that the 
upper stratum of the sea itself has become cooled by the same 
standard; a sheet of ice spreads quickly over the smooth ex- 
panse, and often gains the thickness of an inch in a single night. 
The darkness of a prolonged winter now broods impenetrably 
over the frozen continent, unless the moon chance, at times, to 
obtrude her faint rays, which only discover the horrors and wide 
desolation of the scene. The wretched settlers, covered with a 
load of bear-skins, remain crowded and immured in their hut, 
every chink of which they carefully stop up against the piercing 
U4 external 
