188 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. NotemotIi 



' 3rd. — Yesterday an unusually high barometer, 

 30 6 5 inches, beginning to fall, accompanied with a 

 rising temperature and a cloudy sky, foretold a wind 

 from the southward. 



1 At 10 a.m., as soon as it was sufficiently light to 

 see any distance, I ascended the look-out hill, and 

 observed a large pool of water a quarter of a mile in 

 breadth, extending from Cape Eawson to Cape Sheridan. 



' The outer edge of the fixed ice formed a continuous 

 curve from one point of land to the other, and extended 

 to a distance of half a mile from the shore abreast of 

 the ship. This movement of the ice proves that there 

 must have been a southerly wind during the night, al- 

 though in our protected position under the ]and we 

 only experienced a rise in temperature. As the light 

 increased we found that the snow had been blown from 

 the unsheltered brows of the hills about Cape Eawson. 

 At noon snow was observed drifting off the top of the 

 cape from the southward, and very shortly afterwards 

 the gale reached Floeberg Beach, accompanied, as was 

 anticipated after calm weather lasting for more than 

 three weeks, by a very heavy snow-drift. Captain Mark- 

 ham and Giffard, who were observing in the magnetic 

 house, were snowed up and obliged to break the door 

 down to effect their escape. The temperature rose 

 thirty-four degrees above what it was yesterday ; there 

 is probably water in Eobeson Channel. 



. ' This morning the screw was raised and secured for 

 the winter. The ice formed in the screw-well protected 

 from snow-drift was twelve inches in thickness. 



4 In consequence of the increasing darkness the maxi- 

 mum and minimum thermometers were removed from 



