NAVIGATION. 131 



est westing reached was 113 46' W. but they could 

 see to about 117 W. 



The greatest heat, that for part only of one day, 

 was 60 Fah., the greatest cold was minus 55 below 

 zero, or 55 + 32=87 degrees below the freezing 

 point,* yet with proper precautions they never suf- 

 fered materially from exposure to the open air. 



On the shortest day at noon, very small print 

 could be read with tolerable ease, by turning the 

 book directly to the south ; and they could walk out 

 by twilight very comfortably for two hours about 

 noon. 



Greatest Northing and Southing attained. 



Captain Phipps (afterwards Lord Mulgrave) went 

 so far north as 80 36' N. 



In 1806, Captain Scoresby, in a Greenland ship, 

 penetrated to 81 30' N. Farther than this there is 

 nothing that can be depended on. 



Captain Cook's greatest southing never exceeded 

 71. The late Russian antarctic expedition of 1822, 

 only reached to 70 S., but on the 20th February, 

 1 823, Captain James Weddel, of the brig Jane of 

 Leith, reached the high latitude of 74 15' S., where 

 he found the sea almost free from ice, viewed in 

 clear weather from the mast head.f 



* Captain Franklin's party experienced a cold of -57-J-32H89 

 degrees below the freezing point, and, besides being destitute of 

 food, were without any protection against the inclemency of the 

 weather. The result of this expedition tends to prove, that the 

 human frame is capable of supporting a much greater intensity 

 of cold than had previously been supposed. 



t Captain Weddel says that the weather continued mild and 

 serene, and not a particle of ice of any description was to be 

 seen, until the 20th February, when in lal. 74 15', Ion. 34 17' ; 

 then ice islands were seen, three degrees further south than Cap- 

 tain Cook had attained. 



K 2 



