TERRIBLE TEMPERATURE. 105 



V 



had been made, and so on. Then the boxes of presents given by friends in England 

 were brought out, the name of him for whom it was intended having been already fixed 

 to each box, and the presents were then distributed by the captain. Ringing cheers, which 

 sounded strange enough in that lone place, were given for the donors, some of them 

 very dear indeed to the men who were so far away from their homes. Cheers were 

 also given for the captain and for absent comrades in the Alert. A choir was then formed, 

 and ' The Roast Beef of Old England ' had its virtues praised again. The men had 

 their dinner at twelve o'clock, and the officers dined together at five. We had brought 



' O O 



fish, beef, and mutton, all of which we hung up on one of the masts, and it was soon 

 as hard as a brick, and perfectly preserved. We had also brought some sheep from 

 England with us, and they were killed from time to time. When we arrived in Discovery 

 Bay, as we called it, six of them were alive, but on being landed they were worried by 

 the dogs, and had to be slaughtered. During the winter the men had to fetch ice from 

 a berg about half a mile distant from the ship in order to melt it for fresh water. This 

 used to be brought in sledges. 



"The sun returned on the last day in February. From November till February, 

 with the exception of the starlight and occasional moonlight, we had been in darkness, 

 not by any means dense, but sufficiently murky to excuse one for passing by a friend 

 without knowing him." 



Captain Nares states that one day early in March, during a long continuance of cold 

 weather, the thermometer on the Alert registered a mean or average of minus* 73 7', or 

 upwards of 105 below the freezing point of water. On the Discovery for seven con- 

 secutive days the thermometer registered a mean temperature of minus 58 17'. On 

 the Alert for thirteen days a mean temperature of minus 58 9' was experienced, and 

 for five days and nine hours a mean temperature of minus 66 29'. During February 

 the mercury remained frozen for fifteen consecutive days, which it could not have done had 

 not the temperature remained at least 39 below zero. Subsequently the mercury was 

 frozen solid for an almost identical period. One curious effect of the cold was that their 

 breech-loading guns sometimes proved useless, for the barrels contracted so much that 

 the cartridges could not be inserted. Nevertheless the huntsmen were often out, and 

 were fairly successful. The Alert's game-bag for winter and early spring included six 

 musk-oxen, twenty hares, seventy geese, twenty-six ducks, ten ptarmigan, and three 

 foxes. That of the Discovery, in a lower latitude, was much larger as regards the 

 oxen and hares. The crew of the latter also killed seven seals. 



And now the spring sledging season approached, and Captain Nares, anxious to com- 

 municate with the Discovery, seized the first favourable opportunity (March 12th, 1876) to 

 despatch Sub-Lieutenant Egerton in charge of a sledge. He was only accompanied by 

 Lieutenant Rawson and Christian Petersen, their interpreter. Four days afterwards the little 

 party returned to the ship, in consequence of the severe illness of poor Petersen, who 



* Few readers will need to be reminded that on the Fahrenheit thermometer commonly used in England zero is 

 expressed by 0, and that the freezing point of water is plus ( + ) 32, or 32" above zero. The above temperatures are 

 all minus (_), or below zero. "Without remembering these facts, one can hardly appreciate the intense and almost 

 unparalleled cold experienced by the late expedition. 



94 



