occcnibcr, 1S64.] DccYce oftlic An-gc-ho. 117 



moiiietcr you gave mc, and in wliicli I put so much confidence, has been frozen 

 for three Avceko. It froze with the mercury at — 30°, and wlien the mercury stood 

 at 340 below, the spirit was 100° below. This would suri)rise our New Yorlc 

 friends if we should tell theuj.* 



An invitation having been given to the men while visiting the ships 

 that thoy should return and bring their wives with them, Ilall was 

 glad to find that, at the next an-koot-ing, the an-gc-ko announced an 

 order from the Good Spirit that these visits should not be made, lest 

 death after death should occur in the tribe. In addition to other plain 

 reasons for his being gratified at this decree, there was now a better 

 hope that the whole party would move early in the spring to Repulse 

 Bay. He felt sure that his further plans, which depended on this, 

 would be defeated if these visits were made. 



On the 25th, he took a meridian altitude of the sun, and found 

 the true altitude to be 1*^ 51'; the observed lowest limb to sea-ice 

 horizon, '2°. The observation was made from an elevation 30 feet 

 above the sea-level. Although the sun was quite too low for reliable 

 work, yet the Latitude found by working up the observation was 64° 

 43' 45", an approximation he little expected, as the true latitude is 64° 

 46' 20". 



On the 26th, he went out with the natives on a walrus-hunt, to 

 observe the movements of the ice in the Welcome as well as to see the 

 walrus and the hunters The following account of the hunt is largely 

 condensed from his own notes : 



At 8 a. m. he left his igloo, leading by a long trace-line one of 



*Iu coimcctiou with notes of like extreme temperatures and the unreliability of both nier- 

 cuvial and spirit thermometers, see "The last of the Arctic Voyages," by Sir Edward Bolclu'r, 

 185.''), pp. 205-208; also, notes of a like character in other Arctic Narratives, including Sir George 

 Nares' "Voyage to the Polar Sea." Hall's own journal has a number of such records; also of his 

 repeated regrets that he had other than standard instruments with him. 



