loO Intense Cold. iMnrch, jses. 



huts, or failure in the seal and walrus hunt niight ensue. The new 

 i(]!oo, made of coarse-grained blocks, with but little depth of snow for 

 its floor, was particularly cold and uncomfortable, until embankments 

 were thrown uj) outside and inside. Too-koo-li-too had lined it with 

 the sail and jib of the Sylvia and with ripped-up canvas bags, et 

 cetera — the et cetera being chiefly the petticoat which she had worn 

 when in the United States. 



The oth da^- of the month was again one of storm, the gale be- 

 coming almost a hurricane. The storm-wind was cuttingly keen. 

 Hall wrote in his journal, " King Cold, even when severest, is harm- 

 less in a calm; but when he gets the winds of old Boreas and charges 

 them with his mighty power, man turns his face for shelter." Taking 

 the mean of the readings of his ^'0" thermometer for the previous 

 evening with the three of the day, and applj^ing the correction of 

 adding — 7°, which his experiments with the mercury had prompted 

 him t(^ do, he found the temperature in the gale to be H7° below freez- 

 ing-point. The drift filled the air so that one could see nothing a few 

 fathoms ofl', and yet the sun peered dimly through it the whole 

 day, so that the terrific gale was hugging the earth. Probably a few 

 hundred feet above, all was sunshine. At night the feeble rays of the 

 moon pierced through the swiftly-moving white pall which enshrouded 

 the land. 



When wi-iting his journals now the greatest difficulty was, not to 

 get the ink but his thoughts to flow. "When mechanical contrivances 

 are to be attended to every few moments, and when King Cold is con- 

 tinually tlii-usting his stinging needles into the toes and fingers, and 

 fuially chills one tlnough and through, it is utterly impossible to think 

 with treedom. While writing, one becomes lost in a labyrinth of stiff- 



