136 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. 

 Dccemb. 



immediately over every pool of which a little thick cloud floated, correspond- 

 ing as well in size as in situation with the pool from whence it issued. A 

 niunber of dovckies were swimmins^ about the point ; and it being desirable 

 if possible to obtain some of them for the sake of ascertaining their j)lumage 

 at this season, we hauled the small boat over and launched her. Mr. Ross 

 succeeded in killing one of the birds which was preserved as a specimen, but 

 it was with great difficulty that the boat avoided being carried away from the 

 shore by the young ice. I was on this account afraid of repeating the attempt 

 during the rest of the winter. One grouse was seen on shore; it appeared 

 entirely white, except having its tail black near the tij). 



I was this day under the necessity of closing in my stern dead-lights, and 

 fixing the cork-shutters between the double window-frames of my cabin, the 

 temperature having lately fallen rather low at night ; in consequence of which 

 one of the chronometers (No. 369 of Arnold) had stopped on the 2Gth of 

 November. We had before this time banked the snow up against the ships' 

 sides ; but it was now thrown higher, and its thickness at the bottom increased 

 to about four feet. Besides this a bed of snow, three feet deep, was subse- 

 quently laid on the deck, over my cabin, and also on the forecastle over the sick- 

 bay, to assist in retaining the w-armth in those parts of the ship, an office which 

 it seemed to perform very effectually. It was impossible, however, as the cold 

 increased, to keep up a tolerably comfortable temi)orafuv(' in the cabin, if the 

 fire was suffered to go out for several hours : for instance, the night after 

 the above arrangements had been made, the fire was out for only six hours; 

 and the consequence was, that the thermometer fell to 27°, and could be got 

 Sun. 2. no higher the following day. in the after part of the cabin, though only nine 

 feet from the stove, than 33°. This was indeed a most inclement day, the 

 temperature of the atmosphere having for the (irst time fallen to — -27°, 

 accompanied by a fresh wind from the northward and westward. 



At six in the evening of the .5th there was a halo round the moon, with 

 a confused appearance of a paraselcna on the lower part of it. This halo, 

 as I have often observed with others, had the appearance of being oval, the 

 vertical diameter seeming to be the longest; but on measuring them with a 

 sextant the deception became evident. 



From six till ten P.M. on the 11th, a halo appeared about the moon, with 

 three paraselense, two at the sides and one above it. This halo varied in its 

 degree of clearness as the haziness of the atmosphere became greater or less, 

 and was sometimes a little tinged with colour. A more rare phenomenon 



