OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 153 



apparent apprehension, but evincino' a very decided determination to resent , '^^^• 



1 1 . rT,.,.. Jamiarv. 



a too near approach to tlie wires or his new habitation. .' — .^ 



There was to-day a very thick deposit of snow ahuost constantly occur- 

 ring, though the weather might very well be called clear. The winter at- 

 mosphere of these regions is indeed seldom or never free from it, as may 

 readily be seen by placing an instrument in the open air for an hour or 

 two ; that of to-day only differed from the usual deposit in the degree in 

 which it took place. At one P.M. a thermometer on the north side of the 

 post on the ice stood at — 32°, and the other, exposed to the sun's rays on 

 the south side, only indicated a temperature one degree higher. 



There was to-day a great deal of terrestrial refraction, the ice and land 

 to the westward being thrown up by it into a thousand fantastic and ever 

 varying shapes. The thermometer was —31°, and the barometer at 29.73 

 inches, under which conditions of the atmosphere the smoke was observed 

 to ascend quite freely from the stove-pipes. At one P.M. the snow upon 

 the black paint-work of the stern, which was exposed directly to the suns 

 rays, was falling off in little pieces and leaving a wet mark behind it. 

 This circumstance recalled to our recollection the anxious impatience with 

 which, at ]Melville Island, we were watching for this symptom of returning 

 warmth, four or five months later than this. 



At thirty minutes past one on the 18th, the thermometer on the north FriJ. 13. 

 side of the post stood at —37°, while another with its bulb coated with 

 black rose to —26°, when exposed to the sun's rays on the south side. 



At a late hour this evening the stove-pipe of my cabin caught fire, which 

 gave us cause for a momentary alarm, but buckets and water being at hand 

 it was soon extinguished. This accident was occasioned by a quantity of 

 soot collected in the stove-pipe, and yet was not altogether to be attributed 

 to neglect in the persons appointed to sweep the whole of them twice a 

 week. As the cause of it is such as is not likely to be anticipated by per- 

 sons living in temperate climates, and as the knowledge of it may be ser- 

 viceable to somebody destined for a cold one, I shall here explain it. The 

 smoke of coals contains a certain quantify of water in the state of vajjour. 

 This in temperate climates, and indeed till the thermometer falls to about 

 10° degrees below zero, is carried up the chimney and principally dif- 

 fused in the atmosphere. When the cold becomes more intense however, 

 this is no longer the case ; for the vapour is then condensed into water 

 before it can escape from the stove-pipes, within which a mass of ice is, in 



X 



