470 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1823. On the 5th, the register-thermometer, which had been placed in the ground in 

 v^-r-v^ the winter, was taken up, though, to our astonishment, the ground above and 

 Tues. 5. aijQut it had become nearly as hard and compactly frozen as when wc dug the 

 hole to put it clown. How this came about wc were quite at a loss to determine ; 

 I'or the earth had been thrown in quite loosely, whereas its present consoli- 

 dated state implied its having been thoroughly thawed and frozen again. It 

 occupied two men ten days to extricate it, which, as they api)roached the 

 thermometer, was done by a chisel and mal'et to avoid injury by jarring. 

 This, however, was not sufficient to prevent mischief, the instrument being 

 so identified with the frozen earth, as to render it impossible to strike the 

 ground near it without communicating the shock to the tubes, two of which 

 were in consequence found to be broken. Thus ended our experiment for 

 ascertaining the temperature of the earth during the w'inter ; an experiment 

 which it would seem, from this attempt, scarcely practicable to make in any 

 satisfactory manner Avithout some apparatus constructed expressly for the 

 purpose. 

 Wed. 6. On the 6th, the work was continued as before, and about four hundred yards 

 of ice were sawn through and floated out, leaving now a broad canal, eleven 

 hundred yards in length, leading from the open water towards that formed 

 by the gravelled space. In the course of this day's work, one of the seamen 

 of the Hecla fell into the water by the ice giving way, and very narrowly 

 escaped drowning, ivs it was not easy for the other people to apj)roach him. 

 He was taken out scarcely sensible ; but being immediately conveyctl on 

 board the Fury was by care and attention recovered in a ^cw hours. 

 Thur. 7. When the lateness of the season to which the ships had now been detained 

 in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the Fury's 

 effecting any thing of importance during the short remainder of the present 

 sunnncr, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that 

 of the health of my officers and men, I began to entertain doubts whether it 

 would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the 

 Fury as a single ship ; whether, in short, under existing circumstances, the 

 probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good. In order to assist my 

 own judgment on this occasion upon one of the most material points, I re- 

 quested the medical oilicers of the Fury to furnish me with their opinions 

 " as to the probable effect that a third winter passed in these regions would 

 produce on the health of the officers, seamen, and marines of that ship, tak- 

 ing into consideration every circumstance connected with oui" situation." 



