THE ARCTIC SEAS. 127 



without its retaining a povfion of the skin ; iron 

 became brittle, and such as was at all of inferior 

 quality, might be fractured by a blow ; brandy of 

 English manufacture and wholesale strength was 

 frozen ; quicksilver, by a single process, might have 

 been consolidated ; the sea, in some places, was in 

 the act of freezing, and in others appeared to smoke, 

 and produced, in the formation of frost-rime^ an 

 obscurity greater than that of the thickest fog. The 

 subtle principle of magnetism seemed to be, in some 

 way or other, influenced by the frost ; for the deck- 

 compasses became sluggish, or even motionless, while 

 a cabin-compass traversed ^\^th celerity. The ship 

 became enveloped in ice ; the bows, sides, and lower 

 rigging were loaded ; and the rudder, if not repeat- 

 edly freed, would in a short time have been rendered 

 immoveable."* In winter, however, the temperature 

 being much lower, the effects of intense cold are 

 more manifest. Egede observes of Disco Island 

 in the month of January, "The ice and hoar-frost 

 reach through the chimney to the stove's mouth, 

 without being thawed by the fire in the day-time. 

 Over the chimney is an arch of frost, with little 

 holes, through which the smoke discharges itself. 

 The doors and walls are as if they were plastered . 

 over with frost, and, which is scarcely credible, beds 

 are often frozen to the bedsteads. The linen is frozen 

 in the drawers. The upper eider-down bed and the 

 pillows are quite stiff with frost an inch thick, from 

 the breath."t Many of these results I have myself 

 witnessed in Newfoundland and Lower Canada, some 

 • Arct. Reg. i. 330. + Crantz, Hist, of Greenland 



