162 Things not generally Known. 



DR. EAE'S ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



The gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was in 

 1852 most rightfully awarded to this indefatigable Arctic ex- 

 plorer. His survey of the inlet of Boothia, in 1848, was unique 

 in its kind. In Repulse Bay he maintained his party on deer, 

 principally shot by himself; and spent ten months of an Arctic 

 winter in a hut of stones, with BO other fuel than a kind of hay 

 of the Andromeda tetragona. Thus he preserved his men to 

 execute surveying journeys of 1000 miles in the spring. Later 

 he travelled 300 miles on snow-shoes. In a spring journey over 

 the ice, with a pound of fat daily for fuel, accompanied by two 

 men only, and trusting solely for shelter to snow-houses, which 

 he taught his men to build, he accomplished 1060 miles in 

 thirty-nine days, or twenty-seven miles per day, including stop- 

 pages, a feat never equalled in Arctic travelling. In the 

 spring journey, and that which followed in the summer in 

 boats, 1700 miles were traversed in eighty days. Dr. Rae's 

 greatest sufferings, he once remarked to Sir George Back, arose 

 from his being obliged to sleep upon his frozen mocassins in 

 order to thaw them for the morning's use. 



PHENOMENA OF THE ARCTIC CLIMATE. 



Sir John Richardson, in his history of his Expedition to 

 these regions, describes the power of the sun in a cloudless sky 

 to have been so great, that he was glad to take shelter in the 

 water while the crews were engaged on the portages ; and he 

 has never felt the direct rays of the sun so oppressive as on 

 some occasions in the high latitudes. Sir John observes : 



The rapid evaporation of both snow and ice in the winter and spring, 

 long before the action of the sun has prod viced the slightest thaw or 

 appearance of moisture, is evident by many facts of daily occurrence. 

 Thus when a shirt, after being washed, is exposed in the open air to a 

 temperature of from 4CP to 50 below zero, it is instantly rigidly frozen, 

 and may be broken if violently bent. If agitated when in this condition 

 by a strong wind, it makes a rustling noise like theatrical thunder, 



In consequence of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in winter, 

 most articles of English manufacture brought to Rupert's Land are 

 shrivelled, bent, and broken. The handles of razors and knives, combs, 

 ivory scales, &c., kept in the warm room, are changed in this way. The 

 human body also becomes vividly electric from the dryness of the skin. 

 One cold night I rose from my bed, and was going out to observe the 



, 1 .1 L _1-J_T_i 1.1 a~ 1 Jl^i. J T 



was elicited. Friction ot the skm at almost all times in winter pro- 

 duced the electric odour. 



Even at midwinter we had but three hours and a half of daylight. 

 On December 20th I required a candle to write at the window at ten in 

 the morning. The sun was absent ten days, and its place in the heavens 



