JANUARY I TO MAY ly, i8g6 6;i 



neitlier of them would go off. One or two of the mines which 

 we had fired during the day had produced some effect, but so 

 Httle that it was not worth while to continue. We were obliged 

 to wait for a more favorable condition of the ice. 



The weather during the two first weeks of January was settled 

 and good, with clear air and 40 to 50 degrees of cold. The cold- 

 est day was January 15th, when the thermometer showed from 

 -50° C. 1-58° Fahr.) to -52° C. (-6i.6° Fahr.). The last two 

 weeks of January the temperature was considerably higher, but 

 dropped again in February, until on the 13th it was about —48° 

 C. (—54.4° Fahr.), after which it was somewhat higher: about 

 — 35° C. (—41° Fahr.) during the remainder of February. On 

 March 5th the thermometer again showed 40 degrees of cold ; 

 but from that time the temperature rose quickly. Thus on 

 March 12th it was —12°, on the 27th —6°, with a few colder 

 days of course now and then. April was somewhat cold through- 

 out, about —25°; the coldest day was the 13th, with —34". The 

 first week of May was also somewhat cold, about —20° to —25°, 

 the second week somewhat milder, about —14°, and on May 21st 

 we had the first rise above freezing-point of this year, the maxi- 

 mum thermometer showing at the evening observation +0.9''. 



Some days during this winter were remarkable for very great 

 and sudden changes in temperature. One instance was Friday, 

 February 21st. In the morning it was cloudy, with a stiff breeze 

 from the southeast. Late in the afternoon the wind suddenly 

 changed to the southwest, and slackened off to a velocity of 14 

 feet; and the temperature went down from —7° in the morning 

 to —25° shortly before the change in the wind, rapidly rising 

 again to —6.2° at 8 o'clock P.M. 



In m)' Journal I wrote of this day as follows: " I was walk- 

 ing on deck to-night, and before I went down had a lookout 

 astern. When I put my head out of the tent I felt so warm a 

 current of air that my first thought was that there must be fire 

 somewhere on board. I soon made out, however, that it was 

 the temperature which had risen so greatly since I was uncier 

 the open sky. Scott-Hansen and I afterwards went up and 

 placed a thermometer under the ship's tent, where it showed 



