Mar. 1858. RETUEN OF THE SEALS. 89 



first ten days being — 25°, whilst for tlie remain- 

 der of the month it was —11°. Had one fallen 

 asleep for a month at least, he could not rea- 

 sonably have expected to find a greater change 

 on awaking. Our drift has been also great, — 

 166 miles. "We are south of the 70th parallel, 

 and may soon be expelled from our icy home. 



On the 24th there was a fearful gale of wind. 

 Had not our housing been very well secured, it 

 must have been blown away. We are pre- 

 paring for sea, removing the snow from off the 

 deck and round the ship ; our skylights have 

 been dug out (in winter they are always covered 

 with a thick layer of snow), and the flood of 

 light which beams down through them is quite 

 charming. How intolerably sooty and smoke- 

 dried everything looks ! 



On the 27th the first seal of this year was 

 shot ; it came in good time, for the fifty-one 

 seals shot in autumn were finished only two 

 days before : our English supply of dogs' food 

 therefore remains almost untouched. Snow was 

 observed to melt against the ship's side exposed 

 to the sun, the thermometer in the shade stand- 

 ing at — 2 2° ! A very fine dog has died from 

 eating a quantity of salt fish, which he managed 

 to get at although it was supposed to be quite 

 out of his reach. 



