OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



129 



now substituted for the mercurial one, for registering the temperature of the 1821. 

 atmosphere ; and that of the sea, which always remained nearly the same in 

 the winter, was only taken occasionally in future. 



On the 21st there was a considerable space of open water in the offing to Sun. 21. 

 the southward and eastward, from which a cloud of frost-smoke constantly 

 issued, driving like a fog with the wind. The ships' companies amused 

 themselves, in the course of their afternoon walk, with sliding upon the ice 

 in a pond, from which we were still able to procure water a couple of feet 

 below the surface, though the pond was not a deep one : this advantage 

 we enjoyed as late as the 26th of November, after which we had recourse 

 entirely to snow melted by artificial means. The thermometer falling to 

 - 13° in the course of the night, the ships' timbers began to crack a little, in 

 consequence of the freezing of the juices of the wood. I expected this to 

 have occurred in a greater degree with the Fury than with the Hecla, the 

 latter having been already seasoned to a cold climate ; but on inquiry I 

 understood the reverse to be the case, both during the present and the 

 succeeding winter. On the 23d there was a considerable snow-drift, the Tues. 22. 

 wind blowing strong from the westward ; but the snow being less fine, and 

 not so easily raised by the wind, made the atmosphere much less thick than 

 in a higher northern latitude. 



The wind veering to the S.E. on the 24th and 25th, the thermometer gra-Thur.25. 

 dually rose to + 23°. I may possibly incur the charge of affectation in stating, 

 that this temperature was much too high to be agreeable to us ; but it is never- 

 theless the fact, that every body felt and complained of the change. We 

 had often before remarked, that considerable alterations in the temperature 

 of the atmosphere are as sensibly felt by the human frame, at a very low 

 part of the scale, as in the higher. The difference consists only in this, that 

 a change from — 40° upwards to about zero is usually a very welcome one, 

 while from zero to the freezing-point, as in the instance just alluded to, 

 it becomes to persons in our situation rather an inconvenience than 

 otherwise. This may be more readily imagined, by considering that our 

 clothing, bedding, fires, and other precautions against the severity of the 

 climate, having been once adapted to a low degree of cold, an increase of 

 temperature renders them oppressive and inconvenient ; while any reduction 

 (of the first two at least) is impracticable with safety. To this must be 

 added, that at this temperature the snow becomes too soft for convenient 

 walking, and the accumulation of ice in the crevices and linings of the officers' 



