130 



SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 



October. caD i ns * s converted into a source of extreme annoyance, which, while it 

 continues solid, is never experienced. It is true that these inconveniences 

 occur in a much greater degree in the spring ; but being then hailed as the 

 harbingers of the return of permanent warmth, it is easy to obviate some 

 and would be hard to complain of any of them. 



During the month of October the Aurora Borealis was occasionally seen, 

 though with little brilliancy. From ten P.M. till midnight, on the 21st, it 

 was visible from S.E. to S.W., but most bright in the latter direction. The 

 light was principally stationary, but a few faint coruscations shot upwards 

 from it now and then. During the same hours on the 23d, it was seen near 

 the horizon from W.b.N. to S.W., having a tendency to form an irregular 

 arch, 4° or 5° high in the centre. It was generally stationary, and at times 

 tolerably bright, but upon the whole a poor display of this phenomenon. 



Novem. The mild weather with which the month of October closed continued for 



FricT 2 tne nrst two ^ a y s * n November. On the afternoon of the 2d, the wind 

 freshened up to a gale from the N.b.W., and before midnight the thermo- 

 meter had fallen to —5, which latter circumstance I mention here, as differ- 

 ing from what we had so often observed to take place at Melville Island, a 

 rise of wind there being generally accompanied by a simultaneous rise in 



Sat. 3. the thermometer at low temperatures. The gale continued during the 3d, 

 with much snow-drift. The people were carefully kept on board during this 

 and every high wind throughout the winter, to avoid the possibility of 

 frost-bites. 



Captain Lyon having represented to me that a portion of biscuit in one of 

 the Hecla's bread-rooms had been found damp and mouldy, I directed a 

 survey to be held on the whole, when four hundred and seventy-six pounds 

 were reported to be unfit for use. These bread-rooms consisted, as before 

 described, of a portion of the forehold divided off by bulkheads on each side 

 of the ship, for the purpose of stowing a certain quantity of bread in bulk 

 and thus increasing our resources. Notwithstanding the above-mentioned 

 loss, which was all that we sustained, and only amounted to eight days' pro- 

 portion for one ship, the plan proved a good one, as the gain in stowage 

 exceeded three months' bread for both. 

 Tues. 6. On the 6th, the wind blew strong from the eastward with overcast* 



* The Avord " overcast" is meant to express a general obscurity of the azure colour of the 

 sky, but without any separate clouds, which indeed we had never hitherto seen during the 



