OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



181 



which we had given them, as now that they had other food, they would not 

 touch it. Only four wolves at this time remained alive of the original pack, 

 and these were constantly prowling about near the ships or the village. 



The month of February closed with the thermometer at — 32°, and though 

 the sun had now attained a meridian altitude of nearly sixteen degrees, and 

 enlivened us with his presence above the horizon for ten hours in the day, 

 no sensible effect had yet been produced on the average temperature of the 

 atmosphere. The uniformly white surface of snow on which at this season 

 the sun's rays have to act, or rather leaving them nothing to act upon, is 

 much against the first efforts to produce a thaw ; but our former experience 

 of the astonishing rapidity with which this operation is carried on, when 

 once the ground begins to be laid bare, served in some measure to reconcile 

 us to what appeared a protraction of the cold of winter not to have been 

 expected in our present latitude. 



