OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



195 



their endeavours also to procure food ; and I believe that every female be- 1822 - 



» • ■ IVIcircli 



longing to the village, without a single exception, made her appearance at <-*-y*w 

 the ships to-day, and was supplied with a proportion of bread-clust for her 

 family. It was pleasing to observe, that they were always punctual in re- 

 turning the buckets and bags which we lent them for carrying out their 

 provisions. 



The fact of our ships not having required pumping out, either here or at 

 Melville Island, for several months together during the winter, naturally 

 led me to consider what was likely to be the reason of this extraordinary 

 tightness. It is true indeed, that after the first winter a certain quantity of 

 ice was subsequently found mixed with the coals which composed our bal- 

 last, but this quantity bore a trifling proportion to the ten or twelve inches 

 of water which found its way into the pump-well daily throughout the sum- 

 mer. It appears probable, therefore, that any small leak through which the 

 water only slowly filters may become altogether stopped by its freezing, 

 whenever the temperature of the hold has fallen a few degrees below the 

 freezing-point of sea-water. For the latter being already cooled down as 

 low as in its fluid state it can be, will very readily freeze when, by its 

 entrance into the ship, it meets with a greater degree of cold, especially if 

 (as is very frequently the case) the leak should be about a metal bolt which, 

 by its conducting property, Avould very much favour the process of con- 

 gelation. 



We had clear and very moderate weather on the 20th, and yet the ther- Wed. 20. 

 mometer fairly exposed to the sun's rays rose only to — 5°, or about 12° 

 higher than in the shade, and this with the sun twelve hours above the 

 horizon, and 24° high at noon. At night it blew a strong breeze from the 

 W.N.W., with considerable drift, notwithstanding which it is remarkable 

 that the mercury in the barometer remained at 29.80 inches, without the 

 alteration of a single hundredth part from ten P.M. on the 20th till four 

 A.M. on the 22d, being an interval of thirty hours. Except the breeze 

 above mentioned, which continued strong for four or five hours, the 

 weather was fine during this interval, and remained so for several days 

 afterwards. 



A deeper drift of snow had collected round the ships during the last week, 

 and particularly at the time of the gales, than in the whole of the preceding 

 part of the winter. On one side of the Hecla was a bank seven or eight feet 

 deep, in which the men amused themselves by excavating houses, with large 



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