OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



381 



regard was reciprocal, for even after they became perfectly familiarized to N *^* b 

 the ships, they always fawned upon their old masters, and expressed great ^-^w 

 delight at seeing them. 



Some wolves continued still to prowl about us, and three of these hungry 

 animals were nearly on the point of attacking a Newfoundland dog of Mr. 

 Richards's, which went playing about them, when he was called off in time 

 to save him. On the 23d, the thermometer, for the first time, got down to Sat. 23. 

 — 38°, when our mercury in the artificial horizons, being probably adulte- 

 rated by lead from the troughs, froze into the form of branches of trees, 

 extremely beautiful, and retaining all its brilliancy of surface. For several 

 days about this period the cold continued uniformly intense, but with every 

 westerly wind there was open water at no great distance to the south-east- 

 ward of the island, where the Esquimaux almost daily resorted for the pur- 

 pose of killing walruses. On the 30th in the morning we remarked a simul- Sat. 30 

 taneous increase of wind and in the temperature of the atmosphere, the 

 thermometer rising from — 26J° to —20° as the breeze freshened, without 

 any other apparent cause affecting it. The mean temperature of the month 

 of November, which was — 19° 37' we considered a low one, being only 

 1|° above that of Melville Island in 1819. 



The appearances of the Aurora Borealis were neither frequent nor brilliant 

 during this month. On the 7th near midnight this phenomenon appeared 

 from E.S.E. to S.W., forming an irregular arch of white light, not continuous 

 in every part, and about eight degrees high in the centre. From the upper 

 margin of this arch, coruscations now and then shot upwards towards the zenith. 

 On the morning of the 21 st, Mr. Ross remarked a bright arch of the Aurora 

 passing through the zenith from east to west, and meeting the horizon at 

 each end: besides this, two smaller. and apparently concentric arches were 

 visible to the southward, the higher arch being in the centre about twenty 

 degrees above the horizon and the other about ten degrees. An arch of the 

 same kind appeared at night in the south-west quarter of the heavens. On the 

 3d a column of light tinged with prismatic colours appeared on each side of 

 the sun, at the angular distance of 22° 05', and a parhelion at the same dis- 

 tance above it. The columns indeed were, properly speaking, parts of an 

 imperfect circle or halo ; beyond these, however, at the same height above 

 the horizon, and distant from the sun forty-six degrees, was a second par- 

 helion on each side, slightly coloured like the others ; so that five of these 

 were visible at the same time, though none but the two first mentioned Avere 



