386 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



3ecemb tem P erature > an d ^ at on board altogether dispensed with ; so that the 

 '-^r^ degree of cold found in the Meteorological Abstracts during this winter, will 

 be from 2° to 3° less than the mean above alluded to. In estimating the mean 

 temperature of the year, the same deduction may fairly be made during the 

 other months, as a correction for the difference between the thermometer on 

 board, and that freely exposed at a distance from the ship. 



In the meteorological phenomena observed during the month of Decem- 

 ber, there was little that deserves particular notice. On the morning of the 

 1st of December a luminous spot of white light or paraselena was seen on 

 each side of the moon, at the angular distance of 23°. Between one and two 

 A.M. on the 13th, while Messrs. Ross and Bushnan were employed in taking 

 some observations alongside the Fury, they saw a vivid flash of light, which 

 it afterwards occurred to them must have come down the electric chain at- 

 tached to the masthead, directly under which they happened to be standing at 

 the time. As soon as Mr. Fisher was acquainted with this circumstance he 

 applied the electrometer to the chain, but as usual without any perceptible 

 effect on the gold-leaf. The Aurora Borealis had been visible to the south- 

 ward for some hours during the night, but had disappeared for half an hour 

 before the flash was seen. About nine A.M. on the 19th, Mr. Hooper ob 

 served a meteor in the W.b.S., about 50° above the horizon, whence it de- 

 scended in a curved line, having its convex side towards the horizon, and 

 disappeared in the W.b.N. In size and brilliancy it resembled the planet 

 Jupiter, and the time of its continuance was about three or four seconds. 



About the middle of the month of December several of the Esquimaux 

 had moved from the huts at Igloolik, some taking up their quarters on the ice 

 at a considerable distance to the north-west, and the rest about a mile outside 

 the summer-station of the tents. At the close of the year from fifty to sixty 

 individuals had thus decamped, their object being, like that of other savages 

 on terra firma, to increase their means of subsistence by covering more 

 ground ; their movements were arranged so quietly that we seldom heard of 

 their intentions till they were gone. At the new stations they lived entirely 

 in huts of snow ; and the northerly and easterly winds were considered by 

 them as most favourable for their fishing, as these served to bring in the loose 

 ice on which they principally kill the walruses. At the distant station, how- 

 ever, which was farther removed from clear water, their principal dependence 

 - was on the neitiek, which is taken by watching at the holes made by that ani- 

 mal in the ice. Abreast of Igloolik the clear water was not, with a westerly 



