OF THE POLAR SEA. 



255 



mean for the month was — 29.7°. During these intense colds, how- 

 ever, the atmosphere was generally calm, and the wood-cutters and 

 others went about their ordinary occupations without using any 

 extraordinary precautions, yet without feeling any bad effects. 

 They had their rein-deer shirts on, leathern mittens lined with 

 blankets, and furred caps ; but none of them used any defence for the 

 face, nor did they need to do so. Indeed we have already mentioned 

 that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during strong 

 breezes, and most of those who have perished from cold in this 

 country, have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake 

 or other unsheltered place, by a storm of wind. The intense colds 

 were, however, detrimental to us in another way. The trees froze 

 to their very centres, and became as hard as stones, and more dif- 

 ficult to cut. Some of the axes were broken daily, and by the end 

 of the month we had only one left that was fit for felling trees. 

 By intrusting it only to one of the party who had been bred a car- 

 penter, and who could use it with dexterity, it was fortunately 

 preserved until the arrival of our men with others from Fort 

 Providence. 



A thermometer, hung in our bed-room at the distance of sixteen 

 feet from the fire, but exposed to its direct radiation, stood even 

 in the day-time occasionally at 15° below zero, and was observed 

 more than once previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning, 

 to be as low as 40° below zero. On two of these occasions the 

 chronometers 2149 and 2151 which during the night lay under Mr. 

 Hood's and Dr. Kichardson's pillows, stopped while they were 

 dressing themselves. 



The rapid at the commencement of the river remained open in 

 the severest weather, although it was somewhat contracted in width. 

 Its temperature was 32°, as was the surface of the river opposite the 

 house, about a quarter of a mile lower down, tried at a hole in the 

 ice, through which water was drawn for domestic purposes. The 



