310 
EXERCISE. 
es the round sun. The clouds are of a sort seldom 
Seen, except in the conceptions of adventurous artists, 
quite undefinahle, and out of the line of nature, defy- 
ing Howard's nomenclature. They are blocked out 
in square, stormy masses, against a pearly, misty hlue 
— harsh, abrupt, repulsive, quite out of keeping with 
the kindly lightness of things belonging to the sky." 
The lowest temperature we recorded during the 
cruise was on the 22d of this month, when the ship's 
thermometer gave us -46°; my offship spirit, -52°; 
and my own self-registering instruments, purchased 
from Green, placed on a hummock removed from 
the vessels, -53°, as the mean of two instruments., 
This may be taken as the true record of our lowest 
absolute temperature. 
Cold as it was, our mid-day exercise was never in- 
terrupted, unless by wind and drift storms. We felt 
the necessity of active exercise ; and although the ef- 
fort was accompanied with pains in the joints, some- 
times hardly bearable, we managed, both officers and 
crew, to obtain at least three hours a day. The ex- 
ercise consisted of foot-ball and sliding, followed by 
regular games of romps, leap-frog, and tumbling in 
the snow. By shoveling away near the vessel, we 
obtained a fine bare surface of fresh ice, extremely 
glib and durable. On this we constructed a skating- 
ground and admirable slides. I walked regularly over 
the floes, although the snows were nearly impassable. 
With all this, aided by hosts of hygienic resources, 
feeble certainly, but still the best at my command, 
scurvy advanced steadily. This fearful disease, so 
often warded off when in a direct attack, now exhib- 
ited itself in a cachexy, a depraved condition of sys- 
tem sad to encounter. Pains, diff'use, and non-loca- 
