[ I2 + ] 
I was there, I was told by one of the people, that 
they had a fpring very near them, which was not 
yet frozen over, notwithftanding the fea was frozen 
up as far as we could fee, and the ice in the river 
was 4 or 5 feet thick. 1 went to fee it ; but that 
morning the froft had been fo very intenfe, that it 
was frozen over about an inch thick, when vve broke 
the ice, the water was fo fhallow, that vve raifed all 
the mud from the bottom ; and yet other fprings, 
that were at leaf! fix times its depth, had been frozen 
quite dry feveral weeks. 
In the month of January, 1769, the cold began to 
be extremely intenfe : even in our little cabbin, which 
was fearcely three yards fquare, and in which we 
conftantly kept a very large fire ; it had fuch an effedt, 
that the little alarm clock would not £0 without an 
additional weight, and often not with that. The 
head of my bed-place, for want of knowing better, 
went againft one of the outfide walls of the houfe ; 
and notwithftanding they were of ftone, near three 
feet thick, and lined with inch boards, fupported at 
leaft three inches from the walls, my bedding was 
frozen to the boards every morning ; and before the 
end of February, thefe boards were covered with ice 
almoft half as thick as themfelves. Towards the 
latter end of January, when the cold was fo very 
intenfe, I carried a half-pint of brandy, perfectly 
fluid, into the open air, and in lefs than two minutes 
it was as thick as treacle ; in about five, it had a very 
ftrong ice on the top j and I verily believe that in. 
an hour’s time it would have been nearly folid. 
About the beginning of December we began to ufe 
fpirits of wine for the plumb-line of the quadrant, 
which 
