386 Dr. blagden’s H'jhry of 
this effedt takes place frequently in Hudfon’s Bay, even at 
Albany Fort, where the latitude is not one degree greater than 
in London. Mr. hutchins, in his different fituations atHud- 
foifts Bay, has been conftantly attentive to meteorological obfer- 
vations. During his former refidence at York Fort, fituated 
near the middle of the Bay in lat. 58 N. he was not provided 
with any thermometer graduated more than 70 or 90 degrees 
below the cypher : but he remarked, that “ the quicklilver 
“ frequently funk into the bulb,” efpecially after having been 
ftationary at - ^5° or - 57 0 , and that it afterwards uled to 
afcend to “ about — 30°, indicating a greater degree of 
“ heat than before it fell Thefe phenomena were clearly 
owing to its congelation, adhefion in the tube, and fubfequent 
liquefadtion as the air grew warmer. When Mr. hutchins 
went afterwards to Albany Fort, and had procured inftruments 
with more extenfive fcales, he obferved the fame appearances 
{fill more diftindfly. His thermometers froze twice in the 
winter of 1774 and 1 775, and three times in that of 1777 and 
1778; and in every inftance, except one, the mercury funk 
hundreds of degrees juft as the cold began to abate 4-. The 
laft of thefe obfervations is rendered remarkable bv the defcent 
of the quickfilver to — 490% the greateft ever known by na- 
tural cold, and probably very near its extreme term of con- 
tradfion by freezing. In 1782, alfo, Mr. Hutchins’s ther- 
mometers, together with fome quickfilver in a phial, again con- 
gealed in the open air, and exhibited fimilar phenomena, as 
appears from the account of his experiments. 
Fortunately in thefe inftances of intenfe cold at Albany Fort, 
attention was paid not only to the mercurial thermometers, but 
* MS. Journal, 
f Ibid. 
like wife 
