178 Captain Sabine’s experiments to determine the 
such distance from the ships, as it would have been conve- 
nient, or indeed prudent, to venture, one of these was fixed 
on ; and it was hoped that by sinking the legs of the stands 
a few inches into the frozen soil, and by commencing the 
experiments as early in the ensuing year as the season should 
admit, they might be completed before the ground should be 
affected by a thaw. 
It was desirable therefore to be thoroughly prepared be- 
fore the severity of the winter should set in ; accordingly 
when the ships had been secured, and a party of men could 
be spared for the occasion, an observatory house was com- 
menced. The house was built of the store plank and boards 
carried by the ships, care being taken to cut or injure them 
as little as possible; the walls were weather-boarded, lined, 
and filled in between with moss ; the roof was protected by 
a tarpaulin covering: it was divided into two rooms, whereof 
the inner, being designed for the reception of the clocks, was 
warmed by pipes proceeding from a stove placed in the outer 
room ; the floors were boarded, and the walls furnished on 
the inside with Russia matting. The house was finished and 
the clocks moved into it before the end of October. 
If any hope had been entertained of being able to do more 
during the winter than merely to prepare for the return of 
more favourable 'weather, it was ended by the severity of 
cold, far exceeding expectation, with which November set 
in. From this date until the close of March, the highest de- 
gree registered by a thermometer, suspended in the air, was 
+ 6° of Fahrenheit, and in no one of these five months did 
the mean temperature rise above — 18 0 ; under such circum- 
stances, an attempt to raise the temperature of the house, 
