OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
145 
in the barometer standing at 29.53 inches. This additional decrease in the 1820. 
temperature of. the atmosphere caused a repetition of that cracking of the 3^^ 
ship’s timbers which had before occurred, but which had ceased for some 
time past. At noon, the thermometer in the shade rose one degree, and at 
two P.M., fell again to — 52°. 
Two of the Hecla’s marines having been guilty of drunkenness the pre- 
ceding night, an offence which, under any circumstances, it was my duty to 
prevent, but which, if permitted to pass unnoticed, might, in our present 
situation, have been attended with the most serious consequences to our 
health as well as our discipline, I was under the necessity of punishing them 
this morning with thirty-six lashes each ; being the first occasion on which I 
had considered it necessary to inflict corporal punishment during thirteen 
months that the Hecla had been in commission, a fact which I have much 
satisfaction in recording, as extremely creditable to her crew. 
From four P.M. on the 14th, till half-past seven on the following morning, Tues. 15. 
being an interval of fifteen hours and a half, during which time the weather 
was clear and nearly calm, a thermometer fixed on a pole, between the ships 
and the shore, never rose above — 54°, and was once during that interval, 
namely, at six in the morning, as low as — 55°. This low temperature might, 
perhaps, have continued much longer, but for a light breeze which sprung 
up from the northward, immediately on which the thermometer rose to —49°, 
and continued still to rise during the day, till at midnight it had reached 
— 34°. During the lowest temperature above mentioned, which was the most 
intense degree of cold, marked by the spirit thermometer, during our stay in 
Winter Harbour, not the slightest incoaveuieiice was suffered from exposure 
to the open air, by a person well clothed, as long as the weather was per- 
fectly calm ; but, in walking against a very light air of wind, a smarting 
sensation was experienced all over the face, accompanied by a pain in the 
middle of the forehead, which soon became rather severe. We amused our- 
selves in freezing some mercury during the continuance of this cold weather, 
and, by beating it out on an anvil, previously reduced to the temperature of 
the atmosphere ; it did not appear to be very malleable when in this state, 
usually breaking after two or three blows from the hammer. 
The increased length of the day, and the cheering presence of the sun for 
several hours above the horizon, induced me, notwithstanding the severity of 
the weather, to open the dead-lights of my stern-windows, in order to admit 
the daylight, of which, in our occupations below, we had entirely been 
u 
