152 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. 
March. 
Sat. 4. 
Sun. 5. 
several hours during the night, but entirely died away between eight and 
nine A.M. on the 2d. At nine o’clock a parhelion appeared on each side of 
the sun, at the angular distance of 21° 38', that on the eastern side being bright 
and prismatic, the other indistinct at first, but becoming as clear as the other 
as the sun rose higher. They were not seen after ten o’clock until half past 
one P.M., when they re-appeared for a short time, at the distance of 22°. 
About two P.M. a very thick kind of haze, or fog, came on, which obscured 
objects at a mile’s distance, and at times much nearer. By us, who anxiously 
caught at any thing which could be construed into a favourable indication, 
this fog was hailed with pleasure, as a symptom of returning moisture in 
the atmosphere. 
On the 4th there were more clouds in the atmosphere, and they were harder 
and better defined about the edges, than they had been before during the 
winter ; a thermometer in the shade seemed now also to be more affected by the 
general influence of the sun’s rays upon the atmosphere, rising from — 30° to 
— 24° at noon. At half past eleven A.M. a halo appeared round the sun, at 
the distance of 22°. 17 from it, consisting of a circle nearly complete, and 
strongly prismatic. Three parhelia, or mock suns, were distinctly seen upon 
this circle ; the first being directly over the sun, and one on each side of it, 
at its own altitude. The prismatic tints were much more brilliant in the 
parhelia than in any other part of the circle ; but red, yellow, and blue, were 
the only colours which could be traced, the first of these being invariably 
next the sun in all the phenomena of this kind which came under our observa- 
tion. From the sun itself several rays of white light, continuous but not very 
brilliant, extended in various directions beyond the halo, and these rays were 
more bright after they had passed through the circle, than they were in the 
part within it: this phenomenon continued for nearly two hours. The 
Aurora Borealis was seen faintly near the S.S.W. horizon, for three or four 
hours before midnight. 
The 5th of March was the most mild and pleasant day we had experienced 
for several weeks, a light breeze springing up from the southward and east- 
ward, having raised the thermometer gradually from — 26° at four A.M., to 
— 15° at noon; and, after divine service had been performed, almost all the 
officers and men in both ships were glad to take advantage of it, by enjoying 
a long walk upon the neighbouring hills. The weather had been hazy, with 
light snow and some clouds in the morning; but the latter gradually dis- 
persed after noon, affording us the first day to which we could attach the idea 
