OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
153 
of spring. As soon as the clouds had allowed the sun to come out, a parhelion 1820. 
appeared on each side of it at the same altitude ; that to the westward, which 
was seen on a thick dark cloud, being bright and prismatic ; the other, ap- 
pearing on the blue sky, being scarcely perceptible. A ray of bright yellow 
light extended horizontally about 3° or 4° on each side of the parhelia, and 
also a stripe of prismatic colours from each of them to the horizon. Both these 
were probably parts of the circles which are frequently seen to accompany 
these phenomena, and at the intersection of which the parhelia usually 
appear. 
On the 6th, at eight A.M,, the thermometer had got up to zero, being the Mon. 6. 
first time we had registered so high a temperature since the 17th of the pre- 
ceding December. The wind veered gradually from S.S.E., round by west, to 
north, and at night was remarkably variable and squally, frequently changing, 
almost instantly, from north to west, and vice versa ; sometimes being so light 
as not to extinguish a naked candle at the gangway, and at others blowing a 
strong breeze. Squalls of this kind we had not observed before, nor did they 
occur on any other occasion ; we could not perceive any alteration in the 
thermometer while they lasted. 
We continued to enjoy the same temperate and enlivening weather on Tues.7. 
the 7th, and now began to flatter ourselves in earnest, that the season had 
taken that favourable change for which we had so long been looking with 
extreme anxiety and impatience. This hope was much strengthened by a 
circumstance which occurred to-day, and which, trifling as it would have ap- 
peared in any other situation than ours, was to us a matter of no small interest 
and satisfaction. This was no other than the thawing of a small quantity of 
snow in a favourable situation upon the black paint work of the ship’s stern, 
which exactly faced the south, being the first time that such an event had oc- 
curred for more than five montlis. The thermometer at this time stood at 
+ 85° in the sun, but no appearance of thawing took place, except in the 
situation described, and even there, upon the i/ellovo paint the snow re- 
mained as hard as before. We could perceive, from the top of the north- 
eastern hill of the harbour, from which we had the most extensive view 
to the south and east, that a line of hummocks had been thrown up to 
a considerable height upon the ice, at the distance of six or seven miles from 
the land, and in a direction nearly parallel to it. It was here probably that 
the junction of the old and “ young” floes had taken place in the autumn, the 
space between the line of hummocks and the land being occupied by the ice 
X 
