154 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820 . which this winter had produced, and by the breaking up or dissolution of 
which we could alone hope to proceed on our voyage. 
Advantage was taken of the present mild and pleasant weather, to rebuild the 
house on shore, which was completed in a few days, when the clocks were re- 
placed in it, in readiness for Captain Sabine to begin his experiments on the 
pendulum, whenever the season would permit. The observations which we had 
been enabled to make during the winter were principally confined to lunar dis- 
tances, and to the altitudes of stars for deducing the apparent time. It was 
our earnest desire to have obtained a series of observations on the zenith 
distances of certain stars, in order to determine the amount of atmospherical 
refraction in these latitudes during the winter season. The only instrument 
in our possession, however, which was adapted to this purpose was the re- 
peating circle, of which we were unfortunately precluded the use by a number 
of circumstances not previously anticipated, and which indeed could not 
easily have occurred to the minds of those accustomed only to make obser- 
vations in more temperate climates. A particular account of these difficulties 
being given in another place by Captain Sabine, whose unremitted attention 
was for some time devoted to the means of overcoming them, I shall only here 
mention generally, that the principal of them arose from the unequal con- 
traction of the brass and iron, and from the freezing of the oil, by which the 
instrument was so set fast as to make it impossible to turn it in azimuth ; also, 
from the extreme contraction of the spirits, leaving no bubble by which the 
level could be read. With respect to the experiments on the pendulum, it 
was on every account considered advisable to wait for the return of spring, 
rather than to attempt observations requiring such minuteness, and so uniform 
a temperature, at a time when the very touch of instruments was painful, 
and when no observation could be made in the open air, without carefully 
holding the breath. 
Wed. 8. The severe weather which, until the last two or three days, we had expe- 
rienced for a length of time, had been the means of keeping in a solid state 
all the vapour which had accumulated and frozen upon the ships’ sides on the 
lower deck. As long as it continued in this state, it did not prove a source 
of annoyance, especially as it had no communication with the bed-places. 
On the contrary, indeed, I had imagined, whether justly or otherwise I 
know not, that a lining of this kind rather did good than harm, by preventing 
the escape of a certain portion of the warmth through the ships’ sides. The 
late mildness of the weather, however, having caused a thaw to take place 
