OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
155 
below, it now became necessary immediately to scrape off the coating of ice ; 
and it will, perhaps, be scarcely credited that we this day removed above one 
hundred buckets full, each containing from five to six gallons, being the 
accumulation which had taken place in an interval of less than four weeks. 
It may be observed, that this vapour must principally have been produced 
from the men’s breath, and from the steam of their victuals during meals, that 
from the coppers being effectually carried on deck by the screen which I have 
before mentioned. 
James Richardson, a seaman of the Hecla, one of the men who had 
been attacked by lumbago a short time before, now evinced some symptoms 
of scurvy, and was, therefore, immediately put on the anti-scorbutic diet. 
About this time, also, John Ludlow, boatswain’s-mate of the Griper, and 
William Wright, seaman of the Hecla, were attacked in a similar manner ; and 
these two cases subsequently proved the worst of this nature on board the ships. 
Immediately on the appearance of any complaint among the men, and especially 
when the symptoms were in the slightest degree scorbutic, the patients were 
removed to the sick-bay, where the bed-places were larger and more conve- 
nient, and where a separate stove was fixed when necessary, so as to make it 
a warm and comfortable place, apart from the rest of the ships’ company. 
From ten till eleven A.M. this day, a halo and three parhelia were seen 
about the sun, in every respect similar to those described on the 4th. About 
one P.M., there being a fresh breeze from the northward, with some snow- 
drift, the parhelia re-appeared, being much more bright and prismatic than 
in the forenoon, and accompanied by the usual halo, which was nearly com- 
plete, and whose radius measured 22^°. The parhelia a, a, in the annexed 
figure, on each side of the sun, were at times so bright as to be painful to 
the eye in looking steadfastly at them. When they were brightest, the light 
was nearly white, and this generally occurred when the wind was most mo- 
derate, and when there was consequently less snow-drift. When, on the 
other hand, the wind and drift increased, they became of a deeper tint, but the 
red and a pale yellow were the only distinguishable colours, the former being 
as usual, next the sun. These parhelia were much better resemblances of the 
sun than any we had seen before, being smaller, more compact and circular, 
and better defined about their edges than usual, approaching, in every respect, 
nearer to that appearance of the sun’s disk, which has obtained for them the 
name of mock-suns. The parhelion b, over the sun was never very bright, and 
the circle of the halo was but faintly tinged with the prismatic colours. Part 
X -2 
1820 . 
March. 
