174 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. consisted in taking the glasses out of a pair of spectacles, and substituting 
black or green crape, the glass having been found to heat the eyes, and 
increase the irritation. 
The exhalations arising from the earth were about this time observed to be 
very abundant, producing, during the day-time, much of that appearance of 
waving tremulous motion in distant objects, which the French call mirage, 
and which was usually succeeded by a fog at night, as soon as the atmosphere 
had become cool. 
Tues. 16. During one of these fogs, at four A.M. on the 16th, the sky being perfectly 
clear in the zenith to 30° of altitude, whilst a dense haze rested on the land 
and ice. Captain Sabine observed “a haze-bow of distinetand dazzling light, 
having its edges softened off, and without any appearance of prismatic 
colouring. The legs of the bow rose out of a bluish haze, the colour of 
which somewhat resembled that of weak starch ; not quite half a circle was 
complete ; the middle of the arch was between 22° and 23° above the land, 
which is of little elevation, and the legs were 71° apart. The weather was 
nearly calm, and there had been a considerable deposition of frozen dew 
throughout the night. Similar phenomena were observed on the mornings of 
the 20th and 23d, about the same hour.” 
Wed. 17. On the 17th, we completed the operation of cutting the ice round the 
Hecla, which was performed in the following manner: The ice alongside 
the ships was found to be six feet thick, being about eighteen inches less 
than the average thickness of it in Winter Harbour, owing principally to our 
having continued to cut it round the ships for some time after the commence- 
ment of the winter, and in part, perhaps, to the snow with which it had 
there been thickly covered. We began by digging a large bole under the 
stern, being the same as that in which the tide-pole was placed, in order to 
enter the saw, which occupied us nearly two days, only a small number of 
men being able to Avork at it. In the mean time, all the snow and rubbish 
was cleared away from the ship’s side, leaving only the solid ice to work 
upon ; and a trench, two feet wide, was cut the whole length of the starboard 
side, from the stem to the rudder, keeping within an inch or two of the 
bends, and taking care here and there to leave a dike, to prevent the 
water Avhich might ooze into one part from filling up the others in which 
the men were working. In this manner was the trench cut with axes, 
to the depth of about four feet and a half, leaving only eighteen inches 
for the saws to cut, except in those places where the dikes remained. 
