OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
113 
exposed to the atmosphere, so as to be cooled down to the same temperature, 
was suddenly brought below into the cabins, the vapour was instantly con- 
densed all around it, so as to give the instrument the appearance of smoking, 
and the glasses were covered almost instantaneously with a thin coating of ice, 
the removal of which required great caution to prevent the risk of injuring them 
until it had gradually thawed, as they acquired the temperature of the cabin. 
When a candle was placed in a certain direction from the instrument, with 
respect to the observer, a number of very minute spicules of snow were also 
seen sparkling around the instrument, at the distance of two or three inches 
from it, occasioned, as we supposed, by the cold atmosphere produced by the 
low temperature of the instrument almost instantaneously congealing into that 
form the vapour which floated in its immediate neighbourhood. 
The month of November commenced with mild weather, which continued Novemb. 
for the first ten days. It is generally supposed, by those who have not expe- 
rienced the effects produced upon the feelings by the various alterations in the 
temperature of the atmosphere, when the thermometer is low, that a change 
of 10° or 15° makes no sensible difference in the sensation of cold ; but this is 
by no means the case, for it was a remark continually made among us, that 
our bodies appeared to adapt themselves so readily to the climate, that the 
scale of our feelings, if I may so express it, was soon reduced to a lower stan- 
dard than ordinary ; so that, after living for some days in a temperature of 
— 15° or —20°, it felt quite mild and comfortable when the thermometer rose 
to zero, and vice, versa. 
The 4th of November being the last day that the sun would, independently Thurs. 4. 
of the effects of refraction, be seen above our horizon till the eighth of Fe- 
bruary, an interval of ninety-six days, it was a matter of considerable regret 
to us that the weather about this time was not sufficiently clear to allow us to 
see and make observations on the disappearance of that luminary, in order 
that something might be attempted towards determining the amount of 
the atmospherical refraction at a low temperature. But though we were not 
permitted to take a last farewell, for at least three months, of that cheering 
orb, “ of this great world, both eye and soul,” we nevertheless felt that this 
day constituted an important and memorable epoch in our voyage. We had, 
some time before, set about the preparations for our winter’s amusements ; 
and the theatre being ready, we opened on the 5th of November, with the Frid. 5. 
representation of Miss' in her Teens, which afforded to the men such a fund of 
amusement as fully to justify the expectations we had formed of the utility of 
Q 
