126 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. on the lower deck, the yarns becoming so hard and brittle, when exposed 
>vv'on deck to the temperature of the atmosphere, as to be too stiff for work- 
ing, and very easily broken. I may in this place remark, that our lower 
rigging became extremely slack during the severity of the winter, and gra- 
dually tightened again as the spring returned : effects the very reverse of 
those which we had anticipated, and which I can only account for by the 
extreme dryness of the atmosphere in the middle of winter, and the sub- 
sequent increase of moisture. 
At half-past five in the evening, the decks were cleared up, and at 
six we again beat to divisions, when the same examination of the men 
and of their births and bed-places took place as in the morning ; the people 
then went to their supper, and the officers to tea. After this time the men 
were permitted to amuse themselves as they pleased, and games of 
various kinds, as well as dancing and singing occasionally, went on upon 
the lower deck till nine o’clock, when they went to bed, and their lights 
were extinguished. In order to guard against accidents by fire, where so 
many fires and lights were necessarily in use, the quarter-masters visited 
the lower deck every half hour during the night, and made their report to 
the officers of the watches that all was, in this respect, safe below ; and to 
secure a ready supply of water in case of fire, a hole was cut twice a day in 
the ice, close alongside each ship. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the 
evening occupations of the officers were of a more rational kind than those 
which engaged the attention of the men. Of these, reading and writing were 
the principal employments, to which were occasionally added a game at 
chess, or a tune on the flute or violin, till half-past ten, about which time we 
all retired to rest. 
Such were the employments which usually occupied us for six days in 
the week, with such exceptions only as circumstances at the time suggested. 
On Sundays, divine service was invariably performed, and a sermon read 
on board both ships ; the prayer appointed to be daily used at sea being 
altered, so as to adapt it to the service in which we were engaged, the 
success which had hitherto attended our efforts, and the peculiar circum- 
stances under which we were at present placed. The attention paid by the 
men to the observance of their religious duties, was such as to reflect upon 
them the highest credit, and tended in no small degree to the preservation 
of that regularity and good conduct, for which, with very few exceptions 
they were invariably distinguished. 
