CHAPTER VII. 
MORE TEMPERATE WEATHER HOUSE RE-BUILT — QUANTITY OF ICE COL- 
LECTED ON THE HECLA’s LOWER DECK — METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA — 
CONCLUSION OF THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS INCREASED SICKNESS 
ON BOARD THE GRIPER CLOTHES FIRST DRIED IN THE OPEN AIR 
REMARKABLE HALOS AND PARHELIA — SNOW BLINDNESS — CUTTING THE 
ICE ROUND THE SHIPS, AND OTHER OCCURRENCES TO THE CLOSE OF 
MAY. 
Before sun-rise, on the morning of the 1st of March, Lieutenant Beechey 
remarked so much bright red light near the south-eastern horizon, that he 
constantly thought the sun was rising, nearly half an hour before it actually 
appeared ; there was a column of light above the sun, similar to those which 
we had before seen. The day being clear and moderate, a party of men was 
employed in digging out the things which were buried in the ruins ; the 
clocks were removed on board for examination, and preparations were made 
to rebuild the house for their reception. Some of our gentlemen who walked 
to the south-west during the day, observed the snow, in certain parts which 
were exposed to the sun, to be glazed, so as to be very slippery, as if 
a partial thaw had taken place. It is, perhaps, requisite to have expe- 
rienced the anxiety with which we were now beginning to look for some 
favourable change in the temperature of the atmosphere, to conceive the 
eagerness with which this information was received, and the importance 
attached to it in our minds, as the first faint indication of the dissolution of 
the winter’s snow. In the evening the wind freshened from the southward, 
and before midnight had increased to a strong gale, which is very unusual 
from that quarter. 
The thermometer rose very gradually with the wind which blew strong for Thurs. 2. 
