OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
207 
quantity and condition of them, with the exception of the lemon-juice and 18 * 20 . 
vinegar before mentioned, were found to be satisfactory. Indeed, the 
whole of the provision was ascertained to be as good as when it came out 
of store, more than twelve months before, except a small quantity of bread 
and of sugar on the outside part of a few casks, on which a little moisture 
appeared, and which made it expedient to use those articles first. This 
excellent state of our provisions must, independently of the antiseptic pro- 
perties of a cold climate, which is unfavourable to the process of putrefactioii 
or the accumulation of vermin, be mainly attributed to the care which had 
been taken to supply us with every article of the best quality, and to pack the 
whole in strong, tight casks, which were at once impervious to water, and 
less liable to damage by accidents in the hold. With respect to vermin, I 
may here mention, that not a mouse, or rat, or maggot of any kind, ever 
appeared on board, to my knowledge, during this voyage. 
A very perceptible change had taken place in the ice of the harbour 
on its upper surface, it being covered with innumerable pools of water, 
chiefly brackish, except close in-shore, where the tides had lifted the ice 
considerably above the level of the sea. 
Previously to the continuance of the narrative of occurrences subsequently 
to my return from the land-journey, it may be proper to give some account 
of the observations made on board the ships by Lieutenants Liddon and 
Beechey, during my absence from Winter Harbour. 
From these it appears, that the first red phalarope, ( Phalaropus Plati/rinchos ), Frid.2. 
and also the first flock of snow-buntings which had been observed at Winter 
Harbour this season, were seen on the 2d of June. It is perhaps worthy of 
remark that, from eight P.M. on the 1st, till midnight on the 2d, being an 
interval of twenty-eight hours, the mercury in the barometer remained 
steadily at thirty inches, without varying a single hundredth. The weather 
was cloudy, and the wind rather variable, though moderate from the north- 
ward and westward during that time, and two or three fine days succeeded 
it, though with some appearance occasionally of rain or snow. 
A flock of twelve king-ducks, flying to the north-east, together with a Sat. 3. 
sihgle raven and an arctic gull, made their appearance on the 3d, and a 
golden plover was also killed, and a few others seen on that day. The ther- 
mometer rose in the shade from 29° at 4 A.M., to 43° at noon, which is one 
of the greatest changes that was experienced in the course of one day at 
this part of the scale. 
