80 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
way of precaution, I suppose, he had conceived the idea 
of burying it down to the chin in a huge seal-skin 
helmet I had given him against the inclemencies 
of the Polar Sea. As* on this occasion the thermo¬ 
meter was at 81°, and a coup-cle-soleil was the chief 
thing to be feared, a ton of fur round his skull was 
