144 
THE COLD INCREASING. 
“It requires neither the ‘Ice-foot’ with its grow¬ 
ing ramparts, nor the rapid encroachments of the 
night, nor the record of our thermometers, to por¬ 
tend for us a winter of unusual severity. The 
mean temperatures of October and September are 
lower than those of Parry for the same months at 
Melville Island. Thus far we have no indications 
of that deferred fall cold which marks the insular 
climate. 
“November 9, Wednesday.—Wishing to get the alti¬ 
tude of the cliffs on the southwest cape of our bay 
before the darkness set in thoroughly, I started in time 
to reach them with my Newfoundlanders at noonday. 
Although it was but a short journey, the rough shore- 
ice and a slight wind rendered the cold severe. I had 
been housed for a week with my wretched rheumatism, 
and felt that daily exposure was necessary to enable 
me to bear up against the cold. The thermometer 
indicated twenty-three degrees below zero. 
“Fireside astronomers can hardly realize the diffi¬ 
culties in the Avay of observations at such low tempera¬ 
tures. The mere burning of the hands is obviated by 
covering the metal with chamois-skin; but the breath, 
and even the warmth of the face and body, cloud the 
sextant-arc and glasses with a fine hoarfrost. Though 
I had much clear weather, we barely succeeded by 
magnifiers in reading the verniers. It is, moreover, 
an unusual feat to measure a base-line in the snow at 
fifty-five degrees below freezing. 
“November 16, Wednesday.—The great difficulty is 
I 
