CHAPTER XIV. 
MAGNT5TI0 OBSERVATORY-TEMPERATURES-RETURNING LIGIIT — 
DARKNESS AND TIIE DOGS-HYDROPHOBIA-ICE-CIIANGES-THE 
ICE-FOOT-THE ICE-BELT-THE SUNLIGHT-MARCH. 
My journal for the first two months of 1854 is so 
devoid of interest, that I spare the reader the task of 
following me through it. In the darkness and conse¬ 
quent inaction, it was almost in vain that we sought 
to create topics of thought, and by a forced excitement 
to ward off the encroachments of disease. Our ob¬ 
servatory and the dogs gave us our only regular occu¬ 
pations. 
On the 9th of January we had again an occulta- 
tion of Saturn. The emersion occurred during a short 
interval of clear sky, and our observation of it was 
quite satisfactory; the limit of the moon’s disc and 
that of the planet being well defined: the mist pre¬ 
vented our seeing the immersion. We had a re¬ 
currence of the same phenomenon on the 5th of 
February, and an occultation of Mars on the 14 th; 
both of them observed under favorable circumstances, 
the latter especially. 
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