304 
APPENDIX NO. II. 
These operations were continued until the 20th of November, when the 
darkness arrested them. 
Our brig had been frozen in since the 10th of September. We had 
selected a harbor near a group of rocky islets in the southeastern curve 
of the hay, where we could establish our observatory, and had facilities 
for procuring water and for daily exercise. We were secure, too, 
against probable disturbance during the winter, and were sufficiently 
within the tidal influences to give us a hope of liberation in the spring. 
As we were about to winter higher north than any previous expedi¬ 
tion, and, besides a probable excess of cold, were about to experience 
a longer deprivation of solar light, the arrangements for the interior 
were studied carefully. 
The deck was housed in with boards and calked with oakum. A 
system of warmth aud ventilation was established: our permanent 
lamps were cased with chimneys, to prevent the accumulation of 
smoke; cooking, ice-melting, aud washing arrangements were minutely 
cared for; the dogs were kennelled in squads, and they were allowed 
the alternate use of snow-houses and of the brig, as their condition 
might require. Our domestic system was organized with the most 
exact attention to cleanliness, exercise, recreation, aud withal to fixed 
routine. 
During the winter which followed, the sun was one hundred and 
twenty days below the horizon^ and, owing to a range of hills toward 
our southern meridian, the maximum darkness was not relieved by 
apparent twilight even at noonday. 
The atmospheric temperatures were lower than any that had been 
recorded by others before us. We had adopted every precaution to 
secure accuracy in these observations, aud the indications of our nu¬ 
merous thermometers—alcoholic, ethereal, and mercurial—were regis¬ 
tered hourly. 
From them it appears that the mean annual temperature of Rensse¬ 
laer Harbor, as we named our winter home, is lower than that of 
Melville Island, as recorded by Parry, by two degrees. In certain 
sheltered positions, the process of freezing was unintermitted for any 
consecutive twenty-four hours throughout the year. 
The lowest temperature was observed in February, when the mean 
of eight instruments indicated minus 70° Fahreuheit. Chloroform 
froze; the essential oils of sassafras, juniper, cubcbs, and winter-green, 
were resolved into mixed solid and liquid; and on the morning of 
February 24 we witnessed chloric ether congealed for the first time by 
a natural temperature. 
