METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS . 
313 
clothes in the same dripping state as when we took 
them off. The wind continued fresh from the south¬ 
eastward, and at nine p.m. the weather suddenly 
cleared up, and gave us once more the inconceivably 
cheering, I had almost said the blessed sight of a blue 
sky, with hard well-defined white clouds floating 
across it. There was not, however, much dryness in 
the atmosphere, the dew point, by DanielTs hygro¬ 
meter, being 35° at nine p.m., when the temperature 
of the atmosphere was the same. We considered 
ourselves fortunate in having any floes to cross, though 
only one or two exceeded a quarter of a mile in length, 
and all very rugged and much covered with ponds of 
water ; but this was better than the more frequent 
and hazardous launching among small pieces. 
“ Again halting at midnight to dine, we obtained the 
suns altitude, which placed us in latitude 82° 11' 51". 
On continuing our journey, after dinner, we still had 
small floe-pieces to pass over, several of which gave us 
much labour, and occupied considerable time, being 
just too widely separated to make bridges of the 
boats, so that launching them was unavoidable. We 
halted at six a.m., after making, by our day's exer¬ 
tions, only three miles and a half of northing, and 
then obtained the dip of the magnetic needle, 82° 
16'*3, and the variation 15° 6' westerly, our latitude 
