FROST-RIME. 
31 
wind. But, having stood to the eastward, until 
we had smooth water under the lee of the northern 
ice, we were enabled to keep up brisk fires, and to 
have the cabin-door shut, in consequence of which 
we suffered very little from the cold when below. 
Had the sea been heavy, we should have required 
a free admission of air for the prevention of smoke, 
which would have rendered the cabin almost in¬ 
tolerable. The extraordinary habiliments provi¬ 
ded by the sailors for defence against cold, were 
now brought into requisition, and various and 
grotesque were the costumes to which some of 
them resorted. 
At mid-day, the meridian altitude of the sun 
gave the latitude 80° 31'; the longitude, at the 
same time, was 8° E. 
We tacked at the northern ice, at 1 r. M., and, 
during the latter part of the day, stood along its 
edge, which we found pretty nearly straight, and 
trending towards the WNW. The frost-rime 
(a vapour arising from the sea in severe frosts) was 
so thick that we never had a view of the ice be¬ 
yond its exterior margin. This kind of fog, pc-* 
culiar to high latitudes, seems to arise from a si¬ 
milar cause to that which occasions the visible 
evaporation of water, whenever heated much above 
the temperature of the air. The sea, on occasions 
of frost-rime, is generally about 20° or 30° Warmer 
