the formation of ice immediately in contact with the ships' bends,
we banked the snow up against their sides as high as the main
chains; and canvass screens were nailed round all the hatchways on
the lower deck.

The stars of the second magnitude in Ursa Major were just
perceptible to the naked eye a little after noon this day, and the
Aurora Borealis appeared faintly in the southwest at night. About
this time our medical gentlemen began to remark the extreme
difficulty with which sores of every kind healed; a circumstance
that rendered it the more necessary to be cautious in exposing the
men to frostbites, lest the long inactivity and want of exercise
during the cure of sores, in other respects trifling, should
produce serious effects upon the general health of the patients.

During the following fortnight we were chiefly occupied in
observing various phenomena in the heavens, the vivid coruscations
of the Aurora Borealis, the falling of meteors, and in taking
lunar distances; but the difficulty of making observations in this
climate is inconceivably great; on one occasion the mercury of the
artificial horizon froze into a solid mass.

About this part of the winter we began to experience a more
serious inconvenience from the bursting of the lemon-juice bottles
by frost, the whole contents being frequently frozen into a solid
mass, except a small portion of highly concentrated acid in the
centre, which in most instances was found to have leaked out, so
that when the ice was thawed it was little better than water. This
evil increased to a very alarming degree in the course of the
winter: some cases being opened in which more than two thirds of