neighbouring hills. The weather had been hazy, with light snow and
some clouds in the morning; but the latter gradually dispersed
after noon, affording us the first day to which we could attach
the idea of spring.

We continued to enjoy the same temperature and enlivening weather
on the 7th, and now began to flatter ourselves in earnest that the
season had taken that favourable change for which we had so long
been looking with extreme anxiety and impatience. This hope was
much strengthened by a circumstance which occurred to-day, and
which, trifling as it would have appeared in any other situation
than ours, was to us a matter of no small interest and satisfaction.
This was no other than the thawing of a small quantity of snow in
a favourable situation upon the black paintwork of the ship's stern,
which exactly faced the south; being the first time that such an
event had occurred for more than five months.

The severe weather which, until the last two or three days, we had
experienced, had been the means of keeping in a solid state all
the vapour which had accumulated and frozen upon the ship's sides
on the lower deck. As long as it continued in this state, it did
not prove a source of annoyance, especially as it had no
communication with the bed-places. The late mildness of the
weather, however, having caused a thaw to take place below, it now
became necessary immediately to scrape off the coating of ice, and
it will, perhaps, be scarcely credited, that we this day removed
about one hundred buckets full, each containing from five to six
gallons, being the accumulation which had taken place in an
interval of less than four weeks. It may be observed, that this
vapour must principally have been produced from the men's breath,