means, and this with a very limited supply of fuel, it may,
perhaps be conceived, in some degree, what unremitting attention
was necessary to the preservation of health, under circumstances
so unfavourable and even prejudicial.

The morning of April 27th being very fine, and the thermometer at
+6°, the ship's company's bedding was hung up to air, between the
fore and main rigging, being the first time we had ventured to
bring it from the lower deck for nearly eight months. While it was
out, the berths and bed-places were fumigated with a composition
of gunpowder mixed with vinegar, and known familiarly by the name
of _devils_; an operation which had been regularly gone through
once a week during the winter.

For the last three or four days of April the snow on the black
cloth of our housing had begun to thaw a little during a few hours
in the middle of the day, and on the 30th so rapid a change took
place in the temperature of the atmosphere, that the thermometer
stood at the freezing, or, as it may more properly be termed in
this climate, the thawing point, being the first time that such an
event had occurred for nearly eight months, or since the 9th of
the preceding September. This temperature was to our feelings, so
much like that of summer, that I was under the necessity of using
my authority to prevent the men from making such an alteration in
their clothing as might have been attended with very dangerous
consequences. The thermometer had ranged from -32° to +32° in the
course of twenty days. There was, at this period, more snow upon
the ground than at any other time of the year, the average depth
on the lower parts of the land being four or five inches, but much
less upon the hills; while in the ravines a very large quantity