Among the recreations which afforded the highest gratification to several among us, I may mention the musical parties we were enabled to muster, and which assembled on stated evenings throughout the winter, alternately in Captain Lyon’s cabin and my own.  More skilful amateurs in music might well have smiled at these our humble concerts; but it will not incline them to think less of the science they admire, to be assured that, in these remote and desolate regions of the globe, it has often furnished us with the most pleasurable sensations which our situation was capable of affording:  for, independently of the mere gratification afforded to the ear by music, there is, perhaps, scarcely a person in the world really fond of it, in whose mind its sound is not more or less connected with “his far distant home.”

With our time thus occupied, our comforts so abundant, and the prospect to seaward so enlivening, it would, indeed, have been our own faults had we felt anything but enjoyment in our present state, and the most lively hopes and expectations for the future.

CHAPTER VII.

Many Foxes caught.—­Continued Open Water in the Offing.—­Partial Disruption of the Ice in the Bay.—­Meteorological Phenomena, and Temperature of Animals.—­Arrival of a Tribe of Esquimaux.—­First Meeting and subsequent Intercourse with them.—­Esquimaux in Want of Provisions.—­Supplied with Bread-dust.—­Some Account of a Sealing Excursion with them.—­Fresh Disruption of the Ice in the Bay.—­Closing of the Winter Theatre.—­Meteorological Phenomena till the End of February, 1822.

The first day of the new year was a very severe one in the open air, the thermometer being down to -22 deg., and the wind blowing strong from the northwest.  The effect of a breeze upon the feelings is well known to every person, even in comparatively temperate climates, but at low temperatures it becomes painful and almost insupportable.  Thus, with the thermometer at -55 deg., and no wind stirring, the hands may remain uncovered for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour without inconvenience; while, with a fresh breeze, and the thermometer nearly as high as zero, few people can keep them exposed so long without considerable pain.

About noon on the 2d, Captain Lyon observed a considerable body of snow taken up by the wind and whirled round in a spiral form like that of a water-spout, though with us the breeze was quite light at the time.  It increased gradually in size till lost behind the southeast point.  As a proof of the difficulty which the hares must find in obtaining subsistence during the winter, these animals were at this time in the habit of coming alongside the ships upon the ice to pick up what they could from our rubbish-heaps.  A fox or two still entered the traps occasionally, and our gentlemen informed me that they had always been most successful in catching them after a southerly