On the 16th it blew a strong gale from the northward, accompanied by such a constant snowdrift, that, although the weather was quite clear overhead, the boathouse at the distance of three or four hundred yards could scarcely be seen from the ships.  On such occasions no person was permitted on any account to leave the ships.  Indeed, when this snowdrift occurred, as it frequently did in the winter, with a hard gale and the thermometer very low, I believe that no human being could have remained alive after an hour’s exposure to it.  In order, therefore, to secure a communication between the two ships, a distance not exceeding half a cable’s length, as well as from the ships to the house on shore, a line was kept extended, as a guide from one to the other.  The meridian, altitude of the sun was observed this day by an artificial horizon, which I noticed from the circumstance of its being the last time we had an opportunity of observing it for about four months.

On the 26th the sun afforded us sufficient light or writing and reading in my cabin, the stern-windows exactly facing the south, from half past nine till half past two; for the rest of the four-and-twenty hours, we lived, of course, by candle-light.  Nothing could exceed the beauty of the sky to the southeast and southwest at sunrise and sunset about this period:  near the horizon there was generally a rich bluish purple and a bright arch of deep red above, the one mingling imperceptibly with the other.

It now became rather a painful experiment to touch any metallic substance in the open air with the naked hand; the feeling produced by it exactly resembling that occasioned by the opposite extreme of intense heat, and taking off the skin from the part affected.  We found it necessary, therefore, to use great caution in handling our sextants and other instruments, particularly the eye-pieces of telescopes, which, if suffered to touch the face, occasioned an intense burning pain; but this was easily remedied by covering them over with soft leather.  Another effect, with regard to the use of instruments, began to appear about this time.  Whenever any instrument which had been some time exposed to the atmosphere, so as to be cooled down to the same temperature, was suddenly brought below into the cabins, the vapour was instantly condensed all around it, so as to give the instrument the appearance of smoking, and the glasses were covered almost instantly with a thin coating of ice, the removal of which required great caution, to prevent the risk of injuring them, until it had gradually thawed, as they acquired the temperature of the cabin.  When a candle was placed in a certain direction from the instrument with respect to the observer, a number of very minute spiculae of snow were also seen sparkling around the instrument, at the distance of two or three inches from it, occasioned, as we supposed, by the cold atmosphere produced by the low temperature of the instrument almost instantaneously congealing into that form the vapour which floated in its immediate neighbourhood.