On the 9th it blew a hard gale from the northward and westward, raising a snowdrift, which made the day almost as inclement as in the midst of winter.  The wind very suddenly ceased in the evening, and while the atmosphere near the ships was so serene and undisturbed that the smoke rose quite perpendicularly, we saw the snowdrift on the hills, at one or two miles’ distance, whirled up into the air, in columns several hundred feet high, and carried along by the wind, sometimes to the north, and at others in the opposite direction.  The snow thus raised at times resembled waterspouts, but more frequently appeared like smoke issuing from the tops of the hills, and as such was at first represented to me.

It blew a strong breeze from the N.b.W., with a heavy snowdrift, on the 12th, which continued, with little intermission, till near noon on the 14th; affording us a convincing proof that the hopes with which we had flattered ourselves of the speedy return of spring were not yet to be accomplished.

On the 16th, there being little wind, the weather was again pleasant and comfortable, though the thermometer remained very low.

This evening the officers performed the farces of the Citizen and the Mayor of Garratt, being the last of our theatrical amusements for this winter, the season having now arrived when there would no longer be a want of occupation for the men, and when it became necessary also to remove a part of the roofing to admit light to the officers’ cabins.  Our poets were again set to work on this occasion, and an appropriate address was spoken on the closing of the North Georgia Theatre, than which we may, without vanity, be permitted to say, none had ever done more real service to the community for whose benefit it was intended.

On the 23d we found, by digging a hole in the ice, in the middle of the harbour, where the depth of water was four fathoms and a quarter, that its thickness was six feet and a half, and the snow on the surface of it eight inches deep.  This may be considered a fair specimen of the average formation of ice in this neighbourhood since the middle of the preceding September:  and as the freezing process did not stop for six weeks after this, the produce of the whole winter may, perhaps, be reasonably taken at seven, or seven and a half feet.  In chopping this ice with an axe the men found it very hard and brittle, till they arrived within a foot of the lower surface, where it became soft and spongy.

Being extremely anxious to get rid, as early as possible, of the drying of our washed clothes upon the lower deck, I had to-day a silk handkerchief washed and hung up under the stern, in order to try the effect of the sun’s rays upon it.  In four hours it became thoroughly dry, the thermometer in the shade being from -18 deg. to -6 deg. at the time.  This was the first article that had been dried without artificial heat for six months, and it was yet another