On the 5th, the register-thermometer, which had been placed in the ground in the winter, was taken up, though, to our astonishment, the ground above and about it had become nearly as hard and compactly frozen as when we dug the hole to put it down.  How this came about we were quite at a loss to determine; for the earth had been thrown in quite loosely, whereas its present consolidated state implied its having been thoroughly thawed and frozen again.  It occupied two men ten days to extricate it, which, as they approached the thermometer, was done by a chisel and mallet, to avoid injury by jarring.  This, however, was not sufficient to prevent mischief, the instrument being so identified with the frozen earth as to render it impossible to strike the ground near it without communicating the shock to the tubes, two of which were in consequence found to be broken.  Thus ended our experiment for ascertaining the temperature of the earth during the winter; an experiment which it would seem, from this attempt, scarcely practicable to make in any satisfactory manner without some apparatus constructed expressly for the purpose.

On the 6th the work was continued as before, and about four hundred yards of ice were sawn through and floated out, leaving now a broad canal, eleven hundred yards in length, leading from the open water towards that formed by the gravelled space.

When the lateness of the season to which the ships had now been detained in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the Fury’s effecting anything of importance during the short remainder of the present summer, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that of the health of my officers and men, I began to entertain doubts whether it would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the Fury as a single ship; whether, in short, under existing circumstances, the probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good.  In order to assist my own judgment on this occasion upon one of the most material points, I requested the medical officers of the Fury to furnish me with their opinions “as to the probable effect that a third winter passed in these regions would produce on the health of the officers, seamen, and marines of that ship, taking into consideration every circumstance connected with our situation.”  Their answer was decidedly adverse to remaining; and it was fortified with such good reasons, connected with the health of the officers and crews, as scarcely to leave me at liberty to adopt any other course than that of returning to England with both vessels.