as to induce contemplations, that had,
perhaps, more of melancholy than of any other feeling. Not an object was
to be seen on which the eye could long rest with pleasure, unless when
directed to the spot where the ships lay. The smoke which there issued
from the several fires, affording a certain indication of the presence
of man, gave a partial cheerfulness to this part of the prospect; and
the sound of voices, which, during the cold weather, could be heard at a
much greater distance than usual, served, now and then, to break the
silence which reigned around,--a silence far different from that
peaceable composure which characterizes the landscape of a cultivated
country: it was the death-like stillness of the most dreary desolation,
the total absence of animated existence.

The weather became intensely severe; and, during the latter part of
November, and the first half of December, Captain Parry's journal
presents little more than observations on it; and oh the meteoric
appearances and fantastic illusions of light and colour, with which the
voyagers were often amused. At one time, the moon appeared to be
curiously deformed by refraction; the lower edges of it seeming to be
indented with deep notches, and afterwards to be cut off square at the
bottom; whilst a single ray or column of light, of the same diameter as
the moon, was observed to descend from it to the top of a hill. At
another time, several transparent clouds were seen to emit, upward,
columns of light, resembling the aurora borealis. The aurora borealis
itself appears to have been seldom witnessed, in the splendour with
which it occasionally illuminates even the northern parts of Scotland;
still it was both frequent and vivid enough to give variety and beauty
to the long nights which the voyagers had to endure.

The new year was ushered in by weather comparatively mild; but it soon
regained its former severity. Captain Parry and his crews did not,
however, experience those effects from the cold, even when 49 degrees
below 0, which preceding voyagers have stated; such as a dreadful
sensation on the lungs, when the air is inhaled at a very low
temperature; or the vapour with which an inhabited room is charged,
condensing into a shower of snow, immediately on the opening of a door
or window. What they did observe was this: on the opening of the doors,
at the top and bottom of the hatch-way ladders, the vapour was
condensed, by the sudden admission of the cold