h had escaped from the ships entered, and
were recaught in the same traps as before.

_Jan. 14._--An ermine, of which the tracks had been traced the
preceding day up the Hecla's stern, and even on board her, Captain
Lyon to-day succeeded in catching in a trap. This beautiful
creature was entirely white, except a black brush to its tail, and
a slight tinge of the usual sulphur or straw colour on the root of
the tail, and also on the fore part of the fore legs. The little
animal being put into a convenient cage, seemed soon to feel
himself perfectly at home, eating, drinking, and sleeping
without any apparent apprehension, but evincing a very decided
determination to resent a too near approach to the wires of his new
habitation.

_Jan. 18._--At a late hour this evening the stovepipe of my cabin
caught fire, which gave us a momentary alarm, but, buckets and
water being at hand, it was soon extinguished. This accident was
occasioned by a quantity of soot collected in the stovepipe, and
yet was not altogether to be attributed to neglect in the persons
appointed to sweep the whole of them twice a week. As the cause of
it is such as is not likely to be anticipated by persons living in
temperate climates, and as the knowledge of it may be serviceable
to somebody destined for a cold one, I shall here explain it. The
smoke of coals contains a certain quantity of water in the state
of vapour. This, in temperate climates, and, indeed, till the
thermometer falls to about 10 deg. below _zero_, is carried up the
chimney and principally diffused in the atmosphere. When the cold
becomes more intense, however, this is no longer the case; for the
vapour is then condensed into water before it can escape from the
stovepipes, within which a mass of ice is, in consequence, very
speedily formed.[*] The vapour thus arrested must necessarily also
detain a quantity of soot, which, being subsequently enclosed in
the ice as the latter accumulates, the brush generally used to
clean the pipes cannot bring it away. By any occasional increase
of temperature, either in the external air or in the fire below,
the ice sometimes thaws, pouring down a stream of water into the
fire, and bringing with it a most pungent and oppressive smell of
soot. For these reasons, as well as to avoid accidents of the
nature above alluded to, it is necessary to sweep the pipes much
more frequently than in warmer climates, and even occasionally to
thaw the ice out of them