l to us in another way. The trees froze to their very
centres and became as hard as stones and more difficult to cut. Some of
the axes were broken daily and by the end of the month we had only one
left that was fit for felling trees. By entrusting it only to one of the
party who had been bred a carpenter and who could use it with dexterity
it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our men with others
from Fort Providence.

A thermometer hung in our bedroom at the distance of sixteen feet from
the fire but exposed to its direct radiation stood even in the daytime
occasionally at 15 degrees below zero, and was observed more than once
previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning to be as low as 40
degrees below zero. On two of these occasions the chronometers 2149 and
2151 which during the night lay under Mr. Hood's and Dr. Richardson's
pillows stopped while they were dressing themselves.

The rapid at the commencement of the river remained open in the severest
weather although it was somewhat contracted in width. Its temperature was
32 degrees, as was the surface of the river opposite the house about a
quarter of a mile lower down tried at a hole in the ice through which
water was drawn for domestic purposes. The river here was two fathoms and
a half deep and the temperature at its bottom was at least 42 degrees
above zero. This fact was ascertained by a spirit thermometer in which,
probably from some irregularity in the tube, a small portion of the
coloured liquid usually remained at 42 degrees when the column was made
to descend rapidly. In the present instance, the thermometer standing at
47 degrees below zero with no portion of the fluid in the upper part of
the tube, was let down slowly into the water but drawn cautiously and
rapidly up again, when a red drop at plus 42 degrees indicated that the
fluid had risen to that point or above it. At this period the daily
visits of the sun were very short and, owing to the obliquity of his
rays, afforded us little warmth or light. It is half-past eleven before
he peeps over a small ridge of hills opposite to the house, and he sinks
in the horizon at half-past two. On the 28th Mr. Hood, in order to attain
an approximation to the quantity of terrestrial refraction, observed the
sun's meridian altitude when the thermometer stood at 46 degrees below
zero, at the imminent hazard of having his fingers frozen.

He found the sextant had changed its error considerably,