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 A COMMUNICATION, 25 1 The disappearance of the sun did not, however, produce any change in the state of the atmosphere. The temperature was as changeable as ever. The thermometer fell one day and rose the next. Rain and snow succeeded each other. The wind was soft, and did not settle in any quarter, but often veered round to every point of the compass in the course of a single day. The constant damp was very unhealthy, and likely to lead to scorbutic affections amongst the colonists, but fortunately, although the lime juice and lime lozenges were running short, and no fresh stock had been obtained, the scurvy-grass and sorrel had yielded a very good crop, and, by the advice of Lieutenant Hobson, a portion of them was eaten daily. Every effort must, however, be made to get away from Fort Hope. Under the circumstances, three months would scarcely be long enough for them all to get to the nearest continent. It as im- possible to risk being overtaken by the thaw on the ice-field, and therefore if they started at all it must be at the end of November. The journey would have been difficult enough, even if the ice had been rendered solid everywhere by a severe winter, and in this uncertain weather it was a most serious matter. On the 13th November, Hobson, Mrs Barnett, and the Sergeant met to decide on the day of dei)arture. The Sergeant was of opinion that they ought to leave the island as soon as possible. '* For," he said, " we must make allowance for all the possible delays during a march of six hundred miles. We ought to reach the continent before March, or we may be surprised by the thaw, and then we shall be in a worse predicament than we are on our island." " But," said Mrs Barnett, " is the sea firm enough for us to cross it?" The barometer, too, is gradually rising, and by the time our prepara- tions are completed, which will be in about another week, I think, I hope that the really cold weather will have set in." " The winter has begun very badly," said Hobson, " in fact every- thing seems to combine against us. Strange seasons have often been experienced on these seas ; I have heard of whalers being able to navigate in places where, even in the summer at another time they would riot have had an inch of water beneath their keels. In my opinion there is not a day to be lost, and I cannot sufficiently
 * ' I think it is," said Long, " and the ice gets thicker every day.