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 ourselves the total darkness from which we had so lately emerged.

The fine and temperate weather with which the month of April concluded, induced Captain Sabine to set the clocks going, in order to commence his observations for the pendulum, and he now took up his quarters in a new house for that purpose. On the 1st of May, however, it blew a strong gale from the northward, which made it impossible to keep up the desired temperature; and so heavy was the snowdrift, that in a few hours the observatory was nearly covered. The sun was seen at midnight, for the first time this season.

On the 6th, the thermometer rose no higher than +8½° during the day; but, as the wind was moderate, and it was high time to endeavour to get the ships once more fairly afloat. Lieutenant Parry gave orders to commence the operation of cutting the ice about them; and, as the expedition, at its departure from England, had been victualled for no more than two years, he considered it expedient, as a matter of precaution, to reduce the daily allowance of every species of provisions to two-thirds of the established proportion, and to renew a former “game-law,” by which it was enacted, that every animal killed by the various shooting parties should be considered as public property, and regularly issued, in lieu of other meat, without the slightest distinction between the messes of the officers and those of the ships’ companies. “On the 17th,” says he, “we completed the operation of cutting the