Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/135

 column; and it remained serviceable throughout the winter, as no fire of any kind was allowed in this abode of science.

In order to obtain an accurate record of temperature, we erected near the Observatory a suitable shelter for the thermometers. In this were placed a number of instruments, mostly spirit, which were read hourly every seventh day, and three times daily in the interval. In addition to this, we noted the temperature every second hour with a thermometer suspended to a post on the ice. Mr. Dodge undertook for me a set of ice measurements, and the telescope was mounted alongside the vessel, in a dome made with blocks of ice and snow.

But the wind would still give us no rest, and, setting in again from a southerly direction, the ice was once more broken up, and we were again driven upon the rocks, and a second time compelled to saw a dock for the schooner and haul her off-shore. This operation was both laborious and disagreeable, even more so than it had been on the former occasion. The ice was rotten, and so tangled up with the pressure that it was not easy to find secure footing; and the result was that few of the party escaped with less than one good ducking. These accidents were, however, un-*