Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/224

 has not, at any time, reached the freezing point, and the ice on which the snow rests is over three feet thick. There would appear to be a sort of an osmotic action taking place. Snow is now beginning to fall, and, as usual, it is very light and beautifully and regularly crystalized. The depth of snow which has fallen up to this time is 15-1/4 inches.

November 13th.

Worse and worse. The temperature has risen again, and the roof over the upper deck gives us once more a worse than tropic shower. The snow next the ice grows more slushy, and this I am more than ever puzzled to understand, since I have found to-day that the ice, two feet below the surface, has a temperature of 20°; at the surface it is 19°, and the snow in contact with it is 18°. The water is 29°.

The darkness is not yet quite absolute. With some difficulty I can still see to read ordinary print at noon.

November 14th.

The wind has been blowing for nearly twenty-four hours from the northeast, and yet the temperature holds on as before. At 10 o'clock this evening it was 4-1/2°. I have done with speculation. A warm wind from the mer de glace, and this boundless reservoir of Greenland frost, makes mischief with my theories, as facts have heretofore done with the theories of wiser men. As long as the wind came from the sea I could find some excuse for the unseasonable warmth.

I have rigged a new tide-register to-day, with the aid of McCormick, my man of all ingenious work. If it prove as effective as it is simple, I shall have a good registry of the Port Foulke tides. It is but a light