Among the small groups of islands in this sea, in the day and night thunderstorms, the combat of the clouds appears to make them more thirsty than ever. In tunnel form, when they can no longer quench their thirst from the surrounding atmosphere, they descend near the surface of the sea, and appear to lap the water directly up with their black mouths. They are not always accompanied by strong winds; frequently more than one is seen at a time, whereupon the clouds whence they proceed disperse, and the ends of the Waterspouts bending over finally causes them to break in the middle. They seldom last longer than five minutes. As they are going away, the bulbous tube, which is as palpable as that of a thermometer, becomes broader at the base; and little clouds, like steam from the pipe of a locomotive, are continually thrown off from the circumference of the spout, and gradually the water is released, and the cloud whence the spout came again closes its mouth.
COLD IN HUDSON’S BAY.
Mr. R. M. Ballantyne, in his journal of six years’ residence in the territories of the Hudson’s Bay Company, tells us, that for part of October there is sometimes a little warm, or rather thawy, weather; but after that, until the following April, the thermometer seldom rises to the freezing point. In the depth of winter, the thermometer falls from 30° to 40°, 45°, and even 49° below zero of Fahrenheit. This intense cold is not, however, so much felt as one might suppose; for during its continuance the air is perfectly calm. Were the slightest breath of wind to rise when the thermometer stands so low, no man could show his face to it for a moment. Forty degrees below zero, and quite calm, is infinitely preferable to fifteen below, or thereabout, with a strong breeze of wind. Spirit of wine is, of course, the only thing that can be used in the thermometer; as mercury, were it exposed to such cold, would remain frozen nearly half the winter. Spirit never froze in any cold ever experienced at York Factory, unless when very much adulterated with water; and even then the spirit would remain liquid in the centre of the mass. Quicksilver easily freezes in this climate, and it has frequently been run into a bullet-mould, exposed to the cold air till frozen, and in this state rammed down a gun-barrel, and fired through a thick plank. The average cold may be set down at about 15° or 16° below zero, or 48° of frost. The houses at the Bay are built of wood, with double windows and doors. They are heated by large iron stoves, fed with wood; yet so intense is the cold, that when a stove has been in places red-hot, a basin of water in the room has been frozen solid.
PURITY OF WENHAM-LAKE ICE.
Professor Faraday attributes the purity of Wenham-Lake Ice to its being free from air-bubbles and from salts. The presence of the first makes it extremely difficult to succeed in making a lens of English ice which will concentrate the solar rays, and readily fire gunpowder; whereas nothing is easier than to perform this singular feat of igniting a combustible body by aid of a frozen mass if Wenham-Lake ice be employed. The absence of salts conduces greatly to the permanence of the ice; for where water is so frozen that the salts expelled are still contained in air-cavities and cracks, or form thin films between the layers of ice, these entangled salts cause the ice to melt at a lower temperature than 32°, and the liquefied portions give rise to streams and currents within the body of the ice which rapidly carry heat to the interior. The mass then goes on thawing within as well as without, and at temperatures below 32°; whereas pure, compact, Wenham-Lake ice can only thaw at 32°, and only on the outside of the mass.—Sir Charles Lyell’s Second Visit to the United States.
ARCTIC TEMPERATURES.
Dr. Kane, in his Second Arctic Expedition, found the thermometers beginning to show unexampled temperature: they ranged from 60° to 70° below zero, and upon the taffrail of the brig 65°. The reduced mean of the best spirit-standards gave 67° or 99° below the freezing point of water. At these temperatures chloric ether became solid, and chloroform exhibited a granular pellicle on its surface. Spirit of naphtha froze at 54°, and the oil of turpentine was solid at 63° and 65°.
DR. RAE’S ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.
The gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was in 1852 most rightfully awarded to this indefatigable Arctic explorer. His survey of the inlet of Boothia, in 1848, was unique in its kind. In Repulse Bay he maintained his party on deer, principally shot by himself; and spent ten months of an Arctic winter in a hut of stones, with no other fuel than a kind of hay of the Andromeda tetragona. Thus he preserved his men to execute surveying journeys of 1000 miles in the spring. Later he travelled 300 miles on snow-shoes. In a spring journey over the ice, with a pound of fat daily for fuel, accompanied by two men only, and trusting solely for shelter to snow-houses, which he taught his men to build, he accomplished 1060 miles in thirty-nine days, or twenty-seven miles per day, including stoppages,—a feat never equalled in Arctic travelling. In the spring journey, and that which followed in the summer in boats, 1700 miles were traversed in eighty days. Dr. Rae’s greatest sufferings, he once remarked to Sir George Back, arose from his being obliged to sleep upon his frozen mocassins in order to thaw them for the morning’s use.