[31] Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, pp. 145, 146, 4to. London: 1828.
[32] Narrative, &c. Intro. p. xiv.
[33] See description of Parry’s Boats—Narrative, &c. Intro. pp. xi.-xii.
[34] This was the maximum of cold I observed during my three Polar expeditions.
[35] Hayes mentions a storm occurring at -27° F.; but this is probably an error of the press.
[36] In Greenland I once heard at the distance of 800 paces a conversation between Börgen and Copeland carried on in the usual tone.
[37] Sir John Ross frequently did this, sending the bullet through a solid board. The freezing point of quicksilver is -40° F. It varies however between -40° and -45° F., according to the purity of the metal.
[38] It may easily happen in such weather that travellers on the ice should have great difficulty in finding the ship, though they should pass by it at less than 200 paces distant. The direction of the wind contributes but little towards the ascertaining of their position; amid hummocks of ice the wind constantly changes. On the 6th of March, Haller and I wandered about for hours amid drifting snow-storms. Pekel, who came to us from the ship, guided us rightly.
[39] There are no glaciers on the coast of Siberia, and the glaciers of Spitzbergen are not, it seems, large enough to detach icebergs. May not, therefore, the icebergs which gather at Hope Island, as well as those which are met with on the northern coasts of Siberia, originate in the glaciers of Franz-Josef Land? Barentz saw, in August, 1596, on the northern coasts of Novaya Zemlya, as many as 400 icebergs.
[40] This of course does not exclude the possibility of finding appropriate winter harbours in those Sounds we were unable to visit; most probably such occur in Markham Sound, which abounds in fiords.