ven to casual observation.

This is a curious fact connected with the feeling of heat:

"The power of the sun this day in a cloudless sky was so great,
that Mr. Rae and I were glad to take shelter in the water while
the crews were engaged on the portages. The irritability of the
human frame is either greater in these Northern latitudes, or
the sun, notwithstanding its obliquity, acts more powerfully
upon it than near the Equator; for I have never felt its direct
rays so oppressive within the Tropics as I have experienced
them to be on some occasions in the high latitudes. The luxury
of bathing at such times is not without alloy; for, if you
choose the mid-day, you are assailed in the water by the
_tabani_, who draw blood in an instant with their formidable
lancets; and if you select the morning or evening, then clouds
of thirsty moschetoes, hovering around, fasten on the first
part that emerges. Leeches also infest the still waters, and
are prompt in their aggressions."

The following relate to cold and mid-winter:

"The rapid evaporation of both snow and ice in the winter and
spring, long before the action of the sun has produced the
slightest thaw or appearance of moisture, is made evident to
residents in the high latitudes by many facts of daily
occurrence; and I may mention that the drying of linen
furnishes a familiar one. When a shirt, after being washed, is
exposed in the open air to a temperature of 40 deg. or 50 deg. below
zero, it is instantly rigidly frozen, and may be broken if
violently bent. If agitated when in this condition by a strong
wind, it makes a rustling noise like theatrical thunder. In an
hour or two, however, or nearly as quickly as it would do if
exposed to the sun in the moist climate of England, it dries
and becomes limber....

"In consequence of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in
winter, most articles of English manufacture made of wood,
horn, or ivory, brought to Rupert's Land, are shrivelled, bent,
and broken. The handles of razors and knives, combs, ivory
scales, and various other things kept in the warm rooms, are
damaged in this way. The human body also becomes visibly
electric from the dryness of the skin. One cold night I rose
from my bed, and having lighted a lantern, was going out to
obs