o liberate the
Ships.--Disruption of the Ice.--Departure from Port Bowen.

The height of the land about Port Bowen deprived us longer than usual of
the sun's presence above our horizon. Some of our gentlemen, indeed, who
ascended a high hill for the purpose, caught a glimpse of him on the 2d
of February; on the 15th it became visible at the observatory, but at
the ships not till the 22d, after an absence of one hundred and
twenty-one days. It is very long after the sun's reappearance in these
regions, however, that the effect of his rays, as to warmth, becomes
perceptible; week passes after week, with scarcely any rise in the
thermometer except for an hour or two during the day; and it is at this
period more than any other, perhaps, that the lengthened duration of a
Polar winter's cold is most wearisome, and creates the most impatience.
Towards the third week in March, thin flakes of snow lying upon black
painted wood or metal, and exposed to the sun's direct rays in a
sheltered situation, readily melted. In the second week of April any
very light covering of sand or ashes upon the snow close to the ships
might be observed to make its way downward into holes; but a coat of
sand laid upon the unsheltered ice, to the distance of about two thirds
of a mile, for dissolving a canal to hasten our liberation, produced no
such sensible effect till the beginning of May. Even then the
dissolution was very trifling till about the first week in June, when
pools of water began to make their appearance, and not long after this a
small boat would have floated down it. On shore the effect is, in
general, still more tardy, though some deception is there occasioned by
the dissolution of the snow next the ground, while its upper surface is
to all appearance undergoing little or no change. Thus a greater
alteration is sometimes produced in the aspect of the land by a single
warm day in an advanced part of the season, than in many weeks
preceding, in consequence of the last crust of snow being dissolved,
leaving the ground at length entirely bare. We could now perceive the
snow beginning to leave the stones from day to day, as early as the last
week in April. Towards the end of May a great deal of snow was dissolved
daily; but, owing to the porous nature of the ground, which absorbed it
as fast as it was formed, it was not easy to procure water for drinking
on shore, even as late as the 10th of June. In the ravines, however, it
cou