e, the breath of a person at a little
distance looked exactly like the smoke of a musket just fired, and
that of a party of men employed upon the ice to-day resembled a
thick white cloud.

At a quarter past ten on Thursday, the 24th, while the men were
running round the decks for exercise, and were on that account
fortunately well clothed, the house on shore was discovered to be
on fire. All the officers and men of both ships instantly ran up
to extinguish it; and having, by great exertion, pulled off the
roof with ropes, and knocked down a part of the sides, so as to
allow snow to be thrown upon the flames, we succeeded in getting
it under after three quarters of an hour, and fortunately before
the fire had reached that end of the house where the two clocks,
together with the transit and other valuable instruments, were
standing in their cases. Having removed these, and covered the
ruins with snow, to prevent any remains of fire from breaking out
again, we returned on board till more temperate weather should
enable us to dig out the rest of the things, among which nothing
of any material consequence was subsequently found to have
suffered injury; and, having mustered the ships' companies to see
that they had put on dry clothes before going to dinner, they were
employed daring the rest of the day in drying those which had been
wet. The appearance which our faces presented at the fire was a
curious one, almost every nose and cheek having become quite white
with frostbites in five minutes after being exposed to the
weather; so that it was deemed necessary for the medical
gentlemen, together with some others appointed to assist them, to
go constantly round while the men were working at the fire, and to
rub with snow the parts affected, in order to restore animation.
Notwithstanding this precaution, which, however, saved many
frostbites, we had an addition of no less than sixteen men to the
sick lists of both ships in consequence of this accident. Among
these there were four or five cases which kept the patients
confined for several weeks; but John Smith, of the artillery, who
was Captain Sabine's servant, and who, together with Sergeant
Martin, happened to be in the house at the time the fire broke
out, was unfortunate enough to suffer much more severely. In their
anxiety to save the dipping-needle, which was standing close to
the stove, and of which they knew the value, they immediately ran
out with it; and Smith, not