The commencement of this dreary season in these regions may,
indeed, be fairly dated from the time when the earth no longer
receives and radiates heat enough to melt the snow which falls
upon it. When the land is once covered with this substance, so
little calculated to favour the absorption of heat, the frigorific
process seems to be carried on with increased vigour, defining
very clearly the change from summer to winter, with little or no
immediate interval to which the name of autumn can be distinctly
assigned.
We passed Cape Edwards on the 6th; but on the 8th the formation of
young ice upon the surface of the water began most decidedly to
put a stop to the navigation of these seas, and warned us that the
season of active operations was nearly at an end.
When to the ordinary difficulties which the navigation of the
Polar Seas presents were superadded the disadvantages of a
temperature at or near _zero_, its necessary concomitant the young
ice, and twelve hours of darkness daily, it was impossible any
longer to entertain a doubt of the expediency of immediately
placing the ships in the best security that could be found for
them during the winter, rather than run the risk of being
permanently detached from the land by an endeavour to regain the
continent.
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