--Gradual Increase of Cold, Appearance of the Aurora
Borealis on several Occasions, and various other Meteorological
Phenomena to the Close of the Year 1821.
Our operations at sea being now at an end for the season, my chief
attention was directed to the security of the ships, and to the
various internal arrangements which experience suggested as
necessary for the preservation of cleanliness, health, and comfort
during the winter, as well as for the economical expenditure of
provisions, fuel, and other stores.
The situation which circumstances obliged us to put up with for
our winter-quarters was by no means as secure as could have been
wished. The bay, though as fine a roadstead as could have been
desired if situated in a more temperate climate, was still only a
roadstead; and, being entirely open to the south, was exposed to a
pressure from the ice in that direction, unless the solid floe now
about to be formed round the ships should shortly become
sufficient to guard them from external injury. There was some
reason, however, to doubt the efficacy of this protection; for, as
the spring-tides approached, the numerous grounded masses around
the shores of the bay began to evince symptoms of instability, one
or two having fallen over, and others turned round; so that these
masses might be looked upon rather as dangerous neighbours, likely
to create a premature disruption of the ice, than as the means of
security, which, in seas not subject to any considerable rise of
tide, they had so often proved to us on former occasions.
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