To this must be added, that at this temperature the snow
becomes too soft for convenient walking, and the accumulation of
ice in the crevices and linings of the officers' cabins is
converted into a source of extreme annoyance, which, while it
continues solid, is never experienced. It is true that these
inconveniences occur in a much greater degree in the spring; but
being then hailed as the harbingers of the return of permanent
warmth, it is easy to obviate some, and would be hard to complain
of any of them.
_Nov. 6._--For several days about this period the weather
continued remarkably mild, the thermometer generally rising as
high as from +20 deg. to +28 deg. in the course of the day, from the 6th
to the 16th. Most of our necessary arrangements for the security
of the ships and stores during the winter being now completed, the
people were employed in what they called "rigging the theatre,"
and on the evening of the 9th the officers performed the play of
the "Rivals," to the infinite amusement of both ships' companies.
On the 1st of December there was a space of many miles in which
none of the "old ice" was visible. The sea was here for the most
part covered with a very thin sheet of "young" ice, probably the
formation of a single day, since the westerly wind had driven the
'floes' off the land.
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