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in the Western Arctic Sea. 87 nature of these changes of the weather, you must be told that in the course of the last twenty days of April the thermometer ranged no less than 64 degrees, that is to say, on the 10th the mer cury was at 32° below zero; on the 22d it had risen to zero ; and on the 30th to 32° above zero, the point of freezing and thawing water. In the view of this rapid alteration of temperature, even the least sanguine in the expedition looked forward to the end of June as the period of our release from our present confinement in Winter Harbour. The large wolf, already mentioned, has for some days kept within sight of the ships, and been visited by the same dog. The wolf is, however, too powerful for our traps, and so wary that we have never got near enough to try a shot. As our attention and thoughts are now turned to the necessary preparations for availing ourselves of the favourable weather for our departure from this station, of which you may imagine us to be now heartily tired, l must close this epistle with best and kindest wishes for you all. Ever your’s, &c. &c. LETTER XII. Dear Brother, Winter Harbour, 1st July, 1820. The material improvement in the weather in the end of April led to the commencement of the proposed observations, relative to the determining the length of a pendulum, to vibrate seconds of time in the latitude of Winter Harbour. The astronomical clocks were accordingly carried ashore from the Hecla, and the observations were began. May, however, came in with a very different aspect ; for on Monday the first of that month, the day in which I closed my last letter, the wind and snow-drift came away so keenly from the northward that the requisite degree of warmth it was impossible to keep up in the observatory. The door being completely blocked by the drift, it was necessary to communicate with the astronomer, Captain Sabine, and his atten dants, otherwise titan by a small window. At midnight the sun was visible on the northern meridian for the first time this year. In a few days the high grounds were again uncovered, the gales having drifted off the snow, now again dry and loose. On the 3d and 4th days of the month the thermometer fell to —26°. On this latter day the men began to clear away the snow which had been necessarily heaped up against the ships’ sides, with the view of preventing the escape of the internal warmth, as must