The frost is never out of the ground, how deep we cannot be certain. We have dug down 10 or 12 feet, and found the earth hard frozen in the two summer months ; and what moisture we find five or six feet down, is white like ice.
The waters or rivers near the sea, where the current of the title flows strong-, do not freeze above 9 Or 10 feet deep.
All the waters we use for cooking, brewing, &c. is melt ed snow and ice. No spring is yet found free from freez ing, though dug never so deep down.
All waters inland are frozen fast by the beginning of October, and continue so till the beginning of The walls of the house we live in are of stone, two feet thick ; the windows very small, with thick wooden shutters, which are close shut 18 hours day in the winter. There are cellars under the house, wherein we put our wines, brRndy, strong beer, butter, cheese, litc. Four large fires are made in great stoves, built on pur pose, every day. As soon as the wood is burnt down to a coal, the tops of the chimneys are close stopped with an iron cover; this keeps the heat within the house, (though at the same time the smoke makes our heads ache, and is very offensive and unwholesome,) notwith standing which, in four or five hours after the fire is out, the inside of the walls of our houses and bed-places will be two or three inches thick with ice, which is ever• morning cut away with a hatchet. Three or four times a day we make iron shot of 24 pounds weight red-hot, and hang them up in the windows of our apartments. I have a good fire in my room the major part of 24 hours, yet all this will not preserve my beer, wine, ink, &c. from freezing.
For our winter dress, we make use of three pair of socks of coarse blanketing or duffield for the feet, with a pair of deer skin shoes over them; two pair of thick English stockings, and a pair of cloth stockings upon them ; breeches lined with flannel ; two or three English jackets, and a fur or leather gown over them ; a large beaver cap, double, to come over the face and shoulders, and a cloth of blanketing under the chin; with yarn gloves, and a large pair of beaver mittens hanging down from the shoulders before, to put our hands in, which reach up as high as our elbows ; yet notwithstanding this warm cloathing, almost every day, sonic of the men that stir abroad, if any wind blows from the northward, arc dread fully frozen ; some have their arms, hands, and face blistered and frozen in a terrible manner, the skin coming off soon after they enter a warm house, and some have lost their toes. Now their lying-in for the cure of these
frozen parts, brings on the scurvy in a lamentable man ner. Many have died of it, and few are free from that distemper. I have procured them all the helps I could, from the diet this country affords in winter, such as fresh fish, partridges, broths, &c. and the doctors have used their utmost skill in vain; for I find nothing will prevent that distemper from being mortal, but exercise and stir ring abroad.
Corona and parhclia, commonly called Halo's and mock-suns, appear frequently about the sun and 11100I1 here. They are seen once or twice a week about the sun, and once or twice a month about the moon, for four or five months hi winter, several corona: of different dia meters appearing at the same time.
I have seen five or six parallel coronae concentric with the sun several times in winter, being for the most part very bright, and always attended with parhelia or mock suns. The parhelia are always accompanied with coronae, if the weather is clear; and continue for several days to gether, from the sun rising to his setting. These rings are of various colours, and about forty or fifty degrees in diameter.
The frequent appearance of these phxnomena in this frozen clime seems to confirm Descartes's hypothesis, who supposes them to proceed from ice suspended in the air.
The aurora borealis is much oftener seen here than in England; seldom a night passes in winter free from their appearance. They shine with a surprising brightness, darkening all the stars and planets, and covering the it hole hemisphere: their tremulous motion from all parts, the beauty, and lustre, are much the same as in the northern parts of Scotland and Denmark.