The wind veering to the S.E. on the 24th and 25th, the thermometer gradually rose to +23°. I may possibly incur the charge of affectation in stating that this temperature was much too high to be agreeable to us; but it is nevertheless the fact, that everybody felt and complained of the change. We had often before remarked, that considerable alterations in the temperature of the atmosphere are as sensibly felt by the human frame at a very low part of the scale, as in the higher. The difference consists only in this, that a change from -40° upward to about _zero_ is usually a very welcome one, while from _zero_ to the freezing point, as in the instance just alluded to, it becomes, to persons in our situation, rather an inconvenience than otherwise. This may be more readily imagined by considering that our clothing, bedding, fires, and other precautions against the severity of the climate having been once adapted to a low degree of cold, an increase of temperature renders them oppressive and inconvenient; while any reduction (of the first two, at least) is impracticable with safety. 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° to +28° 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.