10 A.M
It is , however , cold enough to freeze mercury , and to reduce every other substance employed as a test of atmospheric or laboratory temperatures to a solidity which admits of no further contraction . I had filled one outside thermometer with spirit , but this was broken before I looked at it ; and in another , whose bulb unfortunately was blackened , and which was filled with carbonic acid gas , an apparent vacuum had been created . Was it that the gas had been frozen , and had sunk into the lower part of the bulb , where it would , of course , be invisible ? When I had completed my meal and smoked the very small cigar which alone a prudent consideration for the state of the atmosphere would allow me , the chronometer showed 10 A.M. . It was not surprising that by this time weight had become almost non-existent . My twelve stone had dwindled to the weight of a small fowl , and hooking my little finger into the loop of a string hung from a peg fixed near the top of the stern wall , I found myself able thus to support my weight without any sense of fatigue for a quarter of an hour or more ; in fact , I felt during that time absolutely no sense of muscular weariness . This state of things entailed only one inconvenience .