Thursday (May 7th)
This is one of the two clearly identifiable but irreconcilable dates in
the novel: the other (Monday, 31 July) is contained in Walton's fourth
letter to his sister (4.1). It has
been noted, however, that the shift of one day here (to Thursday, May 8)
would reconcile the timeframe, allowing us to date the year of William's
death as 1794 and of Walton's letter as 1797.
