MODERN VIKINGS IN THE ARCTIC SEAS 413 



out many adventures with the ice. He was now in the vicinity of 

 the Magnetic Pole, as located by Sir James Ross in 1831 on the 

 peninsula above named, then supposed to be an island and named 

 Boothia Felix. The locality of the pole, as then determined, was 

 97 degrees west longitude, 70^ degrees north latitude. It was 

 Amundsen's desire to locate it more exactly and discover if it had 

 shifted its position during the years that had elapsed. 



Seeking winter quarters at a point on the coast of King Wil- 

 liam's Land, about one hundred miles from the location ascribed to 

 the Magnetic Pole, he began a series of careful observations in 

 magnetism, continued day and night for the long period of nineteen 

 months, including two winters in the sea of ice. He finally located 

 the pole in King William's Land, at a point not far removed from 

 that assigned to it by Ross in 1831. 



In the spring of 1905 two members of the party, Amundsen 

 and Hansen, explored and charted the east coast of Victoria Land 

 as far north as the seventy-second degree of north latitude, naming 

 the coast charted King Haakon Land in honor of the King of 

 Norway. Here he discovered an unknown tribe of Eskimos. In 

 the following summer the "Gjoa" was taken from the quarters in 

 which she had passed two winters and the work of completing the 

 task of traversing the Northwest Passage was resumed. The course 

 now followed kept closely to the northern coast of the continent, 

 traversing the channel between the mainland and the islands. 



Onward through the realm of ice went the adventurers, tra- 

 versing in the opposite direction the route followed by McClure in 

 1850, until Point Barrow was passed and the waters of Bering 

 Strait reached. The difficulties of the route were such that the little 

 "Gjoa" had to pass another winter in the ice. But in December the 

 adventurers succeeded in reaching an Alaskan telegraph station, 

 and on the 5th a message was cabled to Alaska that the "Gjoa" and 

 her crew were safe, and that they had succeeded in locating the 

 Magnetic Pole and carrying their ship through the Northwest 



