174 CLAVERING. 



at once rendered the ship full-fished, and placed him 

 among the most successful adventurers of the year. 

 He could, therefore, return with satisfactory feelings ; 

 and the pleasure of the voyage homeward was only 

 alloyed by the occurrence of a violent storm off Lewis, 

 in which Sam Chambers, one of the most esteemed and 

 active of his crew, was washed overboard. 



To these discoveries some additions were made next 

 year by Captain Clavering, who was employed by the 

 British Admiralty to convey Captain Sabine to different 

 stations in the Arctic Sea, for the purpose of making 

 observations on the comparative length of the pendu- 

 lum, as affected by the principle of attraction. 



Clavering sailed on the 3d of May, 1823, and on the 

 2d of June arrived at Hammerfest, in Norway, where he 

 landed the philosopher with his tents and instruments. 

 The observations being completed, he weighed anchor 

 on the 23d, reached the northern coast of Spitzbergen, 

 and fixed on a small island between Vogel Sang and 

 Cloven Cliff for further operations. 



He left this coast on the 22d of July, and steered for 

 the eastern shores of Greenland, of which he came in 

 view on the 5th of August. The scene appeared the 

 most desolate he had ever beheld. The mountains rose 

 to the height of several thousand feet, without a vestige 

 of vegetation, or the appearance of any living creature 

 on the earth or in the air. Even the dreary waste of 

 Spitzbergen appeared a paradise to this. He landed 

 his passenger and the scientific apparatus on two islands 

 detached from the eastern shore of the continent, which 

 he called the Pendulum Islands, and of which the out- 

 ermost point is marked by a bold headlard rising to the 

 height of three thousand feet. 



While Sabine was employed in his peculiar researches, 

 the other surveyed a part of the coast which lay to the 



