22 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Sailing up past Capes North and Ray, and thence through the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and the Strait of Belle Isle, the Neptune coasted 

 along the Labrador shore until reaching Nain on the 29th, where a 

 pause was made in the hopes of securing fur clothing for those who 

 were to remain out all winter, and also an interpreter. Failing in 

 both objects, but experiencing much kindness at the hands of the 

 Moravian missionaries, one of whose principal stations Nain is, the 

 expedition continued on to Nachvak, arriving there on the 1st of 

 August. On the way icebergs were encountered in great numbers, 

 requiring constant vigilance on board the steamship. At Nachvak, 

 which is a post of the Hudson Bay Company, both the fur clothing 

 and the interpreter were readily obtained. The company's agent 

 informed Lieutenant Gordon that the ice takes over the harbor of 

 Nachvak, which is in latitude 59 10' north, and longitude 63 30' west, 

 about the middle of November in each year, and, curious to note, has, 

 for the last seven years, at all events broken up within a day of the 

 2Gth of June in each year. Off Cape Chudleigh, which is just at the 

 mouth of Hudson Strait, the Neptune was enveloped in a dense fog, 

 which compelled her to lay-to from Sunday until Tuesday morning. 

 Tuesday, however, dawned bright and clear, and, pushing in through 

 Grey Strait, a fine harbor was found that afternoon on the north- 

 western shore of the cape, at the entrance to Ungava Bay. On the 

 shore of this harbor a site was selected for observing station No. 1, 

 and the place named Port Bur well, in compliment to the observer 

 appointed to that station. As the best and briefest method of indi- 

 cating the precise nature of the duties devolving upon these observers 

 who were to spend a long and dreary winter at their posts, we here- 

 with transcribe the instructions with which each w r as furnished : 



Instructions to Officers in charge of Stations in Hudson 

 Bay and Strait. As the primary object of the whole expedition is 

 to ascertain for what period of the year the strait is navigable, all 

 attention is to be paid to the formation, breaking up, and movements 

 of the ice. 



Each station is supplied with a sun-dial and time-piece, and the 

 clock is to be tested each day when there is sunshine about noon. A 

 table of corrections is supplied for the reduction of apparent time to 

 local mean time ; to this the difference of time will be applied to 75th 

 meridian, all entries being made in the time of this meridian, and 

 observations will be taken regularly at the following times throughout 

 the year, viz., 3h. 08 m., 7 h. 08 m., 11 h. 08 m., a. m. and p. m. 



Each morning the sums and means of the observations taken on the 

 previous day will be taken out and checked over ; they will then be 

 entered in the abstract-books supplied for the purpose. 



After each observation during daylight the observer on duty will 

 take the telescope and carefully examine the strait, writing down at 



