9G THE OBSERVATORY. 



corps. Between him and the executive officer there 

 sprung up quite a rivalry of interest. While the one 

 desired a clean ship moored in safety and a well-fed 

 crew, he was naturally jealous of any detail of men 

 for the other ; and it must be owned that the men 

 worked with much greater alacrity for the follower of 

 Epicurus than the disciple of Copernicus. An appeal 

 to head-quarters, however, speedily settled the ques- 

 tion as to where the work was most needed ; and, by 

 a judicious discrimination as to what was due to sci- 

 ence and what to personal convenience, we managed, 

 while the daylight lasted, to lay the foundation of a 

 verv clever series of observations, while at the same 

 time our comfort was secured. 



A neat little observatory was erected on the lower 

 terrace, not far from the store-house, and it was 

 promptly put to use ; and an accurate survey of the 

 harbor and bay, with soundings, was made as soon as 

 the ice was strong enough to bear our weight. The 

 observatory was a frame structure eight feet square 

 and seven high, covered first with canvas and then 

 with snow, and was lined throughout with bear and 

 reindeer skins. In it our fine pendulum apparatus 

 was first mounted, and Sonntag and Radcliffe were 

 engaged for nearly a month in counting its vibrations. 

 It was found to work admirably. Upon removing this 

 instrument, the magnetometer w r as substituted in its 

 place, upon a pedestal which was not less simple than 

 original. It was made of two headless kegs, placed 

 end* to end upon the solid rock beneath the floor, and 

 the cylinder thus formed was filled with the only ma- 

 terials upon which the frost had not laid hold, namely, 

 beans. Water being poured over these, we had soon, 

 at ten degrees below zero, a neat and perfectly solid 



