46 PENDULUM EXPERIMENTS. Chap. IV. 



ference on behalf of the poor little puppies, I verily believe 

 they would all have been stolen and devoured ! Dogs may 

 do even worse than eat raven. 



I have attempted some experiments for the purpose of 

 determining the mean hourly change of oscillation of a 

 pendulum due to the earth's diurnal motion; but as mine 

 was only nj feet in length, I failed of any approach to 

 accuracy. The mean of several observations gave i7°47', 

 whereas the change due to our latitude is about 14 30'. A 

 single experiment gave 14 10', and this was the longest in 

 point of time of any of them, the pendulum having swung 

 for thirty-six minutes. 



24//*. — Position, 75 27' N., 68° 41' W. Furious N.W. and 

 S.E. gales have alternated of late ; the ship is housed over, 

 to keep out the driving snow ; so high is the snow carried in 

 the air that a little box perforated with small holes and 

 triced up 50 feet high is soon filled up ; this box is supplied 

 morning and evening with a piece of prepared paper to 

 detect the presence and comparative amount of ozone in the 

 atmosphere ; it is a peculiar pet of the Doctor's. 



At eight o'clock this evening I noticed the falling of a 

 very brilliant meteor ; it passed through the constellation of 

 Cassiopeia in a N.N.E. direction before terminating its 

 visible existence, which it did very much like a huge rocket ; 

 the flash was so brilliant that a man whose back was turned 

 to it mistook the illumination for lightning. 



2&J1. — Our school opened this evening, under the auspices 

 of Dr. Walker. He reports eight or nine pupils, and is much 

 gratified by their zeal. At present their studies are limited 

 to the three R's — reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. They 

 have asked him to read and explain something instructive, 

 so he intends to make them acquainted with the trade-winds 

 and atmosphere. This subject affords an opportunity of 

 explaining the uses of our thermometer, barometer, ozono- 



