310 DISCOVERY OF NORTHWEST PASSAGE 



through a telescope at short range you may easily imagine you are facing a 

 huge ice-pack. But on the Arctic sea you can never rely on what you fancy 

 you 'see,' however distinct it may appear." 



And now the compass failed them altogether. Off Prescott Island in Frank- 

 lin Strait, Amundsen says, "the needle of the compass, which had been gradu- 

 ally losing its capacity for self-adjustment, now absolutely declined to act. We 

 were thus reduced to steering by the stars, like our forefathers the vikings. This 

 mode of navigation is of doubtful security even in ordinary watejrs, but it is 

 worse here, where the sky, for two-thirds of the time, is veiled in impenetrable 

 fog. However, we were lucky enough to start in clear weather." 



Next day all Amundsen's fears for the time being were dissipating in a 

 manner he describes graphically as follows: 



"I was walking up and down the deck in the afternoon, enjoying the sun- 

 shine whenever it broke through the fog. * * * As I walked I felt something 

 like an irregular lurching motion, and I stopped in surprise. The sea all around 

 was smooth and calm. * * * j continued my promenade, but had not gone 

 many steps before the sensation came again, and this time so distinctly that I 

 could not be mistaken ; there was a slight irregular motion in the ship. I would 

 not have sold this slight motion for any amount of money. It was a swell 

 under the boat, a swell — a message from the open sea. The water to the south 

 was open; the wall of ice was not there." 



Winter was now approaching, and the Gjoa was hard put to it. Once the 

 little ship was nearly burned when a quantity of petroleum, used as fuel for the 

 motor, took fire ; but the courage and coolness of Amundsen and his men averted 

 a disaster. Another time the Gjoa ran aground, and was floated only by throw- 

 ing overboard all the stores that were piled on deck. But King William's Land 

 was reached in safety, and on the southeastern part of the island the Gjoa 

 made port in what one of the party described as "the finest little harbor in the 

 world." This was ninety miles south of the magnetic pole as located by Ross. 



The whole party now entered upon a long period of investigation — the work 

 for which they really had come, rather than to navigate unknown seas. Their 

 duty was to observe the region of the magnetic pole, to observe its variation^ 

 and make a study of the magnetism of the earth. 



The magnetic pole is very little understood. Many suppose the north pole 

 to be the point toward which the compass points. Not so. 



As Amundsen describes it, "if we fit up a magnetic needle so that it can 

 revolve on a horizontal axis passing through its center of gravity (exactly like 



