396 OBSERVATIONS. 



early in the season, might pack the drift ice 

 to the eastward, so as to render our return in 

 the boat utterly impossible. We had therefore 

 nothing for it but to yield to necessity, and wait 

 submissively until nature should remove the 

 barrier which she had placed. 



About 3 p. m. it was low water, that is, an ebb 

 of about eight inches was observable on the shin- 

 gle, and the taste of the water at that time was 

 brackish and bad. We had reason to know 

 this from the carelessness of my servant, who 

 having been accustomed to fill his kettles for 

 cooking at the river and lakes, thoughtlessly did 

 the same thing here, and consequently spoiled 

 the tea. To beguile the tediousness of the de- 

 tention, I made a regular set of observations, 

 which were very interesting, more especially as 

 regarded Hansteen's needle. It was exceed- 

 ingly difficult to adjust, but remained perfectly 

 in after the set was finished. Its vibrations were 

 even and regular, but very slow ; the interval 

 between each having increased to three minutes 

 and Jive seconds. On the contrary, Dollond's 

 dipping needle, No. 2., moved more freely than 

 I remembered to have seen it. The latitude 

 was 67° 41' 24" N., longitude 95° 9! 16" W., 

 variation 6° 0' W. \ thermometer 72° in the 

 tent. 



August 1st. — The only perceptible difference 



