DISCOVERIES BY MR. KING. 415 



along cherished, that a strong south- west gale 

 would clear away the ice, and give us a chance 

 of making at least a few degrees of longitude. 

 Some more drift-wood was found by Mr. King, 

 who likewise saw a musk-ox, and the greater 

 part of the vertebras and ribs of a whale lying on 

 the beach. A single joint of one of the vertebrae 

 was also picked up at our encampment. It 

 was high water at 3 h 15 m p. m. ; D first quarter, 

 change. 



The following morning the ice was so wedged, 

 that for miles it was thrown up into perpendicu- 

 lar pieces, like a vast area of large upright slabs, 

 or a magnificent Stonehenge. At the same 

 time, the pressure from seaward forced acres of 

 it on shore, along the whole line of coast, so 

 as to preclude all possibility of our stirring in any 

 direction; and this being so, I despatched a 

 party, furnished with a telescope and compass, to 

 get the bearings to the westward, and occupied 

 myself during their absence in obtaining observ- 

 ations for the dip and intensity. In placing the 

 instruments into the meridian, I was struck with 

 the disagreement of the different needles in de- 

 noting the magnetic north. The one then used 

 (Dollond's) was a light bar needle, and indicated 

 several degrees to the eastward of those which 

 had cards or any other weight attached to them. 

 At first I felt inclined to doubt its accuracy ; 



