OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 27 



and hoisted his pendant on board the Dorothea, 

 a ship of 370 tons' burthen ; and Lieutenant 

 John Franklin, whose name has since attained 

 so high a rank in the annals of Northern Dis- 

 covery, was placed under his orders in com- 

 mand of the Trent, a brig of 250 tons. Both 

 these vessels were hired into the service for the 

 occasion, and were taken into a dock at Shad- 

 well, where they were literally rendered as strong 

 as wood and iron could make them, con- 

 sistently with the necessity of preserving suffi- 

 cient room for the stowage of provision. 



The expedition, besides having for its object 

 the determination of a geographical question 

 of importance, was also of a scientific nature : 

 and, being the only one of that description that 

 had been fitted out by England for many years, 

 a variety of suggestions and inventions, likely 

 to prove useful on a service of such novelty, 

 were submitted to the Admiralty and other 

 departments of the Government. The peculiarity 

 of the proposed route afforded opportunities of 

 making some useful experiments upon the ellip- 

 tical figure of the earth ; on magnetic pheno- 

 mena ; on the refraction of the atmosphere in 

 high latitudes, under ordinary circumstances, and 

 over extensive masses of ice ; on the temperature 

 and specific gravity of the sea at the surface, 



