44 PASSAGE UP 



1824. pack^ and the wind veered to north-west, fresh, 

 August, with heavy rain and a dense fog. We worked 

 in a hole of water for the remainder of the 

 night. The wind continued steady all the 14th, 

 and the land was again seen. Hanging at night 

 hy a thin floe, we continued at it all the 15th, 

 which was a calm, clear day, and young ice 

 formed in the holes of water, under the broad 

 glare of the sun. The stillness of this day 

 was highly favourable for obtaining obser- 

 vations for the dip of the needle, but the 

 floe to which we were fast was not of sufficient 

 extent to admit of our getting so far from the 

 ship as to be free from her attraction. I was 

 now the more desirous of obtaining these ob- 

 servations, on account of the fast increasing 

 sluggishness of the compasses ; for that of 

 Gilbert's, which had hitherto been fiilly cor- 

 rected for the local attraction of the ship by 

 Professor Barlow's plate, now began to shew 

 nearly as much deviation, when our head was 

 to the eastward, as any of the other compasses. 

 On this day, by a bearing of the meridian sun, 

 it amounted to 28° w. 



The night was fine, and a light north-east 

 breeze enabled us to cast off on the morning 

 of the 16th, and 'Mjore" a few miles to the 

 westward through ice which was lying in long 

 narrow streams. The morning of the 17th 



