88 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
In concluding the diary, or events of the day, I 
ought to mention that we sounded in the afternoon, 
whilst fast to the floe, in one hundred and seventy 
fathoms water, soft clay-coloured mud. Our distance 
from the east land at the time was from eight to ten 
miles. 
Thursday, 12th.— We observed to-day that the 
compasses traversed with greater facility than they 
had done for some time past; Mr. Jennings’ insulating 
compass was found to agree within five degrees with 
the plane of the magnetic meridian*, so that we 
may infer, that by going to the northward we recede 
from the magnetic pole. . It must not be understood, 
however, from this, that the compasses have improved 
so much as to be of any use yet to navigate, or steer 
the ships by them ; on the contrary, we were obliged 
to remain fast until six o’clock this morning to the 
floe to which they were secured yesterday fore- 
noon, on account of its being so foggy that it was 
impossible to know which way to steer. ‘The dis- 
tance that we have gone, indeed, from the place 
where I spoke of the compasses last, is not sufficient 
to make any great difference in this respect: for 
our latitude to-day at noon was only 73° N. and 
longitude 90° 34’ W. We sounded this evening in 
one hundred and ninety fathoms water, (soft mud). | 
* As it is possible that this expression may appear equivocal, 
it may perhaps be necessary to observe, that by saying that the 
compass agreed within five degrees with the plane of the magnetic 
meridian, I meant that the north point of the compass, or rather 
the needle itself, coincided within five degrees with the plane of 
the M. meridian, as determined by an azimuth compass on 
the. ice. 
