'S JTUling a Whak. 



and aiForded a iseasonable supply, as the parties which had been 

 sent out in search of game were by no means successful, killing 

 but a few brace of grouse, and some wild ducks. 



The trade of the place is entirely in fish and oil. On the 14)th 

 I dispatched the boats, with four days provisions, in search of 

 whales, but a gale of wind coming on, with sleet, prevented 

 them from being successful. A short time before our arrival one 

 was found stranded in a bay. When the tide left it, the fisher- 

 men who found it immediately began to flench it, and had ac- 

 tually cut a quantity of blubber off the back, when a person 

 who resided near the spot, persuaded them it would be more 

 •profitable if it was towed into Hammerfest. They accordingly 

 fixed two grapnels through its nostrils, and a hawser round its 

 taU, with which they hauled it off at high water, and made it 

 fast to two boats. It had not been long in deep water before 

 it began to evince evident signs of life, and soon after made a 

 start off with the boats, which it dragged for twenty miles, al- 

 though there was a smart breeze at the time, and the fisher- 

 men, in order to obstruct its progress, hoisted the sails, and 

 laid them flat a-back to the mast. They were in the end com- 

 ■pelled to cut the rope, being in danger of swamping, and thus 

 lost the fish. They were so much enraged with the person who 

 persuaded them to remove the whale, that they actually prose- 

 cuted him for the advice he had given them. 



Captain Sabine having finished his observations, I sent a 

 party on shore, on Monday the 23d, to strike the tents and ob- 

 servatory, and hoisted the launch in. The situation of the obser- 

 vatory, Lat. 70° 40'0" N. ; Long. 23° 45^ 45" E. Variation 

 11° 26' W. Dip 77° 40'. 



This day I swung the ship round the points of the compass, 

 to ascertain the amount of the local attraction, and noted the 

 differences with a compass on the mast-head, as well as on the 

 deck at the standard compass. The amount of deviation, which 

 was at the Nore 26°, is here 50°; whilst the variation of the 

 place, as found b} Captain Sabine, is only 11° 26'. 



During the whole of our run to this station, we had most sa- 

 tisfactory experience of the utility of Mr Barlow's plate. The 

 course steered by it agreed very nearly with our astronomical 

 observations ; whereas that deduced from the compass without 



