148 



VII. " On the Application of the Calculus of Probabilities to 

 the results of measures of the Position and Distance of 

 Double Stars." By The LORD WROTTESLEY, V.P.R.S. 

 (See p. 133.) 



VIII. " Report of Scientific Researches made during the late 

 Arctic Voyage of the Yacht ' Fox/ in search of the Frank- 

 lin Expedition/' By Captain M'CLINTOCK, R.N. Com- 

 municated by General SABINE, R.A., Treas. & V.P.R.S. 

 Received September 23, 1859. 



SIR, I have the honour to acquaint you for the information of 

 the President and Council of the Royal Society, that my voyage has 

 happily terminated, and that our exertions have met with as great a 

 measure of success as the most sanguine amongst us could expect. 

 But as the general result of Lady Franklin's "Final Search" will 

 doubtless be made public before this letter reaches you, my object is 

 simply to acquaint you with the nature and extent of such observa- 

 tions of scientific interest as we have been enabled to make. 



My last communication, dated 5th May, 1858, informed you of 

 the unfortunate circumstances which led to our first Arctic winter 

 being spent in an ice-drift out of Baffin's Bay. During the winter 

 of 1858-59 we were frozen up in a secure anchorage in Brentford 

 Bay, which I have named " Port Kennedy ;" it is in Latitude 72 

 01' N. and Longitude 94 15' W. 



Here a magnetic observatory was built, the instruments supplied 

 to us set up, and hourly observations continued during the interval 

 between autumn and spring travelling. Fortunately I was able to 

 carry with me a 9 \ -inch dip-circle upon my journey to the Great Fish 

 River this spring, and embraced every opportunity of making ob- 

 servations with it, many of them in the immediate vicinity of the 

 point of maximum inclination. Indeed it gives me much satisfaction 

 to state that I believe our entire series of magnetical observations 

 will be found complete in as far as we were provided with the 

 necessary instruments and favoured with the opportunities of using 

 them. 



Meteorological records have been carefully kept throughout the 

 voyage, and the "Weather Books" supplied by Admiral FitzRoy 



