THE MAGNETIC POLE. 187 



the Atlantic Ocean to Liverpool in 1819 ; but it was not till 1838, when the Great 

 Western and Sinus crossed the Atlantic, that this great steamship route was really 

 opened. Ross was therefore very early in the field, and should be regarded as a man 

 of penetration for his epoch. Nowadays, as we all know, vessels with at least auxiliary, 

 if not complete steam power, are nearly always employed in Government expeditions, and 

 even by whalers in the Arctic seas. 



The expedition left England May 23rd, 1829, and arrived home again on October 18th, 

 1833, having thus been absent for the lengthened period of four years and five months. 

 The coast surveys made by Ross of King William's Land and Boothia Felix (named 

 after the munificent merchant who had so liberally provided the expedition) were careful, 

 and doubtless accurate, but not very extensive. The most interesting feature of all was 

 the determination of the exact locality of the Magnetic Pole, which was accomplished 

 by the nephew of Sir John Ross (later Sir James Ross) on June 1st, 1831. 



Before leaving the vessel it was perfectly understood that they were in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the Magnetic Pole; and, indeed, it was afterwards proved that Com- 

 mander Ross had been, in a preceding land journey in 1830, within ten miles of the 

 spot, but had been unprovided with the necessary instruments to determine that fact. 

 The weather on the trip was tempestuous and blustering, but no special disaster occurred, 

 and on the morning of May 31st they found themselves within fourteen miles of the 

 calculated position. Leaving behind the larger part of their baggage and provisions on 

 the beach, the party hurried forward in a state of excitement pardonable under the 

 circumstances. At eight o'clock the next morning their journey was at an end, and 

 never, doubtless, were exhausted men more thoroughly happy. It will interest the reader 

 to learn how the Magnetic Pole looks. 



" The land," wrote Ross the younger, " at this place is very low near the coast, 

 but it rises into ridges of fifty or sixty feet high about a mile inland. We could 

 have wished that a place so important had possessed more of mark or note. It was 

 scarcely censurable to regret that there was not a mountain to indicate a spot to which 

 so much of interest must ever be attached ; and I could even have pardoned any one 

 among us who had been so romantic or absurd as to expect that the Magnetic Pole 

 was an object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad, that 

 it was even a mountain of iron, or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc. But Nature 

 had here erected no monument to denote the spot which she had chosen as the centre 

 of one of her great and dark powers, and where we could do little ourselves toward this 

 en <l. We were, however, fortunate in here finding some huts of Esquimaux 

 that had not long been abandoned." A series of scientific observations were at once 

 made, the most conspicuous results of which were as follows : At their observatory the 

 amount of the dip, as indicated by the dipping-needle, was 89 59', being thus within 

 one minute of the vertical, while the proximity of the Magnetic Pole was confirmed 

 by the absolute inaction of the several horizontal needles. "These were suspended in 

 the most delicate manner possible, but there was not one which showed the slightest 

 effort to move from the position in which it was placed." In other words, the mag- 

 netic force was dead in that very spot to which millions of compasses are ever pointing. 



