xlvii 



superintendence of that part of the work during its progress through 

 the gress. I feel it no less a duty than a pleasure to acknowledge that 

 in the performance of this task, Captain Sabine has added another to 

 the many obligations I owe him for his valuable advice and assistance 

 during the whole course of his voyage, to the credit of which his 

 individual labours have so essentially contributed." 



It might have been added that he contributed not a little to the 

 cheerfulness and harmony of the expedition, by consenting to edit the 

 ' North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle,' a weekly publication 

 established during its tedious stay at Winter Harbour, where the sun 

 was ninety-six days below the horizon. It extended to twenty-one 

 issues. The total strength of the expedition being but eighteen, the 

 editor had to rely very much on his own pen. The result was so 

 highly appreciated as io call for republication, 



Sabine did not accompany Parry on his second voyage, the post of 

 astronomer being filled by the chaplain, the Rev. George Fisher. 

 He was himself selected to conduct a series of experiments for deter- 

 mining the variation in the length of the pendulum vibrating seconds, 

 in different latitudes, a subject which had engaged his attention in the 

 first voyage. 



Sabine in the pursuit of this investigation visited St. Thomas (Gulf 

 of Guinea), Maranham, Ascension, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Bahia, 

 Jamaica, in 1821-22; New York, Trondhjem, Hammerfest, Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen in 1823. No less than five men of the Royal Marines, 

 who had been placed at his disposal by Captain Clavering, R.N., as 

 assistants at Sierra Leone, were carried off by fever during a stay of 

 about five weeks in that pestilential climate. 



Sabine's observations of the " magnetic " inclination and force at 

 St. Thomas in 1822 were probably the first ever made on that island. 

 Utilised as a base of comparison with the recent magnetic observations 

 of the Portuguese, they become important in showing the remarkable 

 secular change that has been in progress in those elements during the 

 interval. 



The remarkable account of his pendulum experiments, printed in a 

 4to. volume by the Board of Longitude in 1825, must always remain 

 an enduring monument to his scientific merit. It would be impossible 

 in this brief notice to give any adequate idea of the indefatigable 

 industry, the spirit of inquiry, or the range of observation evinced. 

 The work was honored by the Lalande Gold Medal of the Institute 

 of France, in 1826. 



The subject of pendulum experiments was one in which he long 

 took great interest ; in the years 1827 to 1830 he made experiments 

 to determine the relative lengths of the seconds pendulum in Paris, 

 in London, in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and at Altona, 

 and he afterwards determined the absolute length at Greenwich. 



