280 A rctic and A ntarctic Exploration [part i 
Clavering commanded her. These were successfully taken 
and useful observations were also made with reference to 
the equatorial currents. 
The Board of Admiralty then decided that Sabine 
should swing the seconds pendulum in Norway, Spitsbergen, 
and, if possible, on the east coast of Greenland. For this 
service Clavering, then a Fellow of the Royal Society, 
received command of the Griper, the old gun brig of Parry's 
first voyage. Sabine completed his pendulum observations 
in Norway and Spitsbergen, and Captain Clavering pro- 
ceeded to the difficult service of forcing the Griper through 
the heavy ice drift to the East Greenland coast. First he 
tried to force the ship through in Lat. 77 0 30' N. but found 
an unbroken field 200 miles across. Then he tried vainly 
again in 75 0 30', but finally reached the coast water in 
74° 5' S., and found an island where his friend Sabine 
could establish his observatory 1 . While the pendulum 
was being swung, Clavering was intent on geographical 
discovery and on completing a survey. His furthest 
northern points were two rocks called Ailsa and Haystack. 
The island they had first discovered, and one of its 
headlands, recalled memories of the Chesapeake action, and 
were named Shannon Island and Cape Philip Broke. A 
great bay was identified as Gael Hamke's, but the most 
important result of Clavering's expedition was the dis- 
covery of natives as far north as this bay, in 74° N. This 
position is an immense distance from those in the southern 
part of the east coast where Eskimos were afterwards found, 
and no natives have ever been met with since anywhere 
near the place where Clavering fell in with them. It was 
on the 18th of August, 1823, that he and his small party 
came across a seal-skin tent pitched on the beach, on the 
north side of Gael Hamke Bay. This tent was 12 feet in 
circumference and five feet high, the frame being of wood 
and whale's bone. There were also a small seal-skin canoe, 
harpoons, and spears tipped with what appeared to be 
meteoric iron. The natives fled and hid behind rocks, but 
eventually they returned and became friendly. They 
were clothed in seal-skin with the hair inwards. Men, 
women, and children all told, only numbered twelve. 
1 The Observatory on Pendulum Island was in 74 0 32' 19" N. and 
1 8° 50' W. 
