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XXIV. On Hourly Observations of the Magnetic Heclinatimi made by Cofptain Eochfort 
IVIaguire, R.N., and the Officers of H.M.S. "Plover,' in 1852, 1853 and 1854, at 
Point Barrow, on the shores of the Polar Sea. By Major-General Edward Sabine, 
B.A., P.C.L., Treas. and Vice-President. 
Received August 14, — Read November 19, 1857. 
Amongst the measures adopted for the relief of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, H.M.S. 
'Plover,’ commanded by Captain T. E. L. Moore, R.N,, was despatched from England in 
1848, and stationed until 1852 in Behring Strait, having on board supplies of provision 
for the ‘ Erebus ’ and ‘ Terror,’ in the event of their succeeding in effecting a passage, or 
for their crews in case they should be obliged to abandon the ships and should attempt a 
retreat by the western route. The ‘ Plover’ was annually communicated with and pro- 
\isioned afresh by one of the vessels of the Pacific squadron. In 1852 Captain Moore 
was succeeded in the command of the ‘Plover’ by Captain Eochfort Maguire, E.N., and 
several other changes in the officers and seamen were made. It was also directed that 
the ‘Plover’ should take up a more advanced position than she had occupied in the pre- 
ceding years. She was accordingly moved in September 1852 to a small harbour adjoin- 
ing Point Barrow, the most northerly point of the American Continent between Behring 
Strait and Mackenzie River, in lat. 71° 21' N., long. 156° 15' W., where she was made 
secure for the winter by the middle of October, and where she remained until the 
summer of 1854. A more uninviting and apparently uninteresting situation for a two 
years’ residence cannot well be imagined. It is thus described by Mr. Thomas A. Hull, 
the second master, in a letter which I received from him at the end of the first year, 
dated August 1853 : — “ Point Barrow might well be called the World’s End; the coast 
for more than 100 miles both east and west of it has not a rise above 40 feet, and the 
Spit of Point Barrow is but 15 feet above the sea in the highest part, and in most places 
it is not above 5. The islands to the eastward are still lower, some of them being over- 
flowed by a rise of 3 feet occasioned by a gale in December.” Point Barrow seems, 
however, to have been admirably chosen fox the objects for which the ‘Plover’ was 
employed. It would have been scarcely possible for boats or parties of men retreating 
along the coast from the eastward, to have passed without being seen ; whilst by a 
judicious treatment of the native Esquimaux, a friendly communication was throughout 
maintained with them, and their good offices, in case they had been needed, secured 
along a considerable extent of coast. In this most dreary situation, in which the 
monotony of existence during the long period of a year and three quarters had but one 
relief, — that of an excursion to Port Clarence in Behring Strait, in the summer of 1853, 
MDCCCLVII. 3 T 
