62 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. two or three inches in the sand, considerably above high-water mark, in- 
dicated the temperature of 351° ; that of the air, the sun being obscured by 
clouds at the time, being 33|°. 
The latitude of the place of observation was 75° 09' 23", and the longitude, by 
chronometers, 103° 4-4' 37". The dip of the magnetic needle was 88° 25'. 58, and 
the variation was now found to have changed from 128° 58' West, in the longitude 
of 91° 48', where our last observations on shore had been made, to 165° 50' 09" 
East, at our present station ; so that we had, in sailing over the space included be- 
tween those two meridians, crossed immediately to the northward of the mag- 
netic pole, and had undoubtedly passed over one of those spots upon the globe, 
where the needle would have been found to vary 180°, or in other words, 
where its north pole would have pointed due south. This spot would, in all 
probability, at this time be somewhere not far from the meridian of 100° 
west of Greenwich. It would undoubtedly have been extremely interesting 
to obtain such an observation, and in any other than the very precarious 
navigation in which we were now engaged, I should have felt it my 
duty to devote a certain time to this particular purpose; but, under 
present circumstances, it was impossible for me to regret the cause 
which alone had prevented it, especially as the importance to science of 
this observation was not sufficient to compensate the delay which the 
search after such a spot would necessarily have occasioned, and which could 
hardly be justified at a moment when we were making, and for two 
or three days continued to make, a rapid and unobstructed progress towards 
the accomplishment of our principal object. Captain Sabine remarked, in 
obtaining the observations for the variation, that the compasses, which were 
those of Captain Kater’s construction, required somewhat more tapping with 
the hand, to make them traverse, than they did at the place of observation in 
Prince Regent’s Inlet, on the 7th of August, where the magnetic dip was 
very nearly the same ; but that, when they had settled, they indicated the 
meridian with more precision. For instance, on the 7th of August, the 
compass, when levelled on its stand, would traverse of itself; but if the 
bearing of any object were observed with it, and the compass frequently 
removed and replaced, the bearings so obtained would differ from each 
other, notwithstanding much tapping, to the amount of 3° or 4°; whereas 
on the present occasion, more sluggishness was observable, yet, at the same 
time, a closer agreement in the successive results. 
The tide was rising by the shore, from noon till half past four P.M., at 
