CHAPTER XI. 
THE OBSERVATORY-THERMOMETERS-THE RATS — THE BRIG ON 
FIRE-ANCIENT SLEDGE-TRACKS-ESQUIMAUX HUTS-HYDRO¬ 
PHOBIA—SLEDGE-DRIVING-MUSK OX TRACKS-A SLEDGE PARTY. 
Tiie island on which we placed our observatory was 
some fifty paces long by perhaps forty broad, and about 
thirty feet above the water-line. Here we raised four 
walls of granite blocks, cementing them together with 
moss and water and the never-failing aid of frost. On 
these was laid a substantial wooden roof, perforated at 
the meridian and prime vertical. For pedestals we 
had a conglomerate of gravel and ice, well rammed 
down while liquid in our iron-hooped pemmican-casks, 
and as free from all vibration as the rock they rested 
on. Here we mounted our transit and theodolite. 
The magnetic observatory adjoining, had rather more 
of the affectation of comfort. It was of stone, ten feet 
square, with a wooden floor as well as roof, a copper 
fire-grate, and stands of the same Arctic breccia as 
those in its neighbor. No iron was used in its con¬ 
struction. Here were our magnetometer and dip 
instruments. 
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