Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/398

368 highly electrical state of the atmosphere, was satisfactory, the dip being 89° 29′ 35″ N.; the variation, taken roughly with the horizontal needle of the instrument, and a single glimpse of the sun about 6 P.M., from one to one and a half points easterly. Thunder Cove—the snug little nook in which we lay—is one hundred and five miles S., 7° W., from Rosses magnetic pole. It may be proper to remark, that here, as upon every other occasion, the observations were conducted on a sandy beach, two or three hundred yards removed from the boats and encampment. The instrument was levelled on a stout wooden stake, firmly driven into the sand; and there was not the smallest article of iron either about the tent or my own person. The vertical vibrations of the needle were as free, and performed in almost the same time, as at Fort Confidence and the intermediate places.

On the 13th it blew strongly from the westward, with a very dense cold fog, that prevented our starting till 8 A.M. We then ran rapidly south-east and east, and at the end of fifteen or twenty miles got clear of the countless islands that had all along, from my last year's pedestrian limit, embarrassed us beyond measure, and hailed with real transport the open sea, though mantled in fog. After rounding a long point, we sailed