The Esquimaux on this part of the
coast use it only as sticks for trimming their lamps.]
The latitude observed on shore was 66 deg. 30' 58", being the first
observation we had yet obtained so near the Arctic Circle, but far
to the southward of that given by Captain Middleton.[*] The
longitude, by chronometers, was 86 deg. 30' 20"; the dip of the
magnetic needle, 88 deg. 07' 28"; and the variation, 48 deg. 32' 57"
westerly; being only a degree and a half less than that observed
by Middleton in 1742.
[Footnote: The difference amounts to about twenty miles. It is but
justice, however, to the memory of Captain Middleton to add, that
several miles of this error may have been occasioned by the
imperfection of nautical instruments in his day, combined with the
unavoidable inaccuracy of observations made by the horizon of the
sea when encumbered with much ice. On this latter account, as well
as from the extraordinary terrestrial refraction, no observation
can be here depended upon, unless made with an artificial
horizon.]
CHAPTER III.
Return to the Eastward through the Frozen Strait.--Discovery of
Hurd Channel.--Examined in a Boat.--Loss of the Fury's
Anchor.--Providential Escape of the Fury from Shipwreck.
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