several
reindeers' horns, was brought on board. A few patches of snow
remained in sheltered situations; the ravines, however, which were
numerous, bore the signs of recent and considerable floods, and
their bottoms were swampy, and covered with very luxuriant moss
and other vegetation, the character of which differed very little
from that of the land at the bottom of Possession Bay.

The dip of the magnetic needle was 88 deg. 25' 58", and the variation
was now found to have changed from 128 deg. 58' west, in the longitude
of 91 deg. 48', where our last observations on shore had been made, to
165 deg. 50' 09" east, at our present station; so that we had, in
sailing over the space included between those two meridians,
crossed immediately to the northward of the magnetic pole and had
undoubtedly passed over one of those spots upon the globe where
the needle would have been found to vary 180 deg., or, in other words,
where its north pole would have pointed due south.

The wind became very light from the eastward, and the weather
continued so foggy that nothing could be done during the night but
to stand off-and-on, by the soundings, between the ice and the
land. On the 29th, after a few hours of clear weather, the fog
came on again as thick as before; fortunately, however, we had
previously been enabled to take notice of several pieces of ice,
by steering for each of which in succession we came to the edge of
a floe, along which our course was to be pursued to the westward.
As long as we had this guidance, we advanced with great
confidence; but as soon as we came to the end of the floe, which
then turned off to the southward, the circumstances under which we
were sailing were perhaps such as have never occurred since the
early days of navigation. To the northward was the land; the ice,
as we supposed, to the southward; the compasses useless; and the
sun completely obscured by a fog so thick, that the Griper could
only now and then be seen at a cable's length astern. We had
literally, therefore, no mode, of regulating our course but by
once more trusting to the steadiness of the wind; and it was not a
little amusing, as well as novel, to see the quartermaster conning
the ship by looking at the dogvane.

The weather cleared a little at intervals, but not enough to
enable us to proceed till nine A.M. on the 31st, when we cast off
from the ice, with a very light air from the northward. We
occasionally caught a glimpse of