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Chap. VII.]
CAPE BARROW.
187
1841
First Secretary to the Admiralty; and another cape, still further to the westward, surmounted by a remarkable conical hill, was distinguished by the name of Sir John Barrow, Bart., the father of modern arctic discovery, by whose energy, zeal, and talent our geographical knowledge of those regions has been so greatly increased; and we may hope, by God's guidance and blessing attending the exertions of the expedition that has so recently left our shores, he may live to see the great object of his heart, the discovery of a N.W. passage through Barrow Straits to the Pacific Ocean, accomplished.
The dip had increased to eighty-six degrees, and the variation amounted to forty-four degrees. These observations place the magnetic pole in lat. 76° S., long. 145° 20′ E., therefore in the S.W. (true) from us, and distant above five hundred miles. But the land interposed an insuperable obstacle to our direct approach to it, and we had to choose whether we should trace the coast to the north-west, with the hope of turning the western extreme of the land, and thence proceed to the south; or follow the southerly coast line round Cape Downshire, and thence take a more westerly course. The latter was preferred, as being more likely to extend our researches into higher latitudes, and as affording a better chance of afterwards attaining one of the principal objects of our voyage: and although we could not but feel disappointed in our expectation of shortly reaching the magnetic pole, yet these