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FOCUS OF GREATEST INTENSITY.
[Chap. X.
1841
In the evening the breeze freshened to a gale from E.S.E., with thick weather and rain, which obliged us to reduce our sail to close-reefed topsails and reefed foresail.
April 3.The gale continued throughout the whole of the next day, with frequent squalls and a high sea running, so that our magnetic observations were not made under favourable circumstances, which was the more to be regretted, as we were now fast approaching the focus of greatest intensity.
In the evening, at 10 p.m., we were in lat. 47° 41′ S. by an observation of the moon's meridian altitude, and must have passed over the point we were in search of about eight o'clock the next morning. April 4.The gale was still blowing with great force, and the sea was running so high as to wash away one of our quarter boats. Very satisfactory observations of the magnetic force were, however, obtained by means of Mr. Fox's invention, and are published in the Second Part of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1843." They tend to show a smaller relative amount of magnetic force than had been anticipated, and to prove that the focus of greatest intensity lies very much further to the southward than the spot indicated in my instructions, and probably not far from "Terre Adelie" of M. D'Urville. At noon we were in lat. 46° 34′ S. long. 140° 36′ E., and having now completed all that remained to be done, we steered direct for Van Diemen's Land, which we came in April 6.sight of at 10 30 a.m. of the 6th, and late in the