name of Cape Clarence; and another, to the south-eastward of this, was named after Sir Robert Seppings.
“Since the time we first entered Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, the sluggishness of the compasses, as well as the amount of their irregularity, produced by the attraction of the ship’s iron, had been found very rapidly, though uniformly, to increase, as we proceeded to the westward ; so much, indeed, that, for the last two days, we had been under the necessity of giving up altogether the usual observations for determining the variation of the needle on board the ships. This irregularity became more and more obvious as we now advanced to the southward, which rendered it not improbable that we were making a very near approach to the magnetic pole. For the purposes of navigation, therefore, the compasses were from this time no longer consulted; and in a few days afterwards, the binnacles were removed, as useless lumber, from the deck to the carpenter’s store-room, where they remained during the rest of the season.”
Aug. 7th. – “Running close along the edge of the ice, which led us nearer and nearer to the eastern shore, so that, by midnight, the channel was narrowed to about five miles. The colour of the water had changed to a very light green at that distance from the shore, but we could find no bottom with 50 fathoms of line, and had 35 fathoms while rounding a point of ice at three miles’ distance from the beach. The weather was beautifully serene and clear, and the sun, for the second time to us this season, just dipped below the horizon, and then rc-appeared in a few minutes.
“A dark sky to the S.W. had given us hopes of finding a westerly passage to the south of the ice along which we were now sailing; more especially as the inlet began to widen considerably as we advanced in that direction: but at three a.m., on the 8th August, we perceived that the ice ran close in with a point of land bearing S.b.E. from us, and which appeared to form the southern extremity of the eastern shore. To this extreme point I gave the name of Cape Kater, in compliment to one of the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude, to whom science is greatly indebted for his improvements of the pendulum, and the mariner’s compass.
“With the increasing width of the inlet, we bad flattered ourselves with increasing hopes; but we soon experienced the mortification of disappointment. The prospect from the crow’s nest[1] began to assume a very- ↑ A small circular house like a cask, fixed at the mast-head, in which
