The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-19

We now witnessed for the first time the
curious phenomenon OF the directive
| power of the needle becoming so weak as
| to be completely overcome by the attract
| i've power of the ship"
| Doubtful of the absolute accuracy of the
observations made on shipboard, Parry
had observations taken on land on August
| q. 1919, ~ deg. 40 min. N, lis deg. II min.
W., where ''the dip of the needle was So
deg. rs min. AZ Sec ami the variation lis
| deg. % min. 81 westerly. The directive
power of the horizontal needle $50 was ~
| found to be so weak that they (the
| compasses) required constant tapping
with the hand to make them traverse at
ALL"
In IS deg. min. N, 105 deg. 81 min. W.
the variation or declinatIon was 165 deg. 80
min. E., thus indicating that Parry had
| passed from east to west to the northward
of the magnetic pole since making his
previous observation in "a deg. 40 min. n,
81 deg. AZ min. w. (Cape Riley beach)
where the declinatiOn was 12S deg 80 min.
w. His needle at one place pointed nearly
w. s. W. and at the other to the s. 5. e.,
hence it would at some place between them
point due south. In Prince Regent inlet,
Y deg 45 min. N, SO deg. Al min. W., the
nearest approach made by Parry TO the
magnetic pole, some 10 miles distant. the
declination was lis deg. 16 min. W., and
the dip SIS deg. 26 min.
The north magnetic pole was located by
James Ross while serving under his uncle,
Sir John Ross, i'll connection with the
Arctic expedition of 1929 to 1888 to- Boothia
Felix peninsula, the most northerly point
of North America According to Sir John
Ross. his observations in winter quarters
at Felix harbor, latitude 60 deg. 80 min.
~, longitude 92 deg W., during 1S29-30,
showed the dip to be 50 deg. 55 min. and
the inclination 50 deg. IS min. w. In 1880
James Ross had visited Cape Felix. within
ten miles of the supposed position of
the magnetic pole, as indicated by pre-
vious data, latitude 70 deg. N, longitude
9S deg. 5 min. w. Ross then had no
magnetic instruments with him, but in
1881, after series of preliminary observa-
tions, he was constrained to assign q new
point for the magnetic pole, and on May
q started to verify his opinion and deter
mine the position of the pole by direct OBJ
ServatiOns.
The designated place, named later Cape
Adelaide. was situated on the west shore
of Boothia Felix. some thirty miles east of
King Williams Land. 1t was reached
June ], and of the surroundings Ross says:
1.-The land is very low near the coast,
but it rises into ridges of fifty or sixty feet
high about mile inland. We could have
wished that the place so important had
possessed more of marked note. 1t was
scarcely censurable to regret that there
WAS not u mountain TO lHulCabe TO
which so much of interest must ever be
attached.
1--WE were, however. fortunate in here
findind some huts of Esquimaux that had
not been abandoned. We
thus took possession of their works and
were thence enabled to establish our OBJ
servations with the greater ease encamp-
ing about half a mile to the westward of
those abandoned snowhouses. The neces-
sary observations were Immediately COM
menced and they were continued through
out this June 1, 1881, and the following
day. The amount of the dip,
as indicated by my dipping needle, is 50
of the vertical; while the proximity, at
least, of this pole. if not its actual exist
ence where we stood, was further con-
iirmed by the action, or rather by the to-
tai inactiOn of the several horizontal
needles then in my possession.
''These were suspended in the most deli
cate manner possible, but there was not
one which showed the slightest effort to
move from the position in which it was
placed. We therefore erected a
carn of some magnitude, under which we
buried canister containing record of
the interesting fact. u The latitude
of this SPOT is 20 deg. min. II sec., and
its longitude So deg. 46 min. 45 sec. west.
AS far as our instruments can be
trusted we had placed ourselves within
one minute of the magnetic pole, but had
not fixed on the precise spot.
"To determine that point with greater,
or with absolute precision Gf, indeed,
such precision be attainable) it would be
necessary to have the cooperation of
different observers, at different distances
and in different directions from the calcu-
lated place; while, to obtain all the inter-
esting results which these must be ex-
pected to furnish, such labors should also
be carried on for considerable time.
l may barely allude to the diurnal and an.
nual motions of the needle, and to the
variations in the place of the pole itself,
with the consequent deductions which
might be made as to the future in this re-
spect, all of them being of the highest i'm
portance in the theory of magnetism"
During the years 1884 and '35 an ex-
petition under Captain Back, r. N. passed
down the Great Fish river and reached
Point Ogle, lust to the south Of King Will
lam Land. Their farthest was in latitude
6S deg. Ia min. north, longitude 81 deg. 50
min. west, about 100 miles from the north
magnetic pole as determined three years
before by James Ross. At this point the
magnetic conditions, as determined by
Backs observations, were, declination 1
deg. 46 min. west dip SO deg. 26 min. by
one set and 81 deg 40 min. by another.
The observations made from August II to
10, 1884, were exceedingly difficult of de-
termination owing to the sluggishness and
torpidity of the needle in it's horizontal
motion, and the extreme irregularity be-
tween the vibrations.
In the years 1915 and 1885, DIR. John Rae
passed the winter in explorations for the
Hudson Bay Company near Repulse bay,
at Fort Hope, in latitude 66 deg. min
north, longitude So min. 5 deg. west,
where the mean dip was SO deg. 10 min.
On April Is. 1s47, Rae connected his
discoveries from the south with those OF
Rose from the north, at Lord Mayor bay,
in latitude 50 deg. min. north. longi-
tude 81 deg. min. west (about ITO miles
from the north magnetic pole). The
declination was found to be 81 deg 40 min
west, and on May II. 1S47, it was 92 deg.
20 min west in 60 deg. 5 min. north. ST
deg. min. west (about ten miles south
of Cape Crozier, Rae's farthest on Melville
peninsula).
In 1851, DR.. Rae reached Victoria Land,
separated by a narrow strait from King
Williams Land, and at his farthest, Point
Peliy, was directly west of and about 100
miles distant from the magnetic pole.
Substantially the same place, Gateshead
island, 4 few miles distant, was reached
by Colinson's expedition in 1853.
During the winter of 1884 Dr. Rae oc-
cupied at Repulse bay his old quarters In
passing, it may be remarked that from
August Is to September. 1853, Rae shot 100
deer, one musk OK, fifty-four brace of
ptarmigan and one seal, while the nets
produced 100 salmon. From the head of
Pelly bay, in the spring of 1854, Rae
crossed sixty miles of land to the west
and traced the west shore of Melville
peninsula from Castor and Pollux river,
i