"2. For this purpose you will proceed from Churchill with the
two boats, and twelve men that have been selected for this
arduous and important service, losing not a moment, at least on
your outward voyage, in examining such part of the coast as has
already been visited and explored. In a word, you will reach,
with as little loss of time as possible, the interesting scene
of your exclusive labours.
"3. In prosecuting the survey in question, you will, as a matter
of course, endeavour to ascertain as accurately as circumstances
may permit, without occasioning any serious delay, the latitudes
and longitudes of all the most remarkable points within the
range of your operations, and also the general bearing and
extent of all the intermediate portions of coast, embodying the
whole at the same time in the form of a chart, or rather of the
draft of a chart, from day to day.
"4. But in addition to this, your principal and essential task,
you will devote as much of your attention as possible to various
subordinate and incidental duties. You will do your utmost,
consistently with the success of your main object, to attend to
botany and geology; to zoology in all its departments; to the
temperature both of the air and of the water; to the conditions
of the atmosphere and the state of the ice; to winds and
currents; to the soundings as well with respect to bottom as
with respect to depth; to the magnetic dip and the variation of
the compass; to the aurora borealis and the refraction of light.
You will also, to the best of your opportunities, observe the
ethnographical peculiarities of the Esquimaux of the country;
and in the event of your wintering within the Arctic Circle, you
will be careful to notice any characteristic features or
influences of the long night of the high latitudes in question.
These particulars, and such others as may suggest themselves to
you on the spot, you will record fully and precisely in a
journal, to be kept, as far as practicable, from day to day,
collecting at the same time any new, curious, or interesting
specimens, in illustration of any of the foregoing heads.
"5. In order to provide against the probable necessity of
requiring two seasons for your operations, you will take with
you all the provisions that your boats can carry, with such
shooting, hunting, and fishing tackle as may enable you to
husband your supplies. I need hardly mention medicines and warm
clothing among the necessaries of your voyage, for, in full
reliance on your professional zeal and ability, I place the
health of your people, under Providence, entirely in your hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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