Wintering in Felix Harbor, the party had several occasions for intercourse with the Eskimos, from whom they gathered remarkable information regarding the geography of the country. This led Captain Ross to send out several expeditions, hoping to establish the possibility of a passage through to the west, when the summer should again free their ships, but after careful inspection it was concluded that their only hope was to the north. Though the observations were made from several distant points, and much valuable information collected, the months rolled by in hopeless succession, with no apparent prospect of leaving this desolate spot. [Sidenote: _JAMES CLARK ROSS_] Not until the 17th of September were the ships free, and even then they advanced only three miles to find themselves blocked once more, and a few days later hopelessly frozen in for another dreary winter. Not until April, 1830, were any excursions attempted, and in one of these Commander James Clark Ross had the good fortune to discover the North Magnetic Pole in latitude 70° 5´ 17´´, longitude 96° 46´ 45´´ W. “The place of the observatory,” he writes, “was as near to the Magnetic Pole as the limited means which I possessed enabled me to determine. The amount of the dip, as indicated by my dipping-needle, was 89° 59´, being thus within one minute of the vertical; while the proximity at least of this pole, if not its actual existence where we stood, was further confirmed by the action, or rather by the total inaction, of the several horizontal needles then in my possession.” “As soon,” continues Commander Ross, “as I had satisfied my own mind on the subject, I made known to the party this gratifying result of all our joint labors; and it was then that, amidst mutual congratulations, we fixed the British flag on the spot, and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William IV. We had abundance of materials for building in the fragments of limestone that covered the beach, and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude, under which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact, only regretting that we had not the means of constructing a pyramid of more importance, and of strength sufficient to withstand the assaults of time and the Eskimos. Had it been a pyramid as large as that of Cheops, I am not quite sure that it would have done more than satisfy our ambition under the feelings of that exciting day.” The succeeding summer was hardly more encouraging than the previous one. Not until the last week in August were they successful in reaching open water by the laborious effort of warping and towing, and, after encountering gales and ice-floes, they were again fast in the ice by the 27th of September, after a discouraging navigation of only four miles.