Greenwich, and latitude 43 deg. 49' 49". The mountain peaks, as laid down,
were fixed by bearings from this and other astronomical points. We had no
other compass than the small ones used in sketching the country; but from
an azimuth, in which one of them was used, the variation of the compass is
18 deg. east. The correction made in our field-work by the astronomical
observations indicates that this is a very correct observation.

As soon as the camp was formed, I set about endeavoring to repair my
barometer. As I have already said, this was a standard cistern barometer,
of Troughton's construction. The glass cistern had been broken about
midway; but as the instrument had been kept in a proper position, no air
had found its way into the tube, the end of which had always remained
covered. I had with me a number of vials of tolerably thick glass, some of
which were of the same diameter as the cistern, end I spent the day in
slowly working on these, endeavoring to cut them of the requisite length;
but, as my instrument was a very rough file, I invariably broke them. A
groove was cut in one of the trees, where the barometer was placed during
the night, to be out of the way of any possible danger, and in the morning
I commenced again. Among the powder-horns in the camp, I found one which
was very transparent, so that its contents could be almost as plainly seen
as through glass. This I boiled and stretched on a piece of wood to the
requisite diameter, and scraped it very thin, in order to increase to the
utmost its transparency. I then secured it firmly in its place on the
instrument, with strong glue made from a buffalo, and filled it with
mercury, properly heated. A piece of skin, which had covered one of the
vials, furnished a good pocket, which was well secured with strong thread
and glue, and then the brass cover was screwed to its place. The
instrument was left some time to dry; and when I reversed it, a few hours
after, I had the satisfaction to find it in perfect order; its indications
being about the same as on the other side of the lake before it had been