Enterprise and Adventure/The English Flag at the North Pole
THE ENGLISH FLAG AT THE NORTH POLE.
One of the most interesting episodes in the numerous narratives of voyages to the Polar regions, is that of the planting of the British flag on the spot of the North Magnetic Pole, in the spring of 1831. This ceremony was performed by Commander Ross during his second voyage, on which he left England in 1829. After a winter of extraordinary severity, during which the thermometer fell to ninety-two degrees below freezing point, a slight amelioration in the weather enabled Commander Ross to make a number of exploratory journeys, during which, by careful observations, he was enabled to determine the position of the pole as in lat. 70° 5' 17' N, and long. 96° 46' 45" W., being to the southward of Cape Nikolai, on the western shore of Boothia, a considerable distance from the spot up to that time assigned to it by astronomers. Here Ross erected an observatory, as near, he says, to the magnetic pole as the limited means which he possessed enabled him to determine. The amount of the dip, as indicated by his dipping needle, was 89° 59', being thus within one minute of the vertical; while the proximity of this pole, if not its actual existence where they stood, was further confirmed by the total inaction of the several horizontal needles then in his possession.
As soon as he had satisfied his mind on the subject, Commander Ross made known to his fellow-voyagers the gratifying result of their labours; and it was then that mid mutual congratulations the little band 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 the Fourth. "We had abundance," he continues, "of materials for building on 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 of the Esquimaux. 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."
It has since been found that the centre of magnetic intensity is a moveable point revolving within the Frigid Zone, but this discovery does not detract from the substantial correctness of Ross's experiments.