September 8th

Another fine day. I was up early and made observations for declination. This requires me to be in the magnetic tent at every quarter hour for about 2 minutes from seven to half past eight or nine in the morning and from twelve thirty to two thirty in the afternoon; this means thro' breakfast and lunch time, so I eat with my watch before me, and leave the table always 2 1/2 minutes before the quarter hour. We are beginning to prepare to leave. McBride has been getting the boxes ready to pack. He has taken up the floor cloth of the large tent and piled the boxes in them to keep perfectly dry. I worked a little with the plane table at camp today and made some observations today for latitude and got 58 degrees 50', which is about right. The wood we collected from across the stream makes splendid fires, which we have thoroughly enjoyed.

Morse has been sick for two or three days, with what seems a kind of [MS illegible] of the stomach. He says he has had it before. Today he is better.

Much ice has fallen from the ice front within the last week. Until then days last night, it was nearly all from the deep bay, making it deeper, but now the projecting point is breaking away. The general line of the ice front must be two or three hundred yards further back than when we arrived here. Whether this is permanent or not, I can't say.