"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.