As soon as I saw Gjöahavn, I decided to choose it for our winter quarters. It was evident that the autumn storms had set in in earnest, and I knew the waters further west were very shallow. Before deciding definitely upon this course, I intended to explore the harbour in a boat. The Magnetic Pole, as shown by our observations, appeared situated somewhere in the neighborhood of its old position, and as Gjöahavn was about 90 miles from that locality, it should, according to the dicta of scientific men, be particularly suited for a fixed magnetic station. . . . So why look further west for a harbour, which possibly we should not find. Had the completion of the North West Passage been our chief object, it would have been a different matter, and nothing would have prevented us from going further on. [Amundsen, in his Roald Amundsen's “The North West Passage”, Vol. 1, p. 80.]