Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/18

x difficult and delicate, our knowledge of the actual and past state of the dip over the earth's surface is lamentably deficient. It has lately appeared, however, that this element can be observed with considerable approximation, though not with nicety, at sea, so that no reason subsists why materials for a chart of the dip, analogous to that of variation, should not be systematically collected. Lastly, the intensity has come to be added to the list of observanda; and from the great facility and exactness with which it can be determined, this branch of magnetic knowledge has in fact made most rapid progress.

"These three elements, the horizontal direction, the dip, and the intensity, require to be precisely ascertained before the magnetic state of any given station on the globe can be said to be fully determined. Nor can either of them, theoretically speaking, be said to be more important than the others, though the direction, on account of its immediate use to navigators, has hitherto had the greatest stress laid upon it, and been reduced into elaborate charts. A chart of the lines of total intensity has been recently constructed by Major Sabine.

"All these elements are, at each point, now ascertained to be in a constant state of fluctuation, and affected by those transient and irregular changes which are above alluded to; and the investigation of the laws, extent, and mutual