Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/401



the instructions drawn up for my guidance by the Committee of Physics of the Royal Society, it is stated, that "M. Gauss, from theoretical considerations, has recently assigned a probable position in lat. 66° S. and long. 146° E. to the Southern Magnetic Pole, denying the existence of two poles of the same name, in either hemisphere, which, as he justly remarks, would entail the necessity of admitting also a third point, having the chief characteristics of such a pole intermediate between them;" and again, "it is not improbable that the point indicated by M. Gauss will prove accessible; at all events it cannot but be approachable sufficiently near to test by the convergence of meridians the truth of the indication; and as his theory gives within very moderate limits of error the true place of the northern pole, and otherwise represents the magnetic elements in every explored region with considerable approximation, it is but reasonable to recommend this as a distinct point to be decided;" and although our researches had proved that the result of M. Gauss's theoretical considerations was not so correct with respect to the situation of the South as it was to that of the North Magnetic Pole, probably owing to the want of a sufficient number of trustworthy observations from which to draw his