Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/50

xlii through which they are followed. A beautiful example of such a result, deduced from three years' observation of the declination, is to be found in the first volume of Gauss's magnetical work, of which a translation is published in the fifth number of Taylor's Scientific Memoirs.

It remains to say a few words of the instrumental means which have been adopted for the attainment of these ends.

The magnetic instruments belonging to each observatory and in constant use, are, 1. a declination instrument; 2. a horizontal force magnetometer; 3. a vertical force magnetometer. These instruments are constructed after the plan adopted by Professor Lloyd in the Magnetic Observatory of Dublin. The magnet, in the two former, is a heavy bar, fifteen inches long, and upwards of a pound in weight. In the declination instrument the magnet rests in the magnetic meridian, being suspended by fibres of silk without torsion. In the horizontal force magnetometer, the magnet is supported by two parallel wires, and maintained in a position at right angles to the magnetic meridian by the torsion of their upper extremities. In both instruments the changes of position of the magnet are read off by means of an attached collimater having a divided scale in its focus. The magnetometer for the vertical force is a bar resting by knife edges on agate planes, and capable of motion therefore in the vertical plane only. This bar is loaded so as to rest in the horizontal position in the mean state of the force; and the deviations from that position are read off by micrometers near the two extremities of the bar.

In addition to these instruments, each observatory is furnished with a dip circle, a transit with an azimuth circle, and two chronometers. Each vessel also is supplied with a similar equipment. Should therefore the ships be under the necessity of wintering in the ice,—and generally, on every occasion when the nature of the service may render it necessary to pass a considerable interval of time in any port or anchorage,—the magnetometers should be established, and observations made with all the regularity of one of the fixed observatories, and with strict attention to all the same details.

The selection of proper stations for the erection of the magnetometers, and the extent of time which can be bestowed upon each, must in a great measure depend on circumstances which