Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/88

20 to secure a faithful record of those of each ship, as well as to detect the cause of any differences in either, it became our practice every day at 1 to communicate by signal the results of all that had been obtained up to that time. So much advantage was derived from this measure, that I would strongly recommend its adoption by any expedition that may be employed on a service of this nature. We had watched the progressive diminution of the dip of the needle, and steering a course as nearly south as the wind permitted, in order to cross the line of no dip at right angles, we found the change so rapid as to be ascertained with great precision; so much so that the signal for our being on the exact point of no dip, where the needles, being equally poised between the northern and southern magnetic systems, assumed a perfectly horizontal position, was being hoisted from both ships at the same instant of time. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the perfect accordance of our observations in a determination of so much importance: nor could it fail to be of more than ordinary interest to me to witness the needle thus affected; having some years previously, when at the north magnetic pole, seen it in a directly vertical position: nor was it unnatural, when we saw the south pole of the needle beginning to point below the horizon, to indulge the hope that ere long we might be permitted again to see it in a similar position at the south magnetic pole of the earth.

The regularity, as well as the rapidity, with which