PROFESSORS J. C. BEATTIE AND J. T. MORRISON ON MAGNETIC 

 WORK IN SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA, 1908 TO 1909. 



The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism was so fortunate as to have associated 

 with it in the African work two experienced and enthusiastic investigators; Professor 

 J. C. Beattie, of South African College, Cape Town, and Professor J. T. Morrison, 

 of Victoria College, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Professor Beattie was connected 

 with the Department as Research Associate, December i, 1908, to January 31, 1910, 

 and Professor Morrisonas Magnetic Observer, for the year 1909. Both were granted 

 the necessary furloughs by their respective institutions. A general account of their 

 work, prepared by themselves, follows. 



Professor Beattie's Account. 



Magnetic observations in Southern and Central Africa, except at coast stations, have been 

 carried out only in the last quarter of a century. Capello and Ivens were the first travelers who 

 made it one of their objects to study the magnetic state of the country they explored. These 

 two men started in Angola and traveled across the continent through what is now Portuguese 

 West Africa and Northwestern Rhodesia to Tete on the Zambezi.' They determined the magnetic 

 declination, the inclination, and the horizontal intensity at over 20 stations in the years 1884 and 

 1885. 



The next series of magnetic observations was carried out in the Belgian Congo. In 1890 and 

 1891 Delporte and Gillis observed at 14 stations in the lower reaches of the river Congo; in 1898, 

 1899, and 1900 Lemaire observed at 120 stations in the upper reaches of the same river and its 

 tributaries; finally, between 1902 and 1905, Lemaire observed at 35 other stations between the 

 Congo River and Lado.^ The methods employed and the instruments carried were the same in 

 these three expeditions and the magnetic elements determined were the declination, the dip, 

 and the horizontal intensity. Unfortunately only the declination results were satisfactory; the 

 instruments used for the determination of the other two elements were unsuited for their purpose. 



Between 1892 and 1906 a considerable amount of magnetic work was carried out in German 

 East Africa, chiefly by Dr. Maurer.^ Observations were made at 23 stations along the coast 

 and for a time self-recording instruments were used at Dar-es-Salaam. 



In Africa south of the Zambezi a magnetic suivey was started in 1898 by Beattie and Morrison; 

 between that date and 1906 observations were taken at more than 400 stations. The latitude and 

 longitude were determined at each station and the three magnetic elements, the declination, the 

 dip, and the horizontal intensity. A report^ on this work has been published by the Royal Society, 

 London; in it is included a summary of the previous work in South Africa proper. 



Notwithstanding the considerable amount of work done, there was, and still is, a lack of mag- 

 netic data for great tracts of Africa. With the purpose of obtaining some information in these 

 egions, the writer submitted in 1907 to the Carnegie Institution of Washington, through the 

 Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, a scheme of further work in Africa. It 

 was proposed to continue the line of magnetic stations from Victoria Falls to Gondokoro. North 

 of that it was not deemed necessary to observe, as the Survey Department of the Eg>'ptian Govern- 

 ment had already put forward proposals for a magnetic survey of Egypt and the Sudan. It was 



' Capello and Ivens. De Angola a Contra Costa. Lissabon, 1886. 



2 Reeling's Magnetic Observations in Egypt, etc. Cairo, 1907. 



' Keeling. L. c. 



* Report of magnetic survey of South Africa by J. C. Beattie, London, 1909. 



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