348 Mr Barlow on the Diurnal Variation 



instruments, and of observers, they cannot fail to be highly in- 

 teresting to every one who has paid attention to this curious 

 and important branch of natural philosophy. With regard to 

 locality, no place could have been more admirably situated than 

 Port Bowen, in latitude 73° 14' N., longitude 88° 54' W., with 

 a dip of 88° 1', and consequently within a very short distance 

 of the magnetic pole, and yet sufficiently remote to leave to the 

 needles a natural directive power, which they would in all pro- 

 bability have lost, had the approximation to the Pole been much 

 greater. With regard to instruments, every thing that could be 

 effected by the skill of the most distinguished artists in London, 

 was liberally supplied to the expedition by the Government ; and 

 as observers, it is sufficient to mention only the names of Parry 

 and Foster, as they cannot fail to inspire us with every possible 

 confidence, both with respect to the accuracy of the observations, 

 and to the most careful and unbiassed registry of the results. It 

 is but fair, however, to state, that these two distinguished indi- 

 viduals alone, would not have been able, with all the zeal they 

 are known to possess, to have obtained such a series of results 

 as those to which we are now referring. It was necessary for 

 this that they should be seconded by the cordial assistance and 

 co-operation of the other officers of the expedition. This assist- 

 ance was cheerfully given ; and it is acknowledged in the most 

 handsome and liberal terms by the authors of the memoir in 

 which these experiments are recorded, and which has been re- 

 cently pubhshed as a separate part of the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society for 1826. 



The experiments commenced about the 10th of December 

 1824, and were continued to the end of May 1825 ; and, when 

 we consider that, for a considerable part of this time, the sun 

 was below the horizon, — that the thermometer was sometimes 

 40" below zero, — that the place of observation, a snow house, 



ern parts of Europe, the above fact ought to fix the attention of the agricul- 

 turists of those countries. The stipse do not furnish good fodder, and the 

 meadows would lose nothing by their absence. If they could not be extirpa- 

 ted all at once, the flowers are surmounted by an awn upwards of a foot long, 

 by which they might easily be plucked off, before detaching themselves sponta- 

 neously. Should a seed happen to have buried itself in the substance of the 

 skin, it would require to be extracted by the ordinary means, for accidents 

 of this kind are not to be remedied by a more complicated treatment." 



