DEPARTMENT OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 263 



c'est sur son Memoire, dont pendant toute sa vie i'auteur est reste inconnu 

 qu'a 6te donne I'ordre de ne pas traiter en ennemi le bienfaiteur commun de 

 toutes les nations europeennes." 



Kippis, on pages 477-478 of the work cited, makes the statement that 

 the American Congress did not support FrankUn's action; however, no 

 evidence has been found for this assertion. The instructions issued by 

 Frankhn, 9 days prior to those of M. de Sartines, are as follows: 



Passport for Captain Cook.* 



To all Captains and Commanders of armed Ships acting by Commission 

 from the Congress of the United States of America, now 

 in War with Great Britain. 

 Gentlemen, 



A Ship having been fitted out from England before the commencement 

 of this War, to make Discoveries, of new Countries, in Unknown Seas, under 

 the Conduct of that most celebrated Navigator and Discoverer, Captain 

 Cook; an Undertaking truly laudable in itself, as the Increase of Geographical 

 Knowledge facilitates the Communication between distant Nations, in the 

 Exchange of useful Products and Manufactures, and the Extension of Arts, 

 whereby the common Enjoyments of human Life are multiply 'd and aug- 

 mented, and Science of other kinds encreas'd to the Benefit of Mankind in 

 general; This is therefore most earnestly to recommend to every one of you, 

 that in case the said Ship, which is now expected to be soon in the European 

 Seas on her Return, should happen to fall into your Hands, you would not 

 consider her as an Enemy, nor suffer any Plunder to be made of the Effects 

 contain'd in her, nor obstruct her immediate Return to England, by detaining 

 her or sending her into any other Part of Europe or to America, but that you 

 would treat the said Captain Cook and his People with all Civility and 

 Kindness, affording them, as common Friends to Mankind, all the Assistance 

 in your Power, which they may happen to stand in need of. In so doing 

 you will not only gratify the Generosity of your own Dispositions, but there 

 is no doubt of your obtaining the Approbation of the Congress, and your 

 other American Owners. I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, your most 

 obedient humble Servant. 



Given at Passy, near Paris, this 10th day of March, 1779. 



B. Franklin, 

 Plenipotentiary from the Congress of the 

 United States to the Court of France. 



Latest annual values of the magnetic elements at observatories. J. A. Fleming. Terr. 

 Mag., vol. 22, 169-172 (December 1917). 



A compilation of the most recent annual values of the magnetic elements 

 at observatories distributed over the Earth. 



A study of pressure and temperature effects in earth-current measm'ements. S. J. Mauchly. 

 Terr. Mag., vol. 23, 73-91 (June 1918), Washington. (Abstracts) Jour. Wash. 

 Acad. Sci., vol. 8, No. 11, 371 (June 4, 1918), Washington; Sci. Abstr., A, 

 vol. 21, No. 249, 391-392 (Sept. 30, 1918), London. (Paper presented before 

 the Philosophical Society of Washington, April 13, 1918.) 



A large part of the earth-current data at present available were obtained 

 from observations made on commercial telegraph lines. For a line of con- 

 siderable length the fluctuations in the observed current are generally assumed 

 to be very little influenced by local effects at the earth plates, but for measure- 

 ments made between electrodes not many kilometers apart this assumption 



*From MS. copy in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



