MAGNETIC STORMS. 309 



indicating the proximity of that station to the source or sources from 

 which the action of the forces may proceed. Now, Point Barrow is 

 situated in a nearly intermediate position between what we believe to 

 be the present localities of Halley's northern foci, and at no great dis- 

 tance from either ; in such a situation the exposure to disturbing in- 

 fluences proceeding from both might well be supposed to be very great. 

 The displays of aurora at Point Barrow exceed also in numerical fre- 

 quency any record received from any other part of the globe. 



The further prosecution of this investigation appears to stand in need 

 of some more systematic proceeding than would be supplied by the 

 uncombined efforts of individual zeal. Observations similar to those 

 of the Kew observatory, made at a few stations in the middle latitudes 

 of the hemisphere, disturbed with some approach to symmetry in their 

 longitudinal distances apart, would probably furnish data which, by 

 their combination, might serve to assign the localities from whence the 

 disturbances are propagated, contribute still further to disentangle the 

 complications of the forces which produce them, and thus hasten the 

 attainment of that "triumph of science" foreseen and foreshadowed by 

 the great geometrician of the last age. Of such a nature was the scheme 

 contemplated by the joint committee of the Royal Society and British- 

 Association, and submitted to her Majesty's government in the hope 

 of obtaining their aid in the execution of such part of it as fell within 

 British dominion ; and of thus " maintaining and perpetuating our 

 national claim to the furtherance and perfecting of this magnificent 

 department of physical inquiry. (Herschel, in Quarterly Review, Sep- 

 tember, 1840, p. 277.) The scheme was no unreasonable one. Prob- 

 ably eight or nine stations in the contour of the hemisphere might 

 suffice ; and of these we already possess the observations at Toronto : 

 those at Kew are in progress ; and self-recording instruments, similar 

 to those at Kew, are now under verification -t Kew preparatory to being 

 employed on the western or Pacific side of the United States territory, 

 at a point not far from the previously-desired station of Vancouver 

 Island, for which a substitute is thus provided. '. is observatory, as 

 well as one at Key West, on the southern coast of the United States, 

 in which self-recording instruments are already at work, will be main- 

 tained under the authority and at the expense of the American govern- 

 ment, and both have been placed under the supe- intendence of the able 

 and indefatigable director of the Coast Survey, Dr. Alexander Dallas 

 Bache. The Russian observatory at Pekin, the trustworthy observa- 

 tions of which are already known to the society, is understood to have 

 recommenced its hourly observations, and stands only in need of an 

 apparatus for the vertical force (which might be readily supplied from 

 this country) to contribute its full complement to the required data. 

 More than half the stations may therefore be regarded as already pro- 

 vided for ; and there are other Russian observatories in the desired 

 latitudes and longitudes which might be completed with instruments 

 for a full participation. 



It would be wrong to conclude these imperfect notices without recog- 

 nizing how greatly the researches have been aided in their progress 

 by their united, unfailing countenance and support of the Royal So- 



