Variation of the Magnetic Needle.— Astronomy. 387 
but that we could not with propriety ground any high expecta- 
tion upon it.—How correct the opinion was, which the Baron 
formed in the first instance, may be collected from the following 
extract from his Correspondance Astronomique, Géographique, 
&e. a Génes, page 401—“ It only remains for us to fix our 
hopes upon the scientific discoveries ;'on the magnetism, the 
electricity, the aurora borealis, &c., in fine, upon all those phe- 
nomena which particularly belong to these regions; and even 
then we must not expect great discoveries. We ought not even 
to be astonished (and those who know the difficulties and the 
chances of these navigations will not), ‘if we shall one day hear 
that these vessels have not gone so far, and have net approached 
the pole so near, as some whale ships have done before them. 
The time of which Seneca speaks in his Medea (act ii.) that 
might one day arrive, guilus Oceanus vincula rerum luxet, has 
not yet occurred, and may perhaps never arrive for the polar 
region.” I have the honour to be, sir, 
Your very humble servant, 
London, May 18, 1819. J. Murray. 
VARIATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 
The mistake seems to have prevailed, pretty generally, that 
thewestern variation of the direction of the magnetic needle from 
the meridian or true north, had some time ago reached its maai- 
mum, and was now decreasing, and the needle at a very slow 
rate approaching again towards the true north. The reverse of 
this seems however to be the case, from the recent and delicate 
observations of Colonel Mark Beaufoy, made at his seat near 
Stanmore in Middlesex; whence it appears that the variation 
uniformly increased from the month of April 1817 until January 
1819, and has fluctuated since. The total of increase in two years 
to the 31st of March, as deduced from the monthly means of all 
the observations, is 2’ 25’;—the mean of all the observations 
made in the first quarter of the present year, shows the variation 
to have been then 24° 37’ 0”. 
ASTRONOMY, 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
Sir,— The astronomical observations and remarks which you 
have lately inserted in your valuable Philosophical Magazine, are 
of such importance as to merit the particular thanks of your 
readers, and indeed the gratitude of the world at large.—To me, 
although but an amateur in astronomy, they have been particu- 
larly gratifying ; and as you possess such able correspondents in this 
science, I beg through your medium to ask their assistance in a 
matter of no difficulty to those who are in the constant habit of 
Bb2 observing, 
