Report of the Voyage of the Coquille. 284 
remounts a trifle to the north; nearly touches the northern 
point of Borneo; crosses the isle Paragua, the strait which se- 
parates the southernmost of the Philippines from the island 
of Mindanao, and under the meridian of Waigiou is again 
found at 9° of north latitude. From thence, after having 
passed through the archipelago of the Carolines, the magnetic 
equator descends rapidly towards the terrestrial equator, and 
cuts it, according to Morlet, at 174°; and according to 
Hansteen, at 187° of east longitude. There is much less un- 
certainty respecting the position of a second node also situated 
in the Pacific Ocean: its west longitude should be about 120°: 
but whilst the researches of M. Morlet have led him to admit 
that the magnetic equator, after having merely touched the 
terrestrial equator, immediately inclines towards the south, 
M. Hansteen supposes that this curve passes into the northern 
hemisphere for a space of about 15° of longitude, and then 
returns again to cut the equinoctial line at 23° distance from 
the western coast of America. In fine, not to exaggerate this 
discordance, we ought to say that in its northern excursion, 
Hansteen’s curve without dip does not depart from the ter- 
restrial equator more than one degree and a half, and that, de- 
finitively, this line, and that of M. Morlet, are nowhere at two 
degrees distance one from the other in the direction of the 
parallels of latitude. 
These different results belong to the magnetic equator of 
the year 1780. Have there happened, since then, any re- 
markable changes, either in the form of this curve, or in the 
position of its nodes? We do not doubt that the labours of 
M. Duperrey, united to the excellent observations of M. Frey- 
cinet, may fully clear up this question; your commissioners 
must confine themselves here to laying before you what they 
have been able to deduce from a first view. p 
The Coquille has crossed the magnetic equator six times. 
Two of the points whose position she thus directly deter- 
mined are situated in the Atlantic Ocean at 27° 19! 22" and 
14° 20' 15" west longitude, and 12° 27! 11" and 9° 45! 0" of 
south latitude. In M. Morlet’s map the latitudes of the 
oints of the line of no dip answering to 27°} and 14°3 west 
lreicituile: are respectively 14° 10! and 11° 36!. The line with- 
out inclination seems then, at the first point, to have come 
nearer to the terrestrial equator by 1° 43', and at the meridian 
of the second, by 1° 51'.. M. Hansteen’s chart gives very 
nearly the same differences. 
In the South Sea, near the coast of America, M. Duperrey 
found, first in going from Callao to Payta, and afterwards 
during his navigation between Payta and the Society Islands, 
Vol. 67. No. 336. April 1826. 2N two 
