laid before congress, by Mr. Shaw of Maryland. This 
tation was referred to the consideration of a committee of the 
House of Representatives, of which Mr. Pitkin was chairman. 
The committee deemed the subject of sufficient importance to 
merit investigation, and accordingly directed circular letters to 
men of science in different parts of the country, requesting infor- ~ 
mation on the present declination of the magnetic needle. ‘The 
answers to these circulars embodied considerable information of 
Which the following is a summary. 
President Wheelock of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, 
States that in 1765, the declination of the needle was at Hanover 
about 7° W.; at present (1810) 4° 15’ W. 
James Whitlaw, a surveyor in Ryegate, Vermont, lat. 44° 10’ N. 
and long. 72° 10’ W., states the declination at that place in 1801 to 
have been nearly 7° W. 
President Messer of Brown University, Rhode Island, states 
the variation there in 1769 at 63° W. ; but in 1790 it was, if the 
variation compass made use of could be relied on, only 3° 46’ W. 
[I have myself italicised the above clause to intimate my convic- 
tion that there must have been some error in this observation, or 
else that the compass did not in both instances occupy the same 
Spot. It is not credible that the needle had changed 23° in twenty 
one years.—E. L. 
Mr. Asher Miller of Middletown, Conn., states the variation at 
Danbury for 1810, at 5° 41’ W.; at Lyme 40 30’; Pomfret 5° 5 ; 
Hebron 4° 50’; East Hartford 4° 46’. 
President Smith of Princeton College, New Jersey, gives the 
Variation at that place for 1810 at 7° W. 
Andrew Ellicott, surveyor of the United States, gives the va- 
riation of the needle at various points on the western boundary of 
Pennsylvania. But as these observations are published in the 
Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, they are not here 
repeated. Mr. Ellicott adds however, “ the line of no variation in 
the United States at present, (1810,) crosses the west boundary 
of Pennsylvania, about thirty miles south of Lake Erie, and enters 
that lake near to Presque Isle.” 
Nicholas King, public surveyor, states the variation at Wash- 
ington, Dec. 23, 1809, to have been 52’ 
Madison of William and Mary’s College, Williamsburg, 
Virginia, lat. 37° 15’, long. 76° 35’, states the variation there to 
