Polar Explorations. 149 
settled, it will be a large compensation for the hazards and 
hardships encountered by the patriotic adventurers, who 
ave confronted the elements and the savagesin making t 
acquisition. Professor Barlow is of opinion that the hypoth- 
esis suggested above, viz. “that of the magnetic pole having 
a daily motion about its mean orbit, of about 22’ or 3' in ra- 
dius, serves to explain all the general phenomena of the ob- 
served daily changes in direction and intensity of the mag- 
netic needle in different parts of the globe.” The position 
of the magnetic pole is in 69° 16’ N. lat. and 98° 8’ W. long. 
as computed by Professor Barlow, from the observations of 
apt. Franklin, Capt. Parry, and others. 
The Aurora Borealis was less brilliant in the high lati- 
tudes, than in the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Bear Lake, but 
was noticed with particular accuracy, though without arriv- 
currence. The corruscations were generally of an uniform 
yellow color, ina low arch of steady light, though some- 
times in a small degree undulating and streaming, as i 
lower latitudes.* 
* In a late No. of the Lond. Mechanie’s Magazine, it is stated that Professor 
Hansteen, accompanied by a naval Lieutenant, were to set out in May, 1828, 
upon a scientific expedition through Siberia. At St. Petersburgh, they were 
to be joined by Dr. Erman of Berlin, who goes with them as astronomer 
alist. 
north along the Obis to Bereson, in order to examine the northernmost branch 
of the Ural chain, and to observe the temperature of that tract. ey hoped 
to arrive in season, to e winter at Irkoutsk. They intend to go thence 
north east to Jakoutsk, and onward one thousand and fourteen wersts, (six hun- 
dred seventy six miles,) to Ochotsk, over a country entirely uninhabited, 
rovisi the whole journey. The tour it is calculated will oc- 
carrying 
cupy two years. ae 
e grand object of this important expediti bserve the phenomena 
of magnetism and to ascertain if possible, the situation of the magnetic Encls 
The British brig Chanticleer, comma: t. Forster, left 
about the same time, on a voyage to th , for scientific objects. 
> € Pacific 
The officers who accompany Capt. Forster, have all been selected on account 
of their scientific acquirements. They are liniited to three years absence, and 
to proceed as far towards the South Pole as they can without 
P timate 427 
