MAGNETISM AND CIRCULATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE. I43 



paneling it in conformity with the discoveries of Faraday and the 

 experiments of a Prussian philosopher,* we perceive a series of 

 facts and principles which, being applied to the circulation of the 

 atmosphere, make the conclusions to which I have been led touch- 

 ing these crossings in the air, and the continual " whirl" of the 

 wind in the Arctic regions against^ and in the Antarctic with the 

 hands of a ivatch, very significant. 



379. In this view of the subject, we see light springing up from 

 various sources, by which the shadows of approaching confirma- 

 tion are clearly perceived. One such source of light comes from 

 the observations of my excellent friend Quetelet, at Brussels, which 

 show that the great electrical reservoir of the atmosphere is in the 

 upper regions of the air. It is filled with positive electricity, 

 which increases as the temperature diminishes. 



380. May we not look, therefore, to find about the north and 

 south magnetic poles these atmospherical nodes or calm regions 

 which I have theoretically pointed out there ? In other words, 

 are not the magnetic poles of the earth in those atmospherical 

 nodes, the two standing in the relation of cause and effect, the one 

 to the other? 



This question was first asked several years ago,t and I was 

 then moved to propound it by the inductions of theoretical rea- 

 soning. 



381. Observers, perhaps, will never reach those inhospitable 

 regions with their instruments to shed light upon this subject ; 

 but Parry and Barrow have found reasons to believe in the exist- 

 ence of a perpetual calm about the north pole, and, later, Bellot 

 has reported the existence of a calm region within the frigid zone. 

 Professor J. H. Coffin, in an elaborate and valuable paper| on the 

 "Winds of the Northern Hemisphere," arrives by deduction 

 at a like conclusion. In that paper he has discussed the records 

 at no less than five hundred and seventy-nine meteorological sta- 

 tions, embracing a totality of observations for two thousand eight 

 hundred and twenty-nine years. He places his " meteorological 



* Professor Von Feilitzsch, of the University of Griefswald. Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, January, 1851, t Maury's Sailing Directions. 

 X Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. vi., 1854. 



