THE FIRST MARINER'S COMPASS. 129 



when the motion ceases; the point of it (the needle) looks 

 to North." 



The paragraph from the De Utensilibus may be best 

 considered simultaneously with the foregoing. The Latin 

 words 1 present many obscurities, to which it is needless 

 to refer in detail here, since they are considered in the fol- 

 lowing translation: 



"If then one wishes a ship well provided with all things, 

 one must have also a needle mounted on a dart. The 

 needle will be oscillated and turn until the point of the 

 needle directs itself to the Bast (North), thus making 

 known to the sailors the route which they should hold 

 while the Little Bear is concealed from them by the vicis- 

 situdes of the atmosphere; for it never disappears under 

 the horizon because of the smallness of the circle which it 

 describes. ' ' 2 



The manner of using the compass described in these re- 

 markable passages is altogether different from that now 

 followed; but is easily interpreted in the light of the in- 



1 ''Qui ergo tnunitam vult habere navem habet etiam acum jaculo sup- 

 positam. Rotabitur enim et circumvolvetur acus, donee cuspis acus 

 respiciat orientem; sicque comprehendunt quo tendere debeant nautae 

 cum Cynosura latet in aeris turbatione; quamvis ad occasum numquam 

 tendat, propter circuli brevitatem." Wright, T. : A Volume of Vocabu- 

 laries, London, 1*857. 



2 D'Avezac: Anciens Temoignages Historiques Relatifs a la Boussole. 

 Bull, de la Soc. Geog., 19 Feb., 1858. 



S*ee, also, Bertelli ; sulla Bpistola de P. Peregrine, Rome, 1868, Mem. 

 ii. p. 41. D'Avezac points out that the statement in the original that the 

 needle directs itself to the East is evidently an error, and translates the 

 somewhat ambiguous clause with reference to the Little Bear as given 

 above. In this Bertelli concurs, but dissents from D' Avezac's rendering of 

 " suppositam " as if it were " superpositam " and consequent translation 

 of "acum jaculo suppositam " as " a needle mounted on a pivot." It is 

 thought that Bertelli is right, on the principle that no physical discovery 

 ought to be ante-dated merely by a possible change in the signification 

 of words. The burden of proof is on D'Avezac not only to demonstrate 

 that his rendering is reasonable, but also from other sources to show 

 that a pivoted compass was known at or about Neckam's time; and this 

 he fails to do. 



9 



