106 



continued, a circumstance which, although it caused at the time 

 some surprise, tended to withdraw attention from the question. 



A paper by Mr. W. H. Barlow is then referred to, which was 

 read before the Royal Society on May 25, 1848, and subsequently 

 published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ; ' and in which a very 

 interesting set of observations are given, made at Derby in May 1848, 

 upon various lines of telegraph centring in that city. The relative 

 bearing of the terminal stations, and not the route of the wires, is 

 at the basis of these observations ; and it is considered that the 

 wires conveyed a portion of a terrestrial current of electricity, which 

 current appeared to travel between S. 28 W. and S. 75 W. 



The author goes on to state that, after a comparatively long lull, 

 with only here and there a sign of moderate activity, attention was 

 again called to these earth-currents about the year 1856 ; and more 

 definite instructions were issued for observations to be made, and 

 returns sent in, which has led to a large accumulation of observations, 

 commencing early in 1857. It is not his purpose to discuss the 

 mass of observations, nor to extract from them the dates of great 

 disturbance ; for this would only go to show the general relation 

 between earth- current, magnetic disturbance, and aurora, which is 

 already well established. 



The most notable period of disturbance that has occurred since 

 electric telegraphs have been in existence, was from August 27th to 

 September 6th, 1859. It was recognized in one or more of its modes 

 of manifestation, not only in Europe and America, but in Australia. 

 Notices of the phenomena, collected in all parts of the world, are 

 given by Prof. Elias Loomis in the ' American Journal of Science 

 and Arts/ and occupy ninety- three pages. Two articles in ' Les 

 Archives des Sciences Physiques,' by Prof. De la Rive, are also referred 

 to. Referring to the reports in question, it was evident to the author 

 that those who, like himself, had electric telegraphs under their con- 

 trol, had, to a certain extent, failed in their duty. He had, it is 

 true, collected many observations, but they had been neither dis- 

 cussed nor published ; and M. De la Rive had to express his regret 

 that the returns which reached him of this great storm gave him no 

 clue as to the direction of the currents ; and for lack of this informa- 

 tion the conclusions to which he arrived admit of reconsideration. 

 Mr. Walker, upon learning this, took the matter up more actively. 



