MAGNETIC INCLINATION. 101 



clue to the observations and scientific energy of the adven- 

 turous navigator, Sir James I\oss. His observations of the 

 northern magnetic pole were made during the second expe- 

 dition of his uncle, Sir John Ross (1829-1833),* and of the 

 southern during the Antarctic expedition under his own 

 command (1830-1840). The northern magnetic pole in 

 70° 5 / lat., 96° 43" W. long., is 5° of latitude farther from 

 the ordinary pole of the earth than the southern magnetic 

 pole, 75° 35 / lat., 154° 10' E. long., while it is also situated 

 farther west from Greenwich than the northern magnetic 

 pole. The latter belongs to the great island of Boothia Fe- 

 lix, which is situated very near the American continent, and 

 is a portion of the district which Captain Parry had pre- 

 viously named North Somerset. It is not far distant from 

 the western coast of Boothia Felix, near the promontory of 

 Adelaide, which extends into King William's Sound and 

 Victoria Strait. f The southern magnetic pole has not been 

 directly reached in the same manner as the northern pole. 

 On the 17th of February, 1841, the Erebus penetrated as 

 far as 76° 12' S. lat., and 164° E. long. As the inclination 

 was here only 88° 40', it was assumed that the southern 

 magnetic pole was about 160 nautical miles distant.^ Many 

 accurate observations of declination, determining the inter- 

 section of the magnetic meridian, render it very probable that 

 the south magnetic pole is situated in the interior of the great 

 antarctic region of South Victoria Land, west of the Prince 

 Albert mountains, which approach the south pole, and are 

 connected with the active volcano of Erebus, which is 12,400 

 feet in height. 



The position and change of form of the magnetic equator, 

 that is to say, the line on which the dip is null, were very 

 fully considered in the Picture of Nature, Cosmos, vol. i., p. 

 183. The earliest determination of the African node (the 

 intersection of the geographical and magnetic equators) was 



* Sir John Barrow, Arctic Voyages of Discovery, 1846, p. 521-529. 



t The strongest inclination which has as yet been observed in the 

 Siberian continent is 82° 16', which was found by Middendorf, on the 

 River Taimyr, in 74° 17' N. lat., and 95° 40' E. long. (Middend., Si- 

 ber. Reise, th. i., s. 194). 



X Sir James Ross, Voyage to the Antarctic Regions, vol. i., p. 24G. 

 "I had so long cherished the ambitions hope," says this navigator, 

 "to plant the flag of my country on both the magnetic poles of our 

 globe; but the obstacles which presented themselves being of so in- 

 surmountable a character was some degree of consolation, as it left us 

 no grounds for self-reproach" (p. 247). 



