THE MAGNETIC EQUATOR. 105 



clians of the Fejee and Gilbert Islands. While the magnetic 

 equator leaves the western coasts of the South American 

 continent, probably between Punta de la Aguja and Payta, 

 it is constantly drawing nearer in the west to the geogra- 

 phical equator, so that it is only at a distance of 2 from it 

 in the meridian of the group of the Mendana Islands. 30 

 About 10 farther west, in the meridian which passes 

 through the western part of the Paumotu Islands (Low 

 Archipelago) lying in 153 50' E. long., Captain Wilkes 

 found that the distance from the geographical equator in 

 1840 was still fully 2. 31 The intersection of the nodes in 

 the Pacific is not as much as 180 from that of the Atlantic 

 nodes, that is to say, it does not occur in 174 10' W. long., 

 but in the meridian of the Fejee Islands, situated in about 

 177 20' E. long. If, therefore, we pass from the west coast 

 of Africa, through South America westward, we shall find 

 in this direction that the distance of the nodes from one 

 another is about 8^ too great, which is a proof that the 

 curve of which we are here speaking is not one of the 

 great circles. 



According to the admirable and comprehensive determi- 

 nations which were made by Captain Elliot from 1846 to 

 1849, between the meridians of Batavia and Ceylon, and 

 which coincide in a remarkable manner with those of Jules 

 de Blosseville (see page 64), it would appear that the 

 magnetic equator passes through the northern point of 

 Borneo, and almost due west into the northern point of 

 Ceylon, in 9 45' N. lat. The curve of minimum total in- 

 tensity runs almost parallel to this part of the magnetic 

 equator, 32 which enters the western part of the continent of 

 Africa, south of the Cape of Gardafui. This important re- 

 entering point of the curve has been determined with great 

 accuracy by Rochet d'Hericourt on his second Abyssinian 

 expedition, from 1842 to 1845, and by the interesting dis- 



30 This position of the magnetic equator was confirmed by Erman for 

 the year 1830. On his return from Kamtscatka to Europe, he found 

 the inclination almost null at 1 30' S. lat., 132 37' W. long.; in 1 52' S. 

 lat., 135 10' W. long.; in 1 54' lat., in 133 45' W. long.; in 2 1' S. lat,, 

 139 8' W. long. (Erman, Magnet Beob. 1841, s. 536). 



31 Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition, vol. iv, p. 263. 

 K Elliot, in the Phil. Transact, for 1851, pt. i, pp. 287331. 



