Nature's /IMracles, 



Like electricity, magnetism has had a long 

 history, but little use was made of it till 

 modern times beyond that of the mariner's 

 compass. It can readily be seen what an im- 

 portant factor it was in the science of naviga- 

 tion. Long after the discovery of the 

 mm pass needle there were many perplexing 

 problems arising, and all sorts of theories were 

 advanced to account for the various phe- 

 nomena. The variation of the needle was one 

 of these problems. It is said that Columbus 

 was the first to discover the variation of the 

 needle, as well as America. This is disputed, 

 however, as every man's pretensions usually 

 are. However this may be, Columbus had to 

 invent some plausible theory to account for 

 tliis variation to prevent a mutiny amonp: his 

 rivw. They were very superstitious and 

 thought that they were sailing into a new 

 world where the laws of nature were different 

 from those of Spain. One phenomenon that 

 disturbed Columbus was the dip of the needle. 

 As we move in a northerly direction a mag- 

 netic needle dips, and it was the observation 

 of this phenomenon in different latitudes that 

 finally resulted in the invention of the dipping 

 needle. It is well known that one pole of a 

 magnetic needle points to the north and the 

 other to the south. In other words, what is 

 called the north pole of a needle points to 

 one of the magnetic poles of the earth which is 



