PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



109 



reckoned with. It may be that a broad tongue of electrical influence shoots from 

 the north towards the equator, and that another issues from the south to meet it at 

 the rendezvous. A study of the few auroral observations made by Borschgrevink 

 when he was in the Antarctic on the " Southern Cross," which have been tardily 

 issued, favours this inference. His station was on the other side of the globe ; we 

 had here the magnetic depression to accompany, but not in all cases the aurorte, 

 which may have illuminated the northern Pacific ocean more brightly than this 

 western region. 



I have searched available records for further proof of the statement respecting 

 the connection between sun spots and magnetic storms made at pages 351 et seq 

 of our Memorial Volume, and present a diagram which shows the magnetic 

 disturbances associated with the most noteworthy sun spots of recent years. I 

 begin with the magnetic disturbance of the end of August and beginning of 

 September, 1859, because it is somewhat celebrated in astronomical history, and 

 has given rise to a fabulous legend. Most popular works on the subject of sun- 

 spots report that while Messrs. Carrington and Hodgson were examining the sun 

 they siaw a spot appear and there was a simultaneous disturbance of the magnets. 

 The original statement of Mr. R. Hodgson, F.R.A.S. was made to the British 

 Association as follows : — " While observing a group of sun-spots on September 1st, 

 1859, I was suddenly surprised at the appearance of a very brilliant star of light, 

 much brighter than the sun's surface, most dazzling to the unprotected eye, 

 illuminating with its light the upper edges of the adjacent spots ... It 

 lasted five minutes and disappeared instantaneously. From a photograph taken 

 of them at Kew the previous day the size (length) of the entire group appears to 

 have been about 2' 8'^, or say 60,000 miles. The magnetic instruments at Kew 

 and at Greenwich were simultaneously disturbed at the same instant to a 

 considerable extent." I assume that the sun spot group was central at that date, 

 and the magnetic curve is taken from the Bombay register as we do not possess 

 the 1859 Greenwich records. The whole world, however, feels these magnetic 

 disturbances with wonderful simultaneity. Here are two examples of the curves 



1895. 1 Jan'y. 11 



H. F. CURVE. 



Tiflis 

 Toronto. 



1 Feb'y. 



1 Mar. 



(JULY. 



CURVES OF HOR. MAGNETIC FORCE. DAILY MEANS. 



for three months' daily mean readings of horizontal magnetic force ; one pair 

 Toronto and Tiflis, the* other Toronto and Greenwich. Allowing for differences 

 in scale, you will see that the ups and downs exactly correspond. Even the 

 principal tremors are to be seen on the photographic curves now made at quite 

 distant places, such as Paris and Perpignan, Berlin and Vienna, Manila and 

 Zi-ka-wei, and so exactly to the instant that the difference in longitude can be 

 checked by this strange wireless telegraphy. The beginnings of magnetic storms 



