68 THE ANTARCTIC. 



all others Alexander v. Humboldt was indefatigable 

 in exercising his powerful influence in furthering the 

 scientific investigation of this particular subject. 



Sabine, and then Foster and others, had taken the 

 opportunity given by their travels of observing magnetic 

 declination, inclination, and intensity in different places, 

 with the view of determining the length of the seconds 

 pendulum. Humboldt next prevailed upon the Russian 

 Government, in the year 1829, to erect a long line of 

 magnetic observatories extending- from the Baltic to 

 Pekin. The oscillations of the magnetic needle were 

 now everywhere eagerly watched, but the lack of a 

 connected series of observations in other parts of the 

 globe, and more especially in the southern hemisphere, 

 began to make itself seriously felt. Humboldt now, by 

 means of an open letter to the Royal Society of London, 

 called upon the scientific representatives of the Power 

 whose territories are most widely scattered over the 

 surface of the globe, to erect fixed magnetic stations 

 everywhere in the British Colonies. The Royal Society 

 readily agreed to share in these investigations of terrestrial 

 magnetism, perhaps lest the renown attaching to them 

 should become the exclusive possession of Germany 

 and Russia. However that may be, the Royal Society 

 gave a ready response, and not only determined on the 

 erection of fixed stations for magnetic observations them- 

 selves, but in the year 1838 called upon the Government 

 to send out a scientific expedition to the Antarctic regions. 

 This was to be specially designed for observing and 

 investigating terrestrial magnetic elements in the higher 

 southern latitudes; and, if possible, to discover the southern 

 magnetic pole — the real North Pole — of the globe. The 

 Government promptly responded to these wishes, and 

 determined that two vessels of suitable size, the Erebus 

 and the Terror, should be placed at the disposal of the 

 Royal Society. The man best capable not only in 



