TKRRKSTRIAL MAGNETISM. 39 



that on which our forces ought therefore to be concentrated 

 with a determination to subdue it. As regards the amount of 

 private research ah-eady expended on the subject, and still in 

 activity, we may refer generally to the masses of valuable ob- 

 servation collected in Major Sabine's Report. For many of 

 these we are indebted wholly to private zeal and exertion. In 

 cases where the observers have been officers or persons in 

 public employ their services in this respect have been extra- 

 official and voluntary, and in some cases extremely laborious. 

 We may also refer to the discovery of the north-western mag- 

 netic pole itself by Captain Ross, in the prosecution of an en- 

 terprise which, however peculiar its circumstances, and how- 

 ever unlikely to be followed as an example by others, was yet 

 strictly a private undertaking. Further, we may refer to the 

 elaborate digests of existing knowledge contained in the varia- 

 tion charts of Barlow, and in Major Sabine's recent report, 

 drawn up at the instance of the British Association in 1837; 

 and lastly to the researches now carrying on (also in pursuance 

 of a recommendation of the British Association) by that di- 

 stinguished officer, in conjunction with Professor Lloyd and 

 Captain Ross, en the magnetism of the British Isles. 



As regards the example of other nations much might indeed 

 be said, but we shall only cite one instance, which can call up 

 no ideas but the pleasing ones of admiration and gratitude, viz. 

 that of Norway, which, though a small and poor state, im- 

 posed on itself additional burthens (at a time when economy 

 was especially felt to be necessary), by an unanimous vote of 

 its Storthing, for the express purpose of defraying the expenses 

 of that journey of Hansteen, to which we owe his most valuable 

 and important magnetical determinations between the meridians 

 of Greenwich and Okotsk, in the north of Europe and Asia, 

 and from the 40th to the 75th degree of north latitude. 



We therefore feel ourselves on strong ground when we call 

 upon Government to aid us in a task where we are actually 

 doing so much, and to lend a crowning hand to so much exer- 

 tion. Great physical theories, with their trains of practical 

 consequences, are preeminently national objects, whether for 

 glory or for utility. The peace which now happily subsists 

 may not continue many years longer, and in the turmoil of war 

 such objects are little likely to engage attention. The oppor- 

 tunity therefore which now exists for such an expedition may, 

 in the concurrence of events, be snatched from us altogether, 

 whereas at present everything is favourable. 



{Sigtted on the part of the Comtnitteef) 



J. F. W. Herschbl. 



