150 C. A. Schott on Magnetic Declination, etc. 
value. For the greater part of our Atlantic coast the annual 
change is confined between +2’ and +8’, less on the southern 
coast, the careful observations at Key West between 1860 and 
1865 give the comparatively large value +2’-9. Proceeding 
westward, on the Gulf coast the annual change becomes less, and 
at the Mississippi delta it is but a fraction of a minute. The 
' Coast Survey report of 1861, pp. 252 and 256, contains the nu- 
me'ical quantities for our southern coast. 
If we start from the extreme northeast, in a southwesterly 
direction, we shall find the annual change as follows: along the 
. Lawrence river between the Saguenay river and Quebec 
+6’; between Quebec and Montreal about +5’; between Mon- 
treal and Kingston about +4’; at Portland, Me. +3'2 (from the 
most recent observations); along Lake Ontario +4’; at Toronto 
+31 (from a table of absolute value published by G. T. King- 
ston, director of the observatory); at Buffalo +3’6; at Dunkirk 
+43; at Lake St. Clair +2"9. The average value for Penn- 
sylvania is about +2'7 (see record and results of a magnetic 
survey of Pennsylvania, etc. etc., by A. D. Bache, LL.D., Smith- 
sonian Contributions to Knowledge, Oct. 1863). At Parkers- . 
burg, Western Va. +32; at Cairo, Ill. +20, apparently a relia- 
ble value; at Florence, Ala. +23 a very reliable value; the 
value +08 for Chicago, III. seems too small, though it is certain 
that the secular change must pass through zero and increase 
the eastern declinations along our Pacific coast. ‘ 
Taking a glance at the West Indies and Central American 
regions, we find at Havana, Cuba, and in Jamaica the easterly 
declination still on the decrease, and the dividing region between 
stations of decreasing and increasing easterly declination, ap- 
pears to lie somewhere between Panama and Vera Cruz. Att 
city of Mexico the east declination increases about 1’ a year, 
and at San Blas, Mexico, about 3’; for California, Oregon and 
Washington, the value formerly assumed by me (in the Coast 
Survey reports for 1856 and 1859) appears now too small though 
€ possess as yet no precise information. Accordin : 
Ransom’s paper (vol. 1i, of the Proceedings of the California 
Academy of Natural Sciences, 1858-62, San Francisco, 1863) the 
ch 1855 
tween 24’ and 4’, though 7’-is said to have been observed im 
of 2’ along our western coast, 3’ may be taken under the its 
ninth parallel and west of the Rocky Mountains. Higher 
at Sitka, Russian America, the east declination increases about 
4'7 per annum. ua : 
It is in contemplation to have special observations made 02 
the Texan and Western Coast for the purpose of a precise deter 
mination of the annual change in those localities. : 
