SHIFTING OF THE EARTH'S AXIS 



43* 



1906. They are both located in south latitude 31° 55' — one at Bays- 

 water, near Perth, West Australia, and the other at Oncativo, in the 

 Argentine Eepublic, about forty-five miles from the National Observa- 

 tory at Cordoba. 7 Definite results from these observations have not 

 yet been obtained, but Dr. Albrecht has recently published a short note 

 stating that a provisional reduction of the observations obtained at 

 the two southern stations shows that z has the same sign at the south 

 parallel as at the north, and probably the same magnitude. If this is 

 true the hypothesis of a shift in the center of gravity of the earth must 

 be abandoned. This term is zero about ten days before the equinoxes 

 and reaches its maximum values, ■ — • 0".048 and -+- 0".044, about ten 

 days before the summer and winter solstices, respectively. These facts 

 would seem to favor the meteorological explanation of origin of this 

 term. 



The motion of the earth's north pole, from the time the Interna- 

 tional Latitude Stations were established in the fall of 1899 to the be- 



+ o.:o 



0.00 



-O.^O 



-0.10 — 



0.00 



* 0:10 - 



+ 0:20 - 



- -0-20 



■0.10 



0.0 



- +0:10 



-*o.:r 



+0.20 



*o.io 



o.io 



-0.20 



000 

 Fig. 6. 



7 In addition to these eight stations under the International Geodetic Asso- 

 ciation regular observations for latitude are made at Poulkova, Russia, in lati- 

 tude + 59° 46'; at Leiden, 4- 52° 9'; and at Tokio, + 35° 39'. 



