Mifcellanea Curiofa. 35 



the Experiments now before the Rjyal Society 

 do plainly (hew, how little a Magnetifm there 

 is in moft crude Iron Oars : What quantity 

 thereof muft be then fuppos'd to make fo power- 

 ful a Diverfion at two or three Thoufand Miles 

 diftance ? Yet I cannot deny that in fome places 

 near the Shoar, or in Shoal- Water, the Needle 

 may be irregularly directed from the aforefaid 

 Caufes, and that not a little, as Gajfendus gives 

 a notable inftance of the Ifland Elba in the Me- 

 diterranean Sear But thefe differences from the 

 general Direction are always figns of the near- 

 nefs of thofe Magnetical Subftances, for the Pro- 

 duction whereof that Ifland Elba has been famous 

 from all Antiquity. Befides, againlr, both Des 

 Cartes and Gilbert, the change of the Variation, 

 which has been within thefe Hundred Years laft 

 paft more than i $ gr. at London, is an entire De- 

 monftration ; tho' Des Cartes does not ftick to 

 fay, that the tranfportation of Iron from place to 

 place, and the growth of new Iron within the 

 Earth, where there was none before, may be the 

 caule thereof. The fame holds likewife againft 

 the Hypothefis of Magnetical Fibres, which KJrcher 

 maintains. 



Now to propofe (bmething that may anfwer 

 the feveral appearances, and introduce nothing 

 ftrange in Philolbphy, after a great many clofe 

 Thoughts, I can come to no other Conclusion 

 than that, The whole Globe of the Earth is one 

 great Magnet, having four Magnetical Poles^ or 

 Points of Attraction, near each Pole of the Equator 

 Two ; and that, in thofe farts of the World which 

 lie near adjacent to any one of thofe Magnetical 

 Poles, the Needle is govern d thereby, the near eft 

 Pole* being always predominant over the more re- 

 mote. The parts of the Earth wherein thefe 



D x Mag- 



