g66 Mr. Christie on the diurnal deviations of the 
which the repulsive force, acting on the needle at the easterly 
point of stable equilibrium , makes with the needle, its stability 
will be diminished, and this point will approach the northern 
point of instability, until the two coincide : and beyond this 
the one will be transferred to the westerly point of stability, 
and the other to the easterly point of instability. In the mean 
time the westerly point of stable equilibrium, in consequence of 
the repulsive force of the magnet acting at a greater angle, 
will move farther towards the west : the three points ulti- 
mately forming but one. 
If the line of the axes of the magnets revolve in a direction 
contrary to that of the sun’s motion, or which is the same 
thing, if the magnetic meridian describe an angle in the di- 
rection of the sun’s motion, effects the reverse of these will 
evidently take place. 
I had drawn these conclusions, and proposed applying them 
to the observations on the daily changes in different directions 
of the needle, when it occurred to me that it would, after all, 
be more satisfactory, to apply to these observations, the facts 
that might be actually observed, by making the distances of 
the magnets and the line of their axes undergo the changes 
I have specified. In consequence of this I made the following 
experiments. A strong table being prepared, with the legs 
firmly driven into the ground, at a distance from any building, 
the compass with which I had made the preceding observa- 
tions, and which, for the sake of distinction, I shall call No. 1 , 
was placed on a meridian line very carefully drawn. The 
magnets which I had always used with this needle, were then 
placed on this line, at equal distances from the centre of the 
