334 Prof. Hansteen on the Magnetic Poled. 
gives the variation of the compass as it was found by observa» 
tion. The observations marked on the southern chart, are all 
taken from Captain Cooke, and fall between the years 177S and 
1777. The observations on the northern segment, are from 
Captain Cooke, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, 
Commander, now Admiral, Lovenorn, Captain Billings and 
others, and fall about the same time. With some older and 
later observations the date is given. The most important ob- 
servations made during the two last English expeditions to the 
North Pole (1818-1820), are marked by a star. As there was 
so short an interval between these two series of observations, 
they are given as belonging to one period, and may be con- 
sidered as representing the magnetic state of the globe for the 
last quarter of the foregoing century. 
Over the whole of Europe the variation of the compass, at the 
present time, is westerly. If we cross, from east to west, over 
the Atlantic sea towards Greenland, it increases as we approach 
nearer the southern promontory of Greenland. Thus at Peters- 
burgh, it is about 8® west ; at Stockholm, 15°^ ; at Christiania, 
20°; at London, 24° J ; on the north coast of Iceland, it is above 
40°; and at the colony of Good Hope, in Greenland, it is above 51°. 
From the west coast of Greenland to Hudson’s Bay, it decreases 
again a few degrees; but in Hudson’s Bay this decrease is so 
great, that, in the year 1769, at Prince of Wales’s Fort, on the 
west side of the bay, it was found only 9° 41'. Farther in on the 
Continent, it vanishes altogether, becoming afterwards easterly ; 
and increasing in this direction so much towards the west coast 
of America, that, in the year 1778, it was found, by Captain 
Cook, at Nootka Sound, to be 19° 51' east; and at Behring’s 
Straits, the same year, 35° 37'. If we lengthen the arrow^s from 
Nootka Sound, and Hudson’s Bay and Straits, it will be found, 
that they meet in a point which lies about 20° from the pole, and 
259° east from the meridian of Greenwich. 
( To he continued.) 
