346 
CAPTAIN E. W. CREAK ON THE MAGNETICAL 
survey, but not until a remarkable disturbance of the compass observed on board the 
“ Meda,” when approaching Cossack (Port Walcott), in N.W. Australia, the dis¬ 
turbance being evidently caused by magnetic bodies in the land under the sea. Time 
only sufficed to approximately localize the position of greatest disturbance. 
Towards the close of 1889 H.M.S. “Penguin ’ was appropriated for surveying 
service in Australia, under the command of Captain W. U. Moore, R.N. Once 
more the Hydrographer decided that the magnetic survey of the western coasts of 
Australia should be proceeded with as far as the requirements of the hydrographic 
survey would admit. Lieutenant J. W. Combe, R.N., of the “ Penguin,” was 
selected to make the observations, and was therefore specially instructed at the 
Admiralty and at Kew Observatory in the use of the several magnetic instruments 
supplied to the “ Penguin.” 
The “ Penguin ” is a composite-built screw steam vessel of 1130 tons displacement 
and 700 indicated horse-power, and consequently a suitable vessel as regards size 
for magnetic observations at sea. The amount of iron, however, used in her con¬ 
struction, made her practically an iron ship, and the magnetic observations were 
confined to those of the Declination or Variation when the ship could be swung, 
or, in other words, when her head could be placed on eight or more points equally 
distributed round the compass, and for Dip and Force when the Relative instruments 
used on board could be compared with the Absolute instruments on land under 
proper conditions :— 
The following is a list of the instruments supplied :— 
For Absolute observations 
on land. 
For Relative observations 
on board ship . . . . 
(1) Unifilar Magnetometer, No. 25, 
by Elltot, with two magnets. 
(2) Barrow’s Dip Circle. 
A Fox Dip and Intensity Apparatus, 
No. C. 10. 
Also an Admiralty Standard Compass for observations on board and on land. 
Base Station. 
Kew Observatory was the adopted base station, where the Unifilar Magnetometer 
and Dip Circle were verified and Constants obtained. On return from abroad 
Lieutenant Combe repeated the observations to test the condition of the instruments 
after their three years’ work, during which they were subjected to great change 
of climate and the chances inseparable from frequent transit from ship to shore. 
In order to show how far the absolute instruments remained in good order under 
such circumstances, the following final observations were made at Kew and other 
