XXXIV 
REPORT—1847* 
ledge of facts is the first process of pliilosopliical induction ; and the col¬ 
lection and arrangement of the facts connected with this subject formed 
consequently one of the objects contemplatetl by the establishment of the 
British Colonial Observatories. The solution of the problem with which 
these facts are connected lias, to a great degree at least, been accomplished 
in tlie past year, by an examination and discussion of the ph»nonKMia as they 
presented themselrcs at the widcly-separaied stations of 'i’oronto, St. Helena, 
the Cape of Good Hope, and Van Diemen’s Land. The connection of the 
diurnal variation of the utagnelic di^clination, with the sun’s iiosition in re¬ 
gard to the terrestrial equator, has thus btuii manifested : tlic epoch of the 
sun’s passage uf the equator is found to be also the epoch of on almost 
immediate augmentation uf the magnetic movements in the hemisphere to 
which he is passing, and of a dimunilion of those movements in the hemi¬ 
sphere from which he is receding; whilst on tlie coniines of the respective 
hemispheres, the epoch is still more strikingly marked by a singular inversal 
of the order and direction of the movement, which, whilst the sun is in the 
northern signs, corresponds to the direction followed by the magnet in the 
northern hemisphere; and, wlicn the sun i» in the southern signs, corre* 
spends to the direction followed by the magnet in the soutluTn hemisphere. 
It may be confidently anticipated, that, tii tlie present rapidly-advancing state 
ot rrmgnetical science, the reason of this connection will ere long receive an 
explanation : mid that a discovery of the mode in which the cttect is pro¬ 
duced vvill follow closely on a knowledge of the facts. 
i subject, I should not omit to notice the increased pro¬ 
bability w Inch the facts, now brought to our knowledge, have incidentally 
given to the opimon, that the lino of least intensity of the magnetic force is 
the physical hno ul separation on the siiYface of the globe between the 
northern and southern m.-ignetic heniispliereh; for it is this line which appears 
L, • »V ‘•■‘-o*- mil ices oi accessions to our nhysical 
tlm r* '■‘^^earelms which in later years .are mainly due to 
mLhrc7 K ^ Association, will not be deemed 
Sey had F oC their Importance. If 
desired n iinctv -i Ifuits than those which were first expected .and 
of the distribution oAerrestrial 
But each year gives us sompiln-, X *h‘l Imve felt ourselves repaid. 
gra,,l,. I „,ve to^ny Col slti, ‘’■TP*’-" P”"' 
sense of the services-remlprci . ■ ' expressing mv deep 
obtrusive observations and researcheL''^*''q‘I l«IJorinu» and un- 
lu meteorology, and, above all \n ‘^“searches .and observations 
and very diKtani points of ihe popth connection with difi'erent 
P'-Wic X of'I-, before 
years (,i„ee the important^ “ »‘as been in later 
c-at.on. urged upon'^the ioWrmnem Asso- 
3cnhee of domestic comfort, and at a risk ofuT '•■'dcrt.aken at great 
K nt Ule, not m the ordinary duties 
