HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
409 
Fueillee, made at Lima, that the needle should be horizontal at about 8°, 9 0 , or 
io° of north latitude. 
" M. de la Condamine found at Quito, in o° 13' south latitude, that the variation 
was 15 0 and 17°, which answers exactly to the observation that I made on the ships 
the Bon Conseil and the Dauphin, in the Indian Seas; from whence it follows, that 
the variation cannot subside but towards 8° or 9 0 of north latitude. It appears to 
me then probable, that in the whole of the South Sea, in an extent of two thousand 
leagues, which I have just mentioned, the needle is horizontal at about 9 0 of north 
latitude. 
“ It is only then in our ocean, which is so straitened by Africa and America, 
in which the variation would subside in the southern part of the globe: it is there¬ 
fore the two great continents of Africa and America which change the direction of 
the magnetic matter, so that there should be no variation somewhere under the 
Equator, in Africa and America.” 
