James Clark Ross - A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions

James Clark Ross

Published by Good Press, 2020

EAN 4064066068295

Table of Contents

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1847.

London:
Spottiswoode and Shaw,
New-street Square.

Christmas Harbour Kerguelen Island from an Elevation of about 600 feet

At the eighth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Newcastle, in August, 1838, the attention of the physical section of that body was directed to the number and importance of desiderata in that great practical branch of science called Terrestrial Magnetism , by Lieutenant-Colonel Sabine of the Royal Artillery; and a Committee was appointed, consisting of Sir John Herschel , Mr. Whewell (now Master of Trinity College, Cambridge), Mr. Peacock (now Dean of Ely), and Professor Lloyd, of Trinity College, Dublin, to represent to Her Majesty's Government a series of resolutions adopted by the British Association; and as these resolutions exhibit the general outline of objects sought to be attained, they are inserted here, as pointing out clearly the causes in which the Expedition to the Antarctic regions originated.

"Resolved1. That the British Association views with high interest the system of simultaneous magnetic observations which has been for some time carried on in Germany and various parts of Europe, and the important results to which it has already led; and that they consider it highly desirable that similar series of observations, regularly continued in correspondence with, and in extension of these, should be instituted in various parts of the British dominions.

"2. That this Association considers the following localities as particularly important:Canada, Ceylon, St. Helena, Van Diemen's Land, and Mauritius, or the Cape of Good Hope; and that they are willing to supply instruments for their use.

"3. That in these series of observations the three elements of horizontal direction, dip, and intensity, or their theoretical equivalents, be insisted on, as also their hourly changes, and, on appointed days, their momentary fluctuations.

"4. That the Association considers it highly important that the deficiency, yet existing in our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism in the southern hemisphere, should be supplied by observations of the magnetic direction and intensity, especially in the high southern latitudes between the meridians of New Holland and Cape Horn; and they desire strongly to recommend to Her Majesty's government the appointment of a naval expedition expressly directed to that object.

"5. That in the event of such expedition being undertaken, it would be desirable that the officers charged with its conduct should prosecute both branches of the observation alluded to in Resolution 3., so far as circumstances will permit.

"6. That it would be most desirable that the observations so performed, both at the fixed stations and in the course of the expedition, should be communicated to Professor Lloyd.

"7. That Sir J. Herschel, Mr. Whewell, Mr. Peacock, and Professor Lloyd, be appointed a Committee to represent to Government these recommendations."

A memorial was addressed to the Government by the Committee above named, embodying the chief arguments for taking up the cause as a national concern, and specifying more particularly the objects proposed to be accomplished, and the means of their accomplishment. This memorial, on its presentation to Lord Melbourne, was not only supported by the personal arguments of the eminent philosophers by whom it was framed, but on its being referred by the Government to the President and Council of the Royal Society, (its acknowledged advisers upon all points of scientific inquiry,) by similar and even more urgent representations on their part, "who, on this occasion, in a manner most honourable to themselves, and casting behind them every feeling but an earnest desire to render available to science the ancient and established credit of their institution, threw themselves unreservedly and with their whole weight into the scale, with immediate and decisive effect."[1] The strong interest taken in the cause by their President, the Marquis of Northampton, on all occasions a warm and zealous friend to science, contributed, without doubt, not a little to this result.

The following Report of a joint committee of physics and meteorology, adopted by the Council of the Royal Society, on the propriety of recommending the establishment of fixed magnetic observatories, and the equipment of a naval expedition for magnetic observations in the antarctic seas, to Her Majesty's Government, was presented to Lord Melbourne by the deputation named in the appended resolutions of the Council:

"The subject of terrestrial magnetism has recently received some very important accessions which have materially affected not only the point of view in which henceforward it will be theoretically contemplated, but also the modes of observation which will require to be adopted for completing our knowledge of the actual state of the magnetic phenomena, and furnishing accurate data for the construction and verification of theoretical systems. It was for a long time supposed that the changes in the position assumed by the needle at any particular point on the earth's surface, might be conceived as resulting from regular laws of periodicity, having for their arguments, first, a great magnetic cycle of several centuries, depending on unknown, and perhaps internal movements or relations; and, secondly, on the periodic alternations of heat and cold, depending on the annual and diurnal movements of the sun. The discovery of the affection of the needle by the aurora borealis, and of the existence of minute and irregular movements, which might be referred either to unperceived auroras or to other local and temporary causes, sufficed to show that the laws of terrestrial magnetism are not so simple as to admit of this summary form of expression; and the important discovery, first announced, we believe, by Baron von Humboldt , that those temporary changes take place simultaneously at great distances in point of locality, (a discovery which has since been remarkably confirmed and extended to very great intervals of distance, so as to include the whole extent of the European continent, by Gauss and Weber, and their coadjutors of the German Magnetic Association,) has sufficed to show that the gist of the inquiry lies deeper, and depends upon relations far more complex, while at the same time the dominion of what might previously have been regarded as local agency, would require, in the new views consequent on the establishment of these facts, to be extended far beyond what ordinary usage would authorise as a just application of that epithet.