XIV. Contributions to terrestrial magnetism.—No. XII. The magnetic survey of the British Islands, reduced to the epoch 1842·5

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1870
• Subjects: Arctic; Endeavour
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1870.0014; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1870.0014

The Magnetic Survey of the British Islands originated with a few persons interested in that branch of experimental science who attended the third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Cambridge in June 1833. On his return to Dublin from attendance at that Meeting, Dr. Humphry Lloyd, the present Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, who was then its Professor of Natural Philosophy, proposed to myself, then serving on the Staff of the Army in Ireland, to unite with him in an endeavour to realize such an undertaking, by a commencement which should be at first limited to Ireland. Fortunately I had with me at the time the instruments which I had employed for similar purposes in several arctic and equatorial voyages; and being then quartered in the South-West District of Ireland, I found it not incompatible with my military duties to undertake the Southern portion of the island, whilst Professor Lloyd occupied himself in the Northern portion. Our observations were continued at intervals throughout 1834 and until the autumn of 1835, in the summer of which year we were joined by Captain James Clark Ross, R. N., who had been associated with me in similar undertakings in Arctic countries.