By referring again to Figure 8 it will be observed that the curve of London crosses the line of no variation soon after the year 1650. In the text of the Magnetic Declination Tables for 1902 (page 41), the author states that about 1658 the needle at that place stood truly north and south, whereas about 1580 it was at a maximum of 11° or 114° E. And in Table II, "Showing the secular change in the magnetic declination at various places," on the same page it appears that in 1660 the declination at London was 0°.59 W. and at Paris 0°.86 E. Again consulting Figure 8 it appears that after, say, 1653, the west declination at Fayal rapidly increased until by 1750 it had reached about 15 degrees. From the above it appears that by 1660 the agonic line had lost its characteristic of running in a direction nearly north and south, and was also drifting away from Fayal and the Azores. The reason, therefore, why longitude should begin at St. Michael's, given by John Davis and by other writers, no longer existed. But books, including almanacs, globes, and maps, had been published giving the meridian of St. Michael's as the prime meridian or reckoning the longitude of places therefrom and many navigators had become used to that meridian; and there would be no reason for changing unless a decided advantage in having a new prime meridian should become apparent. The existing way of reckoning longitude continued, I infer, until towards the close of the seventeenth century. At that period, as we have seen, the longitude or meridian of London (which I understand to have been the same as that of Greenwich) appears more or less in evidence as the prime meridian. The use of this as the initial meridian kept on increasing, I assume, until it became fixed and established for Britain and her colonies by the publication of successive numbers of the Nautical Almanac, which began in 1766, as I have before stated. I have spoken of the changes of the compass declination and of the changes in the position of the agonic lines. It is stated by Charles A. Schott that the first writer who clearly asserted the existence of a change in the declination with time was Henry Gellibrand (15971636) of Gresham College, England. In 1635 he published his work entitled A Discourse Mathematicall on the Variation of the Magneticall Needle, together with its admirable Diminution lately discovered. Previous to the announcement of his discovery it was the general belief that the declination at any one place was invariable. Now, however, the fact of the secular variation became completely established, and it remained to later times to determine its extent and develop the law governing this change, and to endeavor to find its cause.1 In Bulletin No. 5 (page 25), referred to in footnote 1, Schott states that among the methods of finding the longitude at sea, the author of the Arcano del Mare brings forward, as others had done before him, one that depends on the observed changes of the magnetic declination. And on page 26 of Bulletin No. 5 he has a footnote which has such a direct bearing upon the matters herein treated that I quote it in full: 2 The adoption of one of the islands of the Azores for the location of the initial meridian in counting longitudes is said to have come about through the circumstance that at the time of adoption the variation of the compass-needle was zero or nearly zero at those islands, but for positions to the eastward the variation was easterly and increasing with distance from them, and for positions to the westward the variation was westerly and increasing. The temporary selection of this initial meridian is thus connected with the great problem of determining longitude at sea by the aid of the direction of the horizontal magnetic needle. The only uniformly continuous and accurate way of ascertaining longitude at sea is, of course, through the exact measurements of intervals of time. But there was no means by which navigators could do this prior to the perfecting by John Harrison of his marine time keepers in or about the year 1761. At the period in mind, however, approximate compass declinations at divers positions of ascertained latitude and longitude on the Atlantic had become known, and the observation of the changes from one declination to another during the progress of a voyage must have been of assistance in estimating longitude.* 1 Schott, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletin No. 5, The Value of the Arcano del Mare with reference to our knowledge of the Magnetic Declination in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, June 7, 1888, p. 26. Schott, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Appendix No. 7, Report for 1888, Secular Variation of the Magnetic Declination in the United States and at some foreign stations, seventh edition, June, 1889, p. 182. Vol. i. chaps. viii, x. • See my paper on Winthrop's Course across the Atlantic, p. 192, above. See p. 198 and note 1, above. In connection with what has gone before I ask a moment's attention to the paper on Winthrop's Course across the Atlantic before referred to, and to the sketch accompanying it. It is there stated that the purpose of Winthrop's navigators appears to have been to reach a position directly north of the Azores at or near the parallel of 43° 15′ and then to run down that parallel and sight Cape Sable. Winthrop in his Journal does not refer to a prime meridian through St. Michael's or other island of the Azores, but he says that on April 29 (1630) they were "near the meridian of the Terceras" and that on May 9 they were supposed to be a little west of Corvo. These statements, together with the fact that they turned to due west at a point north of the Azores, may have a tendency to show that this westerly course began at or near what they considered the prime meridian, or at or near the place where their compasses showed no declination. From the authorities cited it appears that in Massachusetts during a period of somewhat over sixty years after the landing at Plymouth longitude was reckoned from the so-called meridian of St. Michael's, and in the easterly direction only; that during this period and for the anterior period back to the time of Elizabeth, the same meridian was also made use of by most English navigators and geographers as a prime meridian; that the meridian of St. Michael's acquired this distinction because the agonic line had run close to it in a general north and south direction through several degrees of latitude for a good many years, and because by many the agonic line was supposed to coincide with it; that divers other prime meridians were in use during said period by the navigators and geographers of other nations; and that some of these prime meridians ran across other islands of the Azores, certain of them having been selected because, as in the case of the meridian of St. Michael's, the agonic line was supposed to coincide with them, and one or more, perhaps, because they were the meridians of the most westerly lands known for a substantial period before the discovery of America. I submit the foregoing historical material and conclusions, believing that they are important to have in mind in the consideration or treatment of matters pertaining to navigation in the seventeenth century. 1 See pp. 194-195, above. Mr. HENRY H. EDES, the delegate appointed by the President to attend the inauguration of Mr. Abbott Lawrence Lowell as President of Harvard College on the sixth day of October last, made an oral report. He described the ceremonies in the College Yard in the presence of a vast concourse of the alumni and distinguished guests, the choral singing, the conferring of honorary degrees on thirty eminent scholars, the hospitality extended to the delegates and the ladies accompanying them, the meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association in Memorial Hall, the luncheon given by President and Mrs. Lowell, the evening concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the spectacular students' celebration in the Stadium, the reception and afternoon tea at the new Medical School, and the dinner given by the Corporation at the Harvard Union in honor of the delegates. He also described the brilliant pageant on the morning of the inauguration when the more than two hundred delegates, in academic robes and hoods of many colors, marched in procession from Phillips Brooks House to the platform built in front of University Hall; and the equally brilliant scene on the following morning when the delegates, similarly attired, marched to Sanders Theatre to be formally presented to the newly-installed President. Mr. Edes called attention to the fact that among the delegates representing the principal universities, colleges, and learned societies of Europe and America, were seven of our own fellowship - President Arthur Twining Hadley of Yale, who, at the presentation in Sanders Theatre, spoke on behalf of the American delegates, Franklin Carter of Williams College, Waldo Lincoln, President of the American Antiquarian Society, Frederick Jackson Turner of the University of Wisconsin, Horace Davis of Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Henry Lefavour of Simmons College, and the delegate from this Society; and that our associates Dean William Wallace Fenn, Mr. Morris Hickey Morgan, and Mr. William Coolidge Lane had prominent parts in the ceremonies attending the induction of Mr. Lowell to office. Mr. Edes also mentioned that at the dinner, with which the celebration closed, several pieces of the ancient College silver were on the President's table, including the "Great Salt," given in 1644 by Mr. Richard Harris of Cambridge; two large loving-cups, with covers, given early in the eighteenth century, one by Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, the other by Colonel William Browne of Salem; and a bowl, formerly owned by President Holyoke, given in 1903 by his descendant, Miss Charlotte Augusta Hedge.1 Most of the learned bodies that were represented at the inauguration sent addresses of salutation. That presented from this Society was as follows: 2 To the President and Fellows of Harvard College Upon the momentous occasion of the inauguration of your distinguished scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell, LL.D., as the twentyfourth President of Harvard College, we avail ourselves of the privilege of transmitting to you by our Associate Henry Herbert Edes our profound felicitations The great salt and the loving-cups are described and portrayed in the Curio for 1887 (New York, 1888), i. 20-22, and the loving-cups in the Catalogue of American Silver exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1906 (Boston, 1906), nos. 37, 64, pp. 45, 51, plates I, II, IV, V, VII. See also Publications of the Cambridge Historical Society, iii. 15. • This address was written by President Lefavour and was engrossed on parchment, measuring 17 by 22 inches, by Mr. Frank Williamson Martin. It is illuminated in red and gold. The seal of the Society is pendant on a scarlet grosgrain ribbon. |