New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-21
SEEKING THE MAGNETIC POLE.

| The latest expedition which has set out Tor
| the Arctic regions is to engage IN a compara-
lively unique Investigation. Amunusehs pur-
nose is very different from Peary's or Nansen s.
| He will not try, except incidentally, to enlarge
| the worlds information Of coast contours, and
| will probably have little to tell OF rock forma-
tions fossils or existing animal or vegetable
/ snecies in the field of his exploration. II sue
| cessfuI though, the Norwegian will MAKE dis
coveries which should prove OF great value to
| uayigators in Northern seas and to those maine
| maticians who prepare for the sailor and lana
surveyor tables OF correction for compass read
! ings.
| It has been known for centuries that the
needle does not point exactly northward over all
| the Northern Hemisphere. When Greelys party
was at Lady Franklin Bay, twenty years or
| more ago its compasses were directed about
| ten degrees south of westward. From similar
| observations it has been perceived that the
| magnetic and geographical poles do not coin
| eide. Indeed, while there is only one geograph-
| ical North Pole, there are indications OF Two
| magnetic North Poles the chief one being STU
| ated near the northern coast Of the American
| continent or in the archipelago beyond It, The
| minor pole is In Siberia. These facts alone
| would cause no inconvenience, perhaps, were 1t
| not that the amount OF departure from the true
north is forever changing. One theory when
| has been advanced to account for this phenom-
| enon and kindred mysteries is that the Siberian
mole has shifted its position or that It's intensity
has altered thus causing readjustment - Its
| pull In competition with the American pole.
Somehow the conviction that the latter has
moved is less strongly entertained, although no
one is In a position to make a positive state
ment
Although experts in terrestrial magnetism
have been able to make fairly trustworthy
guesses about the American magnetic pole, only
one previous effort has been made to find it by
visitation The first two expeditions to this
part Of the world by Sir John Ross were
PROMPTED by desire to find the Northwest
Passage" to India. His third venture, which
kept him nearly four years in the Arctic region
beginning with 1929, was quest for the mag
netic pole. His ship was frozen in and aban-
doned in the Gulf of Boothia Subsequently,
with boats he worked his way out to Lancaster
Sound, where whalers rescued him. Upon his
return to England he reported that his dipping
magnets occupied vertical position when he
reached latitude 1907 and longitude 96:43 west
of Greenwich. He was then upon the peninsula
of Boothia Felix Neumayer, the leading Ger
man authority in such matters, and the late
Charles A Schott of the United States Coast
| and Geodetic Survey located the pole in $780,
by computation only, from two to four degrees
eastward, in substantially the same latitude as
Ross. Owing to their lack of agreement and
to the absence of any corroborat ton, of course
those conjectures have little value.
Amundsen purposes TO determine the question
with precision by the only method upon which
reliance can be placed. Though he may depart
from Ross's programme In certain particulars,
he will follow the earlier explorers route up to
certain point. He intends 10 leave Baffin's
Bay by way of Lancaster Sound and to push
westward asong the seventy-third parallel of
latitude When his work is finished he NAV be
able to continue In the same general direction
as far as Behring Strait and then come south
ward The essential features of the enterprise
are, however, that he will make magnetic and