The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-12-07
ALAsKA's MAGNETIC ROCKS.
Study of Them by scientist WIZ Lead
TO Explanation Of what Has
Been "a Mystery.

The Alaskan commission now sitting
IN London upon the Alaskan boundary
question will be interested over Prof.
Barnetts discovery Of considerable
stretch of magnetic rocks off the coast
of Alaska Now the world will under
stand how it happens that a mariner
who comes within a certain distance of
the coastline finds his compass doing
everything but preserve its rightful po-
sition, says the ST. James Gazette Of
/ recent date. We have had to wait long
for the information. But Alaska re-
I mains still largely land of mystery.
It's whole history is strange. The Rus
SLAMS who colonized it before such
things as Mondoe doctrines were. spent
e6OO,OOO on great survey; then
dropped the business, not greatly wiser
than before. Then, having SO done,
they sold out. lock, stock and barrel,
for a beggarly million and a half
pounds. The territory was making a
return of half a million year at the
time-roughly, pound a mile; quar-
ter of a century later it was returning
an annual revenue of e2,O72 900, while
ten years further on its silver output
alone was worth a yearly million.
Alaska has no monopoly in magnetic
rocks that distress the mariner and
surveyor Not long ago a party Of Rus
sian explorers found their needle swing
round 1S0 degrees. Parry, in his sec
ond voyage In the Fury and Hecla, OBJ
served a considerable local deviation of
the compass when off the shore Of Igloo-
lik. At Bluff Harbor, South Island, New
Zealand, there is a focus Of magnetism
on the summit Of the bluff; and during
the survey of South Island the officers
Of r. NJ S. Acheron had to abandon the
use of compass bearings. A similar dis
turhance was observed by Capt Creak
when surveying near Port Walcott,
Northwest Australia He came across
a submerged square mile Of rock, which
made the needle of the compass hop
about 80 degrees and more from where
II should have been. Upon the Norwe-
gian coast in the Joedern province is a
magnetic mountain, about a thousand
yards long. but of no great height. It's
influence is such that vessels venturing
too near the coast lose their bearings,
and frequently are wrecked
Nobody quite knows who first discov-
cred that a certain kind Of stone would |
attract iron, and nobody knows who |
first turned the knowledge to account. !
One gentleman Of whom there is record |
lived at date early enough to Indicate
a respectable antiquity for the science.
From his case It would seem that the
first to employ the mariners compass
was not a mariner at all, but a gentle
man who ruled the Chinese 2,637 years |
before the dawn Of the Christian era
Il was Emperor Hoang-ti. A certain
friend of his, a Prince Tchiyeou, had |
annoyed the monarch, who put out
ifter the unmannerly one to relieve !
him Of his peacock feather bis yellow
his head and other unconsid-
sred trifes. But the prince with his
egions came across a fog. and into this, 1
with all bis fighting men, he dived The
excellent emperor left on the outside,
lid not know from which side to enter
he mist, nor in what direction to pro-
'eed. when he did get inside. SO he
made a car. which showed EN- the four
iardinal points; by this means he over
ook Tchiyeou, made him prisoner, and
lut him to death" The magnetic
leedle in its crudest form was employed
or that car.