(Signed,) SAMUEL HOLLAND.
Quebec, 8th October, 1793.
How do matters now stand, Commander Ashe?
"VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE AT QUEBEC."
(To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.)
DEAR SIR, - "For the information of the curious, the particular benefit of
Land Surveyors, and safety of sea-faring people," I will endeavor to
explain how our compass variation stands.
With regard to the reprint from the Quebec Gazette of 1793, in the
Chronicle of the 23rd instant, in which Major Samuel Holland observes that
he had passed our Maximum Westerly Variation, it is very likely that such
was the case, as I find that Major Sabine in 1818, found the Variation for
London to be 24 deg. 30' West, and in 1822 to have retrograded to 24 deg. 12':
this was not only the case in England, but all over Europe where
observations were taken, so that there is no doubt that the same
disturbing influence was affecting the needle here in 1793. Whatever that
influence is, it must shortly alter. Major Samuel Holland's observations
have affected us in the opposite direction, for in 1860 Captain Bayfield
found the variation for Quebec to be 15 deg. 45' West, with an annual increase
of 5', which would give the present variation as about 17 deg. 0' West. This
agrees very closely with observations taken here last November for
deviation, which with range of only 7 deg. 30', gave a mean result of 17 deg. 3'
9" West.
